SEATTLE – If Ryan Perkins can come back from a devastating knee injury and a pair of major surgeries to meet his goals this season, the kicker/punter would be one of the feel good stories for the Washington Huskies.
He would also become quite a college football oddity. Not just because he would be one of the few players to handle kicking and punting duties for a team, but because he would be doing it with two different legs.
Because he is still recovering from the injury that ended his 2006 season before it ever started, Perkins, who used to kick and punt with his right leg, is now punting with his left to reduce the strain on his still-healing leg.
“The right isn’t ready to punt with,” said Perkins, who also plans to avoid kickoffs. “It’s such a violent motion.”
Speaking of violent, Perkins’ problems all started with an ugly collision in the 2006 spring game. Just after hitting a punt, Perkins’ knee was accidentally taken out by defensive end Caesar Rayford.
“Right when my leg hit the ground, someone fell into it and I tore every ligament in my knee,” said Perkins, who got his start kicking a football at Monroe High School as a freshman before moving to Lacey, where he attended North Thurston.
The first reconstructive knee surgery in May of 2006 didn’t take, so he had the operation again in October of that year. Now, only nine months removed from surgery, he is hoping to win two jobs on Washington’s special teams unit.
And so, there was Perkins at Washington’s first practice Sunday, thumping punts with his left foot.
“There’s no other goal out there other than to go out there and kick,” said Perkins, who is able to use both feet thanks to his soccer-playing days. “I want to be the guy at Syracuse. I want to be the guy they depend on to go out and get some points. The competitive edge doesn’t go away just because of an injury and two surgeries.”
Being the guy means beating out, among others, freshman kicker Erik Folk and punter Jared Ballman, a junior college transfer. Something Perkins hopes he can do, making himself something of a football oddity.
“It would definitely be different from the norm,” he said. “If that scenario did come up it would be pretty fun. I’ve got to get it first.”
Ouch: Tuesday’s practice had the first injuries of the week for Washington. Cornerback Byron Davenport, a transfer from UCLA, suffered a hamstring injury, while receiver Anthony Russo had a finger injury that Willingham called a possible separation. Willingham said Russo would have an X-ray taken today.
At rest: Sophomore linebacker Donald Butler was held out Tuesday’s practice to rest a heavily wrapped right knee. Butler’s injury is nothing new, but Tuesday was the first day Willingham made it public.
Butler, who played in 10 games as a freshman and had 24 tackles, had surgery this off season after the spring game to address an injury from high school. Willingham called the rest day precautionary, and said that Butler should be fine.
Shuffling line: Addressing the shuffle of the first-team offensive line, Willingham said the group of Cody Habben, Ryan Tolar, Juan Garcia, Matt Sedillo, and Chad Macklin was still his top unit.
Ben Ossai was a starter last year, and guards Morgan Rosborough and Casey Bulyca were thought to be candidates for starting jobs, but in Willingham’s words, they failed to meet “certain goals that we had set for them.”
Willingham hinted that his starting group could stay in place heading into the first game at Syracuse, and that if the current group progresses well this month, he’d be comfortable with that.
“There will be opportunity for any guy on our football team to put himself back in a starting role, just like there are opportunities for any guy to take himself out of a starting role,” he said. “But usually once you get there it’s a little bit more difficult to get out, because if you get there we believe that you’ve earned the right to be there.”
Rewards: Senior tailback Louis Rankin was the first player to earn a gold jersey in practice this week, which Willingham gives to players who “Exemplify a lot of the thing that we like to see out of any and all Huskies on a one-day basis. You would like to see them have some courage, you would like to see them have some character, you would like to see them have some fight, some endurance, some tenacity, some willingness to learn. You like to see those in that day, and Louis, I think, has demonstrated those.”
On the back of the Washington media guide, along with the schedule are the words fight, tenacity, character, courage, willingness and endurance.
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