SEATTLE – Washington quarterback Isaiah Stanback, suffering from a hip pointer, will be limited in practice this week.
“I’ll limit him and slow him down as we start the week, and then speed him up as we get closer toward the weekend,” Husky coach Tyrone Willingham said Tuesday.
That may be bad news to Stanback, who said he is ready to go after clearly being banged up on Saturday against USC. In fact, coaches considered replacing Stanback with backup Carl Bonnell in the second half against the Trojans because their starter was in so much pain.
Stanback said he injured his hip in the first quarter, which is why he began sliding at the end of runs rather than taking on tacklers, as he normally does. He said that is part of his maturation process as well.
“I’m starting to learn how to protect myself I guess,” Stanback said. “Coach is big on me getting down and protecting my body. … I don’t like to slide, I like to hit – but I’ve got to be able to last the whole season, too.”
Stanback said he hasn’t been happy with the way he’s played the past two games, in particular his accuracy. He’s completed just 49.2 percent of his passes during that time, though he has just one interception and 505 yards. He said his mechanics have been off, especially on shorter passes because he relaxes knowing he has an easier pass to make.
“I haven’t been as accurate as I had been and I want to get back to that,” Stanback said. “We’re set on trying to get 60 percent completions and I haven’t been close to that. Yeah, we have big plays every now and then, but that doesn’t make up for some of the easy throws I’ve been missing.”
Lappano comfortable with Bonnell: Offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said he would be comfortable with Bonnell playing quarterback and said that the offense would not have to change with Bonnell behind center.
“Carl is really quick,” Lappano said. “He’s elusive and he can run. Our plan would never change with Carl at quarterback because he’s a mobile quarterback, as is Jake Locker. Those are the type of guys we’re trying to recruit right now. We don’t want to revamp our offense. Every quarterback that we’re recruiting right now fits Isaiah’s style.”
After criticizing Bonnell for his competitiveness last season, Lappano said he’s seen a new quarterback this year.
“He’s taken the game a lot more seriously,” Lappano said. “Even though he hasn’t played (much), he’s studied the game. … He understands he’s one snap away from being the starting quarterback at the University of Washington. You never know what can happen.”
No excuses, Garcia says: Washington center Juan Garcia said he has no idea why his snaps out of the shotgun formation against USC were consistently very low and said he didn’t even realize it until he saw film of the game.
“The whole season I never had a problem like that,” Garcia said. “I don’t know what was going on with that. I thought I was getting them off fine and I would go to the huddle and Isaiah would say ‘You have to get that snap up.’ I watched film on Sunday and it was pretty bad. It was something that needs to be corrected and will be corrected by OSU.”
Thrown a changeup: Garcia said his opinion on the last seconds of the USC game haven’t changed upon seeing tape of the game. He said he still believes the umpire changed the pace of setting up the play and caught him off guard.
“It didn’t change my opinion a bit,” Garcia said. “I know something and that ref knows something that is always going to stay in me.”
Lappano liked OSU: Lappano spent four years on Dennis Erickson’s staff at Oregon State (1999-2002), serving as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. In that time, the staff turned around a struggling program, going to three bowl games and posting a 2001 Fiesta Bowl win over Notre Dame.
“It was a good run for us,” Lappano said. “I thought coach Erickson was out of his mind when he took that job. … We had a good group of kids there that wanted to win football games and knew they could. They bought into what we were doing.”
Injury update: Willingham said he had no update on Jason Wells (concussion), Dashon Goldson (concussion) and E.J. Savannah (thumb), who are all recovering from their injuries. He said he would know more after today’s practice, the first of the week.
The Victory Club: Seven players made it into the Victory Club after the USC game: Stanback, receiver Sonny Shackelford, running back Kenny James, guard Clay Walker, cornerbacks Goldson and Matt Fountaine and linebacker Dan Howell.
OSU quarterback: Oregon State coach Mike Riley said he hasn’t made a final decision on his quarterback spot but believes that senior Matt Moore is still his best option.
“Matt gives us our best chance to win the ball game,” Riley said.
Moore is ninth in the Pac-10 in passing, averaging 156.4 yards and has just four touchdowns.
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