Since the Huskies scrimmaged yesterday, today was a day to check in with coaches to see how things went and see if any position battles sorted themselves out. Tyrone Willingham didn’t meet with the media today, but offensive coordinator Tim Lappano and defensive coordinator Ed Donatell did. While neither was willing to hand out a depth chart today, both had some interesting things to say.
Here are some highlights:
After last weekend’s scrimmage, Willingham said the young running backs looked good, and Lappano said the same thing after yesterday’s scrimmage.
“Our young running backs showed up yesterday and did some good things,” Lappano said. “All of them did some good thing. Johri Fogerson ran really well inside the tackle box, got to the hole with good explosiveness. Got behind his pads a little better. He’s like a Marcus Allen style, he’s a really upright and smooth runner that did some nice things yesterday. David Freeman did some good things against our first defense, made some people miss, break tackles, have some instant acceleration.”
“Every time we’ve put them in live situations, they’ve all shown up,” he said of the freshmen backs.
Lappano said that Kavario Middleton didn’t have his best day, but says that was because the freshman tight end has gotten the attention of the defense with this strong play this fall.
“Yesterday was just a little tougher for him because they were mugging him up really good,” he said.
As for the receivers, Lappano had kind words to say about almost everyone, and singled out Jermaine Kearse and Cody Bruns at first when talking about the position.
Lappano won’t yet say which receivers or running backs will start or play (other than D’Andre Goodwin, who is a lock to start at receiver), but said he hopes to use three running backs and five or six receivers.
“There are probably five or six guys that will play. I’m not exactly sure who is going to start other than D’Andre, but we play four sets, three sets, two, and we move some guys around. I talked to them after practice the whole group. You might not be a starter in base, you could be a starter in four, you could be a starter in three, but the bottom line is we’re going to play with about six receivers.”
“We’re going to play probably three running backs. I don’t believe in playing more than three, and I’m not positive who those three are yet, I’m not ready to say that, but it will be a little bit of running back by committee. We don’t want to wear a couple of them down too much. The nice thing about our backfield right now, it was probably the biggest question mark for all of us, and I don’t think it’s a question mark anymore. There’s talent there, and they’ve stepped up every time we’ve been in live situation. They’ve stepped up and shown up every time, so it’s not a question mark. They’re young, and I’m not saying they’re not going to make a mistake here and there, but they can make some plays and they have made plays. In the two scrimmages that we’ve had, they’ve made plays.”
One of those young running backs is almost certainly freshman Chris Polk, who seems to be battling sophomore Brandon Johnson for the starting job. Johnson has been slowed by a calf injury, opening the door for Polk. From talking to coaches this week and last, it sounds like the third back will likely be either Johri Fogerson or David Freeman.
Polk, who said he was limited yesterday by a shoulder injury, thinks he can get in the rotation, but stopped short of predicting a starting job. Asked where he sees himself in the rotation, Polk caught himself before giving his answer.
“Dang, I don’t want to say that,” he said with a smile. “I can’t answer that question, I’m going to say something I’m going to get in trouble for.”
But he did concede he expects to be on the field against Oregon.
“Yeah, I like my chances, they’re real good,” he said. “They’re looking real good right now.”
Jake Locker didn’t scrimmage yesterday, but looked good in this morning’s practice, Lappano said.
“He took all the reps in practice,” Lappano said. “But there was no need for him to scrimmage. There was no need for that.”
The other bit of offensive news from yesterday is that center Juan Garcia tested his foot as planned, going harder than he has since suffering a Lisfranc sprain in April. Garcia said his foot held up well yesterday, and that there was no pain today.
“I did more plays than I’ve done all of camp, and it looks like it’s holding so it’s pretty good,” he said. “It felt pretty good, because yesterday how I pushed it, I came back today and the pain wasn’t there.”
Asked if he thought Garcia would play in the opener against Oregon, Lappano said. “I’m sure he’s going to play. I see him playing. I think he’ll get on that field definitely and play. We’ve just got to keep our fingers crossed that it holds up. But it’s held up. He’s been out there quite a bit practicing and going pretty hard. Just knock on wood and hope it holds up.”
The biggest question mark surrounding the defense remains the D line, and Donatell still hasn’t given too many details on who will play, but continues to say he wants to rotate players through the line.
“It’s starting to take shape, but we have a lot of guys,” he said. “I haven’t been around a roster this big. We’re going to find roles for everybody. Everybody is going to have a role, we’re going to get everybody playing. We want to get as many defensive linemen in the rotation as possible.”
Donatell also said he was impressed with the work of freshmen linemen Senio Kelemete, Everrette Thompson and Alameda Ta’amu.
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