SEATTLE – Just call them the “Air Huskies.”
With coaches taking Isaiah Stanback’s running plays out of the playbook for Saturday’s spring football game, the senior quarterback looked to the air to make plays and put on an impressive first-half show.
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Stanback completed 6 of 9 passes – including 5-for-6 in the first half – for 190 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Purple team to a 24-3 victory over the Gold at Husky Stadium.
The result wasn’t a surprise, as the Purple team was primarily made up of this fall’s anticipated starters, but coaches and players were pleased with the fact that, when the plays were there, they were made.
“When there’s an opportunity there, sometimes they’ve dropped those when they’ve been able to get open, regardless of how they got open,” head coach Tyrone Willingham said. “But our guys made the plays and that was a really nice thing. (Stanback) got the ball there, and they made the plays.”
Stanback completed three passes of at least 43 yards and was responsible for all three touchdowns. He had scoring passes of 43 yards to Anthony Russo and 55 yards to Chancellor Young in the first quarter, and a 67-yard pass to Cody Ellis in the second quarter set up a 1-yard TD run by Kenny James.
“We were just looking to open things up and make some plays down the field,” said Stanback, who did not run the ball at all in the game. “We wanted to try to attack and the receivers got open and made the catches.”
The offensive strategy was clearly to throw the ball down the field. Running backs ran just 23 times while there were 46 passes thrown. The idea in part was to give all three quarterbacks – Stanback, Carl Bonnell and Johnny DuRocher – an opportunity to show what they could do, but there may also have been an inclination to make up for last year’s spring game which ended with a 3-0 score.
“We never brought it up, but it was in the back of my mind, at least,” said Russo, who had two catches for 54 yards. “I’m sure everyone was thinking about it. Three-to-zero last year was pretty embarrassing. We had to come out and be explosive and show people what we could do and get the fans excited.”
Whether that worked or not remains to be seen, but it was clear that Stanback was comfortable throwing the ball, albeit against an inexperienced second-string secondary.
Early on, the senior quarterback picked on cornerback Shelton Sampson, a converted running back still learning his position. Five plays into the game, Russo ran past Sampson and Stanback found him for a touchdown. Purple then got the ball back and two plays into the drive, Stanback hit a streaking Young deep behind Sampson for another touchdown.
With his team ahead 14-3 and the first half coming to an end, Stanback hooked up with Ellis, who was brought down at the 1 yard line, and James ran in for his touchdown on the next play.
“We were making the plays that were coming up short last year,” Russo said. “Last year, we’d be open but we’d be dropping the ball or missing the throw. Now we’re making the plays. That’s a big change.”
“It’s like night and day,” Stanback said of the difference between this year’s offense and last year’s. “We have another year in the system and everyone knows what to do. Guys are running the right routes and we’re making the right reads.”
Well, that was true of Stanback but not so true about Bonnell or, in particular, DuRocher. Bonnell, who seems to be the clear No. 2 quarterback, was 4-for-12 for 25 yards but had a 36-yard run, and DuRocher was 6-for-16 for 65 yards and twice fumbled snaps from the center. Each player had opportunities to work with the No. 1 offensive line.
Offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said he was pleased with Stanback’s composure and decision-making, and liked what he saw from Bonnell.
“Carl played pretty well,” Lappano said. “He did some good things when he had a chance without pressure in his face. He showed some people that he still has some good speed and he threw a couple nice balls. Johnny struggled a little bit today. He missed some people who were open and the ball sailed on him a little bit.”
Defensively, the starting cornerback duo of Roy Lewis and Dashon Goldson was solid. Lewis had a game-high seven tackles and broke up three passes and Goldson had three tackles and an interception. Safety Chris Hemphill also had an interception and there were five sacks.
Michael Book had a 23-yard field goal to account for the Gold’s scoring, and Michael Braunstein had a 35-yard field goal for the Purple. Braunstein also made all three point-after tries.
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