SEATTLE — What the University of Washington football coaches know is that quarterback Jake Locker is feeling better, and they expect him to play better this Saturday night.
What they don’t know is who all will be surrounding their senior star.
Locker was back on the practice field Monday afternoon, two days after playing through illness in the Arizona State game, although backup Keith Price took most of the snaps.
Locker said afterward that he was suffering from a “head congestion kind of thing” and added that he would “be all right.”
The ailment did limit the quarterback’s breathing and forced the coaches to call fewer running plays for the speedy senior. Locker admitted Monday that he went to a hospital to receive intravenous fluids after the game.
Head coach Steve Sarkisian admitted Monday that Locker was struggling so badly with his breathing that he actually considered putting Price into Saturday’s game at one point.
“I did think about it there,” he said, “but I just felt like No. 10 (Locker) has done so many good things for us and has given us opportunities to win ballgames before that I felt like I owed it to him.”
Locker played that game without starting wide receiver Devin Aguilar, who suffered a minor hip injury at the end of last Thursday’s practice and was still sidelined Monday afternoon. Sarkisian was uncertain whether Aguilar would be available for the Oregon State game on Saturday night.
“As of right now, we’re anticipating that he’s going to play Saturday,” Sarkisian said of Aguilar, “but we’re going to monitor it very closely as the week goes on.”
Also ailing are defensive lineman Cameron Elisara and starting guard Erik Kohler.
Elisara is nursing a neck stinger that hobbled him throughout the 2009 season and crept up again in the win over USC on Oct. 2. Sarkisian acknowledged that the injury could limit Elisara all season and was a factor in the coaches deciding to move the senior starter from inside at defensive tackle to the end position. Elisara came off the bench in Saturday’s loss and could resume that role this week while end Everette Thompson moves inside and De’Shon Matthews returns to the starting lineup for the second week in a row.
Kohler’s chances of playing Saturday seem less likely, although Sarkisian was still unwilling to rule him out of the game as of Monday. Kohler was diagnosed with mononucleosis late last week and could be sidelined for an extended period of time.
“His fever is gone now, so he’s allowed to be around team activities again, and we’re going to just monitor him as the week goes on,” Sarkisian said during his Monday afternoon press conference. “It’s something we’re taking very seriously. We’re not counting on him playing, but we’re not counting him out either.”
If Kohler can’t play, Sarkisian may well turn to another true freshman. Colin Porter, a 6-foot-4, 307-pounder from Bothell, is now listed as a co-starter alongside senior Gregory Christine at Kohler’s left guard position. Christine started in place of Kohler against ASU on Saturday and struggled at times.
This week, Sarkisian said, Porter will get a long look and could play “at least 50 percent of the snaps in this ballgame.”
As for Locker, the quarterback appears to be on the road to recovery.
“He’s still a little under the weather,” Sarkisian said, adding that Locker also suffered a quad contusion in the loss to Arizona State. “‘Tis the season. We all have the sniffles and coughs going right now, but nothing more than that. He had a little bit of a quad contusion in the game as well.”
Calling all Energizer bunnies
Due in part to a team-wide virus, as well as the driving rain that came down on Husky Stadium, the Huskies didn’t play with the energy Saturday night that they had one week earlier in an upset of USC.
“I don’t know what it was, but I felt a difference from the USC game to the Arizona State game,” senior receiver D’Andre Goodwin said Monday afternoon. “I don’t know if the weather had something to do with it. We wanted to win the game, and we went out there and played hard, but the energy just was not as high as it was the way we played at SC.”
Sarkisian said illness was only part of the reason for the lack of energy, adding that he would focus on keeping his team’s energy level up in the future.
Senior safety Nate Williams, one of four team captains, said illness and inclement weather shouldn’t have affected the team’s energy Saturday.
“That’s not an excuse,” he said. “We have to find a way to get just as hyped up for a game against Arizona State or Wazzu … like we do for USC or Oregon. I don’t know if that’s the coaches’ job, or if that’s my job or Jake Locker’s job — we have to find a way to get hyped up for every single game.”
Short yardage
Oregon State will be without one of its top weapons Saturday because wide receiver James Rodgers hurt his knee over the weekend. OSU announced that Rodgers is out for the remainder of the season on Monday. … Further proof of Locker’s plummeting Heisman candidacy comes from the national leaders in passing efficiency. Five Pac-10 quarterbacks are ranked among the top 25 in that category, and none of them are named Locker. The UW quarterback ranks 68th in the country with a 124.75 rating, behind eight other Pac-10 quarterbacks. The only conference starter with a lower efficiency rating is UCLA’s Kevin Prince, at 78.89. … The Huskies’ Oct. 23 game at Arizona will be televised on ESPN. The network announced Monday that the game will kick off at 7:15 p.m.
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