The Washington Huskies held their first practice of the new football season Monday, trying somehow to squeeze years of maturity into the 21 practice days leading up to the season opener.
The Huskies need to replace nine starters from the 4-9 team of a year ago. And in several cases, the responsibility will fall to unproven players – sometimes to true freshmen.
“We have to play older,” coach Tyrone Willingham said while assessing the needs of the coming season. “Our freshmen can’t play as freshmen. Our sophomores can’t be sophomores, nor can our juniors be juniors. Everybody’s got to step it up a couple of grades. This means play with more maturity and more focus.”
Among the top priorities leading up to the Aug. 30 opener at Oregon are picking a rotation of tailbacks and receivers from the ranks of almost fully unproven youngsters, and replacing three of the four starters on the defensive line.
Adding to the challenge, the Huskies opened camp without starting center Juan Garcia, who is limited because of a foot injury, and 2008 leading tackler E.J. Savannah, sidelined by grades and other undisclosed issues. There is no timetable for the return of either player – and, in fact, no certainty that either will return.
Adding urgency to all of these issues is a schedule that starts the Huskies against a Pacific-10 Conference rival.
“I like it because it sharpens your team,” said new defensive coordinator Ed Donatell. “You have to have your ‘A’ game ready, and everything counts right away. There’s no margin for error. It brings a seriousness through your camp.”
Donatell was hired during the offseason after longtime Willingham assistant Kent Baer was fired.
This season, conventional wisdom says it is the head coach who will be fired if the Huskies don’t end their ongoing streak of four straight losing seasons.
Willingham acknowledged that his players are aware of the talk.
“Our young people are a part of the community, a part of the world, so it’s sort of hard to restrict the things that they see, hear and read, the things that people are saying around them,” he said. “The key for anybody that wants to be able to achieve is your ability to focus on your task and not let outside influences dictate your mind-set, your thinking and your ability to get things done.”
If this is the season when the Huskies reverse their fortunes, they are expected to do it behind the positives of second-year starting quarterback Jake Locker, Donatell’s new system on defense, a more veteran secondary and all those talented youngsters who will be expected to grow up fast.
Willingham expressed confidence that his fourth team can be the one that breaks through.
“I believe this is going to be a football team that has grown within itself and grown within its own confidence,” he said. “It is becoming more and more comfortable within its own system and how it goes about doing things day to day. And I think that confidence level makes all the difference in the world. That’s one of those things that when you get to crunch time and everything is on the line it’s that confidence that pulls you through. And I think this team will gain, over a period of time, a measure of that.”
Don Ruiz: 253-597-8808
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