Huskies notes: UW coach Jimmy Lake discusses loss to Montana, wide receiver availability, and more
The way Saturday night’s season-opener played out wasn’t what the Washington Huskies — who entered the season ranked No. 20 — expected.
Montana strode into Husky Stadium on a warm Seattle evening, held the Huskies to seven points at home, and put together two scoring drives in the final quarter, solidifying what soon became a stunning 13-7 upset.
But, the season doesn’t end there. UW has 11 more games guaranteed on its regular season schedule, including the entirety of Pac-12 play.
So, where do the Huskies go from here?
UW coach Jimmy Lake addressed that and more in his Monday morning press conference in Seattle.
“First thing, we want to say thank you again for the fans, for coming out and supporting us last Saturday,” he said in his opening statement. “We know we did not give a performance that was Husky football, and we apologize for that, and we’re going back to work to correct that.”
Lake was asked for his evaluation of the Huskies’ performance against Montana, gave his assessments of the offensive, defensive and special teams efforts, discussed what happened in the three-hour contest that ultimately led to UW leaving the field Saturday night with an 0-1 record, and vowed the Huskies would put in the work to respond to it.
“We should not have played the way we played on Saturday night, and that’s why I feel so bad for our fans and for our supporters,” Lake said. “They should be disappointed. They should be pissed. Just like we are.
“All we can do now is move forward here, and make amends, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Lake often noted during his press conference that, as the Huskies moves forward and look to make improvements, it begins with him and the coaching
“It starts with me first,” he said. “We’ve got to be better prepared. We’ve got to have a better plan, and we did not execute a good plan. It all starts with the coaching first, and it starts with me.”
The Huskies now turn to what is ahead — which this weekend is a meeting with Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“We are going to focus on what’s up next, because if we are still focusing on what happened last Saturday, that’s going to affect us this Saturday,” Lake said. “So what we’re doing now — this is the message in the locker room — is now we’re focusing on how we’re going to get better, and how we’re going to attack our next opponent, and how we’re going to play Husky football the way we’re supposed to play Husky football.”
Lake believes this team has the leaders in the locker room to get this season back on track.
“I believe this is some of the best leadership that we have on our team,” he said. “You’ve already seen it — even in the locker room after the game. Yesterday, all during yesterday, and even today.
“We have extraordinary leadership on our team. This does not sit well with them. This does not sit well with our team. They’ve gone back to work already. But, we’re not going to talk about it, we need to go show it. We need to go show the type of Husky Football that we play.”
Injuries impacting wide receiver depth
When the Huskies took the field against Montana, they were without each of the three wide receivers who were projected to be starters throughout much of fall camp in Terrell Bynum, Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan.
McMillan’s absence was somewhat anticipated — he has not been seen participating since leaving practice early during the second week of camp with an apparent hand injury — but the absences of Bynum and Odunze weren’t expected.
Both were listed as starters when UW’s initial depth chart was released last Monday, along with Texas Tech transfer Ja’Lynn Polk, but neither were seen participating during pregame warmups Saturday afternoon, and neither played a snap against Montana.
No specifics have been given about their absences or availability moving forward, but Lake noted the Huskies will continue to monitor each situation.
“Terrell Bynum, Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan are all week-to-week,” Lake said. “We will get them back at some point. We’ll see how those injuries progress.”
With those three out for Game 1, the Huskies started Polk, Taj Davis and Michigan transfer Giles Jackson against Montana. But, Polk was injured on the first series, Lake confirmed Monday, and did not return to the game.
“Ja’Lynn Polk suffered a chest injury on the very first play of the game,” Lake said. “He had emergency surgery right after the game. He is out of the hospital now, and he’s in good spirits.
“But, this will be a long-term injury. We probably will not get him back until postseason play.”
Should their top four receivers be absent again this week, UW will be without a combined 45 games of college football experience. Bynum, a fifth-year junior, has the most in UW’s wide receivers room, having appeared in 26 games the past three seasons, with 39 catches for 498 yards and two touchdowns in the past two. Odunze played in all four of the Huskies’ games last season, while McMillan played in three games, and both caught passes as true freshmen. Polk played in 10 games as a true freshman at Texas Tech last season, catching 28 passes for 264 yards, a pair of touchdowns, and had one catch for 13 yards on the first play of Saturday’s game.
Jackson is the only other receiver on the Huskies’ roster who had caught a pass in a college game before Saturday, having compiled 309 receiving yards on 24 catches in two seasons at Michigan, while playing in 18 games as a receiver and kick returner — a role he resumed against Montana.
Jackson and Davis, playing in his first college game, are the only two receivers who caught passes against the Grizzlies after Polk’s exit. Davis finished with 59 yards, hauling in six of his team-high 12 targets. Jackson finished with four catches for 15 yards on nine targets. Sawyer Racanelli, appearing in his third college game after replacing Polk, also played but did not record a catch.
The Huskies have six more receivers listed on their roster, but none — scholarship players or walk-ons — have game experience. Considering the Huskies’ sudden question of depth, Lake was asked if UW has enough players at wide receiver now to succeed, or if there has been any thought of moving others to the position.
“That’s what we’re working through,” Lake said. “Again, a little bit last week as well, knowing that three of those guys weren’t going to play in the last game, we had a few adjustments here or there, and now we’ve got to make even further adjustments now, knowing the issue that we have with the injury updates that I gave you.
“So, that’s what we’re going to have to do. We’re going to have to build a plan to make sure that we can still go out there and operate, put points on the board and try to get a victory.”
A few more notes …
▪ After evaluating the game film, here is what Lake had to say about the offensive performance against Montana: “We’ve got to score points,” he said. “We can’t go down right there in the beginning of the game, and it looks like we’re going to score every possession, and then we don’t score anything after that. So, we’ve got to run the ball better, we’ve got to protect our quarterback better, and put more points on the board.”
▪ During that first drive, the Huskies did indeed look like they were on their way to an efficient offensive day. UW needed only four minutes, 45 seconds and nine plays to march 78 yards down the field and score on Dylan Morris’ 1-yard keeper. What happened after that?
“It comes down to execution,” Lake said. “I’m not going to make a bunch of excuses of what we didn’t do. They did a nice job of moving their guys up front and causing havoc in our backfield, and we’ve got to give our guys a better plan to continue to run the football, and also a better plan to protect our quarterback. They made some adjustments. Our adjustments weren’t as sound as the adjustments they made. We did not respond the way we should.”
▪ Though the Huskies entered the game with four returning starters on their offensive line, they managed only the one touchdown, 291 yards of offense — 65 on the ground, 226 through the air — and Morris was sacked three times. Lake noted the Huskies “did not expect that result at all” from their veteran front.
“I think what we more expected is what happened on that first drive — not that the whole first drive was perfect either, it’s never going to be perfect — but I think we were expecting more of the same. And for that not to happen was unfortunate.
“That’s what we’re doing here to fix. It starts with us coaches. … We’ve got to give these guys a good plan to go out there and execute. We know (defenses) are going to change it up, and when they change it up, we’ve got to be ready to have that next response ready to go.”
▪ Lake also indicated at several points better protection of Morris — who finished 27-of-46 passing for 226 yards, had the one rushing touchdown, three interceptions and was sacked the three times — is a priority.
“Our quarterback cannot get hit that much,” Lake said. “He got hit a ton. They called the penalties, but that takes a toll on a quarterback, and it takes a toll on him being able to set his feet in the pocket and successfully deliver a throw. … We need to come up with a better plan to make sure our quarterback’s protected, not getting hit, so he can make those decisions, make better decisions with the football.
▪ Sean McGrew, the Huskies’ sixth-year tailback who led them in rushing during the shortened 2020 season, did not appear in Saturday’s game, but Lake indicated there was no particular reason McGrew didn’t play.
“No, there wasn’t at all,” he said. “Sean is obviously a really good running back and done a lot of things around here. No. I would expect Sean to get some reps here moving forward.
“I think it just happened the way it happened. … We were trying to get Rich (Newton) going a little bit. I think he had over 15 carries or whatever it was, and just trying to get him into a rhythm. So, it was more to that. Nothing what Sean was doing. It was more trying to get Rich back into a rhythm during the game.”
Newton (17 carries, 62 yards) and Cameron Davis (four carries, 8 yards) were the only two tailbacks who lined up in the backfield against Montana.
This story was originally published September 6, 2021 at 6:21 PM.
