In the era of 85 scholarships, and only 105 players being invited to August camp the importance of having a strong corp of walkons has never been more important. Here is a list of guys to watch in August.
Mike Gottleib TE....Gottleib walked on from Mercer Island and caught the eyes of Gilby's staff right away earning one of the available scholarships for walkons. Under Willingham his progress has continued and as of Spring he was the #1 Tight End.
Erik Berglund OT....Not really a walkon since he was awarded a scholarship out of HS, but since he left the program and came back after a year and a half he is w/o a scholarship. In a depleted offensive line he at least gives the team another big experienced body to practice against. At the most he could vie for a lot of playing time if he shakes the rust off. willingham didn't seem to think he was all that rusty this Spring which is encouraging.
Mark Palaita FB....Mark heads into his senior season owning the starting job at FB for the second consecutive year. He will have plenty of competition from Kravitz, and Homer. What Mark gives you is blocking and a bowling ball at the goal line.
Alex Mercier WR....This kid went out and won a place in rotation this past Spring. With new talent coming in this August he will have to work hard to keep it, but this Spring he looked like one of the best one's out there.
Joshua Gage OLB....the coaches are looking for him to see the field this year which is the goal of any walkon. Not predicting he will win a scholarship, but he will see the field this year.
Robert Lukevich C....An unfortunate and serious knee injury will force him to miss this season. He was running at #2 center a postion that really lacks depth to start the Spring. Tough to say if he will make it back but deserves mention for the hard work he put in to climb the depth chart and receive consideration for playing time.
Greg Christine C....Slated to join the team in August Christine ia a guy that DM is high on to contribute and possibly win a scholarship during his stay at UW. The injury to Lukevich will give him an opportunity to make the depth.
Troy Perry WR....A walkon from Pasadena CC that has a lot of experience. Depth will keep him out of the rotation, but it is always a good thing to have some more spped guys to practice against and see the field on special teams.
Felix Sweetman QB.....Felix won't see the field this year unless he gets a little mop up duty, that does not diminish his importance as the 3rd string QB (if Locker redshirts) going into the year. Once again you need guys like these to practice against easch week to get ready for your opponents.
Ian McMillian...WR...A walkon on from Portland who strated his career last season in the Ivy league. He is reported to have good speed. UW has lots of depth at WR so don't look for him to play for a year or two. If he develops he could be very important once all those juniors graduate.
Tim Harris...TE.... the former Bellarmine stand out brings California JC experience. In a position that had positive results last year he fits into the depth nicely. You need five TE's, and he will start out the year behind Gottleib, Lewis, Kirton, and Williams. Nice pickup that will become more apparent if the injury bug strikes this position.
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4 comments:
john b , really enjoy your husky football posts. My only critique is that in several, you refer to the third year of TW, this is only his second season. I do expect, like DJ and JO, that he will be truly succesful in his 3rd year.
I caught that last night and changed it. I was re-reading and went....Wow I am an idiot....lol
Too bad you had to see it because it doesn't give me a lot of credibility.
That is however part of the learning curve when you do something like this for the first time. Trying to write seven columns per week about the same subject is a challenge.
I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but it was probably due to posting these late at night without thouroughly reviewing them for error. Just a little fatigue.
When you hammer this stuff out it takes practice, and I will get better as the season goes on. The past week has been a little rough since I am getting married over Labor Day, believe me, that sucks a lot of time, and attention out of your usual schedule.
This blog is a new thing for me, and it is just to give some friends another free place, and a different format to talk about Husky Football in addition to Dawgman.
I sell health insurance on the internet for a living, and have been doing that for a number of years. I have three web sites, and one of the things that drives traffic to them is health insurance blogs. So I had to write those for the backlinks and thought why not do a Husky Blog for fun?
I subscribed to the Rivals site in addition to DM last year, and I really was dissapointed, there just wasn't very much content, and no action on the message board. I thought I could do a better job then that.
I think Dawgman is the best fan site in college athletics, but I wanted to do something that just is about Husky, and Pac Ten Football. I didn't want to read about Aemery, or ND all the time, even it is enjoyable once in awhile.
I think most of us are rabid fans who have an insatiable desire for content. This site gives us a little more of that.
I do think Ty will be succesful in his 3rd, or 4th year, but I think he the team will have an opportunity for success this year if they can stay healthy.
Thanks for taking the time to post, and feel free to post more often. Hopefully this thing will become a fun addition to watching Husky Football, if not it will serve as a good tool to sharpen up my communication skills.
Thanks for the insight on the walk ons. Are these guys semi-recruited or mainly Husky fans?
I know what you mean about blogging. I'm arrogant enough about my spelling ability that I don't use a checker and have winced several times the next day when I read what I wrote. Congrats on the nuptials as well! For some reason, I thought it had already happened.
Thanks for the staff analysis too. I'm most worried about Tormey but for no real reason that I can specify.
cheers,
Dick
I haven't heard anything about Tormey recently, but then again I usually don't till in the season.
I know he likes living in Seattle, but I also know he wants another shot at being a head coach if the opportunity arises. I have no idea how he gets along with Ty and Baer, but Chris is a pretty easy person to respect and get along with.
The walkons that you see on the squad in August are all invited, and recruited by the coaches. Picking a solid twenty every year really helps the depth.
Having two walk on starters at this point is testimony that you need to be strong in that area.
Ben Mahldavi from a few years back was a walkon who earned a starting spot. John Fiala is another guy who did it too. Fiala actually turned down a scholarship from SC to walk on at UW!
The guys that are more fans and who want an opportunity to be on the team can join after the first game, or once school starts, if they are good enough they get invited back the following year in August.
Chancelor Young wasn't a walkon, but he couldn't practice with the team till school started last year.
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