This is the time of year when UW football beat writers start pulling their hair out. Conference teams are scrimmaging up and down the coast and the writers who cover Washington are just guessing whether UW had a scrimmage on Saturday or not. No word was given of a scrimmage before or after practice by Coach Tyrone Willingham.
We are talking some serious secrecy when a coaching staff doesn't even let you know if they plan on scrimmaging or not. Oregon on the other hand had a scrimmage on Saturday that was open to the media and public.
Bud Withers of the Seattle Times drove down to Eugene to take it in.
Nate Costa, believed to be the guy who will take the first snap when Washington visits the Ducks on Aug. 30, struggled in his first live action since injuring a knee last October, completing only 2 of 10 pass attempts and failing to get the Oregon offense into the end zone.
The results of this scrimmage were pretty mixed. Is the Duck defense so good that they smothered the UO offense, or is the offense in total rebuild mode right now?
Costa went up against the number one defense and had a tough day. Roper on the other hand went up against the #2 defense and looked like he was making a potential move to take over the starting job. The competition is getting very close and both QB's may see action against UW.
According to Ted Miller of ESPN most of the offenses in the Pac Ten struggled against the defense in scrimmages this past Saturday.
You will notice once again that there are no links to a Washington scrimmage because Willingham isn't talking. He may get around to it during his Monday press conference if he is in the mood.
Sounds like some of the Pac-10 offenses had trouble linking up
Looking Forward
This is the halfway point in camp and the number one goal Washington has this week is to get kids like Jake Locker, Brandon Johnson, Mike Gottleib, Byron Davenport, and Victor Aiyewa back into practice.
Most of us expected to see Locker back late last week. He has been throwing and running stairs, but he has not returned to full contact work.
The Huskies have double practices on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of this week. The final or first scrimmage of the year depending on if Willingham will let us know should be this coming Saturday.
UW has the day off next Sunday and on the following Monday starts its game week preparations.
Backtalk with Nathan Ware 2008
Nathan and I haven't done an edition of backtalk since spring practice concluded. This week we attempt to talk about the team in general as we march through training camp. Next week we will start focusing on the Oregon game.
Here's edition #1 of the 2008 season of my weekly talks with John Berkowitz, a fellow UW blogger who runs a successful UW blog on blogspot.com. John and I talk each week throughout the season and give our thoughts on what's happening with UW athletics.
Locker and Johnson are Back
Husky fans can heave a heavy sigh of relief today because Jake Locker was back at practice this morning. Also back in pads were tailbacks Brandon Johnson and Brandon Yakaboski. Safety Victor Aiyewa appeared to be going full speed, as did backup center Matt Sedillo, who was still in a red no-contact jersey. Cornerback Byron Davenport was not present. Freshman defensive tackle Alameda Ta'amu was also not on the field. As far as Ta'amu goes I think he is a kid they are going to be careful with ala Jaun Garcia which means he will only go once during two a days.
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5 comments:
Hey John, here's a conspriacy theorist thought for you: do you think that maybe Jake IS practicing, but only getting started AFTER the reporters have left following their 25 minutes of observations? With all of Ty's secrecy and misdirection to the media, it certainly wouldn't surprise me.
Thanks,
Adam
I wish it was true but I think not. Jake is still out from full contact. I do expect him back early this week if not today.
Even though the media have to leave there are Tyee guys there every day sworn to secrecy. If Jake played on Saturday it would have leaked out.
Its obvious by reading half of one post that you would like Ty to be more open with the media, but my question is how much would you like to open things up. Would you want it ot be like Oregon, where scrimages are open to everyone or would you like him to be more forth coming about what happens during the practices? I dont like opening scrimages up to the public...could lead to unethical behavior by other teams, but I do wish Ty would let us in his world a little more so i could have a solid article to read in the morning as opposed to speculations.
So, whats your take?
According to Condatta, Jake was back at practice this morning. Will know more after 11:15 press meeting with Ty.
Dave- There are a lot of things I would love to see Tyrone do.
Opening practice the first two weeks of camp and during the spring isn't a very big deal.
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