5 More Impressions Coming Out of the UW Spring Game

Vincent Holmes showed why he's a keeper in the Husky secondary.

Vincent Holmes had some big hits in the UW spring game. / Skylar Lin Visuals

People may someday look back at the recently completed University of Washington spring football practice and conclude the biggest thing that happened was what didn't take place during it -- that Vincent Holmes twice entered the transfer portal and stayed put and that he twice changed positions and ended up where he belonged.

On Friday night in the closing spring game, this 6-foot, 174-pound redshirt freshman safety from San Jacinto, California, provided the most violent hit of the evening by doing his best Kam Chancellor imitation when he savagely knocked wide receiver Keith Reynolds off his feet. You could hear the crack of his helmet all the way up in the press box.

Not too much later, Holmes meted out more football punishment, only to a different Husky pass-catcher in Camden Sirmon. He went helmet to helmet with Sirmon, ending the play with unapologetic contact that on another day might have brought him a personal-foul penalty and a game ejection.

Instead, Holmes wasn't going anywhere on Friday except full speed ahead, as a punisher for the Huskies, this coming two two weeks after his last portal flirtation where he missed a couple of practices, and three months following when he was tempted to leave the first time after the UW changed coaches from Kalen DeBoer to Jedd Fisch.

Holmes is one of the freshmen last season who DeBoer's staff rewarded with immediate playing time by giving him special-teams responsibilities in competitive outings against Stanford, USC, Oregon State and in the Pac-12 championship game against Oregon.

Where this defensive back sort of got off track is this: he asked his new coach back in January if he could switch to wide receiver, which he also played in high school. Being pulled in so many directions at the time, Fisch said sure, why not.

However, Holmes is a naturally gifted safety, a hard-hitting player the Huskies likely will put in the starting lineup in the future when the time is right, say 2025, and count on him to cause mayhem, create turnovers and change momentum.

With so much back-tracking on his career and position, Holmes appears to have collided with divine intervention and found that he belongs not only in Montlake, but also in the secondary, where presumably UW stardom awaits.

Demond Williams Jr. got his QB baptism in the UW spring game. / Skylar Lin Visuals

QB2 DEBUT

More than once, those analyzing this Husky football team have concluded the quarterback competition between Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers and freshman Demond Williams Jr. was closer than they ever could have imagined.

Well, it wasn't.

While so confident, savvy and swift, Williams received his true college football baptism in the spring game and it was a struggle at times. Freshmen college quarterbacks rarely jump in and have everything their way, though Jake Browning gave it a decent try 10 years ago.

At one point on Friday, Williams missed 10 of 14 passes, repeatedly overthrowing receivers and even giving up a pick-6 to cornerback Thaddeus Dixon, who scored from 41 yards out on the play.

Williams eventually will settle in and be fine, but he's the back-up for Rogers right now and it doesn't take a lot to see that.

As a harbinger of things to come, Rogers connected on 14 of 25 passes for 154 yards and a score with an interception, while his favorite target Denzel Boston caught 7 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown. Williams finished at 7 for 17 for 42 yards and a score, with a pick.

Elijah Jackson sat out the UW spring game. / Skylar Lin Visuals

CORNER POCKET

Junior cornerback Elijah Jackson, one of two returning UW starters from the national runner-up team, was in uniform for the spring game, but he sat out. While waging a spirited competition throughout April with Dixon for his spot, Jackson had some sort of health issue that he described as "tweaks" and his absence was precautionary.

"It was a game-time decision," he said. "Probably could have went, but just wanted to make sure I was able to hit the summer workouts right."

UP OR DOWN

While the Huskies dumbed down everything in schemes, in case spies were watching on behalf of coming opponents, they used senior Voi Tunuufi and sophomore Jacob Lane at both edge rusher and defensive tackle during the spring game. Tunuufi and Lane still seem to pull more time on the outside.

Similarly, sophomore Tristan Dunn pulled snaps at nickeback and what appeared to be a hybrid linebacker role in which there was only one other on the field with him at times.

HOT FOOT

Adam Saul, the Huskies' back-up punter behind Jack McCallister, put his right foot into a fourth-quarter kick and somehow hurt himself landing awkwardly on it and limped badly off the field near the end. His punt still traveled 42 yards.

Saul, who previously punted at the JC level and spent a couple of seasons at Illinois State, appears to have replaced McCallister as the holder on place-kicks for Grady Gross. He likewise is Gross' kicking back-up, though he didn't attempt any field goals in the spring game.

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