Another Insider's Photogenic Look at UW Spring Practice

Skylar Lin again braved the morning chill to document these hard-working Huskies with his camera.

Spring football practice begins precisely each day at 8:15 a.m. for the University of Washington football team and ends roughly two hours and 15 minutes later, with every little detail addressed in between.

A year ago, Jimmy Lake was the Husky coach and most workouts were held on the east practice field, with a designated DJ playing musical selections that boomed throughout each session nonstop. It was a party-like, lakeside atmosphere.

Under new leader Kalen DeBoer's direction, nearly everything now takes place inside cavernous Husky Stadium, with the new coaching staff showing a preference to use the school's self-promoted "most glorious setting in college football" as their classroom at all times.

Seattle photographer Skylar Lin, a college student himself though elsewhere, twice mixed in with these Husky football combatants earlier this week, documenting their joy and tedium in the chilly April temperatures.  

Lin has a knack for getting close to the action and having players respond to his camera. As was done earlier in the week, we're presenting a gallery of Skylar's images here that were shot on Wednesday, showing these guys hard at work in assorted scenarios. Check out his work.

The QB competition: Sam Huard (7), Dylan Morris (5) and Michael Penix Jr. (9).

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The DeBoer staff has all sort of padded props not seen before at the UW.

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Jalen McMillan gets a pointer from receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard.

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Keanu Wallace, a non-scholarship player from Hawaii, gets his chance. 

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A pair of Husky linemen mix it up with a pad between them.

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Linebacker Daniel Heimuli hustles through practice. 

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An upbeat Dom Hampton handles the UW hybrid defender role.

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A pair of lineman prepare to make contact. 

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Kamren Fabiculanan and Mishael Powell often share the secondary.

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Teaching the Huskies the intricacies of football details rather than unleashing them in out-and-out competition for jobs has been the main DeBoer theme so far through seven practices as everyone nears the halfway point of spring ball.

However, three Husky scrimmages coming over the next 15 days, beginning on Friday, will ratchet up the sense of urgency and give the players a better chance of becoming starters and advancing up the depth chart.

In a year's time, the weather has been a lot colder for DeBoer's efforts than it was for Lake's, which is maybe an apt initiation for a coaching staff largely from Fresno State and used to the T-shirt and shorts climate of central California. 

Husky players, of which there are 100-plus, tend to be more bundled up these days than courageously leaving their arms and legs exposed. 

Meantime, background music comes and goes inside the stadium, not tuned out completely, as a concession to the current UW players during practice. Yet it's often turned down and muffled or replaced by the sound of coaches' booming voices and shrill whistles meant to keep everyone moving.

The new staff has brought out all sort of practice props not seen before in Montlake, such as rolling giant balls at quarterbacks or receivers forcing them to make them reflexive changes in direction. Or they've had linemen hit big blocking donuts or hold up big pads, and urge defenders to tackle players onto foam padding that almost resembles a high-jump pit.

The defensive linemen and kickers are the only ones who sneak off to use the east field these days, and only for specific drills. It's a lonely place over there, almost a burial ground for old concepts that didn't work.

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