Clark Continues to Build a Strong Case for the Huskies Playing Him This Season

With just four starters back from the Sun Bowl, a new coordinator in charge and several veterans recovering from surgery, the University of Washington now offers plenty of opportunity for defensive players to move up during spring ball.

Rahshawn Clark, a redshirt freshman defensive back, seems to sense this as much as anyone. Every day, he seems to do something noteworthy to bring attention to himself. Each workout, he plays with plenty of swagger.

It's the Rahshawn Show.

In Thursday's spring practice No. 5 in Dempsey Indoor, Clark as a nickelback came up with yet another spring interception, diving and stealing a low Demond Williams Jr. pass in a crowd of players.

The practice before, the 6-foot, 195-pound defender from Seattle made maybe the most athletic play of the spring, by high-pointing a Kai Horton pass with one hand and crashing to the turf, momentarily knocking the wind out of himself but hanging onto the ball.

Last week, Clark picked off another Williams pass and raced up the sideline with it, emphatically spiking the ball 30 feet in the air after covering about half the field.

"We have high hopes for him," UW senior defensive tackle Logan Sagapolu said. "He's really putting in the work. So far, he's been having a pretty good spring to start. It's really up to him to be consistent, but he's really doing good. Hopefully, he stands up to where we feel he can be."

The Huskies have him working in at both nickelback and cornerback. He finds himself in a spirited competition for the open nickel job with senior Dyson McCutcheon and possibly sophomore Leroy Bryant, but both of the others missed Thursday's practice with unspecified injuries.

Clark redshirted last season after appearing only in the opener against Weber State. He originally signed to play for Arizona, but switched to the UW when then-Wildcats coach Jedd Fisch took the Husky job.

He's demonstrated the necessary quickness to hold his own in coverage, running step for step with speedy freshmen Chris Lawson and Marcus Harris for deep balls. The players seem to like him, too, with wide receiver Rashid Williams putting his arm around the hard-working DB after one play as they ran back to their respective huddles.

Observation No. 2: You had to look real close, but sophomore defensive tackle Armon Parker, one half of the Detroit twins, drew his first scrimmage snaps of the spring over the latter half of the practice.

Entering his fourth year with the Huskies, this Parker has yet to play in a game like his brother has after suffering a pair of season-ending injuries. A year ago, he got rolled up on in spring ball and he was done for the year.

"Obviously, with his injury from last year, he's slowing getting back," defensive-line coach Jason Kaufusi said. "You saw him out there running around and he looked pretty good, though we'll have to look at the film."

This Parker also looked a lot heavier than before. Previously listed at 6-foot-3 and 315 pounds, he might be a little north of that weight.

Observation No. 3: Sagapolu looks smaller. He acknowledged dropping from a high of 366 pounds last season to 344 this spring, hoping to get on the field more.

He played in all 13 games for the Huskies last season after transferring from Miami, and even started against Northwestern, but his minutes were somewhat restricted because his coaches said he lacked mobility.

Observation No. 4: After having Pete Carroll as a spring fixture a year ago, the Huskies hosted another former Seahawks coach to practice in Mike Holmgren, who chatted up Fisch and then spoke to the Huskies for 10 minutes afterward. He got a loud ovation from the players after he finished.

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