Trying to Decipher the UW Offense: Could It be Run-Oriented to Begin?
Every day University of Washington football coaches and players offer snippets but no real substance of what's coming with a Husky offense made for a pandemic-shortened season.
Media members have access only to a 20-minute Friday practice window ... to watch people stretch. Or at least to see who's there and who's not.
The four-player quarterback competition is kept totally under wraps.
No details. No depth chart. No progress reports.
One UW player said all of the guys looked fantastic.
They're the Four Horsemen of the Husky Apocalypse apparently.
We're left to surmise and speculate about the coming UW offensive look.
Which brings us to newly hired offensive coordinator John Donovan.
People assumed Donovan was brought in from the NFL to open things up a bit. Maybe use more three-wideout sets. File the conservative two-tight-end formations of the past.
A week and a half into fall camp, the Huskies have left the sneaking impression, especially with an inexperienced quarterback taking over, that they're going to pound the football on the ground to begin the season.
"We just want to be physical; not just up front, but on the perimeter," said Junior Adams, Husky wide-receivers coach. "The physical guys are going to play."
Typically, he should be speaking about finesse when discussing his receivers, wouldn't he?
Last week, the Huskies acknowledged they're flirting with sending out the heaviest offensive line in school history, one that tips the scales at a gargantuan 323 pounds per man.
On Sunday, defensive-line coach Ikaika Malloe, when asked about the new quarterbacks and without naming names, said the ones that ran the ball gave his guys the most problems in the weekend scrimmage.
Of the four quarterbacks in competition, senior transfer Kevin Thomson and redshirt freshman Dylan Morris seem to fit that description best.
As runners or scramblers.
Former Husky offensive mastermind Keith Gilbertson said the 1991 national championship-team philosophy was to throw the ball to get ahead and run it to finish off the opponent.
Those Huskies had a fairly even and lethal offensive mix.
Last year, the UW put an NFL-bound, big-armed QB on the field with people guessing the Huskies might throw more. Yet Chris Petersen kept it conservative during an 8-5 season.
This team seems to want to primarily run the ball behind Richard Newton and Sean McGrew.
Donovan's Huskies could rely on a ground attack at least early on. That would enable a new quarterback to settle in.
Anything even slightly resembling an Air Raid offensive likely left the state when Mike Leach relocated to Mississippi State.
"I'm not sure what we're going to do exactly," UW junior wide receiver Terrell Bynum said. "All I know is we can do everything. We could pound it. We could throw it. It depends on what we want to do that week."
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