An Unwelcome Milestone: Husky Fall Camp was Supposed to Start Today
Husky fans thought they'd seen it all.
A football game grinding to a halt.
The stadium emptying out.
Lightning bolts striking all around.
That night, 11 months ago, felt like the second coming of the apocalypse.
Turns out, it was only a forewarning.
Nearly a year later, University Washington football is faced with a much more complicated delay.
Today was supposed to be the beginning of fall camp.
The reset after the Pac-12 tried to salvage a season without non-conference games.
Hope, in the middle of a pandemic wilderness.
It's all been shelved, postponed for at least three months, if not longer, with everyone trying to figure out how to live with novel coronavirus.
In the past 24 hours, UW senior cornerback Keith Taylor has let his feelings be known.
Where he'd rather be.
The Huskies likely would have held a workout this Monday morning, broken for lunch, and followed up with something strenuous in the afternoon.
Lots of running at all times, conditioning necessary to survive the coming Saturday afternoons.
Plenty of weight-lifting reps, mandatory stuff to go toe to toe with Oregon and USC.
Competition officially would have begun to determine a starting quarterback to send out against Stanford on Sept. 26 at Husky Stadium.
That was the alternative season debut once the original opener at home against Michigan on Sept. 5 was wiped away.
Instead, the players will break for three weeks before returning to the UW athletic facilities and on-line classes, hoping for good news at all times.
The Husky leaders, such as senior running back Sean McGrew, will try to stress the positive.
Others such as Elijah Molden, while urging calm amongst their teammates, will have big decisions to make about their football pursuits. Really serious stuff.
Such as whether to return at all. They have NFL careers to consider. How should they protect their interests?
UW coach Jimmy Lake, while acknowledging the unprecedented times in the video and trying to keep everyone on point, threw out an unusual carrot.
How about spring practice in November?
At a time when the Huskies should be playing the Apple Cup?
When they might have been putting a capper on a resurgent season?
At any other time, his UW players might have looked at each other and thought their coach had been knocked silly by one of those lightning bolts.
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