Inside The Huskies

Husky QBs Struggle Mightily as Defense Clamps Down on Them

The UW's various offensive leaders collectively suffered through a rough practice.
Dan Raley|
Husky QBs Struggle Mightily as Defense Clamps Down on Them
Husky QBs Struggle Mightily as Defense Clamps Down on Them

Practice ended on Friday with a play that seemed to sum up the day for all of the University of Washington quarterbacks.

Freshman Sam Huard threw one over the middle and outside linebacker Jeremiah Martin, the Texas A&M transfer, instinctively stuck up a hand, deflected the ball to himself and took off running up the sideline.

As the entire Husky defense raced onto the field to celebrate the newcomer's acrobatic interception, the 6-foot-5, 262-pound Martin encountered Huard some 20 yards into his return. The rookie quarterback curiously tried to wrap him up and failed at this, too.

Martin ended up diving into the end zone, surrounded by a dozen barking teammates, among them Tuli Letuligasenoa, Noa Ngalu, Carson Bruener, Jordan Lolohea and Sav'ell Smalls, the latter wearing a pandemic mask and held out of a week's worth of workouts for some such ailment.

It was that kind of morning for the Husky QBs, who collectively suffered through their worst practice out of 10, with five to go. Each of them was off his game in situational settings. They had trouble finding open receivers against the Husky secondary and paid for it by forcing the ball into coverage.

"I think the guys just rose to the occasion," assistant DBs coach Terrence Brown said of the secondary members, "and understand what it means to be great."

Starter Dylan Morris looked agitated as he misfired on multiple passing attempts. Colorado State transfer Patrick O'Brien appeared to come unglued, especially trying to direct the No. 1 offense.

Huard looked totally lost.

He was like a golfer whose swing had deserted him, only in this case he couldn't find any accuracy. The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder seemed to bottom out during this 90-minute workout, misfiring on pass after pass.

He ducked his head after throwing an interception to Bruener, a redshirt freshman and now an outside linebacker. The ill-advised ball went from one legacy player to another. Thirty years ago, their dads, Damon and Mark, formed a passing combination on purpose.

A few series later, Huard didn't see yet another outside linebacker drop back in coverage on him. He threw the football directly to redshirt freshman Cooper McDonald, who intercepted it and inexplicably punted it before anyone could touch him. 

Those UW defensive guys like to have their fun, don't they?

O'Brien, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound grad transfer from Colorado State who began his career at Nebraska, got a chance to supplant Morris and run the top offensive unit for a couple of series. It didn't go well.

In order, O'Brien dropped his first shotgun snap, had the second play flagged for a penalty, couldn't find a receiver and had to scramble, and came off his feet reaching for an errant snap and went down. That's 0-for-4.

The usually unflappable Morris was even off his game somewhat. His body language seemed to indicate his disgust after he went through a series in which he missed badly on a pass to Rome Odunze, purposely threw one away and couldn't hit Terrell Bynum.

Even fourth-string quarterback Camden Sirmon threw an interception to fourth-string linebacker Ben Hines, bringing all of his defensive teammates onto the field to congratulate him. 

Earlier in the week, Husky coach Jimmy Lake had suggested that his quarterbacks were getting tested daily by one of the nation's top collection of defensive backs, giving them an extra challenge. On this day, the outside linebackers seemed to take advantage of the tight coverage and register the turnovers.

A half-hour after practice ended, Morris was still on the field, working out his frustrations in Husky Stadium by throwing to All-America tight end candidate Cade Otton and Texas Tech transfer Ja'Lynn Polk.

The Huskies scrimmage in full pads on Saturday, beginning at 10:30 a.m., and fans who apply for entry can attend.

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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