Lake Appears Relaxed, Unfazed After Week of Practice
Jimmy Lake met with the media briefly following Thursday's practice, and if the University of Washington football coach is feeling any undue pressure over an 0-2 start, he's not showing it.
In the 10-minute exchange shown above, Lake presented himself as relaxed, cordial and fairly upbeat as he discussed his winless team and a week of preparation for Saturday's game against Arkansas State.
Now he doesn't have a lot of patience for any question that isn't precise, but that's nothing new.
There also wasn't anything too revealing at all concerning his Huskies, any health updates or position battles, but that's not unusual either.
So his inquisitors were left to size up his mood two days from kickoff.
"We just finished our third consecutive physical practice," Lake said. "The energy is great. Now we need to go get some results on Saturday."
He was quizzed about his defensive backs, freshman defensive linemen, ZTF, Arkansas State and the impending inclement weather.
As for the latter, forecasts call for rain, and maybe a lot of it, coming down throughout the afternoon football game.
"We call it Dawg weather," Lake said. "This is nothing new to us. We always feel extremely prepared any time it's going to rain. This is the climate we live in. We're ready if it's raining, if it's windy — just please, no thunderstorms. We don't want any delays in the game."
Lake also took note of Arkansas State's highly unusual QB tandem of James Blackman and Layne Hatcher; one's a junior transfer from Florida State, the other a sophomore who originated at Alabama.
Each has started a game for the Red Wolves. Each has shown he can scramble well and throw the ball accurately. Each player has come off the bench and tossed 4 touchdown passes in a relief appearance.
"It's a luxury that they have two really talented quarterbacks that have played well when they're in the game," Lake said. "As I'm watching them, it's, 'Don't pull him, he's playing really, really well.' "
The UW coach, still in search of his first victory of the season, is probably hoping for a lot of rain on Saturday to help contain those two and put the Huskies in the win column.
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