Lawson-Moss Receiver Competition Remains In High Gear

Both pass-catchers hauled in long ones during Tuesday's practice.

Chris Lawson continues to push hard for a starting receiver role. | Dave Sizer photo

Emerging from a busy weekend, centered around a full-fledged scrimmage, the University of Washington football team went back to basics on Tuesday, putting in plenty of work on fundamentals and special teams.

Tedious stuff that makes it hard for spectators to get overly excited about practice.

Leave it to Chris Lawson and Christian Moss to change things up a bit on the East field.

Locked in to what is now the best position battle on the team -- for the third starting receiver slot vacated by the NFL-employed Denzel Boston -- the two Husky pass-catchers continued their efforts from last week to try and one-up each other.

In this case, with Tuesday's practice in its final 11-on-11 segment, the 6-foot, 180-pound Lawson ran past the secondary, specifically safety Rahim Wright and nickelback Ramonz Adams Jr., to haul in a 70-yard touchdown pass from Stanford transfer Elijah Brown.

Lawson caught it on the dead run at the 30-yard-line and strode into the end zone.

"I love the way Lawson is playing," UW coach Jedd Fisch said following Saturday night's scrimmage.

Compared to everything else happening in such a regimented manner, this play proved to be most instantaneous and electric to being the week.

More was coming with barely anyone able to catch his breath.

Christian Moss cradles the football during practice. | Dave Sizer photo

After Demond Williams Jr. took over at quarterback and threw a pass that was dropped, the first-team quarterback called the same post pattern that Lawson had scored on, only for Moss.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Kennesaw State transfer likewise got behind the secondary, with nickelback Rahshawn Clark giving chase, and ran under a perfectly thrown Williams ball that was in the air for 45 yards.

Moss got touched down short of the goal line, leaving him with about a 65-yard reception.

IN three plays, the Huskies had just livened up practice with a pair of deep throws that covered a lot of ground and threw the third receiver competition into even more of neck-and-neck race coming down the stretch.

Otherwise 11-on-11 team play began on Tuesday with a Williams-to-Moss completion of about 5 yards, and Lawson had roughly 17- and 20-yard catches before and after his scoring play.

Their competition for the starting job is bound to go all the way down to the final day of fall camp auditioning and they're likely to hand the job back and forth once the season begins.

Lawson also figured in another inspirational play for the Huskies. He was the targeted receiver on a Williams throw that was tipped into the air and landed in the hands of linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah, who caught the ball while lying on his back.

Chris Lawson catches one during a Husky Stadium drill. | Dave Sizer photo

This was the first big fall moment for the 5-foot-10, 230-pound Al-Uqdah, who is coming back from a season-ending knee injury in last year's Apple Cup against his former Washington State team.

The steadily developing Baron Naone, a second-year tight end from West Linn, Oregon, also made a difficult 15-yard touchdown catch from Williams in the back of the end zone with safety Alex McLaughlin all over him.

The only other eye-catching detail was Mississippi State transfer Kai McClendon coming out to practice with both ankles heavily taped, suggesting the mammoth well-advertised 6-foot-2, 340-pound defensive tackle is close to getting medically cleared and mixing it up in practice.

He's not quite there yet.