Marks Knows the UW Running-Back Talent Better Than One Might Think
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Lee Marks is used to tough assignments. Once Kalen DeBoer departed Fresno State to become the new University of Washington football coach, Marks took over as the interim leader and was entrusted with getting the Mountain West team ready to play its bowl game.
Marks since has joined DeBoer's coaching staff in Seattle. However, his task with the Huskies is no less complicated than taking over a Fresno State team on the fly in the postseason.
He is a running-backs coach with almost no running backs.
While DeBoer's other assistant coaches have eight to 12 players in their position groups running through various spring drills, Marks currently has just three runners who can take on any April assignment — New Mexico transfer Aaron Dumas from El Paso, Texas; redshirt freshman Jay'Veon Sunday from Waco, Texas; and redshirt freshman walk-on Gabe Nelson from Shoreline, Washington.
Add to that redshirt freshman Sam Adams, a Kirkland, Washington, product who wears a yellow jersey vest at all times signifying he can practice but he's off limits to contact.
Others are unavailable. He's worked with less than half of the seven scholarship players who are supposed to answer to him.
A fair question to ask Marks is this: Nine practices into the spring, does he really know what kind of talent he has stockpiled at running back?
"Absolutely, I definitely have a very good idea of what we have in the room," said Marks, a 16-year coach who counts previous stops at Colorado, Sioux Falls, South Dakota State, Arkansas State, Boise State and Fresno State.
When he was at Boise State, Marks actually recruited junior Richard Newton, a three-game UW starter in 2021 who's from Lancaster, California, but is now rehabbing a knee injury until next fall.
Marks previously watched sophomore Cam Davis, who's out with an undisclosed injury until the fall, so he's familiar with the back from Rancho Cucamonga, California, too.
"I know who he is and the style of player he is," he said of Davis.
Marks even recruited Adams for Fresno State and worked with him at a couple of football camps.
"Sam is an extremely talented player," he said of the redshirt freshman still nursing a shoulder injury. "One of the things with him is we hope to see him healthy and out there on the football field."
Marks also was in on the Fresno State recruitment of Dumas. The coach watched a lot of film on the compact running back and got to know the guy's family.
Dumas recently explained how the COVID pandemic made everything confusing for him as he tried to pick a school. Arizona State was recruiting him late and then it wasn't. Fresno State didn't wait for him. He ended up at New Mexico for a season.
"The only reason why he didn't have an opportunity to play for us is because guys committed before he did," Marks said.
That leaves scholarship running backs Caleb Berry of Lufkin, Texas, and Emeka Megwa from Fort Worth, Texas, plus walk-on Cam Sirmon from Missoula, Montana, as redshirt freshmen who need to get healthy and audition for the new staff.
Berry is coming off a bout with COVID. Megwa has been pushed back to the fall in his recovery presumably from a high school knee injury. Sirmon has some sort of leg or knee issue suffered early in spring practice.
Meantime, the Huskies really can't afford to wait for everyone to get well and have the ranks so thin beyond spring practice. DeBoer's staff recently announced the running-back signings of Virginia transfer Wayne Taulapapa and Nebraska transfer Will Nixon, and prior to that a high-school commitment received from Tybo Tylin Roger in Bakersfield, California.
Meantime, Marks runs his sparsely attended spring practice drills, barely taking up much space at all.
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