Inside The Huskies

Morris Is The QB Starter, But How Much Should Huard Play?

The Huskies will be tempted to use their new freshman signal-caller a lot.
Dan Raley|
Morris Is The QB Starter, But How Much Should Huard Play?
Morris Is The QB Starter, But How Much Should Huard Play?

Five days from the season opener, the University of Washington football team should have all of its starters in place. 

All of the plays likely are laid out for a four- or five-touchdown beatdown of Montana. All of the installs, as Jimmy Lake and company calls them, are in place, hence why practice is closed.

There's also a team guide prepared on each new Husky freshman player, giving a breakdown of how much each one should play this season, if at all. Whether they redshirt or not. They get four free game appearances before using any eligibility.

For instance, precocious defensive tackle Kuao Peihopa likely will appear as a reserve player in each outing. He's physically and emotionally ready to go from the opening kickoff. Hang his redshirt in the closet or fold it up in a drawer.

Other first-year players, such as newly arrived defensive backs Dyson McCutcheon and Davon Banks, were injured right away in practice, pulling up lame, and they likely won't see any game time in the months ahead as these two acclimate and recover while playing behind several veterans.

Then there's Sam Huard.

While this much-discussed freshman is not the starting quarterback, and has moved aside for veteran returnee Dylan Morris to take the reins again, the new guy appears to be the ready back-up. 

Huard has both played his way into the second-unit role and taken advantage of some sort of untimely health issue sidelining transfer Patrick O'Brien. Actually O'Brien has nothing to do with it.

If you haven't noticed, Huard has been sensational in recent scrimmages and practice sessions. Comfortable. Confident. Pinpoint. 

So the question persists: how much do you play the lefty and when do you send him into games?

Well, Montana, which has beaten the Huskies just once in 100 years, can expect to see Huard inserted fairly quickly next Saturday. 

He likely will get a sneak peak at the end of the first half or midway through the third quarter, whenever a 35-0 UW lead comes first. Not being glib here, but that's a fact of football life. The Grizzlies lost 63-7 in their last visit to Seattle in 2017. There is no reason to think the point spread will be any smaller this time.

Huard will not redshirt. He won't be limited to those four games over the next four months. Five-star quarterbacks simply don't join Power 5 teams to sit and watch, and teams don't sign them to put them in the deep freeze. Unless, of course, they have more than one 5-star QB on the roster. 

The rookie from Kennedy Catholic High probably won't play at Michigan in week two. The game, on national TV at night, should be close, with absolutely no room for error, no time for auditions. 

Expect Huard to get snaps in the following five games against Arkansas State, California, Oregon State, UCLA and Arizona. Maybe a second-quarter series only if a particular game is competitive, a lot more if it's not.

Huard probably sits for games at Stanford and at home against Oregon. Again, these will be intense match-ups played way too close to yank Morris in order to season his understudy.

The youngster most likely returns for guest appearances against Arizona State, Colorado and Washington State, giving him eight appearances and maybe 80 or so passes total. This will effectively wipe out his redshirt year. 

Remember, no one is doing Huard any favors here. The guy has got talent spilling all over the place and he's earned the right to play from the beginning. It will be hard not to use him in bigger chunks.

No, sit back and enjoy a quarterback like you've never seen at Washington before. Yes, Jake Browning was an immediate starter as a freshman and a good game manager before heading to the NFL. Huard's got something Jake didn't have to contend with: Morris. And a better arm. 

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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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