On Manic Monday, Huskies Open It Up a Little More Offensively
At spring football practice, the University of Washington offensive units repeatedly shuffle in and out. They play in situations covering short distances and stop on quick whistles to prevent players from teeing off on each other. Hence these guys typically don't break off the huge scoring play.
On Monday, however, redshirt freshman wide receiver Jalen McMillan caught a pass in full stride from transfer quarterback Patrick O'Brien and chose to run all the way to the end zone. He had one purpose in mind.
Sixty yards later, McMillan strode across the goal line and leaped on top of three large foam cushions. He posed frozen in a prone position, basically enjoying an NFL touchdown moment.
Quarterback Dylan Morris, the UW's returning starter, later connected with McMillan on a 42-yard gainer, beating Makell Esteen and Elijah Jackson, as the Huskies looked down field more.
Afterward, offensive coordinator John Donovan spoke about the pro-style offense, its architects and how everything is being put together systematically, piece by piece. It's a lot of stuff.
Asked specifically about O'Brien, Donovan said the Colorado State transfer has shown he can take the heat at quarterback so far, similar to what Morris does.
"He's done a great job and he's obviously got a lot of experience," the coordinator said of O'Brien. "He's sneaky athletic, smart, good arm. I'm really happy to have him and I'm impressed with him. He makes us better. He's pushing everybody to be better, too."
In practice No. 12, the offense seemed to flex its play-making muscles a bit more after having the defense enjoy the upper hand over the past week.
Donovan said that sophomore running back Cam Davis has taken his game to the next level with his rushing ability, which explains why he's been running with the first unit more often than anyone else. Junior Richard Newton, however, isn't far behind.
"He ran hard the other day," Donovan said of Davis. "He's earned the right to play."
The offensive coordinator said the idea is to let a lot of people run the football right now and then pare it down considerably once the first game approaches. He mentioned that redshirt freshman Jay'Veon Sunday has a lot of ability as a ball carrier.
As far as other players proving themselves, Donovan picked out Texas Tech transfer wide receiver Ja'Lynn Polk, junior tight end Devin Culp, junior-college transfer tight end Quentin Moore and true freshman quarterback Sam Huard as others.
As for Huard, the coach said the 5-star recruit has handled the speed of the game fine and knows the playbook, but all the other nuances have sort of ganged up on him. Yet while he's tossed his fair share of interceptions, no one has been disappointed in the new quarterback.
"It's more about it all coming together," Donovan said. "It's on top of him right now. It's being able to sort out each one on each particular play. We've got a ton of plays in, a lot of formations, a lot of cadences, situational type stuff. It's more that than anything else. ... He's done a pretty darn good job, I'll be honest."
As Monday's workout progressed through the morning, with brilliant sunshine appearing and disappearing because of the moving cloud cover, play was a little spotty at times and tempers flared noticeably.
Coach Jimmy Lake became impatient and had to get after his guys for ball-possession breakdowns, and the coach's displeasure could be heard echoing all the way to upper campus.
Edefuan Ulofoshio, one of the Huskies' defensive leaders at inside linebacker, spent the entire practice at outside linebacker, rotating in to learn the position and help improve the participation numbers with junior Zion Tupuola-Fetui lost to a ruptured Achilles. Defensive coordinator Bob Gregory said all of the inside linebackers are taking turns at this, thought it hasn't been that obvious.
In a one-on-one drill, sophomore offensive tackle Troy Fautanu threw down Ulofoshio, a junior and a second-team All-Pac-12 selection, jumped on him and held him on the ground as other linemen sent a bunch of catcalls the defender's way, calling him "Action Eddie" and "IR Eddie."
Shortly after that, sophomore offensive guard Nate Kalepo and true freshman defensive lineman Kuao Peihopa squared off and threw some violent shots at each other, to the point Husky teammates had to jump in and get them apart or it would have continued.
The 6-foot-3, 320-pound Peihopa from Makakilo, Hawaii, along with fellow freshman defensive tackle Voi Tunuufi, a 6-foot-2, 270-pounder from South Jordan, Utah, arrived physically ready to mix it up and lately have been pulling a lot of reps.
"We're really happy with those two guys," Gregory said. "They're certainly going to be good football players here."
The Huskies have two more regular workouts left before closing with the spring football game on Saturday.
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