UW Fresh Start (No. 14): Spears Ready to Audition Again at Cornerback
Zakhari Spears has a suggestive last name for a hard-hitting University of Washington defensive back, but it works providing he maintains an approved approach to tackling and doesn't get tagged for a bunch of 15-yard penalties.
Tears for Spears.
He's one of four freshmen who arrived last season bent on learning the intricacies of secondary play from Jimmy Lake and Will Harris.
That well-crafted football connection lasted all of five months once Lake was dismissed as head coach while the Husky football season went in the tank.
Kalen DeBoer is the new UW leader, introducing his hand-picked defensive-backs coaches to the inherited talent. The well-liked Harris re-emerged on the other side of the country as the defensive coordinator for Georgia Southern. Lake remains unemployed.
It wasn't exactly what the 6-foot-1, 195-pound cornerback from Los Angeles and his family envisioned for him more than a year ago.
In fact, his father, B Spears Jr, felt prompted to tweet out the following message during his son's recruitment, "In times like these it reminds me just how important it is to consider the people who will be mentoring your son at the next level. It is a critical decision."
All of which leaves Spears still in Seattle, looking to launch his college football career for someone else, play in his first Husky game and contend for a significant minutes.
A month and a half until spring practice, we're offering intel and observations on the UW football personnel inherited by DeBoer in a series of stories on every scholarship player from No. 0 to 99. We'll review each Husky's previous starting experience, if applicable, and determine what comes next under the new coach.
As is the case with any coaching change, it's a new football beginning for everyone, including the Huskies' No. 14 on defense.
Spears comes to the Huskies from Loyola High School in L.A., a program that previously supplied the UW with some highly skilled players in center Coleman Shelton and defensive back Myles Bryant, eventually first- and second-team All-Pac-12 selections, respectively.
He played in a competitive schoolboy setting for a team known as the Cubs, teaming at cornerback with Ceyair Wright, who now plays for USC.
After redshirting last season for the Huskies, Spears could be leery about having to impress these new coaches yet enthused about the cornerback opportunities presented in spring practice.
Starters Trent McDuffie and Kyler Gordon have made themselves available to the NFL draft. No one among the holdovers or newcomers has a solid lock on either job going into April.
Spears will line up alongside a host of candidates who will consist of returning sophomores Jacobe Covington, Mishael Powell and Elijah Jackson; UC Davis transfer Jordan Perryman, a first-team All-Big Sky selection; and some or all of fellow recruits Davon Banks, Vince Nunley and Dyson McCutcheon. Only Powell has started for the Huskies at corner, with the former walk-on drawing three turns last fall.
Spears brings welcome size and athleticism to the competition, the latter noted in some sort of unexplained national measurement supplied by an outfit called Recruiting Analytics.
He'll have a month of practices to try and make a move up the depth chart.
UW Starter or Not: Covington, Powell and Perryman initially will draw much of the attention in the quest to be starting cornerbacks. Yet somebody young and untested such as Spears will have every opportunity to make inroads, too. Look for Spears to draw his first playing time in the coming Husky season, but initially back up any combination of the aforementioned vets.
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