Spur of the Moment, Huskies Take Practice No. 7 to VMAC

RENTON, Wash. -- On an otherwise miserable day in Montlake, the University of Washington football team packed up everything and went to a happy place.

Shortly before noon on Tuesday, coach Jedd Fisch informed his players and assistant coaches they were moving their seventh spring practice to the Seahawks' VMAC facility.

For two and a half hours, the Huskies took their "Be a Pro" approach to another level by running around the home practice field of the reigning Super Bowl champions.

They arrived in five busses. Everyone seemed extra motivated by the change of venue. It was a test of resilience.

"On defense, you talk about sudden change, where you don't have control over it," UW safeties coach Taylor Mays said. "All of a sudden, we're coming here and guys have got to adjust, got to adapt, and go out there and play football. That was a little bit of the mindset that went on today."

Trez Davis (12) had an electric touchdown catch at the VMAC. | Dan Raley

The next thing was to see who in a Husky uniform best resembled an NFL player on this visit. Two who looked the part were Virginia cornerback transfer Manny Karnley and freshman wide receiver Trez Davis.

Karnley, the 6-foot, 188-pound junior from Antioch, California, continues to impress with his coverage skills.

While he played behind Ephesians Prysock and Tacario Davis at Arizona, before everyone hit the transfer portal and the others followed Fisch to the UW, Karnley might turn out to be better than both of them.

Karnley is an extra aggressive player in coverage who plays with a high level of confidence.

In the opening 11-on-11 segments, he broke up three passes in 10 plays. On the final one, Karnley prevented sophomore wide receiver Justice Williams from catching a Demond Williams Jr. delivery and let out a loud scream when the pass fell incomplete.

He went skipping and celebrating up the sideline while sophomore linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale ran parallel to him enjoying the moment if not gloating over the defensive upper hand.

Jedd Fisch addresses his team after a VMAC practice. | Dan Raley

Davis wowed everyone with the ultimate degree of difficulty catch near the end of practice.

Running up the right sideline with sophomore cornerback Elias Johnson blanketing him, the 6-foot, 180-pound Davis from West Monroe, Louisiana, showed tremendous concentration when he leaped high to snag a ball that went right through the defensive back's hands.

Davis then did an acrobatic spin and raced into the end zone with a 50-yard touchdown reception from redshirt freshman quarterback Kini McMillan.

Johnson, who has had a productive spring so far, looked stunned that not only did he not come up with the football but that Davis did.

The Huskies also had some memorable tackling and blocking one-on-one drills.

In the latter, junior defensive tackle Elinneus Davis bent redshirt freshman guard Champ Taulealea over backward in an overly physical battle. Sacramento State transfer DT DeSean Watts ripped the helmet off redshirt freshman Jake Flores in another.

Ansu Sanoe, a 6-foot-2, 241-pound freshman, looked like an NFL running back on one play, blasting up the middle for 8 yards and slamming into sophomore safety Paul Mencke Jr. in a punishing manner.

On the very next play, Sanoe looked like a rookie in trouble when he dropped a handoff and was directed to run around the exterior of the VMAC indoor field tightly clutching a football the entire way.

There was one VMAC casualty, however. Safety CJ Christian, who missed all but a handful of plays in the opener last season with a turf toe injury after transferring in from Florida International, left the Seahawks' practice facility on crutches. It didn't look good.

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