Why Huard Should or Shouldn't Start at UW Quarterback
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Sam Huard played in four games as a University of Washington true freshman, starting against Washington State in the Apple Cup.
He completed 22 of 42 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown, and was intercepted four times.
Taking his 5-star recruiting ranking into consideration, impatient Husky fans wanted to know why this young legacy phenom, with all of the build-up around him, didn't do more?
Fair question.
OK, here's a ready explanation: Chris Chandler, Mark Brunell, Billy Joe Hobert, Damon Huard, Brock Huard and Jake Locker.
They're all touted Husky quarterbacks who enjoyed eventual NFL careers — which include Sam's father and his uncle — but each redshirted and never stirred from the sideline on game days during his first season in Montlake.
Only Jake Browning has come in and started or played significantly for the UW as a true freshman, and he didn't have much in the way of veteran competition standing in his way.
This latest Huard has the arm, pedigree and smarts to be the the Huskies' starting quarterback for a long time. He just doesn't need to be rushed into the job if there are other more experienced and polished players on hand such as Michael Penix Jr. and Dylan Morris ready to step up.
With new UW coach Kalen DeBoer revealing his starting quarterback next week, this is the second of three profiles of the candidates involved in the position battle, listing their pros and cons.
3 reasons why Huard should be the starter
1) The left-hander throws the most effective deep ball of this trio, which is a high-arcing spiral that his receivers love to run under, which the stretch-the-field DeBoer/Ryan Grubb offense demands. He easily lets it go 60 yards with great accuracy at times.
2) With the Apple Cup behind him, and no offensive coordinator or quarterback coach available to guide him at the time, Huard got his college initiation out of the way under the most trying of circumstances with a 40-13 loss to WSU. It was a painful, learning experience that will make him wiser. Most of all, his support system now is 10-fold better.
3) He's learning how to bounce back with authority. For example, he followed up a bad interception to Dominique Hampton in the second fall practice with a 57-yard touchdown pass to Jalen McMillan on the dead run on the very next play. Now that turnaround was impressive, if not a little startling in how sudden it came about.
3 reasons why Huard won't get the job now
1) The competition to become the starter is fairly stiff in Penix, a 2020 second-team All-Big Ten selection and in Morris, a 2020 All-Pac-12 honorable-mention choice. They've started 17 and 15 games, respectively. Huard has stuck his toe in the football surf just once.
2) Huard's not far off from running the show if needed, but he's not there yet, still making mistakes that he won't necessarily make after a full season with the new coaching staff.
3) He has four seasons of UW eligibility remaining and probably could be the main guy for up to three of them, so why rush him? Why not get him ready on a learned and disciplined schedule? After all, a reasonable long-range goal for Sam to shoot for is to become a much better college and NFL quarterback than both Damon and Brock Huard.
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