Washington 2014 Spring Football Wrap Up.

Strengths & question marks coming out of spring

With new head man Chris Petersen, an entirely new coaching staff and new schemes on both sides of the ball, I’d say spring football was an almost entirely basic affair. A tremendous focus on fundamentals, down to things as small as the proper way for the QB’s to fall on the ball after a fumble or bobbled snap.

So by and large, the strengths (and question marks) are mostly based on who’s coming back than actual gains the team made this spring.

Defensively, the strength is in the front seven. All but one starter is back in 2014, but the one lost was leading tackler Princeton Fuimaono. His likely replacement is Travis Feeney, who actually started ahead of Fuimaono in 2012 (and was an honorable mention All Pac 12 selection).

John Timu is back for his fourth season starting at middle linebacker, and has progressed steadily each year. Shaq Thompson enters his third season starting at outside linebacker, and looks to be even more comfortable as a junior this season.

The line is very solid up the middle with nose guard Danny Shelton, and end Hau’oli Kikaha looks to be moving around even better than he was in 2013, when generated 13 sacks coming back from two straight ACL injuries.

The biggest question on defense is in the secondary, where only one player returns. Fortunately, he’s one of the best cornerbacks that nobody has really heard about in Marcus Peters. The most likely replacements at safety spent much of the spring banged up or out entirely, so the competition for those spots will be wide open into the fall.

Offense seems to have more questions than answers. Besides the new scheme, the Huskies are replacing an All-American running back, the Mackey winner at tight end, and the school’s career record holder in most categories at QB.

The presumptive favorite to take over at QB (Cyler Miles) was suspended all spring, two of the leading candidates to take over at running back (Jesse Callier and Dwayne Washington) nursed injuries the last half of spring, and the only two receivers with any real size on the roster also missed spring (one, Kasen Williams, due to ongoing rehab from a Lisfranc injury, and the other, Demore’ea Stringfellow, suspended).

While all five starting offensive linemen from 2013 were returning, two missed the entire spring recovering from offseason surgeries. None of the injuries from the spring should cost guys time in the fall, so the running game as a whole is probably the biggest strength of the offense right now.

Name a few breakout players to keep an eye on in 2014

Whomever wins the starting QB job should be a name to know. Whether it’s Jeff Lindquist, Troy Williams, or Cyler Miles, all have great talent. Each was a top 12 recruit at QB, and an Elite Eleven contestant. Experience is the issue here, but any of the three could and should be very good.

Running back Deontae Cooper is a great story, simply because he’s a guy that tore his ACLs his first three seasons at Washington, and finally made it back onto the field in 2013. By the end of the season, he was a legitimate running back again. This spring, he’s shed the knee braces, and looks bigger, faster, and more confident than he did last season. He was a very good back his true freshman season prior to the first injury, and looks very close to that form again.

Cornerback Jermaine Kelly redshirted in 2013, but the coaching staff apparently wrestled with that decision on a weekly basis, and he nearly ended up playing. The new coaches didn’t give him the job by default, but by the end of spring, it was clearly his. Very good size and speed.

Grade each position group

QB – B-  It’s tempting to call this an incomplete. Without Cyler Miles in the mix, it’s tough to say that we’ve actually seen the QB competition yet, so. It’s also hard to know if and when he’ll be back on the team, and how much missing spring will hurt him. That the team only installed approximately 50% of the offense will benefit him in that regard. Even with tons of reps for each, neither Williams or Lindquist separated himself from the other.

RB – B+  Big shoes to fill with the loss of Bishop Sankey, but there’s a lot of experience returning. Any one of Washington, Cooper, or Callier could end being the feature back, if they aren’t beat out by redshirt freshman Lavon Coleman, who had a great spring by all accounts. And if for some strange reason none of those four work out, Coach Petersen has experimented with using linebacker Shaq Thompson at running back this spring, with pretty amazing results.

WR/TE – C+  The lack of bodies, especially bodies with any size, meant that experienced speedsters like Jaydon Mickens and John Ross had to move from their natural positions on the inside and go become blockers on the outside. If Kasen Williams can return to his pre-injury form, this unit should be pretty good. There are several reasonably capable options at tight end, but none is close to a one-to-one replacement for Austin Sefarian-Jenkins.

OL – C  Again, there was enough missing in the form of injured players that it’s tough to get a good read on this group. Once everyone is healthy, it’ll be better than this. But as of today, it’s a very average group. During the Steve Sarkisian era, the line was typically significantly better as run blockers than pass blockers. That discrepancy doesn’t appear to yet be solved.

DL – B+  There’s depth, talent, and experience at both end positions. There’s talent and a bit of depth at the nose. The other tackle spot (and I’m working as if the Huskies are running a 4-3, but it’s really more of a hybrid) is a bit shaky.

LB – A-  The strongest unit on the team¬. This isn’t the biggest group you’ll see, but they can all run, and all are exceptional in pass coverage. The proverbial “next step” for these guys is to become bigger play makers on the field. There’s decent depth behind the three starters, but not very much experience.

Secondary – B-  Marcus Peters is fantastic, and Jermaine Kelly seems to have the lead on the other corner job. Safety is a bit shaky, due to the guys that didn’t play (much) during the spring. Youth will be served in the secondary; other than Old Man Peters, who’s a junior, everyone else will be a sophomore or freshman in 2014. Coach Petersen hit this group hard in recruiting in the 2014 class, signing 7 guys in the secondary. It’s likely a couple will play.

What can we expect from Washington in 2014?

I think most every Husky fan feels the team upgraded the coaching position when USC took Sarkisian, and Washington was able to steal Petersen away from Boise State.

But you can’t really minimize the losses on offense due to graduation/early NFL entries, and we don’t really know for sure how the injury or suspension issues will affect the offense this fall. Or really, what the offense will even look like with a new coach who’s hired a brand new (to him) offensive coordinator.

There’s enough coming back on defense that I expect a unit that was pretty good in 2013 to be a little bit better in 2014, even with the rebuilt secondary and new coaching staff. Of course, I’ve just guaranteed the offense is a juggernaut and the defense will forget how to tie their own shoes…

With an extra game in 2014 due to playing at Hawaii and a very favorable schedule, this is a team that should win 10 games.

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Brad Johnson of UW Dawg Pound provided the information for our Washington Football 2014 Spring Wrap Up. For more UW  football information, commentary and analysis, you can follow UW Dawg Pound on Twitter @UWSBN.

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