Spring Practice is officially underway at Washington. It kicked off on Wednesday evening, April 3rd at around 5 pm. Players trickled out onto the field, warming up at their positions until the 5 o’clock horn sounded. The team met at midfield before breaking out into warm-up lines, and college football was back on Montlake. The players were in helmets only, wearing gray football pants and white or purple jerseys with no pads. The offense wore white and the defense wore purple.
Spring Practice #1 Takeaways at Washington
Music began playing as the Washington Huskies ran warm-up lines, went through stretching progressions, and chanted team jumping jacks. The quarterbacks were wearing gold no-contact jerseys and were going through a slightly modified series of warm-ups than the rest of the team. Will Rogers III led the quarterback room through towel-throwing drills, lacrosse ball throws, and various warmups as the rest of the team wrapped up team stretching.
Shortly after, position groups broke out, and the quarterbacks and most of the offense headed inside Dempsey Indoor. We did not get to see their position group drills. But Steve Belichick’s defense remained inside Husky Stadium for drills. The media had a good look at the cornerbacks that included a couple of transfers, Ephesians Prysock and Jordan Shaw. The immediate takeaway was that Prysock is very tall and he moves really well for his size. Listed at 6’-4”, the cornerback started all 13 of Arizona’s games last season as a true sophomore, making 64 tackles and seven pass breakups.
We also got a good look at the San Jose State transfer linebacker Bryun Parham at Washington’s first Spring practice. He led the Spartans last season in tackling, but he was not as big as expected. Parham is listed at 5’-11” and 212 pounds. He’s a playmaker in the middle of the defense despite his smaller frame.
What We Saw at Offensive Line
The offense cycled in and out of the indoor facility, and we did get a look at the offensive line that first lined up with Rogers. It’s important to note that we did see a good amount of rotation throughout the day, and there is no true depth chart to the position group. At center, it was Zachary Henning, with Paki Finau and Kahlee Tafai to his left and right, respectively. At left tackle, it was the San Diego State transfer Drew Azzopardi who stood out at 6’-7” and 315 pounds. The right tackle was Elishah Jackett.
Quarterback Demond Williams Jr. trotted out second with another group of skill players and a shuffled offensive line, going through more offensive plays against the defense. Dermaricus Davis was then put on the field with the third rotation of players.
Indoor with the Offense
As practice continued, we made our way inside Dempsey Indoor to get a look at the offense. They were working through quarterback passing progressions and loose seven-on-seven drills. During the throwing progression portion, Williams Jr. floated a couple of very impressive deep balls on target and on time. You could see why he was such a highly-rated recruit and an Elite 11 quarterback out of high school. The arm talent was impressive in the small sample size we got on Wednesday. Jedd Fisch commented after practice that he thought Williams Jr. had a great first Spring practice for Washington.
The other immediate takeaway from the offense was the size of running back Jonah Coleman. He caught a pass from Rogers and ran down the sideline in front of us, and he is very big. The running back wears number one and is built like a fullback. He’s listed at 5’-9” and 225 pounds. Fisch also commented on Coleman after practice saying, “He’s hard to tackle.” That got a chuckle.
Jedd Fisch After Practice
By the end of the Spring, Fisch wants to have 85% of both the offense and defense installed. He also said that his staff is not worried about a depth chart at this point. Their goal is just to get as many guys as many reps as they can throughout Washington’s Spring practice.
Fisch spoke to Rogers leadership and work ethic at quarterback. He said he has outstanding command of the offense and is a great fan of his teammates. After Williams Jr. completed a pass to the sideline at the end of practice, and Rogers was the first one there to congratulate him on the impressive throw.
Regarding the offensive line, Fisch said he would be more concerned if there wasn’t an opportunity to bring in more players. “We’re going to have guys coming in here through the transfer portal… We’re going to bring in some big guys on both sides of the ball.” He also noted the freshmen who enroll this summer. His comments made it very clear that his staff will not just be is looking at linemen in the portal, they intend to bring in several linemen from the portal.
