{"id":86926,"date":"2026-04-19T13:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=86926"},"modified":"2026-04-19T13:00:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:00:35","slug":"mencke-running-backs-and-observations-at-uw-scrimmage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/04\/19\/mencke-running-backs-and-observations-at-uw-scrimmage\/","title":{"rendered":"Mencke, Running Backs, and Observations at UW Scrimmage"},"content":{"rendered":"
Week three of the Spring practice season came to an end on Saturday with Washington\u2019s first scrimmage of the month. The Huskies ran 120 plays inside Husky Stadium and stayed healthy all afternoon. The extended live reps of practice afforded several players increased opportunities on the field, and one player stood out among the defense. <\/span><\/div>\n

UW Scrimmage No. 1<\/span><\/h2>\n

SAF Paul Mencke Jr.<\/span><\/h3>\n
One of the biggest winners of the day was safety <\/span>Paul Mencke Jr<\/a><\/span>. The third-year safety was consistently on the field among the second team defense and rotated in with the starting group. Unofficially, he recorded a pass breakup, an interception, 1.5 tackles for loss, and a half-stop. A stop is defined as a tackle resulting in a win for the defense, at or just beyond the line of scrimmage. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Mencke\u2019s pass breakup was his most impressive play of the afternoon. He lined up in the deep safety position, operating somewhat like a centerfielder on defense. The quarterback delivered a deep sideline pass down the near side into single coverage. Mencke ranged across the field, got in front of the pass, and broke it up.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cPaul’s done a great job of competing and being physical and playing fast,\u201d head coach Jedd Fisch said after practice. \u201cAnd you could see he’s, over these three years, has really grown into understanding now the system and what’s asked of him as a safety.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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The redshirt sophomore made a similar play one week earlier during an 11-on-11 period of practice. He ranged across the back-half of the defense in front of a pass to intercept the football. Mencke is developing a consistency in his game, playing faster, and trusting his reactionary instincts at the position.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cHe wants to be like Coach Mays,\u201d Fisch said after practice, describing Mencke\u2019s playing style. \u201cHe sees himself as a tall, linear, big hitter. So when you have your coach that is known for that type of play, I think Paul has done a great job.\u201d Mencke is listed at 6\u2019-3\u201d and 201 pounds on the Spring roster. Washington safety coach Taylor Mays played his professional football at 6\u2019-3\u201d and around 230 pounds and was known for his hard-hitting.<\/span><\/div>\n

Missed Tackles Forced<\/span><\/h3>\n
The running backs scored four total touchdowns on Saturday during the scrimmage. <\/span>Quaid Carr<\/a><\/span>, Ansu Sanoe, and Brian Bonner Jr. have been earning increased reps during practice with <\/span>some injuries throughout the room<\/a><\/span>. Bonner, a former four-star recruit in the class of 2026 and top 10 running back nationally, took the field first with the starting offense. He had a short-yardage rushing touchdown as well. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But it was Carr and Sanoe who generated the biggest reactions from the bench with their physical running. On the third drive of the day, Carr took a handoff and ran through cornerback Manny Karnley, continuing on for a gain of nine yards. The offensive line swarmed around him in celebration after the physical missed tackle forced. A couple plays later, the 5\u2019-11\u201d and 189-pound speedster running back took a handoff 13 yards into the end zone for a touchdown. Said Fisch, \u201cI think it was great to see Quaid. We have a lot of confidence in Quaid.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Later on in the scrimmage, it was Sanoe who turned heads. After taking a handoff, he was met immediately in the backfield by linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale. But Sanoe, at 6\u2019-2\u201d and 241 pounds, ran right over him. He continued on for a gain of four yards. And once again, the entire offensive sideline erupted in celebration.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cQuaid, Bryan, and Ansu are getting a ton of opportunities,\u201d Fisch noted after practice. \u201cAnd how can you not get better when you just are running the ball constantly?\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

Other Standouts and Notes<\/span><\/h2>\n
Among the top performers on Saturday, <\/span>Elias Johnson<\/a><\/span> continues to put together an impressive Spring season. He broke up two passes, pulled down an interception, and also had 1.5 stops on defense. The pick and the two pass breakups both came during a seven-on-seven portion of the scrimmage. <\/span>Johnson broke up five passes during the second week<\/a><\/span> of practice and followed that up with another solid day to cap off week three.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Cornerback <\/span>Dylan Robinson<\/a><\/span> broke up a pass and grabbed a tip-drill interception. On a shovel pass from <\/span>Demond Williams<\/a><\/span>, the intended receiver tipped the football, it bounced around the hands of a few other defenders, and Robinson extended and secured it as he fell to the turf for a touchback. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Ohio State transfer Logan George was impressive coming off the edge during Saturday\u2019s scrimmage as well. He had 1.5 sacks and a quarterback hurry on the day. True freshman Ramzak Fruean also found the stats column a few different times with a tackle for loss and two quarterback hurries unofficially.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Injury Update<\/span><\/h3>\n
Fisch also provided an update on safety CJ Christian. During Tuesday\u2019s practice at the VMAC, Christian tore his Achilles tendon and will be out for the season. The unfortunate injury occurred as he was rehabbing his turf toe, which kept him sidelined for the entire 2025 season.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
For <\/span>Jordan Washington<\/a><\/span> at running back, Fisch confirmed that he’ll be out for the remainder of Spring. “We’re going to reevaluate everything as the summer progresses,” the head coach said. Washington is currently in a neck brace after his injury during the third practice of the Spring. “The first thing we have to do is get him out of his neck brace. Once we get that phase, then we’ll go on from there and evaluate it. But the doctors will lead us through that,” Fisch continued. “We’re currently just in a wait-and-see. And once we see how he does once the braces off, then we’ll have a much better way to update you guys on what it looks like for training camp.”<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week three of the Spring practice season came to an end on Saturday with Washington\u2019s first scrimmage of the month. The Huskies ran 120 plays inside Husky Stadium and stayed healthy all afternoon. The extended live reps of practice afforded several players increased opportunities on the field, and one player stood out among the defense. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":86931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,17,35612],"tags":[33426,36053,34798,1666,34652,36056,34776,33675],"class_list":["post-86926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-news","category-washington-huskies","tag-ansu-sanoe","tag-brian-bonner-jr","tag-cj-christian","tag-jedd-fisch","tag-logan-george","tag-ramzak-fruean","tag-taylor-mays","tag-zaydrius-rainey-sale"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86926"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86933,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86926\/revisions\/86933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}