Washington Football In The Spring

The Huskies are allowing fans to come out and watch a practice today at 11am (Memorial Stadium). The fans that are fortunate enough to go out and see, will get to watch various drills and most likely a scrimmage. This could turn into quite the treat and will give supportive fans their first chance to check out next year’s team.

There are a few things that will remain the same next year:

• Keith Price- He is already being billed as a potential Heisman candidate and is the integral piece to the success of the Husky offense. It will be interesting to see if he looks 100% and/or if he has progressed since last season.
• The play calls- Steve Sarkisian is still the mastermind behind the offense. The scrimmage will show off some of his weapons to a certain extinct. This could be fun to see who catches the fan’s eyes out of the gate.
• The defensive backs- This was identified as an area of weakness for the Huskies last year but a good majority of those players will be returning; Gregory Ducre, Desmond Trufant, Nate Fellner, Justin Glenn, Sean Parker, Will Shamburger, etc. Have they progressed? Is there a new guy that will take a starting spot?

However, there will be even more new things to keep an eye out for:

• The coaching staff- There was a huge turnover in coaching staff. How do they interact with the players? Do the players seem to be playing different under them?
• The defense as a unit- This may be covered above, but there will most likely be some huge changes not only in game-plan but in who plays. What does this look like early in spring?
• Running backs– Who steps up and takes the majority of minutes now that Chris Polk has left. Many think it will be Bishop Sankey but Jesse Callier is no slob. Who looks better early on?
• The pass rush- There will be a new set of starting pass rushers. Is there anyone that looks dominate early on?

These are just a few areas of similarities and differences from last season. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered and most won’t be answered in spring but there will be some indications of certain answers. Last year, many started to notice that Price was out performing Nick Montana and later in training camp he continued on that performance. He won the job and eventually became one of the best quarterbacks in the nation.

Those are the type of indications that fans can pick up in the spring. But the big question on Husky fan’s minds: ‘Is the overall team better?’