Three burning questions for Washington’s Offense vs. Hawaii
Nov 23, 2013; Corvallis, OR, USA; Washington Huskies running back Jesse Callier (24) takes a handoff from quarterback Cyler Miles (10) against Oregon State Beavers in the first half at Reser Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Huskies have a nice mix of talent returning on offense in 2014. But, there are three burning questions that need to be addressed in time for the Hawaii game on offense for the Huskies if they are to win.
The first burning question is Will Chris Petersen suspend Cyler Miles for the Hawaii game for his role in that Super Bowl Sunday incident with Damore’ea Stringfellow? If so, then who will step up to take the place of Miles in this opening game.
The top two candidates would be redshirt sophomore Jeff Lindquist and redshirt freshman Troy Williams. Lindquist, had the better Spring game with four touchdown passes. However, neither him nor Williams did enough to end the quarterback competition. Thus, it should be a great battle in fall camp to see who separates themselves from the rest of the group.
The second burning question is finding a replacement for Bishop Sankey. Senior Jesse Callier brings back the most experience to the position. But, Callier has plenty of challengers for playing time. One player to watch that could rise up and challenge within the running back group is redshirt freshman Lavon Coleman.
Coleman, showed some explosiveness in the spring game breaking off a 47 yard touchdown run so there is some interesting potential with him. The other wild card is Shaq Thompson. Thompson, has the best overall athletic skill set on the team and is going to impact the offense when he carries the ball against Hawaii and all season long.
The final burning question is who is the depth at the wide receiver position for the Washington offense. There are talented guys returning in Jaydon Mickens, John Ross, and Kasen Williams. The thing is you don’t know how Kasen Williams is going to respond from his season ending lower leg/foot injury he suffered against Cal last November.
Williams, as a senior I would suspect will be ready to go mentally in 2014. The key will be where Williams is at physically as the Huskies need his big physical presence on the field. In regard to Mickens, and Ross they have all the explosive ability in the world and question is will Mickens continue to elevate his play and can Ross get more touches.
If Ross can more touches offensively that will be an added bonus for the Washington offense. It would also buy Williams more time to get his confidence to where it needs to be for conference play.
The ability to answer these questions will dictate not only how bad the Huskies will beat Hawaii but whether or not they win 10 or more games this season.