Saturday’s scrimmage: A wakeup call
By: Malamute, Posted 14 April 2003

Hope springs eternal for Washington’s moribund rushing attack. During Saturday’s scrimmage, what appeared to be false hope sprung the same leak that mired the Dawgs' ground express in the Holiday Bowl. Offensive line coach Dan Cozzetto and offensive coordinator Keith "Gilby" Gilbertson have more patching to do.

Washington ran the ball 41 times during Saturday’s scrimmage, against a rushing defense that ranked fourth in the Pac-10 last season. Statistically speaking, the running game for next season appears woefully inept.

Last Saturday's stat for average-yards-per-carry (2.829) is as rancid smelling as the one left over from the Holiday Bowl when the Dawgs averaged 2.875 yards on the ground against Purdue. *

Who likes leftovers?

Throw out Shelton Sampson’s 35-yard scamper and the Dawgs’ rushing attack averaged 2.025 yards on the ground last Saturday. Okay, so starting tailback Rich Alexis was missing. That’s part of the story. And highly touted Kenny James was injured during the scrimmage, making him doubtful for the rest of the spring.

It's all about deja vous too. When he commented on last season's spring game a year ago, Rick Neuheisel said, "Our running game has got to come around. We need a running back to take over, to be a dominant player." Adding his two cents, Gilby grumbled about the blocking of the offensive line last April.

Saturday's scrimmage produced no dominate players as far as running backs go. However, Gilby says he's encouraged about the running game now. About what facet, I wonder?

Neuheisel seems encouraged too. "That's not to say we are satisfied or anywhere close to where we want to be," Neuheisel is quoted as saying. "But I do think we are playing with better pad level and we are more physical."

It's hard to believe the offensive line was not getting low enough to block for the run last season. Getting the proper leverage when blocking for the run seems so fundamental, if not almost instinctive for a lineman.

But, really, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Washington ran the ball ineffectively in its first scrimmage of 2003. Rome wasn’t built in one day.

Yet considering Washington’s bulldog road runners from the past, the current model may take years to refine, based on the progress it is showing.

To counter a rushing shortfall last season, the Huskies passed the ball…and passed the ball. The Dawgs passed the ball so much and completed so many passes, that its passing attack ranked fourth in the nation going into the Purdue game.

In 2002, the Dawgs flooded the field with a plethora of wide receivers, enough of them to make Don Coryell and Bill Walsh blush. Coryell and Walsh, along with Sid Gillman, helped create that yards-guzzling-passing monster called the West Coast Offense.

But Pat Reddick, Paul Arnold, Eddie Jackson, Justin Robbins (hopefully, just  temporarily), and Wilbur Hooks have left the receiving corps, leaving the Dawgs with just two wide receivers from last season: Charles "ET" Frederick and Reggie Williams. An injury to one or both of them would be devastating to the UW fortune cookie in 2K3.

That fortune cookie showed some cracks on Saturday--already.

Backup quarterbacks Isaiah Stanback and Casey Paus collectively threw 16 passes, with six completions, three of them going to the wrong guys (the picks courtesy of Stanback). The 2K3 fortune cookie says, "QB Cody Pickett must stay healthy."

On Saturday, Pickett completed 12 out of 19 passes, for 210 yards and 3 touchdowns (1 interception). Many of his passes were thrown with GPS-like precision, according to all accounts. Same old reliable Cody, same old reliable Reggie (4 catches, 144 yards), same old reliable ET (3 catches, 37 yards).

In the fall, Rick Neuheisel will be eyeballing his incoming freshman class, looking for some wide receivers and running backs that can give his team some immediate help. He may give incoming freshman QB Carl Bonnell much more than a cursory glance if Stanback should move to wide receiver. (I still say it would be a mistake not to give true freshman C. J. Wallace a shot at running back, which is beginning to sound like a cliché with me.)

Okay, so it’s too early in the year to sound so dour. Let’s just say that Saturday’s scrimmage should be a wakeup call to Rick Neuheisel and his assistant coaches, at least as far as the offense goes. They were well aware of their anemic rushing attack before spring practice began; apparently their fixes aren't working, pad level and all.

A few defensive lapses aside, Saturday's scrimmage was mostly about defense. That's the good news.

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* The rushing statistics, as taken from Saturday's scrimmage and the Purdue game, do not include QB Cody Pickett's rushing yards.