Nick Daschel is a veteran sports writer and columnist who has worked on the West coast for nearly three decades. Nick has covered the Pac-10 for about 15 years, primarily focusing on the Northwest schools.
Seattle | The day started with the unexpected, as the drive into the parking lot near Husky Stadium lot for Saturday’s Spring Game was achingly slow.
Why aren’t cars just driving into lots surrounding the stadium, seeing as the university’s Web site advertised that parking was free after 12 p.m.? One by one, cars had to stop at the entrance, because the school suddenly decided that six bucks sounded like a better price than free.
Times are tough, I suppose, particularly after that $10 million Apple Cup face plant from the day before. It just didn’t seem like a good way to make a good impression on some 10,000 people willing to forget last year’s 0-12 season and spend a Saturday afternoon watching football practice – and yes, the Spring Game is practice. Glorified practice, but still, practice.
Yet after the game, I watched people walk out of the stadium and return to their rented parking spaces with smiles on their faces. I don’t think it was the glare from the sun, either.
For the first time in more than a year, there was reason to leave Husky Stadium feeling a bit optimistic.
Now, it’s dangerous to take a Spring Game seriously. Particularly this type of made-to-order blowout, where it was arranged to have the first string (Purple) slay, er, play the reserves (White). For the record, Purple routed White 33-0, a game that wasn’t in doubt after the first possession for each side.
But it sure beats the alternative, which Tyrone Willingham shoved down the throats of Husky fans in 2005 during his first go-round as UW coach. In Willingham’s initial Spring Game, he split up the teams evenly, a mix of 1s and 2s, and the result was a confusing and thoroughly dull 3-0 Spring Game that, looking back, said it all about his reign at Washington.
What can you take from Saturday’s Purple-White game, knowing that the first stringers were bound to look good because of the game’s setup?
First, the Huskies won’t go 0-12 next season, and not just because Idaho is on the schedule. Jake Locker, provided he stays upright, looks like he has turned a corner.
Again, not to make too much of the junior’s performance at quarterback because of the competition Saturday, but damn he was sharp (my words, and coincidentally, coach Steve Sarkisian’s, too.) He threw 18 passes, and every one was catchable. Better yet, the receivers held on to 16 of them.
Big deal? Yes, big deal. Because accuracy was Locker’s biggest problem his first two years at Washington. The new scheme helps Locker, too. Sarkisian demands that his quarterback pay attention to his checkdown receiver, and occasionally, use him. Three of Locker’s first nine completions went to fullback Paul Homer.
If Locker is accurate, and the offense can keep the chains moving, the Huskies have a chance to win a few games next year that, on paper, they have no business winning. At the very least, they ought to be competitive more often than not.
Second, a shutout by the starting defense was a good way to end the spring, on a high note. Especially since they had none last fall. The UW defense looked organized, seemed to have more purpose in getting to the quarterback and showed off its strength: the linebacker corps.
It wasn’t good to see kicker Nick Folk miss two of five extra point kicks, or one takeaway combined by both defensive units.
Was it worth six bucks? We’ll see come fall. But for a team coming off an 0-12 season, it seemed like a good place to start.
Nick Daschel covers the Pacific-10 Conference for Buster Sports, and can be reached at ndaschel@bustersports.com. You can also follow Nick on Twitter
Uh, parking was free. You shouldn't have had to pay anything. We didn't, and nobody I know did. If you paid someone, I don't think your were paying a UW employee.
Not in the big parking lot north of Hec Ed. They were stopping everyone, and I even mentioned to them that it was posted as free. The guy said, no their supervisor told them to start charging (I was later told UW parking has the right to change its mind on parking fees). Trust me ... they were charging.
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