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OCTOBER 2020
IN THIS ISSUE
From the Athletic Director’s Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Head coach Jimmy Lake has had a first year like no other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 10 Questions with Elijah Molden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Led by a veteran secondary, Washington's defense is loaded for bear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 New quarterback, new running back, new coordinator and no practices? No problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2020: The Year In Photos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Shot: Indelible images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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GOHUSKIES VOLUME 14 / ISSUE 1 / OCTOBER 2020
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FROM THE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR’S DESK
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irst and foremost, I hope you and those close to you are doing well and are staying healthy during these uncertain times. The last several months have presented some of the greatest challenges we have ever encountered. However, as we often share with our student-athletes and coaches: with adversity comes opportunity. We have all grown and been stretched in ways we didn’t think possible. On Sept. 24, the Pac-12 announced it would resume competition this fall for football and would allow for men’s and women’s basketball to align with the NCAA’s decision to begin competition on Nov. 25. We could not be more excited that our student-athletes will have the opportunity to compete this fall. They have demonstrated their commitment to a healthy return to sport the last few months while training in our footprint, and I’m so happy they can now take this a step further. Our football season will kick-off Nov. 7 on the road in Berkeley, before we welcome Oregon State for our home opener on Nov. 14. The Pac-12 has made the decision not to permit fans inside conference venues this fall, and we are disappointed we won’t be able to cheer on our beloved Huskies together. The conference will do a look-in at the New Year to see if fans will be allowed for the remaining basketball games in 2021. There have been bright spots amid the pandemic, and we believe it is important to celebrate these successes, together. Our student-athletes turned in an overall cumulative 3.52 GPA this past spring with all 22 of our teams earning a 3.0 or higher – a first for the department. Our football program highlighted another exciting academic year. The Dawgs posted an Academic Progress Rate (APR) of 999 in the most recent NCAA report, the highest-ever four-year score by an NCAA FBS football program. Head coach Jimmy Lake has adopted Coach Pete’s "Built For Life" mantra and we can’t wait to see where he takes our program on and off the field. This certainly isn’t what he was expecting
Jennifer Cohen
in his first season at the helm, but he has done an outstanding job adapting to the current environment and leading the young men in our program. We have been so overwhelmed with the response we have received from our football season-ticket holders and Tyee members to our Huskies All In campaign. It has been so amazing to see you stay All In with us by donating or crediting the value of your tickets and seat-related gifts to the UW. We have been able to keep just over 25 percent ($12 million) of what we projected from football gate revenue and contributions this year. We are now kicking off the One Team phase of our campaign and will be providing more information to each of you on how you can stay involved in the near future. We understand the road ahead will be filled with many challenges and uncertainties, but one thing we do know is that no matter the circumstances, our mission of providing holistic development opportunities for our student-athletes doesn’t change. We will continue to put this at the forefront of all we do and every decision we make. We also recognize that it is because of your generosity that we are able to provide these opportunities for our amazing students. Thank you for all you do to support Husky Athletics and I hope to see you back on Montlake in the near future! Go Dawgs!
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A Lesson Leadership BY BRIAN BEAKY EDITOR • GOHUSKIES MAGAZINE
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hen Jimmy Lake envisioned the challenges ahead of him as he accepted Washington's head coaching job last fall, following the surprising resignation of Chris Petersen, he knew there'd be plenty. Finding a quarterback. Installing a new offensive system. Continuing Washington's recruiting successes of the Petersen era. Establishing an identity for himself as a head coach, independent of that of his mentor. Come April, though, he faced his biggest challenge yet — whether or not to buy CenturyLink Field and complete his monopoly of Seattle's sports arenas. "I bought Pike Place Market, I bought CenturyLink and Safeco ... I won, I crushed everybody," he joked in a teleconference with media earlier this year.
At a time when Lake should have been on the field running his team through spring practice, the coach was instead confined to his home, playing endless rounds of Seattle-opoly, the Seattle-themed Monopoly game, with his wife, Michele, and their three children: Jimmy, Jr., Faith and Bronson. And, if you think that Lake is any less competitive at board games than he is on the football field ... well, you haven't seen him play. "I wiped out all my kids and my wife," he laughs. "I took that down." Lake's first 10 months at the helm of the Washington program have looked nothing like he'd imagined they would — indeed, nothing like any first-year coach has had to experience in over 100 years. After bringing in offensive coordinator John Donovan to start the year and hitting the road hard to lock down Washington's excellent 2020 recruiting class, Lake had just started launching into full preparations for the 2020 fall season when the coronavirus hit, separating him from his players and coaches for the better part of three months.
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JIMMY LAKE
finally got the head coaching job he'd dreamed about — and then the rug was pulled out from under him. So, why is he grateful?
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o a full list of expected challenges — none of which went away, mind you — Lake now had to add a whole new set of issues to resolve. How to maintain connections to players scattered across the entire country. How to ensure that their academic needs are being met, while managing different time zones and levels of technological access and infrastructure. How to sell recruits on a program that you can't bring them in to see. How to teach players new skills and techniques when you can't meet with them in person. How to design an offseason training regimen when most players don't have access to weights. How to ensure that players recovering from injuries are receiving the treatments they need in their hometowns, separated by hundreds of miles from the UW experts and specialists who normally take care of them. And, most importantly, how to manage the psychological trauma that comes from an experience like this — not only for Lake himself but for the hundreds of coaches, support staff, student-athletes and their families that are now his responsibility. It all makes planning to face Pac-12 opponents seem downright simple. "I can't tell you how many times we've made a schedule on, say, a Thursday, and then ripped it up Thursday night because of new guidelines or changes," he says. "But, we have to problem-solve. We have to persist. "It's not a burden," he continues. "It's my job." To communicate with players, Lake has become an expert "Zoomer," as he refers to himself, managing team and position meetings and ensuring that players received the coaching they needed to be ready when the State of Washington and the Pac-12 Conference finally gave the O.K. to start training camp earlier this month. Players spent much of the summer and early fall working voluntarily together in "pods" of 4-5 players at a time, just waiting for that green light. "We were still getting in the same work, just in different ways than we were used to," he says. "We have a lot of hard workers on our team, and I know we're going to come out of this hardened, tough and ready to go." Lake adds that he will also come out of this more grateful — not only for the increased time he has had with family ("This is the most time I've ever had being in my own house, seeing my kids wake up, having a cup of coffee with my wife — it's been amazing," he says) — but also for the simple, everyday interactions that so many of us take for granted. He hopes his players will experience that gratitude as well. "It's the little things like just walking past someone in a hallway and being able to say, 'Good morning,' or sitting in a meeting room with your friends and teammates by your side," he says. "We all, as humans, need that personal interaction. I hope that when we come out on the other end of this, they'll be grateful for those little moments. I know I will."
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ne thing that Lake is grateful for is the University he gets to represent. The coach says that, contrary to what one might expect, recruiting has in some ways been easier — or, if not easier, perhaps simply more advantageous to UW — during the pandemic than it would be otherwise. While a typical recruiting calendar would include dozens of trips around the country to visit recruits in their homes or at their schools, plus on-campus visits that require a tremendous amount of planning and hoopla, everything in 2020 must be done remotely. Instead of a race to see which program can spend the most money on extravagances to impress recruits, therefore, recruiting in 2020 has become a battle of facts — when all a recruit has to go on are spreadsheets, pamphlets and lists of accomplishments, the schools with the best data come out on top. And, Washington looks incredible on paper. "With people not able to visit campuses, they really just have to look at the facts of what each team has done, and what each University has to offer," Lake says. "And, when you just look at the facts and not getting caught up in all the hype, the U-Dub stands out over most universities in the country. So, that's really been beneficial to us." Lake credits the Huskies' creative team for putting together printed, digital and video materials to showcase Washington's stellar reputation, both on the football field and in the classroom. That, combined with an early start in recruiting for the 2021 cycle, has allowed Lake and his fellow coaches to gain an edge when meeting virtually with recruits this spring and summer. He's hopeful that student-athletes will finally be able to make campus visits again at some point this fall. If they do, they'll see a team that looks a little different than the one that took the field in last year's Las Vegas Bowl. Gone is nearly half of the Huskies' starting offense, including quarterback Jacob Eason. On defense, just four new starters need to be found (including two on the defensive line, where 2019 returning starters Levi Onwuzurike and Joe Tryon both opted to forgo the 2020 season and prepare instead for the NFL Draft), but they'll be under new(ish) direction, with Pete Kwiatkowski taking back the solo reins of the Husky defense for the first time since 2016, when Lake was promoted to co-defensive coordinator.
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The quarterback battle is one that Lake certainly would have liked to see more of this spring, with each of the three presumed competitors — sophomore Jacob Sirmon, redshirt freshman Dylan Morris and true freshman Ethan Garbers — missing out on valuable time to showcase their different abilities. Lake, though, says that having too many talented quarterbacks is a good problem to have — and that he's excited to finally see them compete this fall. "We don't have guys with a lot of experience, but we do have guys with a lot of talent," he says. "That's going to be one of the most competitive units on the whole team, and a fun matchup to watch. I think we're all looking forward to seeing those guys cut it loose." After three-straight years winning 10 games or more, Washington finished 8-5 in 2019, including a 4-5 record in conference play, before capping the year with a 38-7 win over 19th-ranked Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl. With as many times as the Huskies' schedule has already changed in 2020, it's tough for Lake — or anyone in the world, frankly — to make any kind of prediction about the fall. He does know, though, how he wants his team to play — and to anyone who has seen Lake's defense fly around the field over the last few seasons, his vision won't be a surprise. "My expectation is for us to play smart, sound, tough football," he says. "We want to attack and we want to be aggressive. Now, we didn't have spring football. We didn't get to practice, so there's a whole lot of question marks. But, I know we have a team that's hungry to learn, hungry to play, and hungry to compete, and I'm excited to see them get after it." In the meantime, Lake continues to plan, to compete — to coach. Sure, he's had to deal with more unique challenges in eight months than many coaches will experience in their entire lifetimes, but he knows that, in the big picture, there are things that matter much more around the world. Things that matter more in our community. Shoot, things that matter more right at home. "All of these challenges feel very small right now, compared to what everybody has had to deal with these last few months," he says. "I don't think anybody could have imagined what the world is going through right now. But, we're controlling what we can control, doing what we can to get better, and trying to keep a positive outlook. GoHUSKIES
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10 QUESTIONS WITH... SENIOR CORNERBACK
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ELIJAH MOLDEN
eading into the 2020 season, Husky fans have plenty of questions — and we're not even talking about those related to the virus and the changes it has imposed on the season ahead. How will the team be different under first-year head coach Jimmy Lake? Who will play quarterback? Who will take over at running back? One thing that is not in question — and never has been since Lake first returned to UW as a defensive assistant coach — is the secondary. Washington has become DBU over the last half-decade, sending 10 different members of its secondary to the NFL since 2013, including six first-round picks. This year, Washington returns seven defensive backs with starting experience, led by nickelback Elijah Molden. Last year, Molden racked up 79 tackles, 13 pass breakups, four interceptions and three forced fumbles, headlining a UW defense that ranked sixth in the nation against the pass. We caught up with Molden this summer to learn more about what makes him tick, and what he has on tap for the season ahead.
You grew up in a family with seven siblings. What are the biggest advantages of such a large family? “Well, since I’m the second oldest, I’ve had my fair share of parenting practice in helping raise the littles. Also, there's so much going on all at once (laughing, crying, chaos, etc.) that I have to stay alert at all times, which has sharpened my instincts. And, best of all, I have multiple best friends.” Your father, Alex, played at Oregon and in the NFL, but his pro career wrapped up when you were still quite young. What recollections around his football playing do you have from your childhood? “I remember being stuck in traffic in San Diego on our way to a Chargers game when my dad got an interception. My mom turned to my brother and I, who were both in car seats, and said, 'Daddy got a pick! Daddy got a pick!' I don’t think I knew what a pick was at the time, but I remember the excitement. It was one of my first memories.” Did you feel any pressure to go to Oregon? How did you decide to come to UW? “To be honest, I didn’t, really. My parents never put me in a bad position or made me feel like I had to go to Oregon. They actually both wanted me to come to UW. As far as the local Duck fans, I have never been fazed by their pressure.” Now that you've been in Seattle for a few years, what are your favorite things about the city and the region? “My favorite things about Seattle ... the amount of quality food options, going out on the water when we have nice weather. I also love running into UW fans when I’m out and about. They always catch me by surprise and it’s awesome to connect with others outside the stadium.” As a defensive back who has played under Coach Lake his entire career, what do you want fans to know about him becoming your head coach? What can they expect? “Coach Lake is a dawg. I don’t mean the kind of 'Dawg' that we at UW are often referred to as; what I mean is that he is a relentlessly competitive leader.”
You're one of the many Huskies who have had great success in the classroom. What kind of challenges – or advantages – are there to maintaining a high GPA while also fulfilling all of the time demands of major college football? “Being a student-athlete is very, very challenging for a number of reasons. With time constraints, and the mental and emotional challenges of our sport, the lack of social activities, etc., it’s not easy. But, I also think it gives us a kind of edge in the classroom. Physically speaking, we work far harder than any other student in the classroom. Personally, it gives me the confidence to work hard in school as well.” You considered forgoing your senior year in 2020 to move on to the next level. What were the main reasons you chose to return? “It was a combo of a lot of reasons. For one, I felt like I had just hit my stride toward the end of the year and I wanted to play at that level for a full season. It was also in my own best interest to stay and develop my game in hopes to be a higher draft pick. Most importantly, I felt like I had more to give to Husky Nation.” Is there a specific game or moment during your time at UW that you consider your favorite? “The Apple Cup games my sophomore and junior year. Also, my first interception vs USC.”
When you were a freshman, you played in a secondary with several players who are now in the NFL. What specific lessons did you take from players like Byron Murphy, Taylor Rapp, Zeke Turner, etc.? “I learned too many lessons from those guys to even count. I think the most significant one was how important it is to prepare for games. Our whole DB room takes practice very seriously. The same thing goes in the film room.” As one of several seniors in the defensive backs room, how does your role change from previous seasons? “I think I’ve become more of a vocal leader. I really enjoy teaching our young DBs the ins and outs of our scheme and also just building up their confidence. In the past, any information I could get from vets on the team was extremely valuable, so now I look to give the younger guys any insights I can.”
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WASHINGTON'S DEFENSE replaces just two starters from a unit that ranked 15th nationally in 2019 — and was nowhere close to satisfied BY MICHAEL BRUSCAS SPECIAL TO GOHUSKIES MAGAZINE
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hat a difference a year makes.
T hat saying has never been more obvious, as the sports landscape and the world at large look nothing like they did in the summer of 2019. But, drilling down to the Dawgs on the gridiron, the difference in defensive experience is night and day from a season ago. Whereas last fall the Huskies returned just two starters from the Pac12 champion 2018 unit, this fall Washington boasts seven returning defensive starters from the Apple Cup and Las Vegas Bowl victories. Pete Kwiatkowski returns to the defensive coordinator role he manned starting in 2014, only now under head coach Jimmy Lake. Kwiatkowski and Lake worked hand-in-hand in shaping the Pac-12’s most dominant defense over the past six seasons, producing 17 NFL draft picks, including five from the 2018 squad alone. So, for a year that saw a head-coaching change, the cancellation of spring football, and a new socially distant reality for the ultimate hands-on sport, the continuity and experience of the Husky defense comes at the perfect time. “Our number of returners really helps because there’s not a lot of new stuff that we’re throwing at them; and what we are doing different, conceptually, they’ve already got an understanding of the techniques,” Kwiatkowski says. One of the veterans expected to lead the way is senior defensive back Keith Taylor, who was fourth on the team last year with 59 tackles and second with five pass break-ups, starting all 13 games. In Taylor’s view, the changes within the program and a tumultuous 2020 haven’t affected the Washington culture. “I feel like everything has been the exact same,” he says. “Everything’s running smoothly. All of our goals are the same. Coach Lake, he’s going to do a really good job over the course of these next few years. It’s going to be a really exciting thing to see.” Almost as exciting as seeing his teammates in person for the first time after months apart. When Taylor returned to Seattle this summer for workouts after spending the end of spring quarter home in Long Beach, Calif., he couldn’t contain the smile on his face. “I was just full of laughter and joy!” he says. As for those goals, the standard is a championship.
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e’re all going to come back hungrier,” Taylor says. “We want another Pac-12 championship. That’s the mindset of this team, and we’re trying to instill that into the younger guys as well. I think everyone is taking this really seriously and everyone is ready to grind.” Taylor’s maturation is emblematic of so much of the 2020 Husky defense. “Keith’s a guy that is driven and disciplined and motivated to keep getting better, and he keeps getting better week-by-week, day-by-day,” says Kwiatkowski. “When you do that, it breeds confidence. “Confidence is the name of the game," he adds. "Confidence is cash, we like to say.” With so many starters back, there’s a lot more confidence to spend. Even with just two returning starters in 2019, the Huskies were once again one of the top defenses in the nation (15th in scoring defense), but slipped to third in the Pac-12 in scoring defense and total defense after leading the conference in those stats every year from 2015-18. A few second-half leads surprisingly slipped out of UW’s grasp last year, notably against Oregon and Utah. Not that anyone in the locker room has forgotten. “For sure, that’s always going to be in the back of our minds,” says Kwiatkowski. “At the end of the day, those were opportunities that we had where, if we’d been able to do our job, we would have won a lot more games. So, that’s definitely a motivational piece to the start of this season.” As the young defense continued to work, the execution improved, and over the final four-game stretch, the Huskies gave up just 11.75 points per game, with dominant performances in the Apple Cup and Las Vegas Bowl. Taylor thinks success came when the team stopped trying to be too perfect, afraid of a mistake. “ We had to just start letting it loose," he says. "[Down the stretch], we played with more excitement and emotion and everybody was having fun, too." Even with preseason All-Americans Levi Onwuzurike and Joe Tryon skipping the shortened 2020 fall season to prepare for the NFL Draft, the Huskies still have a number of players racking up preseason accolades. Senior defensive back Elijah Molden was named to the Bednarik Watch List for the national defensive player of the year, and joined Onwuzurike anbd Tryon on the preseason All-America list. Even without Onwuzurike, the first line of defense looks especially strong — after all, you can't be consistently great on defense year after year in college football without a lot of quality depth. Kwiatkowski sees senior Josiah Bronson making a big jump in production, while “the two big guys,” — the phrase Kwiatkowski uses to refer to sophomores Tuli Letuligasenoa and Sam Taimani — will be pushed into more prominent roles as well.
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“They are going to be a year older in the program and so I think they should be able to take that next step as far as playing faster for us," he says. Fans can expect to see senior Ryan Bowman gaining unprecedented access to opposing quarterbacks from his outside linebacker/defensive end spot. Bowman was named to the All-Pac-12 Second Team last year, and tied for ninth in the Pac-12 Conference with 5.5 sacks. Kwiatkowski says Bowman had fantastic off-season and also thinks major development could come from sophomores Zion Tupuola-Fetui and Laiatu Latu, who each saw action in 12 games last year, combining for 25 tackles. “I think they’ll be a surprise for a lot of people,” Kwiatkowski says. At inside linebacker, a big group of redshirt freshmen gives the staff much-improved depth with which to work. Sophomore Edefuan Ulofoshio had a surprise breakthrough season last year, earning a start in the final three games of the season and finishing with 47 tackles and three sacks. “Between Edefuan, M.J. Tafisi and Jackson Sirmon, all three of those guys played a lot last year, so they got good experience and will take another
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step in their development," Kwiatkowski says. "The redshirt freshmen — you’ve got Zo Tuputala, Miki Ah You, Drew Fowler, Daniel Heimuli and Josh Calvert — all those guys are going to be in the mix. So, we’ve got good depth and they’re going to push each other.” The NFL training ground that has been the Husky secondary during Jimmy Lake’s tenure could produce one of its best groups yet with this 2020 roster, which would be saying quite a lot. Taylor loves following the Husky DBs now playing on Sundays, and hopes to uphold their tradition. “I really enjoyed watching Byron (Murphy) last year, that was fun to see him go up against Julio Jones, all the best receivers in the league, and really excel in his first season,” says Taylor. “Kevin King, he had a tremendous season as well. I’m pretty upset he didn’t go to the Pro Bowl. And, Sidney Jones, I still watch his college tape as well because I learn a lot of different techniques from him. And, of course, Budda Baker, Jordan Miller, Taylor Rapp — it’s a long line!” Kwiatkowski sees Molden and Taylor providing the senior leadership for another extremely talented unit. Molden’s stats speak for themselves. The West Linn, Ore., product led the team with 79 tackles, four interceptions and 13 pass break-ups, and added 5.5 tackles for loss. “Elijah and Keith have played a lot of football and are smart, great workers,” he says. “Elijah can play multiple positions; he can play safety and he can play nickel, based on personnel groups.” Trent McDuffie started the final 10 games of the season at corner last year as a true freshman, earning praise from Kwiatkowski along with Freshman PAGE 18
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All-America honors. Kwiatkowski calls McDuffie a "big-time player." Another sophomore who soaked up valuable experience a year ago is Kyler Gordon, and the staff is excited to see him build on it. “Kyler played a lot last year; he was a war daddy on special teams,” Kwiatkowski says. “I’m really excited to see how he progresses and becomes a dominant DB.” At safety, Asa Turner and Cameron Williams are two more sophomores who got the true freshman baptism-by-fire last year and will be counted on again this fall. Williams snagged three picks last year, including two in the home win over USC. And, as usual, a strong group of true and redshirt freshmen should keep the competition fierce, not just in the secondary but across the board. “Once the freshmen got here, it’s been good,” Kwiatkowski says. “They’re staying active, going to summer school, they’re lifting and working out with all the guys, so they’re involved now and feel like a part of this.” In a time of so many unknowns, the Huskies are confident with what they know about their defense. As Kwiatkowski says, all they can do is take it day by day, “and to be ready to go when they say we can go.” Hopefully, there aren't too many more days to wait.
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First-year offensive coordinator JOHN DONOVAN is excited to see his new offense in action — just as soon as he can actually get players on the field
BY BRIAN BEAKY EDITOR • GOHUSKIES MAGAZINE
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hen John Donovan agreed to be Washington's new offensive coordinator in January, he knew that one of his most important jobs was to help choose, from a crowded quarterback room, the one who would be taking the snaps from center when the Huskies kick off their season. It sure would be nice if he actually see one of them throw. "That's usually a decent part of it!" Donovan says, with a boisterous laugh that bursts across the phone line. In the world of lackluster and socially awkward Zoom meetings to which we've all become accustomed, Donovan's energy is a breath of fresh air. "When I got in here, it was a time of year where we're not allowed to use any balls or anything," he said earlier this fall. "So, I've seen them in meetings, but I don't have a sense yet of their decision-making ability, how they see the field with people all around them, what kind of poise they have, their timing, footwork, anticipation ... all of that. That's gonna be very interesting, for sure." "Interesting" is how one could describe the entirety of Donovan's first nine months in Seattle. A New Jersey native who had never coached east of Tennessee, Donovan packed up the family and shipped out to the West Coast in January to accept first-year head coach Jimmy Lake's offer to be the Huskies' new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. It's a role that Donovan has served previously at both Vanderbilt and Penn State — both times hired by head coach James Franklin, with whom Donovan spent seven years coaching alongside as assistants at Maryland. For the past four seasons, Donovan has been on the offensive coaching staff of the Jacksonville Jaguars. At the time Lake called, Donovan had never seriously considered coaching out west. Shoot, he'd only rarely even been out this far, and had never set foot in Husky Stadium. The chance to work at Washington, though — home to some of the greatest players, fans and coaches in the history of the game, and certainly one of its "greatest settings" — well, that was just too enticing to pass up. "I grew up in the nineties, watching Washington on TV," he said. "I know the reputation of the place as a school and a program. I was like, 'Holy cow, that's a different place.' It wasn't a hard sell." Donovan arrived eager to work with his fellow coaches to install a new offense — one that, he says, will look different than what the Huskies have run in the past, while incorporating some similar concepts — and to start familiarizing himself with the talent on the Huskies' offense in order to maximize its potential. That first part of that plan has gone great — heck, Donovan notes, he's had more time than ever to work with coaches and players on offensive concepts and schemes.
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Offense THE LONG WAY The second part? Not so much. In mid-March, Husky players went home for what became the longest spring break in UW history, with Donovan forced to resort to Zooms — "Man, I'd never even heard of that," he says — and phone calls to connect with players and communicate the playbook. Players returned to campus in June and have been engaging in socially distant workouts ever since — no more than five players to a "pod," all grouped by position and working independently (and voluntarily) with strength and conditioning staff — but, as recently as early October, Donovan could only guess as to how things will look when they can actually strap on the pads. Which of his four quarterbacks — graduate transfer Kevin Thomson, who started the last two seasons at Sacramento State; sophomore Jacob Sirmon, whose three career collegiate pass attempts make him the only one of the group who has actually appeared in a UW game; redshirt freshman Dylan Morris, who threw for even more yards as a prep than the man he is seeking to replace, Jacob Eason; or true freshman Ethan Garbers, younger brother of Cal's Chase Garbers — will push themselves ahead of the pack this fall to earn the start in the Huskies' first game of the 2020 campaign? Who will take over lead duties in the backfield, now that speedster Salvon Ahmed has headed off the NFL? How will the offensive line look after losing both of its tackles to the professional ranks? And, most importantly, how will players handle the implementation of a new offensive system, without the benefit of a full month of spring practices and while dealing with likely social-distancing restrictions in the fall? "The whole thing is bizarre, if I'm being honest," Donovan says. "You don't get a great feel for things when you're just meeting with guys over Zoom. The one thing I'll say is that our offensive line looks the part. Big guys, smart ... I'm excited about the possibility of what they can be as a group."
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hat's music to the ears of junior Jaxson Kirkland. A two-year starter at guard for the Huskies, Kirkland is moving outside in 2020 to take over for the departed Adams, where he'll be responsible for protecting the backside of his third UW starting quarterback in the last three years. For the first four months after going home in March, Kirkland worked out on his own at his family's home in Portland, waking up early to run and lift, meeting with his position coaches in the afternoon, and joining allteam meetings every few days, all while completing his classes via remote learning. Besides the fact that he slept in his childhood bed every night, he said his typical day didn't changed all that much from what it would have been had the pandemic never occurred. Kirkland says that coaches like Donovan and offensive line coach Scott Huff have been instrumental in keeping himself and his teammates sharp. "I've actually been pleasantly surprised at how much we've been able to do, given the restrictions," Kirkland says. "It was a culture shock at first, but we're getting used to it. The coaches are doing a good job of preparing us the same way, so that we're ready to go." When Kirkland first stepped onto campus three years ago, current Atlanta Falcons offensive tackle Kaleb McGary took him under his wing, teaching Kirkland the techniques that would take his already imposing physical skills to the next level. A year later, Kirkland was lining up next to McGary and leading Washington to a Pac-12 title and a spot in the Rose Bowl.
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Now, it's his turn to play the mentor to a young group of linemen. Three stalwarts of Washington's line — Adams, center Nick Harris and tackle Jared Hilbers — have all graduated, as has talented reserve Henry Roberts. That leaves a lot of openings for young players to step up — and Kirkland likes what he sees. He cites redshirt freshman Nate Kalepo and sophomores Victor Curne and Matteo Mele as three players, in particular, that he thinks have a chance to shine. "The mentality of all of these young players coming in is that they want to be great," he says. "And, that's the o-line mindset. You have to go out there with the belief that you are going to break a d-lineman's spirit. After a long drive, where you're just punishing some guys and getting after them, you'll see in their eyes, or how they come out of their stance, that they're just ready to get out of there. We live for that kind of stuff." "When you're just moving a guy from Point A to Point B against his will?" Kirkland continues. "There's no better feeling than that."
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t's a feeling that both Kirkland and Donovan hope he'll get to experience sooner than later. In July, the Pac-12 made the decision to cancel all non-conference competition and released a new, 10game conference schedule, then ripped that up a few weeks later when conditions failed to improve. On Oct. 9, practices officially began, and the team is optimistic about taking the field for an abbreviated, seven-game conference schedule Nov. 7 at Cal. In the meantime, Donovan is continuing to work with players on installing his offense — one that is built around simple design concepts that can result in any number of different plays or routes, depending on the look given by the defense. The goal, Donovan says, is to design a system that appears complex to the defense, but doesn't require the players to memorize an entire playbook. "You want to be able to throw as much as you can at a defense, so that they don't know what you're doing," he says. "But, at the same time, if you throw too much at your guys, then they wind up not knowing what they're doing. You have to find a fine line where it's simple enough to execute efficiently, but presented in such a way that the defense can't figure out what's coming." Donovan says that one silver lining to the pandemic has been the increased amount of time he's had to work with coaches and players to design and teach his new system. "In spring ball, we'd have had 15 practices, one of them being a game and a couple without pads. So, you'd only have so many practices of installing base stuff, because then you have to get into third down, red zone, short yardage, and all of that, too," he says. "In this format, we can present that information at a slower pace, over a longer period of time."
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Offense THE LONG WAY Donovan likens the life of a college coach before practice to that of an auctioneer, trying to talk as fast as possible in the 45 minutes he has to meet with the team before sending them out on the field. With the socially distanced schedule this summer, he was able to spend hours conveying the same information, a process that hopefully will allow players to hit the ground running now that the pads have come on. They seem to be picking it up quickly, he says. Will that carry over to game day, when defenses are presenting looks the offense hasn't prepared for, and bodies are flying every which way? "It's tough to tell," Donovan says. "We've had good meetings, but you never really know how that translates to doing it. When we finally get together and are able to run things against a defense, then we'll really get a feel for how fast they can process information, the athletic skills, decisionmaking skills and all that. The mental part of it, they're doing a great job, but the physical part is going to be interesting, for sure." Donovan says that regardless of when the Huskies are finally able to start the season, he's seen enough to know that the talent in Washington's offensive meeting room is enough to take them anywhere they want to go. He wouldn't have come all the way across the country for anything less. "I've always thought of the University of Washington as tough guys," he says. "This is a tough program. They've always had that reputation, and it's our responsibility to carry on that reputation for the guys that played before us and the guys that are going to play after us. I told that to these guys. "And, come game day, we're gonna let 'er rip."
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2019-20
IN PHOTOS
1.26.20 - UW Women’s Tennis hosts Kentucky
1.19.20 - UW Women’s Basketball vs Arizona
7.1.19 - UW x adidas Partnership
8.30.19 - UW Men’s Soccer vs Denver
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3.1.20 - UW Gymnastics vs Utah
10.8.19 - UW Women’s Golf hosts the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational
3.7.20 - UW Baseball vs Utah Valley
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2019-20
IN PHOTOS
11.1.19 - Pac-12 Men’s Cross Country Championships
11.8.19 - UW Women’s Soccer defeats WSU
2.1.20 - UW T&F hosts the UW Invitational
10.12.19 - UW Softball Husky Fall Classic
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3.7.20 - UW Beach Volleyball vs Stanford
6.2.19 - UW Rowing National Championship
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9.16.19 - UW Men’s Golf hosts Husky Invitational
12.3.19 - Jimmy Lake introductory press conference
11.30.19 - UW Volleyball hosts WSU
4.20.19 - UW Men’s Rowing vs Cal
11.2.19 - UW Football vs. Utah
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11.8.19 - UW MBB defeats Baylor
1.17.20 - UW Men’s Tennis vs Michigan
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9.28.19 - UW vs USC
Photographs by RED BOX PICTURES
SOUND THE SIREN!
Gameday at The Greatest Setting is unrivaled anywhere across college football and we can’t wait to see this again when the time is right.
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