Huskies’ offense shows signs of missing Locker

SEATTLE – If the first extended scrimmage of the University of Washington’s spring football season had anything to say, it was that the 2011 Huskies already miss quarterback Jake Locker.

UW’s defense dominated most of Saturday’s session, so much so that the Huskies needed 11 drives and 40 plays before they got into the end zone. Things got so bad during one stretch that Washington’s No.1 and No. 2 offenses were held to minus-21 yards over 19 plays and parts of seven drives.

“There’s a lot of bickering going on right now,” said Keith Price, a redshirt freshman who is battling Nick Montana for the right to replace Locker as starting quarterback. “I have to do a better job of settling everybody down.”

The struggles of UW’s offense had as much to do with the Husky defense as it did any bickering or inexperience at the quarterback position. Freshman defensive end Josh Shirley, who redshirted along with Montana last fall, had four sacks while helping to make sure the UW offense didn’t find much of a rhythm.

The only success by UW’s quarterbacks came late in the session. Montana led two scoring drives while running the No. 2 offense, both of which came against the Huskies’ No. 2 defense.