Fortney Remains UW’s No. 1 Qb But Huard’s Relief Role Earns Him More Practice Time With 1st Team
For his brilliant relief performance against Arizona State on Saturday night, University of Washington redshirt freshman quarterback Brock Huard will get more work with the first team.
In practice.
Huard, who led the Huskies to three touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a wild 45-42 loss to ASU, didn’t unseat Shane Fortney as the starting quarterback, UW football coach Jim Lambright said Monday.
“It’s a nice scenario for me right now,” said Lambright, whose 0-1 Huskies entertain 2-0 Brigham Young on Saturday. “Shane’s the starter, but there’ll be more competition than there has been (in practice) because Brock deserves that after what he came in and did.”
Lambright explained that more competition means Huard will get more repetitions with the first unit. However, the coach said it’s unlikely Huard could win the starting job by Saturday, even with a sterling practice week.
Huard, in his collegiate debut, was 6 of 11 for 143 yards and one touchdown. He also ran for 30 yards on three carries and another score.
He was neither surprised nor disappointed by Lambright’s decision.
“The situation isn’t really much different than my older brother (Damon, who graduated after last year) and Shane,” said the 6-foot-5 Huard. “Shane came in some games last year - Ohio State and Army - and made some plays. That’s the way things are done around here. It’s for the team. Coach is going to make the call and he’s going to start Shane and that’s for the team. He’s the guy who has been here and paid his dues.”
Fortney, an agile 6-foot-3 junior, was 8 of 17 for 96 yards and one TD.
“He hurried himself in the third quarter on the one series,” Lambright said. “We just have to have the quarterbacks getting the ball to the receivers and keep the drives going. That’s what he has to work on.”
Lambright was pleased with Fortney’s leadership.
The kid’s cool
Huard said he wasn’t too nervous entering his first college game. Don’t believe him? Listen up.
“After we scored that touchdown (to make it 42-28), center Olin Kreutz looks at me - there’s about 7 minutes to go - and says, ‘We need to be in that end zone by the 5- minute mark,”’ Huard said. “I said, ‘Olin, you block on this play and we’ll be in the end zone in about 15 seconds.”’
Huard then retreated and threw a perfect pass to another redshirt freshman, Gerald Harris, who caught the ball in stride en route to a 67-yard scoring play.
For all of Huard’s handy work, ASU got the win with a late field goal.
“You make some plays, make some big TD passes,” Huard said.
, DataTimes