Paus probable starter
UCLA football coach Karl Dorrell wasn’t talking with Seattle reporters, and Washington quarterbacks weren’t eating with them.
So went the Huskies’ weekly media luncheon Monday, which provided only few crumbs of information and left a lot unsaid about Saturday’s game against the Bruins.
As far as anyone can tell, junior Casey Paus remains UW’s starting quarterback, relatively inexperienced freshman Carl Bonnell will be his backup and sophomore Isaiah Stanback is injured.
Or maybe Bonnell will play a lot more than the Huskies are letting on, in an effort to keep UCLA guessing.
Either way, UW coach Keith Gilbertson was fairly vague when addressing the status of each of his candidates trying to claim the team’s most worrisome position.
“We’ll probably start Casey and see what happens,” the coach said. “I think Casey is still probably No. 1. But Carl got a lot of work last week.”
That’s a lot of “probablys,” and hardly a ringing endorsement for Paus, the first-game starter against Fresno State.
None of the Huskies’ quarterbacks were among the eight or nine players invited for sandwiches and questions in the Don James Center, no doubt an effort to spare them from hearing once again how unstable the quarterback job appears.
On the other side, Dorrell, a former UW assistant, declined to do a conference call with local media, as is the Monday custom for the Huskies’ upcoming opposing coach.
Chances are he didn’t want to address the shortcomings of his rebuilt defensive unit, which has surrendered 634 yards rushing in two games, including 261 alone to Oklahoma State’s Vernand Morency in the opener.
With the Huskies’ fragile quarterback situation and the obvious holes in the Bruins’ stop unit, some UW players suggested between sandwich bites that a game of smash-mouth football, of relying more on the ground game, might be the solution for this weekend’s match-up at Husky Stadium.
“I don’t really know what the game plan is, but second down and short is a lot easier than second and long,” senior offensive tackle Khalif Barnes said, making an offhand reference to pass incompletions. “All these guys on the offensive line want to run the ball anyway. It would be different. I’ve probably pass-blocked more than I’ve run-blocked since I’ve been here. It would be more fun.”
Said sophomore tailback Kenny James, who rushed for a team-high 75 yards against Fresno State, “You can’t just be one-dimensional. You have to be able to run and throw the ball. But I think what’s hurt us in the past is we haven’t been able to run the football. Our running game hasn’t been up to par.
“It’s my job, our job, to make it better.”
Good bye
Two UW players, freshman tailback Louis Rankin and sophomore strong safety C.J. Wallace, stood out during bye week workouts, which could result in significant game time, according to their coach.
“Louis Rankin is a guy who really gets our attention more and more; the depth is really good (at tailback), but he appears to be making a move,” Gilbertson said. “C.J. Wallace has practiced very well and worked his way up to more playing time. He just has a little better sense about what we want.”
Splitting hairs
Gilbertson was somewhat taken aback when asked if he thought a dreadlock-flying “hair dance,” preformed on the sideline by Charles Frederick, Shelton Sampson, Craig Chambers and Stanback, following Stanback’s scoring run against Fresno State, was appropriate. The UW coach didn’t see it, and could hardly envision it.
“Hair dance? Where in my contract does it say … ,” sputtered Gilbertson, his voice trailing off. “There will be no hair dancing. When I started coaching, everyone had long hair. That’s how long I’ve been coaching. Sonny has a lot of hair (now).”
Responded former UW quarterback Sonny Sixkiller, seated among the media luncheon inquisitors, “I had a lot more back then.”