Williams gives UW extra insight on Cal

SEATTLE – The California defensive backfield may give Washington’s offense trouble this weekend, but it won’t be because the Huskies don’t know what to expect. J.D. Williams is making sure of that.

The first-year Washington defensive backs coach spent the previous four years as the secondary coach at Cal, where the Bears had one of the Pacific-10’s top total defenses. He said his familiarity with Cal is definitely an advantage.

“Of course, especially when it comes to personnel,” Williams said. “You know habits and tendencies of players because you’ve coached them. You know their strong points and weak points. It always helps somewhere. But the bottom line is going out and trying to take advantage of their weaknesses.”

What those weaknesses are, though, is in question. Cal leads the Pac-10 in turnovers, including a conference-best 13 interceptions, six by Daymeion Hughes.

“They’re loaded,” Williams said. “Daymeion Hughes is probably the top (defensive back) in the West Coast. Syd Thompson is a freshman (who is) very talented. Bernard Hicks is a young safety, hasn’t had much playing experience but he’s talented. Brandon Hampton was a converted running back and now he’s their starting rover. They have a lot of talent there.”

Williams said what has stood out most about California is their confidence. He stopped short of saying the Bears are better this year than they were last year, but said “they’ve got more experience.”

“But we’re also a better team (than last year),” Williams said.

Goldson works on ankle

UW senior cornerback Dashon Goldson had to wear a boot from Sunday to Tuesday after re-injuring his right ankle in the Oregon State game. Goldson removed the boot before Tuesday’s practice but will be limited in practice this week while he tries to get healthy enough to play Saturday.

“I feel better than I did coming into this week,” Goldson said. “(Tuesday) I started feeling a lot better and today I started doing a lot more, rehab-wise.”

Goldson has been bothered all season by a high-ankle sprain. The ankle has improved, but Saturday was a setback when an OSU player fell on Goldson in the first quarter. He sat out the rest of the first half but came back in the second half. He said it’s been frustrating trying to play through the injury.

“All you can do is rest it and a lot of rehab,” he said. “Once you start getting after it, once I started pounding it, it’d be sore. I haven’t felt 100 percent yet. I’ve just been playing through it.”

Washington coach Tyrone Willingham wouldn’t commit to Goldson playing or not playing this weekend.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how he’s able to go through the week,” Willingham said. “Any time you re-injure a joint it makes it that much more difficult. We’ll see how he progresses during the week and see where that leaves him come the weekend.”

Stanback rests foot

Willingham said Isaiah Stanback’s surgery for a complex midfoot sprain went well and that the senior quarterback was “at home resting and will probably be up and about next week.”

Willingham said Stanback probably would not travel with the team to California because of the swelling that air travel can cause, but he said it was possible Stanback could make the trips to Oregon and Washington State.

Wallace suffers bruise

Starting strong safety C.J. Wallace suffered a knee bruise in Tuesday’s practice but the severity of it wasn’t known. Wallace did not seem significantly hobbled on Wednesday.

Quarterbacks battle

Willingham reported nothing new on the quarterback situation, saying Carl Bonnell, Johnny DuRocher and Jake Locker all got work on Tuesday and “all did some good things.”

Gunheim, Ala compete

UW defensive coordinator Kent Baer said he was undecided who would start at defensive end this weekend, Greyson Gunheim or Brandon Ala.

Gunheim has started every game, but the competition was opened up this week, although Baer said it was not because of Gunheim’s play against OSU.

Instead, he said both players deserve to play and that Cal is a physical team and Ala sometimes is a more physical player than Gunheim.

Don’t blame officials

Willingham was asked about his thoughts on the brawl that took place between Miami and Florida International last week.

He said you can’t blame the officials in that situation, because it would be too difficult for them to control that many athletes acting out of control.