Slotback Polk gives UW offensive options

SEATTLE – A quick scan of the Washington roster makes it apparent just how special the Huskies believe Chris Polk is.

Sure, Polk leaving powerhouse Southern California and coming north to Washington was a spectacular coup. But the real sign of his value to coach Tyrone Willingham and the Huskies: He’s the only player with his own position.

“We’re doing a lot of things. We’re doing a lot of things with Chris,” Willingham said.

Polk is the one coaches talk about vaguely, yet hold a glimmer in their eye and smirk on their face when speaking about the freshman.

Polk is fast and physical, shifty and smart, a 2,500-yard-plus rusher as a senior in high school. He is the only player on Washington’s roster listed as a “SB” or slotback, a dual threat equally dangerous lining up in the backfield or out wide as a receiver.

All the praise heaped upon him as the prodigious playmaker to finally take some stress off equally multitalented quarterback Jake Locker comes before Polk has taken the field in the purple and gold.

Polk committed to USC the moment the Trojans offered him a scholarship, only to then do some research and realize that any chance of playing early in his career at USC was slim with a loaded roster.

The Trojans also were set on Polk playing at receiver.

“I was star-struck and it was my favorite college and I was from Southern California and wanted to be close to home,” Polk said. “But as things progressed I started to notice they had five-star athletes at my position that hadn’t played the year before.”

So Polk and his mother reopened the door of consideration, and the opportunity to get immediate playing time at Washington was a major draw. It also helped that Polk’s former high school quarterback, Ronnie Fouch, was already in Seattle.

Fouch juggled his schedule to take additional classes at Redlands East Valley High School as a senior so he could graduate early and enroll at Washington in time for spring practice before the start of his freshman year. Following that example, Polk started to take summer school classes so that once his high school football season ended, all his graduation requirements were met.

“After football season my senior year I didn’t want to sit around and wait. I wanted to get right into it,” Polk said.

Polk and Fouch’s decisions had the full support of Willingham – in Polk’s case the Huskies needed offensive talent – but he cautioned that each individual has to be considered separately.

“I don’t think it’s right for every young man to do that,” Willingham said. “Obviously, he has to have his academics in order to be able to do that. Everything has to be put in place in terms of his core classes.”