UW’s Holf tinkers with shaky defense

SEATTLE – Cruel as it may sound, when Nick Holt took over as defensive coordinator of the University of Washington football team nine months ago, he essentially was being asked to make a Mercedes Benz out of spare parts found in a junkyard.

So it comes as no surprise that the 47-year-old former USC assistant has already called on seven different starting lineups in the Huskies’ seven games this season. Only four players have started all seven games on that side of the ball.

Holt has been tinkering all season long, and he still hasn’t quite built the automobile that runs like a dream.

Nineteen different players have started on defense this season – and, if the Huskies were suddenly given 19 new scholarships to use before the end of the year, Holt may well start 19 more.

The Huskies’ biggest problem at this point in the Steve Sarkisian era is that there are only so many options.

That’s why when Holt was asked this week whether he’s run out of combinations, he only laughed long and hard before giving off a look that said: You got that right.

“We’ll keep rotating guys,” said Holt, whose defense ranks 106th in the nation in yards allowed per game (424.6). “When you watch these guys practice, they practice hard. And some of these guys deserve to get in the game. So that’s why we’re trying to play a lot of the kids, because they care and they’re doing a nice job.”

To Holt’s credit, he has found a way to keep the Huskies in all but one game this season despite a lack of the kind of talent he needs to compete at the Pac-10 level. Senior defensive end Daniel T’eo-Nesheim and linebackers Donald Butler and Mason Foster have proven to be the only playmakers on the unit this year, while the only defender on the roster with realistic NFL aspirations might be freshman cornerback Desmond Trufant.

UW is particularly undersized up front, where its biggest player (348-pound Alameda Ta’amu) has been out of shape at times, and all the other interior linemen are in the 270-and-less range. The incoming recruiting class has some potential, mainly in 285-pound Lakes High School product Sione Potoae, but it’s a safe bet that UW is still looking for plenty more size at the defensive tackle position.

The Huskies are probably still looking for help all over the defense. The list of UW recruits on Rivals.com includes only five defensive players among the 18-man class.

At defensive back, the Huskies have been so underwhelmed with the production this season that they’ve started nine different players at the four positions.

Holt summed up the cornerback position last week when he said: “Other than Trufant, they’re all the same to me.”

The only position that’s seen any kind of stability has been linebacker, where Butler and Foster have started all seven games and E.J. Savannah has started all but one despite various injuries. But even that position has been inconsistent at times this season, and Foster is the only starting linebacker who has remaining eligibility beyond 2009.

Butler said that the constant moving of parts around him has been somewhat distracting at times.

“Guys communicate differently,” the senior said. “Some guys don’t, some guys do. After you play with each other a while, you get used to each other.”