The Monday Morning Wash
by John Berkowitz on Feb 2, 2009 10:03 AM PST
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PrintWe start off today with recruiting. Washington picked up four JC verbals this weekend which will help the worst BCS defense in the country last season to have a fighting chance in 2009.
Daniel Mafoe, Johnny Tivao, Ryan Davis, and Will Mahan all fill some big holes for Washington.
Davis is a pure pass rusher that will really help balance out Daniel Teo Nesheim. Davis was a Cal commit so stelaing him away at the last minute is quite the coup.
Tivao is 5'11 320 pound defensive tackle or nose guard that has the ability to plug some holes in the middle and buy some time for the younger players on the roster to grow into their positions.
Mafoe is a guy that could slide into a starting job at OG or play opposite Tivao on the defensive line if needed.
Mahan is listed as one of the very best punters int he country. A consistent punting game goes a long way toward helping the defense with some field position.
The undecided
Washington will try to finish the class with 2-3 more players. They want to bring in one more JC CB and David Batts just might be that guy. He will choose between UW and Kansas State.
WR James Johnson is expected to commit to Washington on LOI day but he is keeping quiet till then.
The Huskies impressed with Myles Wade last Friday on his visit. He met with Nebraska coach Bo Pellini in his home this weekend. He may trip Nebraska next week and delay his signing a bit. He is a soft Texas Tech commit at this point. Academics and the advantages of staying closer to home have become a factor.
If Washington can finish off the class with Batts, Johnson, and Wade you could say that Sarkisian did about as well as could be expected this recruiting season.
Defensive Future
If Wade and Batts end up coming to Washington they will both be part of a dramatic facelift of the Husky defense led by Nick Holt.
Washington could begin next fall with seven new starters on defense. Jason Wells, Dominique Giese and David Batts could be in the secondary. Wells was a two year starter that has a RS season in 2008 to focus on rehabbing his knee.
At LB you have the return of All Conference talent EJ Savannah and the 6th year of a consistent Trenton Tuiasosopo.
On the defensive line you could have Myles Wade, Johnny Tivao, and Ryan Davis joining Daniel Teo Nesheim.
If Washington ends up adding that much immediate impact to the defense in addition to the experience gained last season the future of this group could be bright.
What about the offensive line?
Let me ask you this?
Is there a single offensive linemen on the roster who could start for another team in the Pac 10 based of of last years performance?
If you ask anyone close to the program where the biggest trouble spot remains and they will tell you the entire offensive line. Washington's offensive line performed terribly in 2009 and the forecast for 2010 isn't much better unless Jim Michalczik can perform some miracles.
UW did a great job filling out the depth at TE in this recruiting class. JC Dorson Boyce will come in this spring and immediately take over the starting job. His experience and blocking ability will be more important than Middleton's ability to make big plays.
The Huskies also being in Marlion Barnett and Kimo Makaula for the future so they now have five quality TE's to work with on the roster.
Ben Ossai and Cody Habben will line up as very experienced tackles who impressed nobody last year. Willingham should have installed springs on their butts so they could get up quicker after being run over on the way to the ball.
Scott Fancher and Mark Armelin enter their sophomore seasons as reserves at tackle. Redshirts Terrance Thomas, Drew Shaeffer, and walk on Nick Scott complete the depth.
On the inside only Ryan Tolar remains from last years underachieving group. Matt Sedillo and Mykena Ikehara will fight it out for the starting job at Center. Daniel Mafoe could be the guy flanking Tolar on the inside. So Scott Shugert, RS Allan Carroll, and SR Morgan Rosborough provide the depth.
To balance things out Washington is going to have to move a player or two over from the defensive line. Tyrone Duncan comes to mind because he has the right size and quickness for OG and he is going nowhere on the DL. Craig Noble is another possibility even though I really like him on defense., Nick Wood is probably too short to move. The need is so great that even a Senio Kelemente or Alameda Ta'amu could end up making the switch.
When spring football starts I would keep an eye on the offensive line. The changes they make over the spring will go a long way in determining if this team can be competitive next season.
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Juco's
Getting them admitted is always the challenge – I know Sark and the new staff are pushing harder than the previous staff but are any of these guys longshots? Looking at Scout the ones that worry me are the ones that had no other offers. Any of these guys have a lot of work to do still?
O'line
I can see Duncan moving over.
Nick Wood is listed at 6’2". We were recruiting Eddie Williams for the o’line and he’s listed at 6’0". I would think at this point you’re looking for depth on the o’line so these guys would be on the back of the depth chart regardless. I would think that having Tolar, Mavoe, Shugart, Carroll and Rosborogh they would be 4th on the depth chart.
Shugart and Carroll are the future of the the guards. The OT’s are another story. How’s Kalani Aldrich doing keeping weight on? He seems like a canidate to move to tackle if he can keep the weight on.
Does anyone know how Chris Polk’s rehab is going? Is he still going to be a RB? His style seems to suit WR better. If Shaw has gained the 20lbs like he says and he’s kept his speed, he’s going to be the RB for the next 2-3 years as a perennial 1,000 yard back.
Also, how’s Boyles? I’m interested to see if he’s put some weight on.
The LB depth scares me. I was hoping that we would get one more LB. I heard that Pulu is going to start off at the MIK but getting another OLB or Two going to be of importance in the future.
Juco
Mafoe and Tivao are the two that are a bit of a gamble but should make it in if they keep up with their academic progress.
I will be doing a comparison between Willingham’s first class and Sarkisian’s in the near future. On thing they have in common is the risk taken by recruiting JC’s.
Should be a good comparison
Time will tell – should be interesting to see if this staff has more success getting the JC kids they recruit into school. Let’s hope they are – we don’t want any comparisons to the previous staff that aren’t improvements.
the strategies seem near identical ...
… execution may be vastly different – but the JC element with the idea of taking the risk in order to achieve a fast turnaround seem very similar. let’s hope we don’t get burned again.
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Alameda Ta'amu
I know he played quite a bit at nose tackle last year when they played the 3-4, but other than “he’s big” I didn’t really see any major positive highlights. If memory serves, the teams recruiting him were split about 50-50 on whether he was an offensive guard or a defensive tackle, and certainly they had a huge need on the DL last year, so of course that’s where he went. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he’s a candidate to join the offense next fall, provided the JCs get in and Elisara/Kelemete/Noble stay healthy and prove they belong in the rotation.
I’d rather see Ta’amu stick at DT as the space-eater in the middle. The kid should’ve redshirted to spend a year getting stronger, but what’s done is done. The fact that a true freshmen DT didn’t seem to do much shouldn’t be seen as a negative with regards to his future at the position – very few kids are ready to play on the interior line as true freshmen.
I agree, and it's not a knock at all
I went back and looked at a couple scouting reports from last year and most of them said that he would probably be best-suited as a guard.
I’m just musing that if it really is his best position and the DT spot has better depth this year and they really need a big-time guard then it sorta makes sense that he could move. He also has a redshirt year to use if they want to take a longer-term approach to developing him there (i.e. Jordan White-Frisbee but without injuries).
i agree kirkd
Ta"amu should stick it out any freshman would have been shoved around when double teamed so much and no other real DT doing much,i like having beef on my DL too.
Minor editorial comments – it’s Alameda Ta’amu (not the other way around) and Nick Scott (not Scott Davis).
Regarding Nick Wood and switching to G, he’s listed at 6’3", which means he’s probably at least 6’1". I seem to recall reading that he was pretty athletic in addition to his huge lifting numbers. I figure he might be a more athletic and mobile G than what we currently have. On the other hand, if his arms aren’t long, then he’s best suited to DT.
Better strength and conditioning will go a long way
It is a given that a true freshman is not going to push around many older opponents on the field. The flabby lineman I saw on picture day last year caused me great alarm even before the Oregon game. So if we can strengthen up some these guys and teach better technique, maybe they are not as bad as they appeared, going forward.
I don’t see how Sark has a choice in going the JC route. He might well buy some time and bode better than past experiments have shown. Sure it’s a gamble, but 0-12 teams need to gamble and have some luck in the process.
Agreed Vegasdawg
The line coming into last season (before we saw them all fat and out of shape) was viewed as a strength based on how they played in 2007. Most of the starters + depth were coming back. Not sure what happened in the S&C program during last offseason but the only guy with any sort of excuse for coming in a bit out of shape was Garcia due to his foot injury. If these guys take the offseasons workout seriously (and from all accounts they are) it would not surprise me to see them get back to the line of 2007, which was more than adequate to be a bowl team with really good coaching. Ikehara is going to be key. If he is as good as we have heard then we should be on good shape with line calls, etc.
Ikehara
Supposedly he would have played had Garcia not been able to go. The old staff thought he had a bright future. That being said, everyone gets a clean slate. Spring ball should be really interesting, I can’t wait to see how everything shakes out.
Yep...
…there’s a reason why the former strength coach was fired too. I realize of course it’s as much just Sark wanting to have his guy in there.
Ikehara
I predict that Ikehara will end up being a four year starter at Center.
by John Berkowitz on Feb 2, 2009 1:31 PM PST up reply actions
agreed vegasdawg
I’m from auburn washington and living in hawaii now, i saw sum of our husky team and there we’re some doughey flabby guys there i was shocked,the only two out of the 22 or so of them was roy lewis,steelers and dan howell,some of the lineman we’re shocking.
Agreed
I had mentioned early in the season (Oregon game i believe) that our O-Linemen looked like the Pilsbury Dough Boy. They didnt seem to have any muscle definition. Look at USC, Oklahoma, Flordia…look at their O-Line, they look like really big linebackers. They are stacked! Not only did we look pudgy, our uniforms were falling off their bodies…they just looked god awful out there. Hopefully this new strength coach can get us back to at least looking the part and Sark and Co can get us back to playing the part.
Really?
Assuming they are in shape:
LT – Ossai (Same)
LG Tolar (Same)
C – Ikehara (Garcia – give you that)
RG Mafoe/Shugert (Bulyca – if Mafoe makes it in from reports this will be a wash?)
RT Habben (Macklin – wash to me)
Only place we are weaker would be Center. Am I missing something? My memory isn’t what is used to be!
Would also add coaching
Coach M should be a nice upgrade. Maybe I am being a homer but I think this line has the chance to be every bit as good as 2007.
Where will we be stronger at?
I guess that is the point. The OL needs a lot of improvement and where is that going to be coming from?
Coaching, strength, and conditioning?
All good factors but they really need some help with talent.
by John Berkowitz on Feb 2, 2009 1:35 PM PST up reply actions
I didn't say stronger
I said equal to 2007 – not that the line in ’07 was all that great but they got the job done. Obviously a healthy Jake Locker and finding a go to guy at RB will go a long way. I just think the line this year with a good S&C program in the offseason plus better coaching has a chance to be as good as that group, which should be good enough for a bowl if the other side of the ball gets put back together and we stay relatively healthy.
Too hard to tell
The line is a big weak spot. Yes, they are big, but their weight, strength and speed is completely lacking. On paper, it is easy to think this group should be okay based on weight, but the problem is that the weight was all in the wrong place (their bellies). This group needs to get in the weight room and work their legs and get in better cardio shape. Further, our new coach needs to help them with their footwork. I cant tell you how many times I saw Habben on his butt last year b/c he was off balance.
Red Shirts
What do you think the chances are Sark and Co. will do some red shirting this year to make up for last years fiasco of playing guys before they were ready physically? He probably has a grace period this season (not high expectations as far as a bowl game). Gives him a chance to let the program catch up on the maturity Willingham lost last year.
Thoughts?
Really depends on the kids and if they buy in. It’s hard to get a kid that played as a Freshman to voluntarily sit-out a year unless he’s hurt. But for this new coaching staff and to build for the future, I suppose it’s possible. I just wouldn’t count on it happening.
Now a kid like Daily, his shoulder injury might be a blessing in disguise as it may be the excuse the staff needs to sell him on redshirting this year.
Louis Rankin
I think it also helped having Louis running the rock that year and remember Jake got almost 1000 yards to boot.
YesJjake and Rankin covered up some deficiencies.... but...
Our guys were totally overmatched all season. It wasn’t until the Apple Cup that I saw glimpses of hope, and that was against an even worse..in my opinion Coug team.
The spring game is going to be a barometer as to who is buying in and who needs to go away. If we start seeing some muscle definition and better footwork, then we might see an improvement that has to happen if we are going to make any strides this year. It all starts and finishes on the line. There isn’t a quarterback or running back alive that could have succeeded much given what was in front of them last season. What a shame how our teams digressed each of the last two years, as they did from September to December.
I'm seeing...
…good things strictly based on competition. There are very few guys who can say they’re going to “start” next season. I think the whole team will benefit because of this.
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