Washington enters spring practice a little light at QB. The Huskies only have three scholarship QB's and one of them could be destined for another position.
Last year was a complete nightmare for Jake Locker. The injury he suffered early in the fourth game of the season put the Huskies into a slide they have not yet emerged from.
Locker has been labeled as the next Tim Tebow but entering his junior season he has a lot of ground to make up to live to that type of comparison. Locker has great wheels and was actually improved as far as accuracy was concerned last season in the small sampling we had. Missing most of camp with a pulled hamstring didn't allow him to bond with his receivers as much as the coaches would have liked in the time that he did play.
The biggest plus for Locker this off season was the hiring of Steve Sarkisian and Doug Nussmeier. Jake now gets to work with two of the best QB coaches in the country. To say Locker has not gotten proper position coaching up to now is an understatement. Expect light years of improvement between now and September.
Locker is currently throwing the ball at the Dempsey and his thumb is supposedly coming along well. Sarkisian sasys he expects him to be at 100% by spring practice.
Steve Sarkisian runs a pro-style offense, which means the Pac-10's best running quarterback now needs to be a pass-first quarterback. He'll line up primarily under center, instead of the shotgun, and he'll be asked to use play-action instead of the read-option.
The new scheme will help prepare him for running an NFL offense in the future, but he'll need to improve his 48.7 career completion percentage to make that happen.
Count on Nussmeier and Sarkisian to mold him into the QB he is supposed to be. We are talking about two of the best in the business when it comes to mentoring young QB's.
Ronnie Fouch filled in the best he could last season but did not get the job done. The offense simply stalled under his command and he wasn't able to make things happen. The lack of experience at the other skill positions and poor offensive line play didn't allow him to get much started.
Before the season began I suspected that Fouch would start at least one year during his career. I think that season was last year. I don't see him beating out whoever is around when Locker graduates.
Like Locker he is going to get the first good coaching of his college life this spring. Hopefully he will be able to take advantage of the opportunity. Obviously if Locker goes down again Fouch will be the man running the offense next season.
One thing about Fouch is that he is pretty quick study. He should have no problem picking up the new offense before spring ball.
Luther Leonard spent his first season as a QB but the old staff planned to move him elsewhere this spring. The new coaches know what they are looking for in a QB and if Leonard isn't it they will make the switch sooner than later. The kid is a good athlete and with only three scholarship QB's on the roster he will get a chance to show what he can do this spring before possibly moving.
Recruits
Keith Price is going to be a very good quarterback. He might even end up being better than Matt Barkley who came from the same league and was the #1 HS QB recruit in the nation last year.
Price wasn't really on the recruiting radar his junior season. He opened eyes in camps up and down the West coast last summer. After that he backed it up with an excellent senior year which got him offers all over the region. Oregon thought that Price was a perfect fit for their system. I think he will be a player to watch at Washington.