Pre-Spring Mailbag, Part II

OzDawg asks:  With the Miles and Williams going is there any chance that Eason may reconsider?

GlendaleDawg also wonders:  Since Jacob Eason is still receiving offers (e.g. UCLA), and seams to be at least somewhat excited about it, what are your thoughts on his reconsidering the commitment he made to Georgia?

Chris: I don't have any inside information on the recruitment of Skinny Eason nor have I been privy to any new rumors concerning his interests and leanings.  It is somewhat unusual, however, for young elite QBs who do decide to make early commitments to major programs, as Eason did with Georgia, to rescind that commitment later in the cycle.  While it may be more common with other positions, it just seems that QB trends are different.  More often than not, the early committing QB becomes a bit of a pied piper for the rest of that recruiting class.

This isn't to say that Chris Petersen doesn't still have a chance.  The mere fact that the recruitment continues in spite of what we know about this staff's philosophy towards not expending resources on PSAs who don't share in their interest says something.  But I'm not holding my breath.

TheBigOz inquires:  What has happened to Jeff Lindquist ? How does a four star Elite 11 athlete end up signaling in plays ? It's like the coaches have given up on him. What do they see in practice that they are not telling us?

DawgFan asks:  This is obviously all speculation but if you had to put a percentage on lindquist, kjcs, and browning % starting game 1 what would it look like?

OsidePup checks in:  This season UW will have either a Jr. who earns the starting QB job (outright), or either a RS Fr. or a true Fr. When was the last time (if ever in the case of the freshmen) that has happened, whatever the outcome?

Chris: A couple of Lindquist related questions that I think I can answer in one response.

Lindquist came into UW the same year as Cyler Miles.  Though he was also an Elite 11 participant, he wasn't as highly rated as Miles in part because of the type of offense that he ran at Mercer Island.  When he was recruited - and he was borderline 3 or 4 star - he was thought of more as a pocket passer with plus arm strength but minus delivery and footwork.  Ironically, he was recruited by Boise State but not offered (I do not believe).

Reading between the lines here has led me to the conclusion that Jeff has had a longer learning curve than some of the other QBs.  This is complicated by the fact that there was a midstream coaching switch.  Like Cyler, I think Jeff came in with a slow delivery mechanism and, (perhaps) unlike Cyler, he has tried to endure the process of breaking it down and building it back up again.  Speculative or not, the end result of what we've seen on the field is a hesitant, inaccurate passer.

The flip side of this is that, in Lindquist, UW does have a strong work-ethic and physically gifted kind of player who certainly possesses the mental makeup to be a leader for the Huskies.  If I had to put good money down, I'd bet on Lindquist being the first QB to see action for UW for the second straight season.  He's a known commodity whose floor is well-understood and whose upside is still attainable.

As to when UW has regularly played freshmen QBs, the truth is that is hasn't been that often, though it hasn't been unheard of.  Just off the top of my head, I know that Maques Tuiasosopo, Ronnie Fouch, Brock Huard and Jake Locker all started as freshmen.  To my knowledge, Tui is the only true freshman to have ever started a game at QB for UW.

JohnRudolph08 queries:  There is a lot of hype surrounding KJ Carta-Samuels with, from my perspective, very little concrete evidence to back it up. I remember hearing a similar buzz around Cyler Miles when Keith Price was having a bad day. Can you elaborate on why so many people are high on KJ despite never having seen him take a snap?

JDKE wonders:  Based solely on high school numbers, it seems like Jake Browning has astronomical potential. But it seems unlikely that he would win the job. The problem is that if the job is given to a RS Freshman in KJCS, it seems like it would be his job for the next 4 years, leaving Browning with only one year to start as a 5th year senior . What is the precedent for a QB to win the job as a RS Freshman, perform adequately well (hopefully), then lose the job to another RS Freshman the following year?

Chris: More QB discussion.  This blog has been chock full of dialogue and debate about QB since even before Cyler Miles took his leave.  Much of it has focused on the two young guys because, as JR08 notes above, everybody loves the signal caller that they've never seen on the field.  It's human nature to presume that everybody on the bench is a star until proven otherwise.

As noted above, I'm not counting on either KJ Carta-Samuels or Jake Browning to be a starter in 2015.  However, I'm also not naive enough to think that one - or both - won't see action.  We are talking about the sack-happy Pac 12 and a very green UW offensive line, after all.  The reality is that the best QB will get the chance to rise to the top and, if last year's situation with Ohio State tells us anything, the best talent will eventually break through.

I wouldn't worry too much about who gets blocked in the depth chart and when somebody might transfer.  It is expected that Chris Petersen will be bringing in a stud QB every year from here on out.  It is within each player's control to take the coaching and seize the opportunity to compete for playing time.  If any of them choose to transfer out sometime in the future, there will be another bright young player to take his place.  It is simply the nature of QB in college football today.  UW is fortunate to be in a position to attract the good ones year in and year out.

Ryan Priest opines:  When am I getting a raise, Landon?

Chris: Sometime between when the Cuogs next go to the Rose Bowl and when pigs orbit the earth.

Dawgy Dawg needs to know:  If you had to make an educated guess now, what five guys start on the O line against BSU?

Chris: If I had to make an educated guess, I'd be SOL.  I never got the syllabus and my tutor bailed on me so that she could go eat pizza and smoke legal weed down at her boyfriend's apartment down by Green Lake.

However, if I were to make an uneducated guess, I'd start with what I know.  First, there are two guys on the line with starting experience in OG Dexter Charles and OT Coleman Shelton.  The latter being one who was thought highly enough of to have started as a RS freshmen last season.  Second, there are two more upperclassmen in Shane Brostek and Siosifa Tufunga who have seen notable playing time in their careers.  Third, Petersen recently stated publicly that he had a high confidence in the O-Linemen that he's had access to over the past 16 months.  Finally, there is a strong bias towards "big and long" in Chris Strausser's view of the ideal o-linemen.

With that, I'd have to guess that the starting five could well be Charles, Shelton, Tufunga, Brostek and OT Jake Eldrenkamp. All of them are upper classmen, they seem to fit the physical profile, they've had plenty of bankable reps and there is ample gameday experience there.

The problems with this guess, however, are many.  First, there is no true Center in that group.  Second, there are some other contenders like Dane Crane, John Turner, Jesse Sosebee and Kaleb McGary who all have some unique capabilities and attributes.  Third, I generally have no clue what I'm talking about.

So, there you go.