Dots: the Halfway Point

Welcome to the halfway point, my Husky friends. Let’s start these Monday Dots off right with a little adorableness that cannot be denied.

With Dubs in the house, practice #8 has already kicked off at the time of this drafting. The eighth practice is obviously the halfway point in the spring and provides us an interesting opportunity to assess what we know and what we don’t about how the team is progressing as well as to take stock of the questions that we thought had to be answered to start the spring.

I’m not an insider and I don’t have “eyes and ears” on the facility. All I can do is what you do: pay attention to the news and try to put together the pieces that are filtered through to us via media reports.

My impressions?

1. The backup QB battle isn’t much of a battle at this point. Jake Haener is the clear leader in the #2 sweepstakes. However, I can’t help but to be impressed with what I hear both Jacob Sirmon and Colson Yankoff are doing in closing the gap. It does raise the question as to what we might see as far as a competition in the fall.
2. I know that the offensive line is going through changes and missing a big bookend, but am I the only one feeling a little bit of concern about the reports we are hearing? I’m glad that UW has all of a sudden found a remarkable pass rush, but how much of that is the o-line not being as far along as we might have expected?
3. Our running back depth may be better than we had presumed as both Sean McGrew and Kamari Pleasant accumulate good days behind Salvon Ahmed and Myles Gaskin.

What do you think? What are your spring impressions so far? As you ponder that, let’s jump into some Dots.

Football Dots

• The UW Daily has a good recap from last Friday’s practice that included these little tidbits:
  ... Chris Petersen is not happy with the details (shocking)
  ... Nick Harris is getting slotted as the #1 center (we all saw that coming)
  ... Aaron Fuller is the early favorite to take over Dante Pettis’ punt returner duties
  ... There continues to be no controversy about who is the #2 QB (at least not yet)
• Linebacker is quickly becoming a position of interest among UW fans, and not just because Ben Burr-Kirven cut his hair. The move of Tevis Bartlett to the inside along with questions around the health of both D.J. Beavers and Brandon Wellington have prompted some moving of pieces and opportunity creation for some of UW’s less known names.
• Injury recovery has been a big theme so far this spring. Players such as Trey Adams, Jordan Miller, Chico McClatcher, Austin Joyner, Quinten Pounds, and D.J. Beavers are all in various states of recovery as the staff works to get all of them ready for the season ahead. The big news from last week is that Chris Petersen is not yet sure that Adams will be ready to start the season. Shall we panic now or finish our morning lattes first?
• Jon Wilner is back to being his provocative self today.
• Those of you still wondering about what happened to K.J. Carta-Samuels and his last-second ditching of UCLA in favor of Colorado State need look no further than the current Bruins depth chart, especially starter Devon Modster.

Non-Football Dots

• The #8 Huskies Gymnastics team is punching its ticket to their second straight national championship after their second-place finish in last weekend’s regionals.

• The #1 Huskies softball team (39-2) is now in sole possession of first place in the PAC 12 standings after a weekend sweep of Utah, including a dramatic win in the series finale as well as a perfect game thrown by pitcher Gabbie Plain on Saturday. That perfect game, paired with the perfecto thrown by baseball pitcher Joe DeMers in February, put UW in the record book as the only school in NCAA history to repeat the feat across both baseball and softball in the same season.

• Did you know that UW had a beach volleyball team? That is kind of like ASU having a hockey team: strange but true. The Huskies were in contention for the Queens Cup but lost to #3 Hawaii in straight sets this past weekend.