Wednesday Dots: The End of the World

Six o’clock, Dots hour, don’t get caught in foreign tower

Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn

Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting

Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate

Washington fans have been down about the camp injuries to Jalen McMillan and Daniel Heimuli, as well as the decommitment of recruit Ben Roberts, but here are a few reasons to think the sky might not be falling:

• Though I’m as high on McMillan and (especially) Heimuli as anyone, they entered camp as backups to returning starters. The loss of depth hurts, but all teams lose rotation players and the Dawgs still have strong options in both parts of the field.
• As tough as the recent recruiting losses have been, remember that we’re seeing a class of players who have had fewer campus visits, fewer camps, fewer in-home coach visits, and less overall facetime. Volatility is inevitable. Of course, it would be preferable to be on the other side of some of the volatility, but UW’s method has worked for longer than it hasn’t.
• Washington is coming off an abbreviated season in which they won three of four conference games despite featuring new faces at Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator, and QB. We’ll see how much the first two have grown, but the practice reports on Dylan Morris have me very excited to see him in competition again.
• Most, or maybe all, of UW’s current issues have a lot to do with the coaching staff’s lack of a track record. If they perform up to my expectations this year, that unknown will become a positive.

If Washington gets to the Stanford-Oregon-Arizona St. part of the schedule at 6-1 or 7-0, we won’t be thinking about fall camp knee sprains or waffling high school linemen. All in all, September 4th can’t come soon enough.

• If you’re the type of person who wants to wallow in the despair of something you can’t change, Mike Vorel has a very thoughtful piece on what Roberts and the recent uptick in decommitments has to say about Jimmy Lake and the UW program.

• Christian Caple gives the issue his own treatment and phrases it as an “Oregon problem.”

• Vorel was busy on Tuesday. He also had notes from the spring’s 11th practice.

• ESPN lists the most likely Heisman contender for each preseason Top 25 team. UW’s entry is... Jaxson Kirkland? I guess that’s a roundabout way of saying UW won’t win the Heisman this year.