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Jedd Fisch surprisingly says his roster is nearly full, with commits not revealed.
The University of Washington spring football game played out under overcast and windy conditions, not the 70 degrees and sunshine as one hopeful Montlake meteorologist in a coach’s headset predicted.
Crowd estimates were something close to 15,000 rather than double that total as hoped — but this still represented one of the Huskies’ better spring game turnouts in decades.
And Teddy Purcell was the first Husky quarterback to lead a scoring drive, directing the Purple team 50 yards in five plays for freshman Adam Mohammed’s 3-yard touchdown run, points set up by Purcell’s looping 41-yard pass to Denzel Boston.
Purcell?
On Friday night, not everything went exactly to script as new coach Jedd Fisch wrapped up his first spring ball, but he seemed satisfied by what took place over 48 minutes of play, 12 fewer than a regulation game.
With the scoring format not fully explained, his Purple team took a 24-23 victory on Grady Gross’ game-ending 30-yard field goal — with all of the kicker’s teammates, both on offense and defense, out on the field and crowded around him, so close they could have reached out and touched him before the snap.
Afterward, Fisch said progress was made over 15 practices and he somewhat surprisingly added that his Husky roster was nearly complete, though that would mean several transfers have yet to be announced and it might not happen for some time, with new players not signing scholarship papers until June 17. Maybe they just don’t have Twitter accounts or friends on the recruiting websites.
“I’m excited to see how good we can get this summer,” Fisch said. “I think we have some commits we can’t comment on. We’re pretty close to having our roster full. We’re pretty close to having 85 scholarships.”
With recently drafted Michael Penix Jr. in town for this spring wind-up and hiding under a hoodie until a Pac-12 Network camera revealed his presence, his Husky QB replacements Will Rogers and Demond Williams Jr. were less than sharp at the outset as they had to get used to the gusts coming in off Lake Washington.
Leave it to the third QB on the roster, the 6-foot-1, 186-pound Purcell, a junior walk-on from San Francisco, to make the most of his first big chance to run the offense with people watching from the stands after three seasons in the program shadows. His previous claim to fame was making the travel squad to a number of UW games in previous seasons but not playing.
With this Purple drive beginning on the 50, Purcell took the second snap and sent a looping pass to Boston, who got behind Arizona junior transfer cornerback Ephesians Prysock and hauled it in for a 41-yard gainer to the 6. Two plays later, Mohammed scored. This sort of was payback for Prysock earlier intercepting a Rogers pass meant for Boston in the end zone.
On the following series, the Purple team scored again when senior cornerback Thaddeus Dixon, one of the spring’s top performers and pushing hard for a starting job, stepped in front of a Williams pass for an interception and weaved 41 yards through the defense to the end zone.
Gross closed out the opening half with a 34-yard field goal for the White team without the peanut gallery surrounding him for a 14-6 Purple lead, with all of that point distribution still not fully explained.
The second half was much more offensive-minded as Rogers ended the first drive with a 28-yard touchdown strike to Boston, who got open after he turned around redshirt freshman cornerback Leroy Bryant at the goal line.
For entertainment purposes only, senior linebacker Carson Bruener twice was given the opportunity to broaden his football skill set in ways you won’t see during the regular season. Play was stopped when Bruener engaged in a field-goal-kicking contest with Boston, winning it with a 30-yard boot through the uprights while the wide receiver shanked his attempt.
Moments later when regular play resumed — sort of — Bruener lined up on offense with the White team, took an end-around pitch and dropped a flat pass the other way to running back Jonah Coleman on a play that covered 38 yards to the 11, with fellow linebacker and Bruener’s good friend Drew Fowler giving chase for the Purple.
Williams got untracked on this drive by finding California transfer wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter with a 6-yard TD pass in the back of the end zone, just over the hands of redshirt freshman cornerback Curley Reed.
With 3:20 left to play, Gross converted on a 42-yard field goal to put the White ahead 23-21.
Rogers next calmly moved his team 70 yards up the field, using walk-ons such as redshirt freshman running back Ryder Bumgarner and redshirt freshman wide receiver Luke Luchini to move into scoring position. He showed his veteran presence in getting Gross another chance to kick one.
Besides Penix, former UW starters from last season in safety Asa Turner and offensive guard Nate Kalepo, who transferred to SEC schools Florida and Mississippi, respectively, were in attendance, mixing with old teammates.
For most fans, they came out curious to see what the Huskies have in terms of talent following last season’s 14-1 run to the national championship game and subsequent roster turnover. With a lot of manpower apparently committed but not revealed, according to the coach, this team is expected to be much different, to be better, once fall camp opens.
“We’ll be good,” promised Coleman, the Arizona transfer. “I’m not worried. It’s a process.”
Someone still better tell him that flat passes from Bruener are not part of it.
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