Dozen Husky Football Observations After Dozen Practices

The UW reaches the unoffical halfway mark of fall camp.

Keith Reynolds has been a UW fall camp standout so far. / Skylar Lin Visuals

A dozen practices into fall camp, the University of Washington football team is now quite a ways down the road in figuring out how much firepower it has assembled, this after finishing as the national runner-up, undergoing a coaching change, replacing more than half of the scholarship players on the roster and officially joining the Big Ten.

On an overcast yet warm Wednesday morning in Montlake, we settled on a dozen observations to commemorate this practice milestone, which comes two and a half weeks before the season opener against Weber State, which means just 10 days of competition remain before game preparation takes over.

1) Foremost, the Huskies are not the 83rd team in the country and the worst Big Ten entry as forecast by FOX Sports' RJ Young, a man who apparently got through school without ever once doing his homework, only ad-libbing. All he likely knows is the Huskies are returning just two starters and nothing more. While Jedd Fisch's team likely won't push for a College Football Playoff berth this season, it still appears on track for something resembling an 8-win season and a bowl game.

2) Settling on a starting offensive line remains the No. 1 priority for Fisch's staff, especially after last weekend's 120-play scrimmage brought just a handful of touchdowns over two and a half hours. On Wednesday, an interesting development had sophomore center Landen Hatchett, who is coming off a knee injury and resulting surgery, working out of the left guard spot at times.

3) The competition among the Husky safeties appears extremely high right now, with sixth-year senior Kam Fabiculanan and Sacramento State transfer Cameron Broussard, a first-team All-Big Sky selection last season, more often operating as the first-teamers. However, Oklahoma transfer Justin Harrington seems eager to show what he can do -- he took freshma n kick returner Jason Robinson Jr. off his feet with a big hit on Wednesday when a wrap-up tackle was all that was warranted and Harrington was loudly admonished for his overaggressive play by a Husky coach, who probably secretly enjoyed it.

4) Redshirt freshman Caleb Presley, relatively inactive for much of fall camp with some sort of physical ailment, if not the bulk of his UW career, showed up on Wednesday in a big way by deflecting a pass intended for Denzel Boston, using a noticeable burst to get in position to make the play and slapping it away with a loud thud. Presley also served as a dummy kick returner in special-teams drills.

5) Prepare to see freshman quarterback Demond Williams Jr. run the football a lot when Fisch's staff gives him his first game time, likely against Weber State in the opener. In Wednesday's practice, the fleet-footed Williams scrambled four times in eight snaps, picking up anywhere from 6 to 20 yards each time. Fisch says he has no limitation on how much Williams can run.

6) If the Huskies had to play a game this weekend, Portland State transfer D'Angalo Titialii would be the starting center. The 6-foot-2, 320-pound senior from Auburn, Washington, played in 32 games for his Big Sky team and started 28, including at left guard against the UW in 2022 in a 52-6 loss for him in Seattle.

7) Was Peyton Manning in the house? As the Husky defense got in position for a Wednesday scrimmage play, a UW linebacker yelled out "Omaha! Omaha!"

8) As players went through stretching exercises on Wednesday, a staffer brought a cell phone to Husky defensive-line coach Jason Kaufusi, who proceeded to face-time a recruit, lightheartedly kidding the prospect, showing him the practice scene and all of the players behind him, and flashing a W, or dubs-up sign, when getting off the call.

9) One of the more interesting teaching moments came early in practice with defensive coordinator Steve Belichick demonstrating to touted edge rusher Zach Durfee how to fight through a blocker with a noticeable dip and following forearm shiver. Durfee was all eyes in watching this.

10) Redshirt freshman Keith Reynolds has been a camp standout so far, showing a lot of speed and catching multiple passes while running with the second-team offense. In the weekend scrimmage, Demond Williams Jr. threw three consecutive completions to him in as many plays.

11) Redshirt freshman receiver Rashid Williams, who missed the first two weeks of practice presumably with some sort of injury, caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Demond Williams Jr. late in Wednesday's practice, continuing his average of getting his hands on a TD throw nearly every practice since his return.

12) Where's Russell Davis II? The Arizona transfer, experienced junior edge rusher and son of a former Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Russell Davis was singled out by Fisch prior to fall camp for putting on 20 pounds yet he hasn't practiced or watched the team practice. However, the Huskies seem to have reached a point where most players on the roster are fairly healthy and involved in practice.

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