Inside The Huskies

What We Found After Examining the UW Quarterbacks' Videotapes

Some trends and clues popped out from the school-released media of Thursday's scrimmage while coach Jimmy Lake continues to keep the competition secret.

Dan Raley

What We Found After Examining the UW Quarterbacks' Videotapes
What We Found After Examining the UW Quarterbacks' Videotapes /

The University of Washington's four-man quarterback competition continues to play out behind closed doors, with outsiders left to pore over school-released videos and images released on Twitter for any hints or clues of what's going on.

Eight days from the opener at California — and coach Jimmy Lake says he won't reveal the starter before then — here's where everything stands. Again, a lot of it is speculation. Or detective work.  

If Kevin Thomson isn't the starter, it will be shocking.

Jacob Sirmon, at least for now, appears to be his back-up.

For those of you already anointing Sam Huard as the uncontested Husky franchise quarterback beginning next season, Ethan Garbers no doubt finds that very offensive and will have a say in it.

All three of these guys were captured in Thursday videos posted by the team, throwing touchdowns in the final camp scrimmage, looking poised in their cinematic moments.

Dylan Morris was not shown.

So how did we come to any conclusions and seemingly rank these guys?

It boils down mostly to who's catching each quarterback's passes.

Thomson found Ty Jones (88) for a score. Jones has been and will be a starter. No doubt one of the Huskies' leading receivers. The Sacramento State transfer quarterback has been shown throwing only to prospective first-teamers.

To be fair, Thomson appeared to be working with the second-team Husky offensive line on that play. Young linemen Nate Kalepo (71), Corey Luciano (74) and Matteo Mele (78), plus freshman tight end Mark Redman (81), came into view on the video.

Here's the clip. Take a look. 

Sirmon, with his long flowing hair peeking out of his helmet, drilled his scoring pass to Redman, that 6-foot-6, 245-pound freshman tight end from Newport Beach, California.

What's most revealing here is it appears Redman has received an overabundance of opportunity to show what he can do and corresponding camp media footage. There's no denying that. 

Redman likely is one of the young guys making a big move up the depth chart that Lake doesn't want Cal to know. This rookie isn't going to displace tight end honors candidate Cade Otton, but he's probably giving veterans Devin Culp and Jack Westover a good run for playing time. 

On Sirmon's video moment, the following linemen all came into view: Troy Fautanu (55), Kalepo (71), Luciano (74) and Julius Buelow (77), all projected second-teamers.

The difference in Thomson and Sirmon videos, in most cases, remains the receiver. Thomson seems to work mostly with expected first-teamers. Sirmon deals with more of a mix. So are they 1-2 on the depth chart?

Take a look at Sirmon here.

Garbers showed nice pocket presence and a decent touch in finding fellow freshman Jaden McMillan on a deep route for a touchdown. 

Huard, were you watching?

However, Garbers was shown working with tight end Zeke Pelluer (39) and offensive linemen Noah Hellyer (62) and Will Pliska (69), all walk-ons, which probably translates to the third- or even fourth-string Husky offense. 

Not surprising, this freshman QB, so new to the program with so much to learn, is working well down the depth chart. Here's his Thursday TD lob. 

As for Morris, without any highlights to be found from the Thursday scrimmage, he might have fallen out of the competition. 

As Jimmy Lake has said more than once in recent weeks, the video doesn't lie. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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