Huskies Aren't Treating Their Cornerbacks With Kid Gloves

The UW coverage guys are learning how to play without holding.

Thaddeus Dixon started one game in 2023 at corner. / Skylar Lin Visuals

It is hoped this next University of Washington football team can take a punch and stay on its feet during its first time around the Big Ten.

Yet these Huskies, under no circumstances, will they hold during pass coverage, an edict in which boxing gloves are being used to stress this point.

For the past couple of practices, UW cornerbacks have laced up as if they were heavyweight boxers, or at least light heavyweights, stepping into the ring, only in this case they've been pulling on these leather mitts on the football field in order to prevent them from holding opposing receivers on game day.

"What our discipline is with holding, you can't hold at all," Husky senior corner Thaddeus Dixon said. "We're making sure we get our hands in and out."

On Thursday, 10 different defensive backs put on gloves, trusted in their footwork and went one-on-one with UW wide receivers. The roll call: Darren Barkins, Rahshawn Clark, Elijah Jackson, Elias Johnson, Anay Nagarajan, Caleb Presley, Ephesians Prysock, Curley Reed III, Jordan Shaw and Dixon.

Boxing gloves became part of the Husky football program through Ben Creamer, who holds the title of director of sports science on Jedd Fisch's staff and is described as somewhat of a fight afficionado.

"I like to get there with him," Dixon said of mixing it up with Creamer.

During spring ball, Creamer had offensive linemen Landen Hatchett and Gaard Memmelaar, each coming off knee surgery and prevented from taking part in team contact drills, outfitted in gloves and sparring with a team staffer in the end zone to give them a non-invasive workout.

Now the Husky cornerbacks are running around the middle of practice ready to throw a sucker punch but instructed not to get suckered into holding.

“Just trying to make sure we play with our feet -- that’s something we must do as DBs,” UW cornerbacks coach John Richardson said. “Your hands are a byproduct of using your feet at DB. We just try to overemphasize that and hopefully it makes us better on game day.”

Better, tougher, maybe even more fearless.

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