Huskies Get Through Second Workout, Ready to Pull on Pads

Coach Jedd Fisch had to send out a remember when practice was at a low energy level.

Cam Davis takes a ball punch from a UW staff member. / Skylar Lin Visuals

The University of Washington football team was midway through its second fall practice without pads or scrimmage play -- and running at a low energy level -- when the Huskies received a couple of adrenaline shots.

First coach Jedd Fisch interrupted a punt drill to pointedly call for a better effort from some of his guys who were going through the motions: "You have to have the mentality to get in the game or you won't play!"

Fifteen minutes later at 11 a.m., four Blue Angels fight jets tightly packed in formation came screaming low over Husky Stadium with a thunderous roar, made people look skyward and jolted everyone with yet another wake-up call.

With two practices heavy on fundamentals and admittedly leaning to drudgery fully complete, the Huskies now put on the pads on Friday on a day in which the UW, Oregon, USC and UCLA officially will becomes members of the Big Ten, a milestone not lost on Fisch.

"We're in the Big Ten as of tomorrow so we have to get big," the coach reminded his players while encouraging them to take advantage of a full set of daily meals made available to them. "You've got to eat breakfast and not just a muffin."

During the UW's second two-hour workout, UW players rotated between drills in Husky Stadium and the East practice field. Music was ever present, but more often played at muted levels to keep concentration levels up. Fisch walked around with his chin in his hand, taking mental notes.

The Husky coach watched quarterback Will Rogers, the Mississippi State transfer, take more direct snaps at the line of scrimmage than he's used to and find Giles Jackson on three consecutive pass plays.

He saw beefy 6-foot-2, 368-pound defensive lineman Logan Sagapolu, a Miami transfer, hustle as much as he could to finish last in practice-ending sprints run across the width of the field yet meet a 19-second time limit that prevented him and his teammates from having to run more.

With a handful of players presumably nursing muscle pulls and either in or out of uniform as they interacted with trainers, offensive tackle Maximus McCree, the Maryland and Iowa Central CC transfer, wound up flat on his back and attended to by three trainers before he was able to get to his feet and walk off.

D'Angalo Titialii and Drew Azzopardi, transfers from Portland State and San Diego State, respectively, go through a UW blocking drill. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Sophomore safety Tristan Dunn notably was missing in action with no ready explanation because the team didn't conduct any media interviews on Tuesday or Wednesday. In two seasons, Dunn has appeared in 19 Husky games, including all 15 last season, each in a reserve capacity.

To begin the week, Fisch told how fall camp wouldn't have any distractions while he got the team ready for its Aug. 31 season opener against Weber State. Consequently, only a handful of media members, a couple of players' fathers and a stray person here or there have watched practice each day. No fans are filling the stands and creating a buzz or stalking the sidelines as a VIP visitor while the Huskies go through well-scripted workouts.

The UW football coach memorably told how this training camp wouldn't be an easy one, that the goal for his players was to have them engage in seven hours of meetings per day, three hours of practice, an hour of walk-through, three hours of meals and then for his players to go home. There was more.

"You don't go home and play 25 all night," Fisch said, referring to the recently released and poplar EA college football video game. "It's not going to help us win."

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