Inside The Huskies

Looming Husky RB Battle Has Everyone, Newton Included, Rife with Anticipation

The UW is not short on experienced and talented runner as fall camp nears.

Dan Raley

Looming Husky RB Battle Has Everyone, Newton Included, Rife with Anticipation
Looming Husky RB Battle Has Everyone, Newton Included, Rife with Anticipation /

Richard Newton made the Doak Walker Award watch list a year ago, and then after two games all he did was watch.

The year before, the University of Washington running back captivated everyone by scoring 11 times as redshirt freshman and even throwing a touchdown pass in the Las Vegas Bowl.

With the 6-foot, 215-pound sophomore from Lancaster, California, you never quite know what you're going to get from him — but that's part of the allure. 

Newton has shown both the ability to break a long one, swiftly going 54 yards to score against Arizona, and run over people in the open field, as he did in the spring game with a crashing 15-yard TD run, as shown in the above photo and the below video.

While he's been both ahead of and behind schedule, it's time for him to settle in and be the No. 1 UW back for the first time. He seems properly motivated, as his recent tweet indicates.

"I've never been more ready in my life."

The Husky running back job, and how it shakes out this fall, will be one of the more captivating position battles up and down the Husky lineup.

Newton, for his pure physicality and ample touchdown production, seems to be the fan favorite to finally assume the bulk of the rushing load for a run-minded Husky offense. Camp opens on Friday. The big back celebrated his birthday on Thursday. He appears more mature about all of this. 

While Jimmy Lake has worn that infamous hat that said, "Run the Damn Ball," Newton should have that message stitched across the back of his jersey in big, bold letters. 

Yet he's going to have to earn everything he gets. The competition will be stiff for Saturday carries. But if Newton runs like he did on May 1, he should be pulling more duty than his peers next month against Montana, Michigan and a host of coming opponents.

However, no one is going to just hand him the lead role. 

Redshirt freshman Cameron Davis, a 6-foot, 205-pound redshirt freshman and another ovelry physical back, ran as the No. 1 back throughout spring practice and the coaches talked him up as much as they did Newton.

Then, of course, there are sixth-year seniors Sean McGrew and Kamari Pleasant, both returning two-game starters from the short 2020 season of all of four outings. McGrew has even earned a spot on the Doak Walker Award list, which is given out to the nation's most outstanding running back and not always a football kiss of death as it was for Newton. They didn't come back to sit and watch.

We're not done.

During the spring, Texas running back Jay'Veon Sunday made it abundantly clear that he's ready to play, running hard and showing off a lot. While the Husky defense simmered over some at his high-stepping antics, he didn't seem to care one whit what those guys thought. He's not looking for approval, just playing time.

Never been more ready?

Newton is going to need all of that mindset and more to be the lead dog in the UW backfield.

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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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