Jimmy Lake Speaks at Pac-12 Media Day
HOLLYWOOD – At 8 a.m. Tuesday morning Jimmy Lake was ready to have some fun.
Joined by cornerback Trent McDuffie and left tackle Jaxson Kirkland, along with University of Washington athletic director Jennifer Cohen, Lake ran the gamut at Pac-12 Media Day.
Split between speaking at the podium and meeting with a small pool of traditional reporters the Huskies head coach shared a handful of updates regarding new additions, injured players from spring practices and the percentage of vaccinated players.
Entering this week UW has 100 percent of its football staff vaccinated and near 95 percent of the football team vaccinated. With nearly the entire roster vaccinated the chances of the team being in a forfeiture situation due to high number of cases is unlikely.
For Lake and Co., it’s business as usual again.
“We’re extremely excited about having a normal training camp, again opening up, having the media and fans come and watch us play,” Lake said. “It’s been a long time. The Seattle area loves their football. They want to come see us, I know that.”
This spring UW allowed a limited number of fans to attend practices, including the first real Spring Game, after not allowing fans previously under former head coach Chris Petersen.
When the team does take the field again in early August it will feature one of the more talented, deeper rosters the program has had in recent years on both sides of the ball. Despite playing only four games in 2020, Lake believes the pieces are in place for a captivating campaign.
“I’m excited for the competition we have at every single position group, and the competition of our offense and our defense,” he said. “For so many years our defense would just really get after our offense every single day. I love the back and forth now.”
Lake affirmed that sophomore Dylan Morris is the returning starter at quarterback, but that both transfer Patrick O’Brien and freshman Sam Huard will have their chance to pry the title away in camp.
An intriguing development on a positive note, one player that has taken a next step since the end of spring ball is redshirt freshman edge rusher Sav’ell Smalls
“His body looks different. He’s more flexible. He’s bigger. He’s stronger. You can see his mindset is different,” Lake said.
“Just that maturation process from being a true freshman going into your second year. There is probably more guys I could point out, but with that question the first guy that comes to mind you guys will tell in training camp that looks different is Sav’ell Smalls.”
Smalls, a former four-star recruit out of Kennedy Catholic High School, played in all four games for the Huskies last season and recorded 40-plus snaps in each of the final three contests, against Arizona, Utah and Stanford.
As Lake made clear across the board there is plenty of talent around, and in front of, Smalls.
On junior edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui, who suffered a ruptured Achilles during the spring, Lake said “he is beyond where he should be” and is expected to return sooner than the 6-9 month recovery time that was anticipated.
Trent McDuffie, selected as the defensive player rep for UW at Media Day, is one of several corners expected to make their name known in 2021.
Another corner that has been waiting his turn, working and grinding to improve and earn his time to shine, is redshirt sophomore Kyler Gordon.
“This spring it’s just been awesome to watch him blossom into the player we knew he was going to become,” Lake said.
“He just had to have some patience. Now he gives me that little grin now and looks at me. I’m almost like ‘it was worth the wait huh?’ and he’s like, he knows it was worth the wait. He knows the knowledge that he has now is going to help him have a big-time year in 2021.”
In addition to the pair of returning third-year players two other defensive backs are expected to have an impact, Oklahoma transfer Brendan Radley-Hiles and sophomore Dominique Hampton.