SEATTLE – For the first time since 2015, Chris Petersen is looking for a new starting quarterback as the UW Huskies transition from the Jake Browning era this spring.
Petersen has a pair of signal-callers with at least one career pass attempt, junior Jacob Eason and redshirt sophomore Jake Haener, on roster competing for the job. Both players have taken their best shot through the first 13 practices of the spring with two more remaining this week.
Neither is expected to be announced as the choice until at least fall camp. That leaves a small window for Petersen and UW offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan to get the pick right. It also allows one caveat that could aid the team: no one has seen the offense in the manner its in now.
For the last four seasons Browning led the program a 39-15 record and became the winningest Pac-12 QB in the process. As crazy as it may sound Browning may only have just warmed up the books for future Huskies.
What Browning didn’t have for all but one season in 2016 – a vertical passing game – the offense has shown glimpses of this spring. UW has been without senior receivers Aaron Fuller and Quinten Pounds as both continue to progress back from injury before fall camp.
The absence has opened the door for several younger players, namely the trio of redshirt freshmen receivers; Austin Osborne, Marquis Spiker and Trey Lowe.
Redshirt sophomore WR Terrell Bynum has also made several plays during the spring, the first four-star receiver signed by Hamdan in the 2017 class out of St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California.
All four, along with the return of fifth-year senior slot receiver Chico McClatcher and an assortment of other veterans, could open up the Huskies offense in 2019 no matter who is under center.
TheDawgReport.com has ranked each offensive position group from most to least confident as they stand now with two practices remaining this spring.
No. 1: Offensive line
UW got the equivalent of a five-star graduate transfer OL commitment when senior left tackle Trey Adams announced he would be returning for a fifth season in 2019. Whether or not Adams planned to have a pseudo touchdown reception earlier this spring, off a tipped pass defensed by safety Brandon McKinney on a ball thrown by Haener, is another story.
Regardless, though, the first-string unit has been consistent for the most part this spring (from left to right across the OL): Adams-Luke Wattenberg-Nick Harris-Jaxson Kirkland-Jared Hilbers.
Only right tackle Kaleb McGary is missing from the expected starting line from 2018. Hilbers, who started in place of Adams at left tackle against Auburn in Atlanta, Georgia, has played in 23 career games at UW while making 11 starts last season.
Flipping sides is a transition, but nothing compared to if Scott Huff, the Huskies OL coach, had to install an inexperienced redshirt or true freshman to replace McGary. But there still is plenty of youth up front behind the starters this spring.
“I think we have 13 guys that are all some version of freshmen, either redshirt freshmen this past season or they were in high school,” Huff said on April 15 after the eight practice.
“That’s a lot of them and it’s been pretty fun to see them compete. We’re kind of at that point where you normally start seeing the guys start to take that next step. So this is probably my favorite time in spring, week three and week four.”
Redshirt freshman M.J. Ale has primarily worked at left guard this spring in between fellow second-year lineman Matteo Mele at left tackle, and redshirt sophomore Cole Norgaard at center.
Where Huff has been more flexible this spring in rotating players is on the right side of the second-string OL, with redshirt freshmen Henry Bainivalu and Victor Curne, senior Henry Roberts and several others getting reps.
With a stable, experienced group of starters up front having quality depth could pave the way for UW to get over the bowl season hump in 2019.
No. 2: Wide receivers / tight ends
Even though the receivers position has been in flux the most out of any group on the offense over the past 2-3 years, it’s arguably the deepest and most talented this spring.
The key for Junior Adams, the Huskies first-year WR coach who replaced Matt Lubick in January, is getting the younger players to develop while refining the veterans to balance the room.
Last season all three four-star receivers that signed as part of the 2018 recruiting class redshirted. Lowe only played in two games without recording a stat in either appearance, both very brief. It was part a culminating question mark surrounding the position, which led to Lubick departing the program after his second season as co-offensive coordinator and WR coach.
Andre Baccellia, a senior who was recruited by Brent Pease in 2015 out of Westlake (Westlake Village, Calif.), has played for all three previous receiver coaches since Chris Petersen has been at UW.
“To be honest it’s been a little bit tough,” Baccellia said after UW held its annual combine on March 15. “But to look at it in a lighter point of view I think it’s just been good to have many guys come in with different tools. They all have their own little tool set, their own little teaching abilities and stuff like that. So being able to learn from multiple people is kind of an advantage in a way.”
Baccellia added that the team spoke about the impact of having a different voice in the receiver room, noting that change isn’t always a bad thing.
On a separate but still comparable note, at tight end the Huskies return junior Hunter Bryant who is 100 percent healthy after missing the first nine games recovering from a knee injury. As Hamdan and Jordan Paopao, the Huskies TE coach, have stated multiple times over the past year Bryant can impact any offense like very few can.
“He’s just a physical specimen,” Paopao said at the start of spring ball on April 3.
“Having him back is phenomenal. It stretches the field. It gives us another receiving threat for our quarterbacks to be able to put the ball down the field, and for us its kind of nice to be able to have a guy in the room that can do so much for you and make you real multiple on offense.”
Bryant has been the primary first-team TE this spring for UW. Redshirt sophomore Cade Otton and junior Jacob Kizer have also worked with the first and second-team offense throughout spring with all three being expected to feature in the two-deep this fall.
No. 3: Running backs
Yes, that mean’s the QB position is the lowest valued stock as of now. The reason for having the tailbacks ahead, even slightly, is due in part to their production in games coming into this spring.
Both backs, redshirt junior Sean McGrew and junior Salvon Ahmed, have carried the ball a combined 232 times for 1,281 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns. Compared to the RB both are tasked with replacing, four-year starter Myles Gaskin, their numbers pail in comparison.
However, the numbers for Eason and Haener don’t hold up as well to the combined Ahmed-McGrew rushing stats. The former, a five-star from Lake Stevens High School in 2016 who signed with UW last February after transferring from Georgia, has played in 16 career games while Haener has just three.
Part of the quarterback evaluation for Petersen and Co. is the quality and consistency of the handoff exchange between QB-RB. Keith Bhonapha, the Huskies tailbacks coach, has a plan of attack to develop the players he has coming back.
“I think the big thing is our period we do is tracks,” Bhonapha said, when asked how he approaches teaching the handoff exchange between each RB and QB. “Getting, rotating guys through with different quarterbacks and different tracks that we run, different plays that we run to get those guys used to getting different handoffs.
“I don’t know if there is an exact science to it. But those guys – as the kind of rotate – we’re rotating QB’s, we’re rotating backs just like the QB’s are rotating through center’s. Everybody kind of gets a feel. Is it all perfect? No. But for right now its luck of the draw and hopefully it works out for you.”
No. 4: Quarterbacks
It goes without saying that even before the 2018 season concluded, UW offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan was planning on using this spring to evaluate, not to make a decision. What this spring has shown, though, is that for all intensive purposes the call is solely on Hamdan.
From day in early April, Hamdan has reiterated the openness of the competition. At one point he noted the QB race as a five-man heat, which would include true freshman Dylan Morris in addition to the aforementioned other four signal-callers.
As the spring has begun to wind down, Eason and Haener have traded shots leading the UW offense in practice. Of the two Haener has been the QB with more attempts at the end, but not always the best completion ratio.
The most important thing for both is to use this spring as a launch pad into the fall. If Eason proves to have a better collective spring, but Haener has the better fall camp then the decision will be another Jake under center come August 31 against Eastern Washington.
For Petersen and Hamdan the decision on which QB to choose will be a culmination of factors spread out from the spring, through summer and into the fall. Not just one trait, or fact, like being the No. 1 rated pro-style QB in the country three years ago.
