Tuesday was a perfect day for Washington’s tenth spring practice on the school’s east field, where coach Jedd Fisch got to see two of his top transfer portal acquisitions shine. Mississippi State transfer quarterback Will Rogers and former California wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter both had one of their best days since arriving in Seattle.
The two connected for the play of the day, when Hunter pulled in a one-handed catch in the back of the end zone for a touchdown from 5 yards out in a 7on7 drill. Rogers also found freshman tight end Decker DeGraaf for a 6-yard score and sophomore receiver Denzel Boston from 4 yards away during some red zone drills.
Boston went over the top of cornerback Darren Barkins to make the play and after practice, cornerback Thaddeus Dixon said the dropoff from last year’s group of pass catchers to this year’s won’t be as significant as some think.
“With somebody like Denzel, who has been here waiting his turn for two years, he’s learned a lot from the guys that came before him,” Dixon said. “They gave him all the tools to help him be primed for a big season this year.”
In order for Boston and the rest Fisch’s offense to operate at peak efficiency, the group will need some solid play from the offensive line. The Huskies saw redshirt freshman Kahlee Tafai and true freshman Paki Finau returned from injuries on Tuesday, but the inexperienced front struggled to contain Washington’s pass rush.
Sophomore edge rushers Lance Holtzclaw and Jacob Lane were in the backfield throughout the afternoon, with the latter causing all sorts of havoc when he lined up at defensive tackle. However, it appears that interior offensive lineman Gaard Memmelaar is recovering well after suffering a knee injury in August, as he participated in about 50 percent of the drills with offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll’s group.
I spy Gaard Memmelaar working in some of the positional drills. He isn’t a full go, but this is the most we’ve seen from him all spring pic.twitter.com/zWEeNZJbzd
— Roman Tomashoff (@rtomashoff34) April 23, 2024
Spring Practice Notebook
- Dixon highlighted some of the biggest changes from last season’s defense under Chuck Morrell to this year’s with Steve Belichick at the helm. “We run something similar to the New England Patriots defense, which takes cornerbacks that are really physical and like to get up in receivers’ faces. We are protected over the top sometimes, which is different from last year where we ran a lot of cover 0 and that gives us a lot more freedom to get physical with receivers.”
- Redshirt freshman wide receiver Keith Reynolds pulled in a 5-yard touchdown pass from true freshman quarterback Demond Williams as both continued their strong camp performances.
- DeGraaf has also been very consistent throughout Washington’s workouts and appears to be fighting for the team’s second tight end spot behind senior Quentin Moore.