The Montlake Journal

Locker's Last Second TD

2008-09-08T12:15:00.001-07:00

KJR 950's Ian Furness on Costa Injury

2008-08-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

Ian spoke with Jay Allen, Sports Director at Portland's KXL 95.5 "The Game" - the Ducks' flagship station.

Allen said Costa "tweaked" his knee during a closed practice at Autzen Stadium. It is unknown if it is the same knee in which he suffered an ACL tear last year. Allen said his sources are calling the injury "serious", which seems to be the catch word of the day.

Today's practice was scheduled to be open, but was closed after the Costa injury.

Costa, the Redshirt Sophomore didn't play last year after blowing out his knee in practice. Costa played a little as a frosh, and then redshirted after the injury.

Costa, 6'1" 215, is a mobile quarterback who relies on his legs to run the Chip Kelly spread.

If Costa goes down, the Ducks will likely turn to Justin Roper, who was impressive in the Duck's Sun Bowl win last year, going 17-30 for 180 yards and four TD's in the 56-21 win over South Florida.

True frosh Chris Harper, a true dual threat QB, has also been pressing for playing time.

"Harper was highly recruited out of Wichita, Kan. He's very athletic, but also very green," Allen said.

"If Costa is out, Roper is your starter, but we will be seeing Harper a lot sooner than later," Allen said.

More on Costa

2008-08-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

Addicted to Quack is reporting a "serious" knee injury for Costa, wondering if it's an ACL. They also hypothesize that this may be an elaborate hoax to throw off the Huskies...

Ducks' QB suffers knee injury?

2008-08-21T13:46:00.001-07:00

We're hearing reports that Nate Costa, the Ducks' presumed starting quarterback suffered a serious knee injury last night, causing the Ducks to close practice to the media.

More to come.

Shaw out

2008-08-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

Sophomore WR Curtis Shaw has left the team, Tyrone Willingham said today. Shaw will return to California to address unspecified family issues.

Shaw, along with Sophomore D'Andre Goodwin was one of two returning recievers who've caught a pass in game action.

One of the fastest players on the squad, Shaw returned kicks and ran the ball a handful of times early in the season before switching to wideout halfway through the season. Coaches said they envisioned Shaw filling a James Rodgers-like role, running the ball out of the backfield on fly sweeps and reverses, while running routes downfield in the passing game.

Willingham left the door open for Shaw's eventual return.

Who is Victor Aiyewa?

2008-08-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

Victor Aiyewa, 46, pressures the USC punter Greg Woidneck last season, resulting in a blocked punt by Roy Lewis, 28. Photo courtesy Daylife.

With gameday less than 20 days away, we thought it appropriate to begin a position-by-position look at new faces at the top of the Husky depth chart. What better place to begin then the secondary, which has been overhauled by new D-Coordinator Ed Donatell.

I was listening to Softy's show on KJR this morning, and for the second time in three days Mahler interviewed the hard-hitting sophomore from Texas. After noting that both of Aiyewa's parents are of Nigerian descent, Softy dubbed Aiyewa "The Nigerian Nightmare" (with apologies to Christian Okoye, I'm sure) and proceeded to tell his audience to expect stardom from the second-year defensive back.

Aiyewa told Softy that he was a true student of the position, siting the fact that he'd read Jack Tatum's book and studied tape of Sean Taylor, Bob Sanders and Lawyer Milloy, among others.

Aiyewa played in all 13 games last season - mostly on special teams, but vaulted to the top of the depth chart (along with fellow sophomore Nate Williams) after a strong spring, displacing returning starters Jason Wells and Mesphin Forrester.

As we prepare for the Aug. 30 opener, we open our series detailing new projected starters with a look at "The Nigerian Nightmare".

Who: Victor Aiyewa, 19, Soph, Sugarland, TX.

Measurables: 6'1", 209 lbs

Prep background: Aiweya only played one year of organized prep football, but earned first team all-district honors at safety in highly competitive 5A Texas football.

Aiweya had strong high-level interest from several schools, with reported offers from Arizona State, Baylor, Louisiana Tech and UAB. Rated as the #89 safety prospect by Scout.com.

Husky stats: One of nine true frosh to see action last year, finished the season with nine tackles - six solo, three assists. Saw all of his action on special teams.

Quotes:

Ed Donatell stated in an ESPN interview that Aiweya "gave us some impacting hits (during Spring ball)".

Donatell has stated repeatedly that he prefers a bigger back line, which likely factored in the promotions of Aiweya and Williams. Donatell told Rivals the following:

"When you're bigger, you match up better with big people. Oregon has big people and USC has big people," explained Donatell. "Guys are willing and on a proper path of development. You can't just flip a switch, but they are improving. We have heard from our team leaders that they got some good reps in over the summer and that they have made yet another step."

Polk sees himself at running back

2008-08-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

One of the most exciting developments out of camp so far has been the decision to move highly-touted freshman Chris Polk to running back. This spring, the former USC recruit played slotback/WR.

However, Polk was rated the fourth best running back in the country by Rivals last year, and considering the wide array of freshman recievers on campus and the lack of depth in the backfield (where Brandon Johnson is the only returning tailback to have carried the ball in game action)this may have seemed like a no-brainer to those who follow the program. That being said, it still is encouraging that the coaching staff was quick to make the change.

GoHuskies sat down with Polk yesterday, and he admitted that he is more comfortable in the backfield:

I see myself better at running back because I've only played receiver for two years my whole life. I'm more comfortable at running back, but I also see myself helping at wide receiver, too, because of the way I run after the catch.

As camp progresses, it will be interesting to see if Polk overtakes Johnson on the depth chart, as Ty has said that Johnson has struggled to overcome the effects of the knee surgery he had earlier this spring.

Locker's Dad: "Slight tear" of hamstring

2008-08-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

Bob Condotta is reporting that while Scott Locker predicts that his boy Jake will take the field against Oregon August 30, he has suffered a "slight tear" of the hamstring that will keep him out of action for an indetermined amount of time.

**shivers**

In other news, at least Ronnie Fouch is supposedly playing well.

A look at UW Basketball's first 2009 recruit

2008-08-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: This was cross-posted at Off the Record on June 2.

CJ Wilson, the first commit in UW's 2009 class.

After reading earlier this week that super-prospect PG Abdul Gaddy of Bellarmine Prep had decomitted to Arizona earlier in the week and reopened his recruitment, suffice it to say I was excited to see the email from Dawgman.com informing me that UW basketball had landed a new recruit.

That's right, I'm such a Husky stan, I get email notification sent to the kPhone every time a high schooler makes a verbal commitment to UW football or basketball. Anyway, before following the link and checking to see who the new recruit was, I said a quick prayer to Brandon Roy and Nate Robinson, requesting a verbal commit from Gaddy and maybe even his Bellarmine Prep backourt-mate SG Avery Bradley.

No such luck. In fact, when I read that C.J. Wilcox of Pleasant Grove, Utah was the new recruit, I figured it must be a misprint. I mean, I'd never heard of the guy and I read every Husky blog and scouting service report on an almost daily basis. Scout.com had the guy at two stars (out of five) and didn't even list him among the top 25 shooting guards in his class. He didn't have any other Pac-10 offers.

But then I read an interesting story in Bob Condotta's phenomenal UW hoops blog:

UW coaches began recruiting Wilcox hard a few months ago after seeing him at an AAU tournament in Houston, becoming intrigued by his long-range shooting ability in a 6-5 frame.

That was a rare AAU tournament for Wilcox, who hasn't played in too many such events with his father preferring that he spend more time in private workouts. Craig Wilcox said he thinks that's one reason his son his rated higher by recruiting services.

"He's not highly ranked, but there are plenty of coaches who say 'he has to be in the top 40,''' he said. "I heard that from coaches at the University of Miami and Florida State and they all were just intrigued that we were not on the AAU circuit but just at home getting better.''

Craig Wilcox, who was a guard at BYU from 1993-95, said he simply felt his son would improve more spending the majority of his time working out privately rather than playing in AAU tournaments.

He said his son has shot 20,000 to 30,000 shots from March to August every year since eighth grade honing the shooting ability that is the strength of his game.

Wilcox is UW's first commit for the class of 2009 and will join what suddenly looks like a pretty loaded backcourt for the Huskies with Isaiah Thomas, Scott Suggs and Elston Turner Jr., all coming in this season.

Condotta is vaguely referencing the fact that recruiting is more and more a public affair, upon which coaches are judged. Recruiting services like Scout and Rivals offer in-depth recruiting coverage on prep players nationwide, beginning as early as middle school. Players are evaluated largely on their performances on the camp circuit and through summer AAU leagues typically organized and financed by sneaker and apparel companies.

A player usually makes or breaks their recruiting name through these performances. Little, if any stock is put in actual high school game performance or private workouts. That's what makes it so interesting when a high major program like UW nabs a guy out of the wilderness like this. If Wilcox wasn't playing AAU or camp ball, but instead staying home and training hard with his father, a former Division One player at BYU, it is entirely possible that he is as good or better than many of the Scout/Rivals four and five star recruits.

That being said, I still wouldn't mind nabbing Gaddy and Bradley. With three spots left in the 2009 class, UW has offered scholarship to Bradley, Gaddy, Greg Smith (6'9 center from CA), SG Anthony Marshall of Las Vegas, Guard Michael Snaer of CA, and Power Forwards Mike Moser and Brendan Lane of Oregon.

Other prospects of note currently without written UW offers include Rainier Beach SG Aaron Dotson and a certain Center from Georgia by the name of Shawn Kemp. As in son of the Reign Man. Er, one of many sons of the Reign Man:)

The Huskies have already swung and missed at local star Peyton Siva of Franklin, who followed former Rainier Beach star Terrence Williams to Rick Pitino's Louisville program.

It's beginning to look like a crowded backcourt at Montlake. As always, I trust Romar knows what he's doing...because I'd hate to see Gaddy and Bradley in UCLA uniforms...

Also: story in the Deseret News.

Best Case, Worst Case

2008-08-09T13:27:00.000-07:00

Ted Miller has an interesting "best case/worst case" feature he's rolling out at his Pac-10 blog. He's working through the conference from top to bottom in expected order of finish, and in each post he details his idea of best case/worst case for each squad.

He's done four so far - so there'll be a couple more before he reaches UW - but it raises the question...what is the best case scenario for the Dawgs this year, and what is the worst case?

Obviously, we're getting an early taste of 'worst case' as Jake is shelved with a tweaked hammy. Assuming he rests up and is healthy for August 30, I tend to think the best case scenario could be pretty damned good. Without Jake, the glass is definitely half empty...

Locker, Sanchez go down

2008-08-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

You feel that? That's not an earthquake, that's the thumping hearts of the Husky faithful as news of a Jake Locker injury spread. We're waiting on an update today, but early reports seem to say this is only a minor hamstring tweak, with a week or less of recovery time expected.

Down south, Mark Sanchez isn't so lucky, as he suffered a dislocated knee in practice. Unfortunately, the men of Troy have about fifty five-star QB's waiting in the wings to take over. First up is Mitch Mustain, who led Arkansas to an 8-0 record during his true freshman campaign before injury and a transfer. Next up would likely be dual-threat freshman Aaron Corp, and of course, next year brings number one overall recruit Matt Barkley.

Welcome to the Montlake Journal

2008-08-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

Hi there Dawgfans. We're gearing up for August 30, and here at the Journal we pledge to give you day in and day out coverage of the action at Montlake.

More to come...