FanHouse JakeLocker

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim selected Washington quarterback and summer collegiate baseball player Jake Locker in the 10th round of the amateur player draft Wednesday, and the former Pac-10 freshman of the year said he would be interested in signing with the club.

Locker, who hit .273 in 10 games with the Bellingham Bells of the West Coast Baseball League last summer, is slated as the Huskies' starting quarterback. He has maintained football is his primary focus.

"Definitely," he said when asked about the possibility of signing in a teleconference. "If we can come to an agreement about a contract in terms - it's something that I'm looking into now. But again, they understand that it would probably be a couple of years before I was playing baseball anyway."

It is still early August, and optimism usually runs high early in training camp. But UW fans have reason to fret over breaking news this afternoon, as super-soph QB Jake Locker has suffered a hamstring injury. Details are still sketchy, as Tyrone Willingham has initially termed the injury as a strain of the left hamstring. The injury occurred during practice Thursday afternoon. An MRI was taken on Locker's hammy Friday morning, but the results are not yet known.

As usual, Willingham was less-than-direct in regards to the injury, offering vague answers to the severity of the injury or a timetable on Locker's return. But to be fair, it is hard to know what to say right now, other than the kid is injured and we will know more once the MRI results are back. But the good news for Husky fans is that while Willingham was a bit reserved in his answers, he did let on that he wasn't all that worried about the injury. Per Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times:

"I'm not that concerned about the results [of the MRI]," he said. "I saw the injury when it happened. Obviously everybody responds differently, so his body's response will be a little bit different from another's. But one thing I think and believe is he's a pretty quick healer."

We'll see. Willingham said they would err on the side of caution, as anyone who's dealt with hamstring injuries know how they can nag on a player. But a bum wheel on a gifted runner like Locker, where so much of his effectiveness is based on what he can with his legs, well, you can imagine the angst running through Husky Nation right about now. Locker is one of the most talented QB's in the west. If they have to get a couple of redshirts to carry Locker around campus this fall, then let it be so. But they absolutely cannot risk losing their best hope of a successful 2008 season to a sore hamstring. Stay tuned.

First it was Al Afalava, the hard-hitting senior safety who ran afoul of the law. Afalava was involved in a weird story a few months ago, where he was charged with a DUI, criminal mischief and hit-and-run charges for destroying a city bus shelter with his car and then fleeing the scene on foot. Afalava is also the guy Washington fans officially hate after his helmet-to-helmet hit on QB Jake Locker last year that could have been a disaster. Afalava's punishment for his off-the-field incident is that he will miss the upcoming season opener vs. Stanford.

But now in an unusual story, senior safety Bryan Payton has suddenly left the Beaver football program. Payton was set to be the starting free safety next to Afalava this season, listed as a co-starter with senior Greg Laybourn.

The details are still hazy as to why Payton left. The Oregonian reports that he wasn't exactly kicked off the team, and that it wasn't a football issue. The speculation appears to be a mutual parting of the ways, with a few comments insinuating that Payton was a bit of a headache to the coaching staff. He had some past issues, including being sent home from the 2004 Insight.com bowl and reportedly had some academic problems over his career.

Losing Afalava as a starter is bad enough for a defense that is only projected to return three total starters from last year. But at least Afalava's loss is only for one game. Payton was one of the few members of the defense who has actually started a game in the past, but it will certainly be Laybourn's job now.

Despite a Pac-10 cellar finish for the Washington Huskies, despite an underwhelming 11-25 record over the last three seasons, and despite a ton of fan angst openly wishing for former Atlanta coach Jim Mora, it appears Tyrone Willingham has survived. Washington has announced a 2 PM PST press conference today to confirm that Tyrone Willingham will in fact remain as the head coach of the Huskies.

While there is no immediate word, there is speculation that UW will "clean house" in regards to the defensive coaching staff. That would include the ouster of longtime Willingham defensive coordinator Kent Baer among others. The Husky defense was not only one of the worst in the conference and the nation in 2007, but it was the worst in school history in terms of yards allowed.

Why keep a coach who has gone 11-25 and finished at the bottom of the conference? Why not make a change when you've just seen Willingham become the first coach in school history to roll out three consecutive losing seasons? There are a few reasons. Mainly three million of them, as in the amount of money it would take to buy out Willingham's remaining two years on his original five-year contract. There's Jake Locker, the redshirt frosh who burst onto the scene to become the conference's Freshman of the Year, a rising star in the Tim Tebow mold. The idea to shake things up at this point might hurt Locker's development. And, on the plus side of the ledger, Willingham has really done well this year in recruiting, especially the last few weeks. Washington has been securing some of the top recruits in the state, and currently project to have the 18th ranked class in the nation this year. Even better, there are more verbal commitments rumored to be on the way over the next few days. So in the end, UW President Mark Emmert and athletic director Todd Turner decided to keep things as they are. Will it pay off as UW tries to return to national relevance? Much to the chagrin of many Husky fans, we'll have to wait at least through the 2008 season to know the answer.

If you thought the officiating was bad in last year's Oregon-Oklahoma game, the Pac Ten officials have taken incompetence to a new level in last week's Washington-Oregon State game, and Pac Ten Commissioner Tom Hansen is not amused:

"Our review of the game included study of the game tape by Coordinator of Football Officiating Dave Cutaia, Director of Instant Replay Verle Sorgen, football administrator Jim Muldoon and me, review of game reports from the officiating crew and instant replay officials, communications with the two institutions and follow-up communications with the referee of the game.

"We regret that there was flagrant misconduct on the part of some players which led to four ejections from the game, that there was an injury to Washington quarterback Jake Locker which increased the emotions of the players and that the instant replay crew failed to stop the game to review the play at the goal line with just under three minutes to play. On the play, it was ruled Oregon State's Yvenson Bernard fumbled. However, it appeared his knee had touched the ground before he lost the ball...

"We do believe the instant replay officials did not perform properly on the Bernard fumble play. There was human error in that while reviewing the available replays the crew failed to notify the game officials to stop play before the ball was snapped for the next play. It was not the fault of the equipment. The game should have been stopped and the play reviewed. The members of the IR crew have been reprimanded."

Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart put on a performance for the ages at Husky Stadium on Saturday, as the Ducks racked up a mind-boggling 661 yards of total offense on their way to a 55-34 win. The Husky defense surrendered an amazing 465 rushing yards, the second-most allowed in school history. That puts UW's rushing defense at 118th in the nation, giving up a disturbing 241.7 yards per game. That 241.7 yards per game average is on pace to be the second-worst rushing defense in school history. Obviously, the defense has issues.

But lost in the defensive embarrassment Saturday, the UW offense finally put up some respectable numbers. With 34 points and over 400 yards of total offense, they kept things interesting as they had the score tied through three quarters before Oregon salted this one away with their relentless running game.

This week the Seattle media has really been praising young Jake Locker, with many claims that this was the QB's best game of the year. If you look at the end-result of 34 points, over 400 yards of total offense and the fact that he threw four TD's, it's hard to argue that point. Or is it? While Locker did finish with 257 yards passing, and also ran for 78 yards, the one big thing that you worry about is a continuing issue with accuracy. Even with the praise, he still completed just 12 out of 31 attempts, good for a 39% completion percentage. Again, hard to argue with the TD passes, but the accuracy issue is haunting the UW offense. Locker is still last in the conference in passing efficiency and passing yards per game, and he's still under 50% in his accuracy (47.5% completion percentage). The sliver of hope is that you did finally see Locker unleash the deep ball, hitting on TD passes of 83, 43, 38, and 26 yards, impressive any way you slice it. The deep pass is now officially part of the UW offense. But no offense can fully live on the chance the long balls will work every week. So if Locker can just improve on the fundamentals and hitting the underneath stuff a little better to keep those drives alive, there's no telling how much better he can get the rest of the year.

At first glance, one might think that Oregon visiting Washington tomorrow could be a big-time offensive shootout with the athletic QB duo of Dennis Dixon and Jake Locker. Everyone knows about Dixon's fine season, and if Oregon keeps winning while Dixon racks up the numbers, he'll continue to rise on the Heisman lists. And Locker gets a lot of hype for being the dual-threat QB with rushing skills of quickness and power that are rarely seen at his position.

But never let the facts get in the way of a story is the best way to put it. Right now, UW is last in the Pac-10 in total offense. That's right, 10th out of 10 teams in total offense. What happened? Where is the offense that carved up Syracuse in the first game of the year in a 42-12 blowout, and had their way with Boise State for at least half of the second game of the year? The Huskies average only 325 yards per game on offense, which is 31 yards less per game than 9th-place Stanford.

The biggest problem with UW's offense right now is the lack of help for the young QB. Louis Rankin was fabulous back in week one, and it seemed like a lead-pipe cinch that he would be the first 1,000 yard running back for UW since Rashaan Shehee in 1995. But Rankin has totaled only 395 rushing yards through six games, not a terrible total but certainly not what you'd want out of your feature back. Then factor in that out of those 395 yards, 147 of them came against Syracuse in the first game, you start to see the full picture. The good news for UW is that Rankin did contribute more last week vs. ASU, getting 80 yards rushing in by far his best game since the opener. But it still wasn't nearly enough as UW was crushed in Tempe.

The warning signs have been there since the second half vs. Boise State, way back in the second game of the year. UW wouldn't score in the third or fourth quarter that day, but due to some Boise State inexperience at QB, the Huskies held on for the victory. But they haven't won a game since, and now at 2-4, a promising 2-0 start is starting to evaporate. Saturday night's 44-20 blowout at unbeaten ASU was bit surprising in the final tally, but the way this one unfolded is really a microcosm of UW's 2007 season.

Once again, the Huskies played well for the first 30 minutes, leading 17-13. But once again, they folded in the second half and were basically run off the field. QB Jake Locker has been, well, he's been a redshirt frosh still trying to get his feet wet, and there are usually week's full of on-the-job lessons that have to be learned. He had a lousy night throwing the football vs. ASU, just 10-for-28, and his 48 rushing yards were actually a season-low. Louis Rankin was better, with 80 yards rushing, but that was the first time since the opening week that he was above 50 rushing yards in a game. The offense clearly has issues, but the troubling thing for UW is the defense of late, especially in the second half. Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times pointed out just how bad they've been. Consider:

• In just the last four games, all losses, UW has been outscored 105-41 in the second half. Three of those games saw them give up at least 30 second-half points!
• In that same four-game stretch, UW's total defense has been abysmal, giving up an average of just north of 500 yards per game. Even worse is the fact that they are giving up 279 rushing yards on average in those four games, and wearing down big-time in the second half, giving up 158.75 rushing yards after halftime.

Brutal. So why the struggles? Is it a lack of quality depth that just flat-out gets tired against superior opponents? Is it the opponents making adjustments to a QB they've never seen before, and once they settle in they figure him out? Sort of like a young hard-throwing MLB pitcher that rolls through a lineup the first time, then they tee off on him and send him to the showers before the fifth inning? Or is there something bigger going on here? Is this what some Notre Dame fans used to point to about Ty Willingham and his lack of in-game adjustments? Or how he was always known as a good recruiter, but never a guy that's great at being a "game day" coach, whatever that means?

There are tons of questions as to why this is happening, but there is no denying it now - UW has a real problem on their hands with second-half collapses, and they need to figure it out, fast. Oregon comes to Seattle on Saturday with a lights-out offense that is rolling right now, and one shudders to think what Dennis Dixon could do against the Husky defense if they keep rolling over in the second half!

Ohio State came to Seattle on Saturday and basically pushed the Huskies around. They were the faster, more physical team that day, and there is no argument who the better team was when the scoreboard flashed zero's. Jim Tressel's defense in particular was very impressive, and despite over 100 yards rushing for UW QB Jake Locker, the Buckeyes gave up only 14 points to UW in a punishing performance. But did Ohio State's defense cross the line?

You hate be a whiner after the fact, and that if they really were against the rules, they would have been called by the officials....but....the tape doesn't lie. It's hard not to see some of this and wonder exactly what the refs were thinking (or, likely not thinking). Give this first one about a minute in, and you'll see the head-twist, plus more after the jump:

Husky fans are still grinning ear-to-ear over Jake Locker's impressive debut Friday night, a 42-12 whipping of Syracuse. After a shaky start, Locker steamrolled the Orange defense to the tune of 83 yards rushing and two TD's, plus 14-for-19 for 142 yards passing. Louis Rankin was equally impressive, going for 147 yards on the ground and his presence early helped settle Locker after the slow start.

The defense, particularly the line, got after the Syracuse offense, especially when it was clear the Orange had no semblance of a running game. They sacked Andrew Robinson six times and were in his face all night long.

It's only one game, and there's a lot of season left, but it's hard not to be impressed by Locker's beginning.