Spring game draws bigger crowd under new Huskies coach

May 4, 2024, 10:09 AM

A general view at Husky Stadium during a 2023 game. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Seattle Sports

SEATTLE — There were enough humans in the lower stands — and a cool enough bite to the air on this May evening by the water — that if you squinted and allowed the marching band to be your guide, you might have believed the UW Huskies were completing the final minutes of a real-life blowout victory, and not the final minutes of a contest that featured linebackers and soccer coaches kicking field goals for points.

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Sure, new coach Jedd Fisch set an impossibly ambitious attendance goal for his first spring game — branded as “Dawgs after Dark,” even if much of it took place pre-nightfall — and the Huskies were never going to get the 40,000 he sought. But UW did announce Friday’s attendance at 18,448 — based on tickets scanned — which establishes a new standard for modern-era spring attendance at Husky Stadium, low as that bar might have been set by previous staffs who treated it more like a regular ol’ practice.

The student turnout was particularly strong, and the corresponding volume — albeit mostly reserved for non-football action, as is customary at these events — suggested greater energy than the mild, practice-like gatherings typically present for the Huskies’ spring finale.

“Why play in an empty stadium if you can play in not an empty one?” Fisch said. “I think hopefully, next year’s spring game, we can even have more people. Maybe their buddies will tell them, ‘hey, that was a great night. Let’s come.’ If everybody brought a friend, maybe we’d have a sellout. How awesome would that be? We need to make it more of a party atmosphere for the spring game, and really just enjoy ourselves out there.

“… It’s also a credit to last year’s team. I’m sure these fans wanted to come see. They wanted to see what it looked like. Last year’s team was 14-1, and now you’ve got a chance to come back here and celebrate last year’s team while kicking off this team. One thing we’ll never forget is the success of last year’s team and the year before, and we’re going to try to build off of that.”

The Purple team defeated the Gold team — which wore white uniforms — by a “score” of 24-23, on Grady Gross’ last-second field goal, with all of his teammates gathered around him on the field. But Gold scored nine of its points on spring-game gimmicks, including a 30-yard field goal by senior linebacker Carson Bruener — he absolutely nuked that thing, to be fair — which was deemed worthy of six points. And the Gold team first got on the board when, during a timeout, UW women’s soccer coach Nicole Van Dyke made a 25-yard field goal, to loud applause from the student section.

Van Dyke’s kick would have rated as the loudest ovation of the evening, if not for the sideline presence of the Atlanta Falcons’ first-round draft pick, and the roar that went up when the video board showed Michael Penix Jr., who wore a new Falcons sweatshirt.

Certain elements of Friday’s game did feel relatively game-like. The teams played 12-minute quarters (with a running clock), and coaches divided the rosters evenly, with the shorthanded offensive line playing both sides. There was also plenty of carefree silliness. Alaska Airlines sponsored a football-throwing contest while players grabbed promotional t-shirts and hucked them into the crowd. Basketball coaches Danny Sprinkle and Tina Langley performed a jump-ball in place of the coin toss. Former UW stars Shaq Thompson, Danny Shelton, Jake Locker and Lincoln Kennedy coached the teams.

In addition to his six-point field goal, Bruener also got to throw a pass on a trick play, completing it to tailback Jonah Coleman for a 43-yard gain.

“I didn’t know they had the double-pass in,” Fisch said. “They didn’t run that up the flagpole. They got to have some fun tonight. I got to take the night off of calling plays and just be a fan.”

Denzel Boston, the star of UW’s spring, caught seven passes for 127 yards and a 28-yard touchdown on a throw from Will Rogers. Boston also caught a 41-yard throw from third-string, walk-on quarterback Teddy Purcell, and Rogers found Boston for a 23-yard gain, too.

Rogers capped his first (and only) spring in Seattle by completing 14-of-25 for 154 yards, one touchdown and one interception, an end-zone fade intended for Boston that cornerback Ephesians Prysock snagged while keeping his feet in bounds.

Freshman quarterback Demond Williams Jr. was more erratic than he had been for much of this spring, completing 7-of-17 for 42 yards and a 5-yard touchdown to Jeremiah Hunter. Williams often scrambled as the pocket broke down, but found little room to run — though he did finish as the game’s leading rusher, with six carries for 32 yards (though some of those might have been sacks if contact against the quarterback were permitted).

He also overthrew a pass directly into the arms of senior cornerback Thaddeus Dixon, who returned it 42 yards for a touchdown. True freshman running back Adam Mohammed scored the game’s other touchdown on a 3-yard run.

“That was awesome to run out to — I don’t know how many fans there (were), but it was a lot more than last year,” senior safety Kam Fabiculanan said. “Shout out to the Husky fans, because that really means something to us as players. Last year, we felt the support behind us after each game.”

The list of players who did not participate due to injury included RB Cam Davis, RB Sam Adams II, OL Gaard Memmelaar, OL Landen Hatchett, DL Armon Parker, LB Deven Bryant, LB Khmori House, EDGE Zach Durfee and EDGE Isaiah Ward. Fifth-year junior cornerback Elijah Jackson suited up but didn’t participate as he recovers from what Fisch described as “some tweak that we didn’t want to take any risks (with), but he’s completely fine.”
Maurice Heims returned to take some reps at edge rusher after missing several practices due to injury. He got banged up at one point but Fisch said afterward that the team stayed healthy coming out of the game, so it must not have been anything serious.

To give a sense of the competition, these were the starting lineups for each side. There was, of course, a lot of substitution and rotation thereafter. The first offensive line group to take the field was LT Soane Faasolo, LG Paki Finau, C Zachary Henning, RG Kahlee Tafai, RT Drew Azzopardi. The other four healthy linemen — tackle Elishah Jackett, guard Michael Levelle Watkins, center Parker Cross and guard Aidan Anderson — also saw plenty of action, and coaches moved those players around on the line some, too.

Purple offense: Will Rogers, RB Adam Mohammed, WR Denzel Boston, WR Keith Reynolds, WR Rashid Williams, TE Quentin Moore

Gold offense: QB Demond Williams, RB Jonah Coleman, WR Jeremiah Hunter, WR Giles Jackson, TE Ryan Otton, TE Decker DeGraaf

Purple defense: DL Elinneus Davis, DL Jayvon Parker, EDGE Russell Davis II, EDGE Voi Tunuufi, LB Alphonzo Tuputala, LB Drew Fowler, CB Curley Reed, CB Thaddeus Dixon, S Tristan Dunn, S Kam Fabiculanan, NICKEL Jordan Shaw

Gold defense: DL Jacob Bandes, DL Sebastian Valdez, EDGE Lance Holtzclaw, EDGE Jacob Lane, LB Carson Bruener, LB Bryun Parham, CB Ephesians Prysock, CB Leroy Bryant, S Makell Esteen, S Peyton Waters, NICKEL Dyson McCutcheon

Vita Vea attended and performed the ceremonial sounding of the siren. Marcus Peters was on the field for the pregame jump ball. A couple of other former Huskies still playing college football were spotted on the sideline, too: safety Asa Turner, who transferred to Florida, and offensive lineman Nate Kalepo, who transferred to Mississippi. Thought that was interesting. I also saw Zion Tupuola-Fetui hanging out. Fisch said former Patriots linebacker Brandon King and current Patriots linebacker Josh Uche came to visit defensive coordinator Steve Belichick and spoke with the team this week.

As he sat for his press conference, Fisch remarked: “We’ve got 15 recruits I’ve got to go talk to.”

Asked again for spring standouts, Fisch focused on UW’s centers — Henning, Cross and Watkins — none of whom had any real center experience prior to this spring.

“The guys that never get any credit are the centers,” Fisch said. “That first practice, we had a lot of balls on the ground. We had no one that’s ever played center, play center all spring. If you snapped it in high school or you snapped it in eighth grade, you were playing center and lining up against some pretty big offensive linemen. … They did a great job. I saw a huge improvement there.”

This article was originally published at OnMontlake.com, the home for Christian Caple’s full UW Huskies football coverage. Subscribe to On Montlake for full access to in-depth UW coverage.