UW’s Petersen: No decision on QB Miles until fall

By Brent Stecker

First-year Huskies football coach Chris Petersen has continuously been asked this spring about the status of suspended quarterback Cyler Miles and wide receiver Damore’ea Stringfellow, and by and large he hasn’t had much to say on the manner.

On Wednesday, he at least presented a loose timetable for a decision on their futures to 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Brock and Danny.”

Huskies coach Chris Petersen told 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Brock and Danny” on Tuesday that the absences of suspended players Cyler Miles and Damore’ea Stringfellow is “painful for everybody involved.” (AP)

“We’ll probably let everybody know in the fall what’s going on with those guys when we start back up,” Petersen said. “I always want to be patient and make sure we digest things and do the right thing. … In terms of where we go forward, we’ll have that all figured out by the time we start in August and we’ll have answers for everybody.”

Petersen has been in no rush to make a definitive declaration on the status of the two players, who were suspended indefinitely in early February after being linked to an alleged assault. The King County prosecutor’s office announced on April 3 that Miles would not be charged, but Stringfellow has been charged with three gross misdemeanors in the case.

One thing that is for sure – if the players do return, they’ll be well behind their teammates after missing the entirety of the spring practice session.

“There’s already a lot going on right now by the fact that they’re not in spring ball,” Petersen said. “That’s tremendously painful for everybody involved with this thing. That’s a new system, a new staff, and they haven’t been around forever. That’s a lot right there.”

Petersen also gave “Brock and Danny” some insight into his spring practices, and he admitted that there are growing pains he and his staff are still working through.

“Anybody that takes a new job and thinks you’re gonna hit the ground running and you’re all good is kidding himself,” he said. “I mean, we are behind just because we’re new and we’re implementing new systems and how we do things, and all that takes a while to get. But we are pleased with how hard the guys are going.”

He still expects to have offensive tricks like the ones he employed during his successful tenure at Boise State to be ready by the start of the 2014 season, though.

“You’re gonna see a lot of little wrinkles,” he said. “There’s gonna be some formations that are different. You may see more trick plays. And we’re not gonna run trick plays just to do them – they need to work, and they’ve worked for us in the past.”