SEATTLE — They stopped to peer over the side of the Montlake Bridge, gazing on this overcast Saturday morning at the boats gliding through the cut below. They wore purple shirts and hats and were about 90 minutes early for the day’s main attraction: a football game at Husky Stadium. In that way, this Saturday in May felt at least something like a weekend in September, crowds of football fans parking on neighboring streets and walking the necessary distance, over the bridge and along the boulevard, to see their Washington Huskies.
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The University of Washington distributed 9,000 free tickets for its spring game on Saturday, a COVID-19-era capacity approved by the local government. It’s anybody’s guess as to how many who claimed those tickets actually showed up, although attendance certainly numbered four digits, at least a few thousand scattered throughout the stadium’s 70,000-plus seats. Comparing year-to-year spring game attendance in this part of the country is typically folly — can you tell the difference between 1,200 and 1,400? — but coach Jimmy Lake has designs on boosting the annual total into the same realm as college football’s bluebloods, ambitious as that goal might be.
“The city of Seattle is a football city,” Lake said after the Purple team defeated the Gold 22-13, for whatever that might be worth. “The goal is every single spring, I just want to pack more people in here to come out to a huge event, and get to watch a game, and get to watch the new team and see what’s in store for the fall. I’m hoping this is a huge annual event that everyone would love to come to and get to enjoy an actual game.
“We want our fans and everyone to see us. We want our recruits — possible recruits, younger recruits — to be able to see us. We want to show the country that Seattle is a football town, and that they love their football. Other areas of the country, they pack their spring games. It’s packed all the way — you can’t even get a ticket. That’s the way it needs to be in Seattle. For the things we want to do here and the places we want to go, it needs to be that important to our city and our fans.”
For a pre-pandemic barometer, consider that Nebraska, no longer an annual championship contender, still led the country with a spring game attendance of nearly 86,000 in 2019. Alabama, Ohio State, Penn State and Clemson all drew 60,000-plus in 2019, and Alabama just played its 2021 spring game in front of 47,218, the largest crowd for a sporting event in the United States since the pandemic began.
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Oregon, at an estimated 35,000, was far and away the Pac-12 leader in 2019 spring-game attendance, and that is probably a more realistic target for UW. The Ducks made a show of it, too, inviting alumni such as Marcus Mariota and Jeremiah Masoli back to town and, most importantly, hosting dozens of recruits on campus that weekend. Ducks coach Mario Cristobal said he wants UO’s spring game to be “a big deal” and “a spring homecoming.”
And shouldn’t every coach? Much as this particular spring game was a boon for Huskies fans, none of whom has witnessed a UW game in person since December 2019, it always comes down to recruiting, and that is why Lake is wise to at least make an effort to create some kind of atmosphere around the annual spring event. It’s not just about football. In fact, it’s barely about football. It’s about showing recruits that football is a big deal at Washington — a big enough deal that, in Lake’s ideal world, tens of thousands of fans choose to spend a spring Saturday watching a scrimmage and alumni who earn millions of dollars in the NFL choose to come back to Seattle for it.
Is it reasonable to expect UW to get there? The Pac-12 has earned its reputation for lacking football passion, relative to other power conferences, and with many schools situated in major city centers, perhaps it’s simply not feasible to expect West Coast fans to crave spring football to such a degree.
What will it take to change that?
“We’re going to have to win some games this fall,” Lake said. “That’s what it’s going to take, and making sure we have an exciting product out there. Win some games, win some championships, win some big bowl games, and I believe we’ll get a bunch of people here. It’ll be a hot-selling ticket — it’ll be free. I want people to be able to come here and bring their families. I think it’s going to happen. I know it will happen. I know the city of Seattle loves their football. We should give them a good product, and they’ll come see us.”
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There were hints of a homecoming on Saturday — former UW center Nick Harris was there, and so was Joe Tryon, fresh off his first-round NFL Draft selection — and that’s another area where UW can improve in future, non-pandemic seasons. Tailgating is another: None was allowed Saturday for obvious reasons, but fall-style parking-lot parties should become standard spring fare going forward. And while some recruits did attend Saturday’s game — in fact, open spring practices are the only way to get recruits into facilities until the NCAA finally lifts the recruiting dead period on June 1 — expect many more to receive invites in future years, with unofficial visit activities tacked on to the weekend experience.
Lake’s predecessor, Chris Petersen, did little to promote the spring finale. It was never a real game, although it always featured extensive scrimmaging and full pads. It always was open to the public, of course, and televised on Pac-12 Networks, but Petersen cared only that Husky Stadium fill up on fall Saturdays. He wasn’t trying to “win spring ball,” so to speak, favoring repetition and skill-building over any kind of spectacle, and so he didn’t try to win spring-game attendance, either. He wanted fans to come to the final practice but didn’t seem to care if most didn’t.
While deferring to Petersen’s preferences — “I don’t want to answer for him,” Lake said, although he suggested his former boss probably just didn’t want to show much to future opponents — Lake figures the benefits outweigh the potential risks.
“I’d rather our fans and recruits be excited about our program, and see what we’re doing, and see the bonds that our players have and the energy that we play with,” Lake said, “because I think that’s just going to attract more fans and more attention.”
A new Richard Newton
Slashing through the middle of the Purple team’s defense, Richard Newton burst 15 yards for one of only two touchdowns scored during Saturday’s game. It was a signature Newton run, as he discarded a couple of arm-tackle attempts en route, and it was the kind of play Lake expects to see regularly in 2021. Newton led all rushers with 49 yards on eight carries.
The coach’s comments might come as a relief, considering Newton finished the 2020 season on the sideline, not playing a single snap in UW’s final two games for reasons that weren’t entirely clear.
“This could be his biggest year yet,” Lake said. “That was an excellent run. I had a close-up look at it. That’s the Rich Newton that we know and love. He still needs room for improvement, and he knows that. … He’s on track to have a huge year for us.”
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QB impressions
Returning starter Dylan Morris (18-for-28, 125 yards) and Colorado State transfer Patrick O’Brien (11-for-18, 107 yards) took the majority of the quarterback reps on Saturday, with Morris throwing the day’s only touchdown pass — a 7-yarder that tight end Cade Otton snagged just above the turf — and O’Brien throwing the day’s only interception, a pass picked by freshman cornerback Elijah Jackson.
Five-star signee Sam Huard, playing with O’Brien on the Gold team, completed 7-of-12 for 74 yards and was sacked three times and also lost a fumble in the fourth quarter with the Purple team leading 19-13.
While O’Brien looked the way a veteran should look this spring, Morris again showed that his poise under pressure is unrivaled on the current roster. His touchdown pass to Otton came in the face of an aggressive pass rush, and Morris made a couple of other throws on the run to move the chains.
While Huard remains No. 3 on the depth chart as spring concludes, his progression, Lake said, is “right where it needs to be.”
“Here’s a quarterback coming from a system that does not go under center, doesn’t have multiple checks. He’s facing a defense that is throwing a lot at him that he’s never seen in high school,” Lake said. “… He’s an early enrollee that could still be in high school right now, but now he’s thrust in there going against an NFL-style defense, with blitzes coming from all different directions and sticky coverages and different fronts, and we’re showing him one thing and he thinks he’s got the right check, then we’re bouncing into another front and now all of a sudden he’s in the wrong check. … But he is right on track. I know this — he was better today than he was on Day 1 of spring football, and he’s going to be better when we enter training camp than he was the last day of spring football.”
And what’s more …
• Several scholarship players didn’t participate, including DB Trent McDuffie, DB Asa Turner, DB Alex Cook, OL Victor Curne, OL Myles Murao, WR Ja’Lynn Polk, TE Jack Westover, TE Mason West, RB Sam Adams II, ILB Alphonzo Tuputala, DL Draco Bynum and OLB Zion Tupuola-Fetui. Turner had his right foot in a boot and used a scooter to get around, as did Draco Bynum and Tuputala. Curne wore a boot on his left foot. Polk is the only player of that group who hadn’t already been limited in practice to some degree. He attended but didn’t suit up, and his ailment wasn’t apparent.
• Tight end Devin Culp led all pass catchers with 57 yards on four receptions, including a 22-yard catch on a nice throw by Huard that wound up the day’s longest play from scrimmage. Taj Davis caught five passes for 39 yards, and earned praise afterward from linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio as a spring standout.
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• The defenses totaled eight sacks amid 65 pass attempts, each by a different player — Jacobe Covington, Bralen Trice and Ruperake Fuavai for the Gold team and Ben Hines, Ryan Bowman, Tuli Letuligasenoa, Jeremiah Martin and Taki Taimani for the Purple. UW’s pass rush never relented all spring and could be a team strength even without injured star Zion Tupuola-Fetui.
(Photo of Richard Newton: Stephen R. Sylvanie / USA Today)