UW Football Notebook | Davenport to keep his starting position
Washington cornerback Byron Davenport will be in the starting lineup Saturday for the Huskies at Stanford.
And he says he’ll go out there with no hard feelings about being benched for the final three quarters against Arizona last week even as he says he’s still unclear what happened.
“I’ve got no choice,” he said. “I can’t dwell on it.”
Davenport was benched after giving up a 66-yard touchdown pass from Willie Tuitama to Mike Thomas on Arizona’s second possession.
UW coach Tyrone Willingham told reporters he “wasn’t comfortable” with what he saw out of Davenport as he tried to play with a sore shoulder.
The way Davenport portrayed it, however, that was more than he was told, and that left him stewing as UW gave up a school-record 510 passing yards.
“They didn’t say [anything during the game]. They finally tried to explain it to me [Tuesday] why they took me out, but I didn’t know why during the game,” Davenport said.
“It kind of bothered me a little bit that it took them so long to talk about it and once we finally talked about it they are totally thinking something’s wrong with me and I’m completely fine,” Davenport said.
Davenport, however, admitted he hadn’t been his usual self in practice last week while nursing a sore shoulder. And that was apparently at the heart of Willingham’s decision. Willingham also said he did talk to Davenport earlier than Tuesday.
“We did talk before then,” Willingham said. “As I said with Byron, it wasn’t two plays. I didn’t feel comfortable with where he was. That was not based on two plays but that I had watched all week with his shoulder that he just didn’t seem to be Byron, so at that point of the ballgame I made a decision.”
Asked about putting Davenport back in the game, Willingham said, “There was some thought but I didn’t think it was the best thing to do.”
Confident coach
Willingham concluded his remarks Wednesday with an impassioned statement that he thinks the team is close to turning the corner.
“There has been no time in my career, for one reason or another, that the heat hasn’t been on Tyrone Willingham,” he said. “When I took the job at Stanford, the heat was on. When I took the job at Notre Dame, the heat was on. Here, the heat is on. The only thing that solves any of those problems is just winning football games.
“We are a football team that is very close to doing that an awful lot. No matter how you cut it, no matter what statistics you look at, this team has played good football. Now, we may not have played it long enough to win particular ballgames, but we have played good football and we have to shore up all those areas where we are weak at and we will do a lot of winning.”
Notes
• Willingham said J.R. Hasty does not immediately regain his prior standing on the depth chart - he was No. 3 at tailback - but said no decision has been made where he will be.
• DT Wilson Afoa is suffering from a shoulder injury. He was out Tuesday but was back in pads Wednesday, though still in red. He is expected to play Saturday.