An hour into Thursday’s practice, the University of Washington football team went through a much-anticipated transformation.
Denzel Boston took part in his first Husky workout without limitations since the Sun Bowl.
It was a lot like loading up an F/A-18 fighter jet with sidewinder missiles — his return was lethal.
After missing 15 spring practices and another dozen fall sessions following a sports-related hernia injury and surgery, the 6-foot-4, 209-pound junior wide receiver was turned loose during fall practice No. 13 at the East field, if only briefly, but his presence seemed to give the Huskies an instantaneous offensive boost.
No one could guard him.
The UW’s best pass-catcher — who turns up repeatedly as a preseason honors candidate and in the NFL mock drafts as a first-rounder — was sent onto the field for the third round of scrimmage plays and showed exactly why everyone is so high on him and missed him.
“I feel it was just a plus to have him back today,” senior cornerback Ephesians Prysock said.
After driving nickelback Leroy Bryant off the ball wtih a first-play block at midfield, Boston raced into the open up the left sideline and caught a Demond Williams Jr. pass for a 14-yard gain.
He came out for another series and slipped into the right flat, where he was wide open when he caught a 37-yard pass from Williams and raced into the end zone untouched, only to have the officiating crew wave off the play for some unexplained infraction. Still, it was mesmerizing to see him run away from everyone.
Two plays later, Williams drilled a 20-yard pass to Boston, who beat redshirt freshman cornerback Elias Johnson, and the coaches had seen enough and shut him down for the rest of the day.
Back on the sideline, Boston went through a receiving line of well-wishers, both teammates and coaches, who slapped hands with him, patted him on the back or wrapped him up in a hug. The all understood what this guy means to this team.
With a half-hour of practice remaining, Boston dropped onto his back and had a trainer stretch him out for several minutes.
Well after practice was over, and most UW players had jumped into the ice baths set up in Husky Stadium, Boston sat on a bench surrounded by Demond Williams Jr. and about a half-dozen receivers, unwinding and chatting away.
No doubt, it was good to be one of the guys again.
Besides having their big-play receiver available, the Huskies went through a spirited workout marked by big hits and big kicks, immediately just two weeks and two days from the season opener against Colorado State.
Freshman safety Rylon Dillard-Allen, never shy about showing off his physicality, crashed into junior wide receiver Kevin Green Jr. with a wicked collision that had players running to the big monitor on the sideline to see it again.
With senior Tacario Davis absent for unknown reasons, freshman cornerback Dylan Robinson cut in front of Rashid Williams and intercepted a ball thrown by Demond Williams Jr.
The left offensive guard competition showed no change, just a revolving door of job candidates, with redshirt freshman Paki Finau, freshman John Mills and sophomore Zach Henning each taking turns with the first-team offense.
Near the end of the practice, the Huskies put in some special-teams work that was unique to what’s been done previously.
In what could best be called a “hurry-up” field goal offense, special-teams coach Chris Petrilli had seven new players sprint on to the field in a frenzied manner to join four holdovers and launch field goals as if the Huskies had no timeouts remaining and were playing beat the clock.
Following that mad-dash session, kickers Grady Gross and Ethan Moczulski, an Illinois transfer, each attempted a pair of 57-yard field goals and made and missed one. It was fun to movie.
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