SEATTLE — On a night of gusting winds, occasional rain and eventual frustration, the University of Washington football team got its first prolonged look at redshirt freshman quarterback Troy Williams.
It might be the last look for awhile.
After Washington’s 24-10 loss to Arizona State on Saturday night, UW head coach Chris Petersen confirmed that Cyler Miles is expected to return to the starting lineup for next week’s game at Colorado. Miles missed Saturday’s game due to a concussion suffered against Oregon a week ago.
In his place, Williams got his first collegiate start against Arizona State. It was a sporadic performance — 18-for-26 for 139 passing yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions — no doubt due to a combination of his own inexperience, the strong winds and a very good ASU defense.
“You have to feel bad for Troy, being thrown into his first start and then having to deal with winds that were tough,” Petersen said. “It’s hard enough being a brand new quarterback against a really good defense, and then with those (weather) conditions.”
Miles was on the sideline and could have played if necessary, but he had practiced sparingly during the week.
Against Colorado this week, “Cyler should be back,” Petersen added. “We don’t want a guy to have to lose his position (due) to an injury. That’s not the right thing.
“But I think it’s good to get Troy the (repetitions) he got in really tough conditions. I think he’ll feel better about himself and I think he learned a lot as we move forward.”
Williams said he “had an OK game … (but) I made a couple of bad decisions throughout the game.” He added, “I don’t think I did enough to start the next game, but that’s all up to the coaches.”
After a slow start (1-for-6 in the first quarter), Williams was actually very accurate the rest of the game. He completed 10 consecutive passes through the second quarter and the early moments of the third quarter, and he threw only one incompletion in the final three periods.
Also, his second interception — returned for a TD by Arizona State’s Armand Perry — was a desperation heave with the Huskies facing fourth-and-25 in the game’s late moments.
That said, 47 of his passing yards came on the game’s final two plays, with the Sun Devils in a prevent defense. Most of Williams’ completions were for less than 10 yards, and many were for less than 5 yards.
“That wind really handcuffed us,” Petersen said. “We kept wanting to take shots downfield, but we just didn’t feel like the ball would stay on course at all. So we threw some shorter passes and had some minimal success there.”
Even with Miles back in his starting role against Colorado, the Huskies will desperately need an improved offensive performance. Washington managed 290 yards of offense against ASU, but just three offensive points (the other seven points came on an interception return by UW linebacker John Timu).
“We have to get better and more efficient on offense, and that’s going to be the tremendous urgency around here,” Petersen confirmed. “We have to be able to take a step and play better offense.
“We’re just not efficient enough on offense to do what we need to do,” he added. “We show flashes … but it’s frustrating to us all that it can’t show up more.”
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