In today's newsletter ...

• Welcome to Pullman, Wayshawn Parker

• A QB competition into fall?

• Defense shows out

• Other quick observations

Before we get started, just a quick note: If you didn’t get a chance to watch the game and/or you don’t have Pac-12 Networks on your preferred cable provider, the indispensable Matt Highlights #2 has the game cut down to under 35 minutes with no commercials or stoppages.

One other quick note: Beehiiv (the newsletter software I use) doesn’t really play nice with most YouTube embeds, so I’ve provided links below to the relevant highlights.

OK, enough of that — let’s get on with the show!

Welcome to Pullman, Wayshawn Parker

As I have said before, and I will say again, I remain unconvinced that there’s a whole lot to be learned from spring football games. Going in, I’m always hoping for someone or something to “pop” — someone or something that clearly stands out.¹

In that regard I can really only point to one man — the one guy who caused me to audibly blurt out HOLY SHIT during the game on Saturday: Freshman running back Wayshawn Parker.

HOLY. SHIT.

The spin was nice, but that’s not what caught my attention — it was more the acceleration out of the spin, then the subtle shifts of his weight, planting a foot to create space by slowing down and turning around the defense to get the edge and then race to the pylon.

The craziest part about Parker is that he’s an early enrolee out of high school. I don’t pay as much attention to recruiting as I used to, and I had to look him up on the roster — I figured he was a transfer. That’s how mature he looked.

He also had this explosive run.

Parker wasn’t the only one who looked pretty good in the backfield — all the guys who got extended touches did really well.

After a slow start — thanks largely to the offensive line getting mauled early on — Djouvensky Schlenbaker found a groove, breaking off his own long run in which he absorbed contact, spun away, and then accelerated upfield for a 50-yard gain. He flashed some speed that, frankly, I wasn’t sure that he had.

He’s listed at the same weight as last fall, but he looks lighter to me. Schlenbaker followed up that run with a TD that looked a lot like a pretty routine goal-line run, but he actually did a real nice job of reading the blocks in front of him — the action is flowing to the right, but he finds a soft spot on the backside and darts for paydirt.

I’d still like to see Schlenbaker get a little better at running behind his pads as a power back, but it’s hard to complain too much about a guy who tops 100 yards on the day and leads the team in rushing.

The other running back to stand out was Dylan Paine. The redshirt junior, who has often been overlooked, showed the kind of shiftiness, burst, and strength that leads me to think that maybe I’ve been overlooking what he can do for us. He had a couple of really nice runs on the final drive.

The one exception to all these good vibes was an injury to Leo Pulalasi, who was carted off the field with an air cast after suffering a lower leg injury. When they drag out the air cast, that’s usually very bad and indicative of a broken bone, but Jake Dickert said on Sunday that they think it’s just a six- to eight-week injury, which is actually fantastic news.

Running back was a real issue last year when Nakia Watson wore down, and while it remains to be seen if any of these guys can be the “bell cow” that Watson was, the depth certainly looks to be vastly improved.

A QB competition into fall?

I think there was an assumption coming out of last season that when Cam Ward left for the draft and/or transferred, the job for this season would belong to upcoming redshirt sophomore John Mateer. While I still think that’s the case, I don’t think it’s super cut-and-dried based on what we saw in on Saturday.