Caple:
Salvon Ahmed can run, and he can run fast — faster, in fact, than any other player on Washington’s roster, if his hand-timed, 4.32-second 40-yard dash is the barometer.
He can run. But can he run … and run again … and run again, and again, and again, in the mold of Myles Gaskin, the school’s departed career rushing leader who carried it 259 times as a senior? Ahmed can burn around end like few others in the Pac-12, but can he bang through a scrum for 3 yards, fall forward for 2 more, pop right back up and do it again on second down?
He actually wasn’t bad between the tackles last season, data provided by Sports Info Solutions shows. It’s a small sample size, but Ahmed carried between the tackles 29 times for 118 yards, a per-carry average of 4.1. Gaskin, by comparison, carried between the tackles 99 times for 428 yards and three touchdowns, an average of 4.3 per attempt.
All seven of Ahmed’s touchdowns came on runs outside the tackles, though they weren’t all home runs — he scored on gains of 5, 7, 25, 2, 7, 4 and 4 yards. A little more than 72 percent of Ahmed’s carries were outside the tackles, and he averaged 6.5 yards per rush on those attempts. Gaskin, too, was more productive outside the tackles, averaging 5.3 yards per rush with nine touchdowns, with those attempts accounting for 61.1 percent of his total carries.
And for what it’s worth, Ahmed totaled more yards after contact per carry — 337 on 104 attempts, an average of 3.2 — than Gaskin (764 yards on 259 attempts, or 2.9 per rush).
The reality is that UW might not need Ahmed to withstand the bumps and bruises that accompany a 20- to 25-carry performance because the Huskies have two other backs — juniors Sean McGrew and Kamari Pleasant — who saw significant time last season, and a redshirt freshman, Richard Newton, who continues to impress during camp.
Ahmed says he feels faster, stronger and more confident than he did as a sophomore, and that “I’m working really hard to just be durable throughout the season.”
“The one thing that Salvon has is elite speed and quickness, and (we’re) really just trying to do our best to maximize that talent. It’s going to be exciting kind of watching him develop over this fall camp.”
Other observations from Wednesday’s practice:
- Jacob Eason took the first reps with the No. 1 offense, and led the group to a field goal on his final series of the day. His best throw was a completion over the middle to Hunter Bryant on second-and-15 — off play-action — that picked up a first down. He also had a nice completion to Andre Baccellia on a slant against cornerback Kyler Gordon, and threw two other good balls that were dropped. His final pass, an incompletion on third-and-7, was broken up on a nice play by cornerback Dominique Hampton, who knocked the ball away from Quinten Pounds near the end zone.
- The best drive of the day was engineered by Jake Haener, who led the No. 2 offense on an eight-play, 80-yard journey capped by about a 20-yard touchdown pass to redshirt freshman tight end Jack Westover, who made a nice catch of a nice throw. Haener also connected twice with Ty Jones for solid gains, and found tight end Devin Culp rolling to his right for a big gain, too. Working with the No. 1 offense, Haener also quarterbacked the final series of practice, which began with the aforementioned big run by Ahmed (it appeared to gain 30 or so yards, up the left sideline). But some snap issues stalled things a bit — Henry Roberts was working at center in place of Nick Harris — and Elijah Molden broke up a fourth-and-7 pass to Cade Otton on the final play.
- There were four interceptions Tuesday, with a fifth nullified by penalty. Jacob Sirmon threw the first, a pass tipped by outside linebacker Ariel Ngata and secured by senior walk-on cornerback Dustin Bush. The second went to Hampton, who picked off freshman Dylan Morris on a pass intended for redshirt freshman walk-on receiver David Pritchard. Gordon snagged the third, perfectly reading a route by Jones to intercept a Haener pass during 7-on-7s. And freshman safety Asa Turner intercepted Sirmon during 7-on-7s after receiver Fatu Sua-Godinet fell down. Freshman safety Cam Williams did pick off a throw by Eason — it would have been Eason’s first interception of camp — but a defensive holding penalty against Gordon took it off the board.
