RENTON — Tuesday’s practice brought a surprise change of scenery.
Rather than head to the Dempsey Indoor facility as a steady rain fell, the Washington Huskies instead boarded buses and traveled east to the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, home of the Seattle Seahawks, to practice at their indoor venue.
It sounds like coach Jedd Fisch made the switch to test his players’ ability to adapt to “sudden change,” in football parlance.
“Sometimes, especially on defense, we talk about ‘sudden change,’ where you don’t have control over everything,” said safeties coach Taylor Mays. “All of a sudden we’re coming here, and guys have to adjust and adapt and go out there and play football and execute. That was a little bit of the mindset behind what went on today.”
The UW football program has maintained a healthy relationship with the Seahawks over the years, and the Huskies have moved select spring and training camp practices to the VMAC before. Fisch, of course, spent the 2010 season working at the Renton facility when he coached the Seahawks’ quarterbacks under Pete Carroll (in fact, while working at a previous job, I can remember standing amid a gaggle of reporters on the indoor practice field, interviewing Fisch after he accepted the offensive coordinator job with the Miami Hurricanes in January 2011).
“It was cool. Everyone was excited to practice in here,” senior safety Alex McLaughlin said. “Why wouldn’t you want to practice in here?”
Here’s what else to know about the Huskies’ trip to Renton.