Jake Locker missed Washington’s loss to Oregon Saturday due to broken ribs, and his status for the Huskies’ next game -- Nov. 18 against UCLA on a Thursday night -- is still unknown.
What is known is Locker’s schedule in the week heading into the “bye” weekend.
The senior quarterback will not participate in practices scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. After a couple of days off, the Huskies will resume practicing Saturday. Whether Locker will be on the field remains to be seen.
If Locker doesn’t return to practice before the game with the Bruins, though, he won’t see the field in ten days.
“I’m not going to put him on the field if he hasn’t practiced,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “That’s going to be critical as we get into Saturday, Sunday, Monday of where he’s at and how much he can do.”
If Locker is a no-go for the second straight game, he will again be replaced by Keith Price. The freshman was so-so in his first career start against No. 1 Oregon, completing half of his 28 attempts for 127 yards, one touchdown and, most importantly, zero interceptions.
Sarkisian seems comfortable with using the young QB if Locker is unavailable, but also seemed a little irritated with the outside attitude that his team has almost no shot of winning a game without their offensive leader.
""I think that we could make a mistake here of putting all of our eggs in Jake Locker’s basket. That’s not what the point of all of this is about,” Sarkisian said. “If we get Jake back, that’s great, we’d love to have him - he’s a fantastic football player. But if we don’t, that doesn’t mean we can’t win the game. And if we do, that doesn’t mean we automatically win the game. We’ve got to prepare as a football team for this ball game next Thursday night.”
