UW Football Notebook | No snap for Morovick

Washington coach Tyrone Willingham says Danny Morovick does his job almost perfectly except for one or two plays a game.

Unfortunately, Morovick is the team's deep snapper, and often is on the field for only a dozen or so plays each game.

So one or two can add up to danger pretty quickly, particularly when they occur on punt snaps, as has been the case several times in recent weeks. One off-target punt snap resulted in a fumble that led to a touchdown against UCLA, and several others have come close to disaster as well.

Last week at USC, Morovick had another snap that required punter Sean Douglas to do some gymnastics to catch the ball and get it off — though not on the one that was blocked, which was because of miscommunication up front after a fake was called off.

"It's frustrating knowing that I'm a lot better than I've been performing," said Morovick, a freshman from Mission Viejo, Calif., who was signed to a letter-of-intent last February for the sole purpose of being a deep snapper.

Morovick says he never had an off-target snap in high school. But he's found Division I football a different animal, especially having to block as well.

"I never had to do that in high school," he said. "In high school, all I focused on was snapping. Now I have to put the two together."

Morovick said he planned to do some different drills this week to work on combining blocking and snapping.

UW coaches say Morovick is unquestionably the team's best deep snapper in practice, so there is no thought to make a change.

"His timing and his speed are good," said UW special teams coach Bob Simmons. "He just has to be a little more consistent."

Safety shuffle?

Free safety Jason Wells did little in practice Tuesday while recovering from a concussion suffered against USC, and his status for this week is uncertain. One option if Wells can't play is for Dashon Goldson to start at free safety, the position he played the last two seasons before moving to cornerback in the spring. Goldson also suffered a concussion and cramps against USC but said he is fine. He did not wear red in practice Wednesday while Wells did.

Wells also suffered a concussion during the preseason, and secondary coach J.D. Williams said the team may have to let Wells take a break to recover fully.

"Right now, the best thing for him is probably some time [off]," Williams said.

NOTES

• Linebacker Dan Howell was named as this week's nominee for the FedEx Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award to be announced at the end of the season. The FWAA is the Football Writers Association of America. Howell's father, Keith, passed away in September.

• As the Huskies took the field for practice, the scoreboard read "Visitors 26, Huskies 20," with 1:34 remaining in the fourth quarter and the ball at the 20. That's the exact scenario (with USC instead of visitors) that greeted UW before it began its final drive Saturday.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com