Harris giving UW football a safety net

Washington secondary coach J.D. Williams looks at the depth he has to work with this spring and laughingly calls it "a skeleton crew."

In this case, eight — the number of players the Huskies have to fill four secondary spots during spring football — definitely isn't enough.

But until a week ago, UW might have been rolling sevens until Darin Harris got the official OK to return, adding a little muscle.

Friday, as the Huskies ran through their fourth practice of the spring, Harris was working as the No. 2 strong safety, and with the starting nickel package as a third defensive back.

"He's knocking the rust off," Williams said. "He's excited, running around having fun again."

Harris, listed as a senior but with two years of eligibility remaining, sat out last season with a cracked vertebra in his back, an injury that began to trouble him during the 2005 season, when he started four games at safety and played in all 11.

Harris may be remembered most for his interception of a deflected pass on the first play of the Cal game in 2005, leading to a Huskies touchdown.

"That was the best moment of my life," says the graduate of Decatur High School in Federal Way. "Everybody was going bananas, all the fans and everything, and everybody [teammates] beating me up. I started hyperventilating, I was so excited."

But even then, Harris says he had an ache in his back he initially assumed was just regular football soreness but which soon worsened.

The injury was diagnosed after the season, and Harris couldn't participate in spring ball a year ago. After initially hoping he'd be back for the regular season, he was ruled out for that, as well. He spent his days rehabbing and attending position meetings to stay sharp on the playbook, but doing little else football-related.

"There was a point in time where I was skeptical [if he would ever return to football] because the injury was going on for so long," Harris said. "But I said a lot of prayers. I said in the third grade I was going to come here and play, and play in the NFL, and I still plan on doing that, and no one and no injury is going to stop me from reaching my dream or my goal."

He officially was cleared to practice last Wednesday and enthusiastically embraced the opening of spring football. Thursday, when the team did its first hitting of any kind, he got to test his back.

"We had contact, and it's not hurting or anything," Harris said Friday. "It was fun."

This week is the first time Williams, who arrived from Cal a year ago, has gotten a good look at Harris, who is backing up Mesphin Forrester at the strong safety spot played last season by C.J. Wallace.

"The one thing he brings is experience, so it's good to see him out there," Williams said. "We are going to need that leadership, especially now that we are going to be young."

The Huskies also lost cornerbacks Dashon Goldson and Matt Fountaine to graduation, as well as Chris Hemphill, who started two games at free safety but wasn't asked to return for his senior season.

For now, UW has just six scholarship players in the secondary. Reinforcements are arriving in the fall, led by junior-college transfer Byron Davenport, a cornerback who played two years at UCLA, as well as incoming freshmen such as Quinton Richardson, a safety from O'Dea High School, and Vonzell McDowell, a cornerback from Rainier Beach. UW also signed two other high-school defensive backs in Marquis Persley of Redlands, Calif., and Victor Aiyewa of Fresno, Texas.

"They all have the mind-set to come in and try to play," Williams said.

Until then, Harris hopes to show he's back for good.

"I'll be fine," he said. "I'm not worried about it."

Notes

• Jordan White-Frisbee, who has missed most of the last two seasons with foot injuries, is battling for a starting spot at left guard and says he thinks his ailments are a thing of the past. "I feel good," he said. "I haven't felt this way since before I started football." Said UW coach Tyrone Willingham: "It's nice to see him get around and do some things."

• The team will hold its annual alumni reunion today with as many as 140 former players expected to watch practice and then have lunch with current players.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Read his blogs on Washington football and basketball at www.seattletimes.com/huskies.