UW Football | Locker says he'd like to play

Jake Locker's body seemed to betray his words.

While the redshirt freshman quarterback sat at a table and told reporters he was still hoping to play this week against California on Tuesday he moved stiffly, turning slowly, obviously still ailing from a neck injury suffered Saturday at Oregon State.

"My neck is just kind of tight right now, so I've got to get that movement back and that's what we are focusing on this week," Locker said. "I've just got to try to get some of that mobility back because that will be the quickest way to get back on the field."

Locker said he thought there was a chance that could happen this week.

Locker said it was "not out of the realm of possibility" that he will see the field against Cal.

UW coach Tyrone Willingham said he wasn't ruling Locker in or out and said he was progressing quickly. But he has also said he won't rush Locker to duty.

But Locker sat out practice Tuesday to further rehab the injury suffered during a frightening collision with OSU safety Al Afalava, and it's uncertain if he will practice today. If he doesn't practice today, it's unlikely he will play Saturday.

Backup Carl Bonnell took the starter's reps in practice Tuesday and prepared as if he will be the starter.

Bonnell said of Locker that "maybe not this week or the next week, but I think he'll definitely want to get in a game before the season is over."

Bonnell, meanwhile, figures to get an unexpected chance to start again. The graduate of Kentwood High, who began his career at WSU before transferring, has seven starts in his UW career, including the last five games of last season after Isaiah Stanback was injured.

"I get an opportunity to prove myself," Bonnell said. "I don't feel like I've really played up to my level yet where I've been in a game where I've come away that I've felt positive about it. So I have possibly three opportunities to do that against three very fun teams to play against [UW finishes with Cal, WSU and Hawaii]. So really it's an opportunity that I can go out on the right note."

In his first public comments since the injury, which caused him to be taken off the field on a stretcher and to a local hospital before he returned to the stadium with his neck in a brace, Locker recounted what happened. He called it a "scary situation" and said he momentarily lost feeling in his left arm, though it came back before he was taken off the field.

"It was third down and I couldn't find anything open so I was trying to scramble," Locker said. "So I knew I needed four or five more yards. I could have run out of bounds, but I tried to get extra yards and I just kind of remember colliding with the guy. And then I went down and tried to push myself up and kind of just rolled over on my left side and I couldn't move my left arm, and that's when it scared me a little bit. And I felt a little pinch in the back of my neck, so that's when I worried a little bit. But once I was able to move my arms I felt better about it. But I still had the pain in my neck. But by then I was on the stretcher and in the ambulance."

Locker said he did not think Afalava meant to hurt him.

"We did hit helmet-to-helmet, but I don't think he had any intention of leading with the helmet trying to take me out," Locker said. "We had seen on film all week that he played hard and he hit guys and I think that's what he was trying to do, come up and make a big hit. It's like I said before, it's football and that kind of stuff happens. Unfortunately it had to happen that way. But I don't believe in any way that he was intentionally trying to do that."

Locker said the incident wouldn't change his approach to football or make him think he could make money a little less painfully playing baseball.

"I don't think it will affect the way I play the game," Locker said. "I wouldn't plan on being tentative or anything."

Asked why he apologized to the team after the game in the locker room, Locker said he felt the Huskies played with uncommon intensity and he was sorry he missed it.

"I kind of felt like we played with a lot of emotion, a lot of passion," he said. "That was something that I think at times we've missed this year and something that we had kind of needed to establish — and I felt like we really played with that emotion and passion toward the end of the game and I was really proud of the guys."

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