So Isaiah Stanback is out for Washington's track team.

It couldn't have gone unnoticed by anybody who really cares — especially the Washington football coach — that Stanback ran 6.89 seconds in the 60 meters to qualify for the finals of last weekend's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation indoor championships at the Dempsey Indoor facility.

According to the track coaches, the 6.89 converts to a 10.67 in the 100 meters.

That's faster than Reggie Williams ever ran at Washington in his brief time with the track team.

And probably faster than any quarterback playing Division I-A football.

Almost as remarkable as Stanback's improvement — he ran 7.01 in his first meet a month ago — is that he is on the track team at all.

On wintry Saturdays a year ago, he would be in the crowd, near the finish for the indoor sprint races at the Dempsey Indoor.

"I wanted to support the guys who were running," he said. "I still had the desire to run, but, you know, it wasn't allowed."

Not for a quarterback, anyway.

But this winter, at one of the early football meetings, new coach Tyrone Willingham introduced track coach Greg Metcalf to the team and said he encouraged them to do more than one sport while at Washington.

"I'd never in my seven years here been asked to talk to the football team," he said, "and I called Ken Shannon (who coached track at Washington for three decades) and he said he hadn't either.

"Coach Willingham is sending a message."

Willingham said he isn't as concerned about Stanback getting faster as he is about Stanback enjoying competing in another sport.

"A football player gets to compete 12-14 times a year when a tennis player competes 50 times a year," Willingham said. "Why wouldn't it be great if the football player got a chance to hone his mind and body in competition as often as he can."

Willingham played football, baseball and basketball in high school. He believes we have done a disservice to athletes to make them specialize.

Stanback played football, basketball and baseball at Garfield High School.

"Baseball was not only my best sport, but my favorite sport," said Stanback, "but after taxes and agents, there wasn't enough money to sign with baseball and pass up college."

As a freshman at Washington, he tried to play baseball in the spring while also drilling for football.

"It was just too much for me," he said. "As a freshman, I had to worry about school. Baseball practice is six or seven hours every day. It began to affect my personality. I wasn't Isaiah any more."

Stanback ran the sprints as a sophomore in high school, and yearned to run again.

"People were all of a sudden encouraging me to run," he said. "I thought maybe I can help them and they can help me."

LaMonte Vaughn, the UW sprint coach, said he made it clear that he wasn't there to help football players run faster, but instead to teach them how to win races.

"I don't care how fast they are. If they can't help us win a championship, I don't want them," Vaughn said.

Stanback finished seventh in the 60 final to earn the sixth-place Huskies two points in the meet that included seven Pac-10 schools.

"In coming out for track, Isaiah had to humble himself and learn from others," Vaughn said. "There aren't a lot of football players who want to do that.

"We hope he'll be back with us after spring football. We're fortunate that quarterbacks don't get hit a lot in the spring. Isaiah would certainly be part of our 4x100 relay pool. For him, the sky is the limit."

Stanback said he isn't being distracted by track, but rather finds himself rejuvenated by it.

"We only work out for an hour or so in track," he said. "I've been learning the new offense in football as we get ready for spring. I'm working on how to feel pocket pressure instead of just see it.

"We're going to spread the field and there will be a lot of high-accuracy routes. But if there is a blitz, I want to make the defense pay for it."

He said he has learned to run more efficiently from his time with the track team, and developed a more explosive first couple of steps.

"I've got to be able to run away from that defensive end and never have to worry about him again," Stanback said.

First will come winning the race for the starting quarterback job.

"I think everybody is getting a fresh start," Stanback said of the new coaching staff. "There are no more favorites. If you're not playing, it's on you."

Blaine Newnham: 206-464-2364 or bnewnham@seattletimes.com.