Willingham leaning toward redshirt freshman Locker at QB

SEATTLE -- Let the expectations flow. Go Jake Go!

The long-awaited collegiate debut of heralded home-state quarterback Jake Locker will likely come in Washington 's season opener Aug. 31 at Syracuse. Tyrone Willingham came as close as a coach can in April to naming the teenage redshirt freshman as the replacement for graduated passer-runner Isaiah Stanback.

"If we had to play a game today, Jake Locker would be our quarterback," Willingham said Thursday, four days before the coach begins his third and most promising set of spring practices at Washington.

That promise chiefly comes from Locker, who turns 19 in June.

Willingham said the prep superstar from Ferndale, who was redshirted by Washington last season despite serious temptation to play him after Stanback sustained a season-ending injury, would still be the No. 1 quarterback heading into spring drills even if Carl Bonnell was not still recovering from December surgery to his non-throwing shoulder.

Bonnell, who started the final five games of UW's 5-7 season in 2006 and is the only quarterback on the roster who has played in a college game, resumed throwing again in late January and still can't lift heavy weights with his left arm. Willingham said Bonnell will be restricted from contact during the 15 practices that end with the annual spring game on April 28, but quarterbacks normally are off-limits anyway.

"I would probably be leaning toward Jake being our starter now, even if Carl was healthy," Willingham said.

Why? Because Locker didn't sign early with Washington and didn't choose football over baseball, the sport in which some believed he could have been a top-round draft choice, to sit and watch Willingham rebuild the Huskies.

Asked recently if he needed to see any more this preseason from Locker, Willingham shook his head horizontally and said, "I already know."

Even Bonnell knows.

"I've got the experience. He's got the talent," said Bonnell, a 23-year-old senior-to-be.

Bonnell led Washington to an upset win at Washington State in last fall's Apple Cup. He has endured injuries, enrolling at WSU and then transferring to UW, multiple quarterback competitions and trips up and down the Huskies' depth chart.

And now, a prodigy.