Huskies Avert Disaster with Hatchett, Have Productive Scrimmage

It was almost as if someone died, which is always the case when a University of Washington football player gets injured.

A half an hour into Saturday night's scrimmage, Husky Stadium got real quiet when starting offensive guard Geirean Hatchett went down, grabbing his right knee in obvious pain. All the energy drained out of the rest of his team.

This brought coach Jedd Fisch onto the field, behind the trainers. Edge rusher Zach Durfee and offensive tackle Drew Azzopardi immediately went to console Landen Hatchett, Geirean's younger brother and the starting center, when the injured sibling was helped to the sideline.

However, all was not lost with the older Hatchett, a sixth-year and lately a practice enforcer when one of his offensive guys gets roughed up. The pall over the team was lifted. A major injury apparently was averted.

After a 132-play scrimmage, Fisch declared it a notably productive ninth workout in fall camp and he seemed to indicate that Geirean Hatchett, who was seen walking around at the end of the evening, would be fine. Walk-on safety Kayden Greene also was helped off the field and then carted to the locker room and might not be so fortunate.

"We stayed healthy," the coach said. "From what I understand, I think we're good all the way around tonight."

If there was a benefit to Hatchett sitting out, people got to see a lot more of freshman John Mills, who along with fellow redshirt freshman Paki Finau and fellow freshman Champ Taulealea pulled first-team scrimmage snaps at the guard positions in the other guy's absence.

A more streamlined Mills, down 15 pounds and a lot closer to his 320 listing on the roster, provided a fearsome image when he and left tackle Carver Willis pulled out and led running back Adam Mohammed around left end for an 11-yard gain.

"He's really got himself in position to compete and play ... He's really got himself stronger," Fisch said of Mills. "It got him in a little bit better condition. I love the way he's running a lot better. He's running faster."