Carl Bonnell attended the press conference today and said he should be able to play Saturday.

He said his thigh is the biggest issue right now but he expects it to be okay.

After that it's pretty uncertain. Tyrone Willingham said Johnny DuRocher wouldn't be able to play if there were a game today and it will have to be seen how he progresses during the week. That could leave Felix Sweetman as the backup.

After that, Willingham said he might have to get "creative.'' He wouldn't elaborate on who that might be though Sonny Shackelford --- a high school QB ---- is an obvious choice.

Willingham elbaborated a little bit more on the "suddenly senior'' issue, saying he apoligizes "if my timing was off'' saying again that he wanted the players to have the chance to be properly honored.

But in terms of what was done, he expressed no regrets, stating again his policy on a fifth year.

He said he has no concerns it will scare off recruits, saying players are told about it up front and that the kinds of players UW wants will understand and accept it. He pointed out that scholarships are one-year renewable, something I quoted Todd Turner saying in a story on Friday, as well, when Turner said he supported Willingham's policy.

Willingham would not elaborate as to why Chris Hemphill and Michael Braunstein were being shown the door, however, and not other fourth-year juniors. He also said that not all decisions on such players have been made, a comment he made when asked specifically about Corey Williams. So there could, apparenlty, be more of those types of decisions coming.

And he said again that he thinks it had no affect on the team's play Saturday, saying "I hope we're not that fragile of a team.''

When asked if the program was where he wanted it to be right now, he said "no, we're not where I hoped we'd be and where I thought we'd be'' but he also said that "obviously, there has been some progress.'' But that was about as far as he wanted to go on that, saying the focus this week is on beating Washington State, which he said would set a positive tone for next season.

Should add that there was only one player of the week --- linebacker Tahj Bomar for defense (there were no offense or special teams players, as there usually is, even after losses). Also, LB Donald Butler attended the luncheon and should be ready to go this week after missing the last two games with a calf injury.