Many NFL teams are holding mini-camps right now, or have just completed them. And such camps are a good chance for new guys to make an impression.

Unfortunately, a couple of recent ex-Huskies trying to make rosters have been hurt by an NFL rule that doesn't allow fourth-year seniors to participate until their school holds graduation. This often impacts UW players more than a lot of others since Washington is on the quarter system --- final exams don't end until next week.

Marcel Reece is not able to take part in Oakland's mini-camp, which is going on right now, due to the rule, and Roy Lewis was unable to take part in some practices for Pittsburgh last week (I'll admit I'm a little confused on Lewis since I thought he was a five-year college guy after transferring, but maybe there's something different about his case).

As a fifth-year senior, Anthony Russo is eligible to participate in the Seahawks mini-camp right now, but he has been unable to participate the last two days due to an unspecified injury.

Some bad news for the Huskies today as school officials confirmed that linebacker E.J. Savannah recently broke the humerus bone in his left arm in a non-football-related incident on Saturday night.

Team trainers say this is an injury that typically requires two-to-three months to fully recover, so that means Savannah could miss Washington's season opener on Aug. 30 at Oregon.

The humerus bone is the long bone that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. One source indicated Savannah was injured while arm-wrestling.

Savannah, an outside linebacker, was UW's leading tackler last season with 111 tackles and has been named to a few pre-season all-conference teams. Savannah was suspended for the first half of spring practice for missing a few off-season workouts, but came back to lead the team in the spring game with eight tackles.

His loss for even a game or two could be a big blow for a UW team that faces a tough early schedule in what looms as a make-or-break year for head coach Tyrone Willingham. After the Oregon game, UW hosts BYU and Oklahoma, each likely to be highly-ranked.

Savannah, a junior, figures to be a key part of the plans of new defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, who has said he might use some 3-4 defensive schemes to take advantage of the team's depth at linebacker. But losing Savannah would obviously curtail that depth for a while. Savannah was replaced in the early part of spring drills by walk-on Joshua Gage, with Trenton Tuiasosopo and Donald Butler sharing the middle and Mason Foster starting at the other outside spot.

Another day, another set of pre-season picks to pore over.

Today it's Phil Steele, though in this case all we have right now are his pre-season All-Pac-10 selections, which he released on his website today. The magazine with full previews hits newsstands in a few days.

Steele makes the ambitious effort of naming four all-conference teams, so each school ends up being pretty well represented.

He has eight Huskies on his teams, though none on the first team.

Huskies listed are: LB E.J. Savannah, second team; QB Jake Locker, OL Casey Bulyca and DE Daniel Te'o-Nesheim on the third team; and WR Chris Polk, OL Ryan Tolar, LB Donald Butler and P Jared Ballman on the fourth team.

I've always liked Steele because he packs a lot of into in his magazines and isn't afraid to make out-of-the-box picks. That said, not sure Polk is the UW receiver I would place on a fourth team. He has a lot of potential, but I think D'Andre Goodwin is the readiest to make that kind of a leap this season. The rest of the picks make some sense, though this is the lowest I've seen Locker, who is listed behind ASU's Rudy Carpenter and Arizona's Willie Tuitama. But no doubt Tuitama could put up huge numbers this season with that receiving corps and offensive game plan.

In total picks, the tally by school reads like this:

1, USC, 23
2, Arizona, 14
3, Oregon, 12
4, Arizona State, 11
5, Stanford, 10
6, Cal 9,
7, (tie) Washington, UCLA, Oregon State, 8
10, Washington State 7

The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that Washington has officially contacted South Florida AD Doug Woolard in its search for a successor for Todd Turner. Here's the link.

We floated Woolard's name here a couple of days ago as a possible candidate, as well. One thing we've heard is that Woolard may have just agreed to a new contract at USF that would seemingly make him unlikely to move.

We've heard that Utah's Chris Hill may still be in the mix, along with USC associate AD Steve Lopes and former UW kicker Chuck Nelson.

A few stories to pass along this morning on newest Husky C.J. Wilcox:

--- First is our story.

--- There is also this from the Deseret News.

--- This is older, but here's a note on Wilcox as being one of the top players at the Kingwood Classic in Houston in April the tournament at which his stock began to rise.

Incoming Husky Johri Fogerson of O'Dea was named as the Boys Star of the Year today by the Seattle Times.

Here's the story.

The Girls Star of the Year was another future Husky, basketball player Kristi Kingma.