Washington QB Jake Locker, A Likely Top Pick, Will Return For Senior Year

SBN's Washington blog, UW Dawg Pound, has their take up on Jake Locker's decision to return for his senior season and forgo highly likely first-pick money in the process:

What is comes down to is Jake wants to finish what he came to Washington for and that is to lead the program backs to depths it has sunk to over the last decade. The level of coaching he received this season from the new staff was also a huge factor.

Jake raised his passing percentage nearly ten points this season while barely scratching the true potential he has to work with. Give Jake another year with Sarkisian and he is going to be ready to come in and lead an NFL team and not just draw a huge paycheck and hold a clipboard.

What they're leaving out, of course, is the added weight of common sense to this choice, which is to say that Jake Locker really, really doesn't want to be a St. Louis Ram. Hard to fault him there.

On the heels of Herbstreit’s earlier report, Locker released a statement through the University of Washington making it official:

“After a great deal of careful thought and deliberation, I have decided to return to Washington and play my senior year,” said Locker. “I am very excited about this team’s opportunities and potential for the upcoming season and I am looking forward to being a part of it.”

Locker, a native of Ferndale, Wash., led the Huskies to one of the country’s best turnarounds last season. The team, under head coach Steve Sarkisian, improved its win total by five games and Locker firmly established himself as one of the country’s top quarterbacks. He recorded the third-highest single-season passing total in UW history and his 5,374 career passing yards is sixth on the UW career charts. Locker is also just two yards shy of Marques Tuiasosopo’s record as the UW’s all-time leading rusher at the quarterback position.