The word coach Chris Petersen used to describe the timing of the Jake Haener drama was “awkward.”
Sometimes, awkward situations are temporary annoyances with no lingering aftereffects. They happen, everyone cringes, and then, poof, it’s forgotten.
But sometimes they fester, grow and quickly manifest beyond awkward to something truly problematic.
There are many ways to look at Haener’s decision Saturday to transfer out of the Husky football program, just two days after losing the starting-quarterback battle to Jacob Eason, and exactly one week before Washington’s season opener against Eastern Washington.
Whether this will be a short-lived, uncomfortable episode or one that could haunt the Huskies long term depends largely on one thing: the performance of Eason as the now-undisputed and un-challenged QB of a team hoping to reach new heights in 2019.