Tell me about Washington

TideFans - Congrats on your season. Not sure I've ever seen a defense as good as yours in my 30+ years of watching college football.

UW might be a little better than you're giving them credit for. They have a strong defense. Budda Baker is one of the best safeties in football and their corners can really lock down. They're also very well-coached. They're not going to beat themselves.

That said, I'm not the least bit impressed with Jake Browning. He put up monster stats against some of the worst defenses in America. He completed less than 50% of his passes against USC, Utah and Colorado. UW's OL has not seen anything close to Bama's defense and Browning is not good at improvisation. I do not see them putting up more than 10 points in this game. I think the final will be 38-10.

I was watching Booger McFarland last night on the SEC network and he said that USC dominated both sides of the LOS against them........

bamamc1 said:

I was watching Booger McFarland last night on the SEC network and he said that USC dominated both sides of the LOS against them........

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They only ran the ball for 133 yards on 36 rushing attempts, so I wouldn't say that. Their offense killed Washington with short passes all game long. But their defense owned the LOS.

capnfrog said:

The undersize line reminds me of when we played Utah. Undersized usually means faster and that's probably where the athleticism comes in. They have excellent WR's and QB but I don't really think The Huskies have the depth to hang with us in the 4th qtr.

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Yup..One thing that's in our favor is this years D is the fastest at the LOS that I've seen on the college level & our D-Line is built to stop smaller, quicker type O-Lines like Washington or Utah..Our team speed in general is ridiculously as good as it gets this side of the NFL..

I'm about to read this thread to find out. Honestly, I've watched them for a total of 15 minutes this year.

I'll say this about them, which I'd say about any other team in the CFP right now. We can't afford to look past them. They didn't get here accidentally and they obviously have a good football team and coach.

Happy to honestly answer any questions you may have about the Huskies (I posted a topic that breaks down our team).

We're very balanced, i.e., equaly explosive on offense and defense. PEople like to label the Dawgs as "finesse" because we are in the Pac-12, but we have quality players everywhere (top 3 in NFL talent according to many).

Our biggest hope is our strengths match up well with Bama. Nobody can really contain Ross, and we have a deep WR and RB corp (we didn't even miss Stringfellow, who transferred to Ole Miss; he might not even start if he was still with the Huskies). Our defensive backfield as 4 NFL players, 3 of whom have a chance to go in Round 1 (Jones is almost certainly a 1st rounder, and Baker and King are going to go high). The weakest link in our defensive backfield is our True Frosh, Taylor Rapp. But he's a stud. Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year and MVP of the Pac-12 championships game (2 INTs, including a pick 6). I'm fairly certain we have the best defensive backfield in the country.

But your D-line and TE have a HUGE leg up on us. With our all-pac 12 LB out (Victor Azeem), Howard could run wild (though Baker will likely spy him). I'm really concerned that your defensive line and pass rushers will be living our our backfield.

Also concerned that the last QB who looked like Hurts (Darnold at USC) completely destroyed us.

crimsonaudio said:

Without question, Bama will have to execute to win - Washington is a well-coached team that plays good football.

That said, the reality is Washington just doesn't have the athletes to beat Bama unless Bama plays sloppy and gives them the game. The bodies just aren't there.

Washington recruiting over the last five years (2012 included to include RS seniors)
2016: 37th; (0)5*, (7)4*
2015: 31st; (0)5*, (4)4*
2014: 37th; (0)5*, (3)4*
2013: 18th; (0)5*, (7)4*
2012: 22nd; (1)5*, (5)4*
total: (1)5*, (26)4*

Alabama recruiting over the last five years (2012 included to include RS seniors):
2016: 1st; (5)5*, (10)4*
2015: 2nd; (4)5*, (15)4*
2014: 1st; (6)5*, (13)4*
2013: 1st; (4)5*, (13)4*
2012: 1st; (3)5*, (14)4*
total: (22)5*, (65)4*

Alabama cannot expect to just show up and win, but if they prepare properly and execute, they will beat Washington.

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You guys no doubt have more highly rated players across the board. That is beyond a doubt. You have more NFL caliber players, and are deeper than us.

With that said, our star ratings are misleading. For example, Taylor Rapp is a true frosh freshman out of Bellingham, WA and he was a Scout 3 star. He starts as a true freshman and was Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year (also had 2 INTs in pac-12 championship, one he returned for a pick 6). I guess what I'm saying is CP has never bought into "stars" since Boise. He kicked Marcus Peters off the team (and Peters is one of the best corners in the NFL for KC), and Stringfellow was shown the door (he transferred to Ole Miss). CP recruits for "fit," not stars.

I think the better metric is NFL caliber players starting. Ohio STate, Bama, and Washington have the most starting NFL talent. We have 10 NFL calibers players starting (you probably have 15+), including 2 certain first rounders.

You guys beat us 9/10. I don't deny that. I'm just hoping for that 10% chance!

huskylawyer said:

I think the better metric is NFL caliber players starting. Ohio STate, Bama, and Washington have the most starting NFL talent. We have 10 NFL calibers players starting (you probably have 15+), including 2 certain first rounders.

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Alabama has 43 players in the NFL, most starting. On this team, they probably have another 25 who will at some point start in the NFL.

http://ladyinred.net/nflplayers

B1GTide said:

Alabama has 43 players in the NFL, most starting. On this team, they probably have another 25 who will at some point start in the NFL.

http://ladyinred.net/nflplayers

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Yea, I was referring to NFL calibers starting for you now. I'm guessing 75% of your starters will play on Sundays. Half of our starters will play on Sundays (about 10 NFL players, including 2 first rounders in Jones and Ross).

At the end of the day, you guys are more talented. I concede that. But we're probably as talented as any team you've faced. Only Ohio State has more starting pros IMHO (other than Bama).

crimsonaudio said:

L6U

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and I'd add USC, they've got talent all over the place as well - enough to throttle the "Dawgs" when they played.

edwd58 said:

and I'd add USC, they've got talent all over the place as well - enough to throttle the "Dawgs" when they played.

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Let's talk about USC.

First, they beat us, no sugar coating. But I take issue with anyone thinking they destroyed us. We destroyed Colorado (won by 30). We destroyed Oregon (I'd give you the point difference, but I can't count that high ). USC beat us by 13. They beat us good, but if you watch the game (I was there in person), we had an off day and our gameplan was bad. How it happened:

- We over-estimated our pass rush by our down lineman. Before that game, our d-lineman could get pressure on the QB without blitzing LBs or DBs. For whatever reason, we didn't adjust until the 4th quarter. Had we threw in some blitzes earlier, game would have been better for us. USC had the horses on the o-lineman to make us "earn it".

- Darnold was the first quality mobile QB we faced (the Oregon QBs are scrubs). Troy Williams at Utah is "aight" but he left UDUB cuz he couldn't get on the field in Seattle and couldn't beat a true frosh out. We underestimated Darnol'd speed and size. He looked like Cam Newton out there, and it surprised. He was a good test as Hurts is similar.

- Jake had a bad game. Obviously, kudos to USC's defense, but Browning was throwing gifts out there, including 2 to Adoree Jackson. Jackson is a good player obviously (though Ross put up 150 on him).

You guys still beat USC, but they are really a different team with Darnold. He is going to be QB #1 when he comes out (in part though cuz USC QBs always get a bump, I mean even Leinart was drafted high). I was almost hoping to meet them in the pac-12 title game, because we beat them after seeing what they can do

But completley fair for you guys to say, "we destroyed USC, USC beat you, so........" I get it and won't fight hard on that ponit.

deliveryman35 said:

they've scored 41 points or more in 10 of their 13 games.

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And they played two teams with legit defenses. They got destroyed in one and could've easily lost the other. They will not have seen ANYTHING even remotely close to the power and speed that Bama will bring. Play to form and this gets nasty real quick.


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rgw said:

We were better than Ohio State in 2014 but lost control of that game in the middle quarters, made too mistakes to overcome it late. I take nothing for granted in the postseason.

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People might want to revisit that roster. They had some AWESOME talent. When I looked at it again I was like dang. Still should have won and that was a game Lane cost Bama IMO.


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Here's some food for thought for you:

We would have won seven games and tied another one if our offense did not score a single TD in all of those games combined. Our special teams and defense scored enough to win all by themselves. And while we did have 19 turnovers, Hurts himself accounted for 13 of those (9 picks, 4 fumbles), and two of those were missed blocks where he got blind sided.

huskylawyer said:

But we're probably as talented as any team you've faced.

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LSU because LSU is a proven NFL factory and then you're going to have to throw Clemson into that mix and maybe even USC and Ole Miss. So you might be the 3rd or 4th most talented team we have faced in the past two years. Reason I say past two years is because we have a lot of players back from last years Natty team. Especially on D.

In other words, our roster has seen talented opponents before. UDUB won't be something we haven't seen before. However, Alabama will be something your guys haven't seen before.

Loam said:

In other words, our roster has seen talented opponents before. UDUB won't be something we haven't seen before. However, Alabama will be something your guys haven't seen before.

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This is a straight fact. Alabama has seen several more talented and more dangerous teams in every respect that Washington. Washington hasn't seen a team that comes close to Alabama. That doesn't guarantee an outcome, but the Washington players are going to experience shock and awe when they start to get hit in that game.