As Far as Husky Victories Go, Trice's Return Rates Up at Top
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It's January and University of Washington football players have immersed themselves in winter workouts while their coaches are in a deep dive in recruiting future Huskies.
Memories of beating Oregon and Michigan State, before capping off an 11-2 season with a decisive Alamo Bowl victory over Texas, are growing more faint while everyone's attention shifts to the coming season.
"We're turning the page," the UW football program recently posted on social media, words that were attached to a photo of a serious-looking weight coach Ron McKeefery addressing the players in their team room.
Still, it's hard to move past a most important and understated development for this football team that remains hard to fathom — that Bralen Trice remains part of this Husky team.
Players such as him, already physically mature at 6-foot-4 and 269 pounds, no less a proven college football commodity [see the chart below] and possibly the UW's top NFL prospect, simply don't delay the next step.
Yet Trice did.
"I just wanted to come back and enjoy that last season and not just leave," he said before the Alamo Bowl. "I want to be able to enjoy another year of college football."
Well, that's refreshing to purists everywhere.
While he didn't turn up at the top on any of the most prominent All-America lists as a sophomore, he probably should have. Trice was a first-team All-Pac-12 selection, but he deserved more recognition than that.
In the accompanying chart, Pro Football Focus graded out the seasons top edge rushers nationally and had Penn State's Chop Robinson and Trice 1-2, not far apart at all.
Maybe this Husky stalwart needs a catchy nickname like Chop to draw more attention to himself.
Chop Robinson?
How about Thud Trice? Or Torque Trice?
Either way, the Phoenix product will enter his junior year at the UW and use it as a sort of a grand farewell tour, further validating his greatness and enjoying a Husky program that currently makes everyone feel good and want to be a part of it.
"It's just having that sense of we're going to be a great team next season," he said.
While quarterback Michael Penix Jr. deserves a lot of credit for building the Huskies' 2023 momentum by first declaring his return, and could be a first-round draft pick himself, Trice is a guy who likely will go before him in the 2024 draft.
Most notably, Trice has never been hurt, which is exceedingly rare for a college player, especially on defense. He's like getting a new toy for Christmas, not a recycled one. He also was a playmaker on a UW defense that was a patchwork quilt at times, meaning his supporting cast wasn't always the best, but should be much better this time around.
While Penix does all of his wondrous things with a football, Trice can do the same, or has everyone forgotten how as a redshirt freshman he ran 72 yards for a touchdown with a fumble recovery?
Where's that Husky fan who said he looked a bit slow? Trice, a fast-moving mountain, laughed when he heard that critique.
In his last game appearance, Trice set the tone for the Alamo Bowl when he badly beat the Texas offensive line on the first and the last series of the game to register separate sacks of Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers, earning defensive MVP honors following the 27-20 victory in San Antonio.
He finished with 9 sacks for the season even while splitting all of the defensive statistical glory with fellow Husky first-team All-Pac-12 selection in the graduating Jeremiah Martin.
No, Trice rightfully should be talking to an agent, maybe picking out a new car, even packing up and getting ready to leave Seattle. Instead, he was so sure of what he wanted to do, Trice pushed all of that aside and didn't even wait to hear someone tell him his current draft position.
"I know I can be better," he said.
Biggest Husky victory this past season?
Take your pick: Beating Oregon, Penix's return, finishing off Texas or Trice re-upping.
Door No. 4 wouldn't be out of the question.
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