Bye Week Provides Cooling-Off Period For The Batman

With a bye week, it's hard to determine whether the University of Washington football staff needs to make Rylon Dillard-Allen simmer down a bit or just get him revved up all over again.

Of all of the Husky true freshmen, of which there are many who came ready to play and be physical from this season, the first-year safety from Phoenix who calls himself "Batman," has been a crime fighter since day one.

Or at least a fighter.

"At safety, you have to play with an edge and play with fire," UW safeties coach Taylor Mays said in fall camp. "It's really a fine line and he's just a guy at the edge."

On the first kickoff brought back by Illinois a week ago, while everyone else was trying to bring down or block for the return man, Dillard-Allen and the Illini's Grayson Griffin were off to the side, trading hot-tempered shoves.

Rylon Dillard-Allen is a fiery player for the Huskies. | Dave Sizer photo

This little Montlake exchange escalated to the point that the Huskies' Caped Crusader delivered a couple of explosive shots to the other guy's face mask.

Of course, it didn't go unnoticed by the officiating crew, with one of the peace-keepers in a striped shirt immediately flagging Batman for unnecessary roughness, which put the ball on the Illinois 47-yard line for the visitors to begin play.

A TV camera zoomed into the Husky sideline and showed Dillard-Allen trying to plead his case to special-teams coordinator Chris Petrilli, who didn't seem thrilled by what he was hearing and walked away.

Actually the Batman appeared to be extremely lucky he wasn't ejected for landing blows to his opponent's head area.

Eight games into the UW season, Dillard-Allen's performance chart looks something like this: 19 tackles, which ranks him seventh on the team; a first career start at Michigan, as the nickelback or a third safety; and unlimited angry moments.

In fall camp, he notably got into it with wide receiver Kevin Green Jr., where the two threw punches and ended up taking each other to the ground.

Batman doesn't seem to know any other way to play and his amped-up style has brought him playing time in each of the Huskies' first eight games. He even started that Michigan game, in the Big House, with no stage fright whatsoever.

Rylon Dillard-Allen prefers a very aggressive style on the football field. | Dave Sizer photo

"With his athletic ability and movement skills, he has a chance to be a special player," Mays said.

Dillard-Allen has that memorable nickname. That notable fearlessness. He's delivered some of the Huskies' hardest hits so far, with all others within the rulebook.

He just needs to show a little restraint if at all possible, so he can remain a super hero and doesn't end up as some guy relegated to the bench with an ejection, now madder than ever with nowhere to channel it.

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