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Inside The Huskies

Husky Defense Trying to Be Dominant as Cal Comes to Town

The UW stop unit showed what it could do against Michigan State.
Dan Raley|
Husky Defense Trying to Be Dominant as Cal Comes to Town
Husky Defense Trying to Be Dominant as Cal Comes to Town

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Washington Huskies

Following the lightning storm, the global pandemic and the coaching change that greatly disrupted things in previous seasons at Husky Stadium, the arrival of Kalen DeBoer helped restore a an overly successful vibe to the place.

After taking over, the University of Washington football coach brought in a first-rate staff and a hired gun fast on the draw named Michael Penix Jr., gained the absolute trust of his inherited Husky players and made a lot of things happen all at once with his offense.

It was nothing short of incredible to watch all of this stuff unfold in such a hurry-up manner last year, as if the UW was in a program two-minute drill, with so much entertainment value involved and guided by imagination and invention. 

Now as the eighth-ranked and the ultimately Big Ten-bound Huskies (3-0) open their final Pac-12 Conference season — facing the ACC-promised California Bears (2-1) for the 102nd time with no immediate prospects for another game  between them — DeBoer's guys appear on the verge of taking another significant football step forward.

Or did it escape notice that the UW played some fairly stout defense in the middle of the Midwest? That edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui resembled his former super human self from the 2020 season? That the Huskies held a Big Ten team, in front of a raucous but quickly muted crowd of 70,000-plus on the road, to a meaningless touchdown? 

While the Penix-led offense looks more polished and powerful than ever, an even bigger story might be the Husky defense gradually coming together in its own stifling and game-changing manner.

ZTF supplied a pair of signature sacks at Michigan State, a hearty performance that led to him receiving Pac-12 Defensive Lineman of the Week honors; nickelback Mishael Powell came up with interception No. 4 for the Huskies defense in three outings, demonstrating enhanced pass coverage that previously was a patchwork job; and everyone else effectively shut down the line of scrimmage.

"Yes, I just felt very well prepared," Tupuola-Fetui said on Tuesday. "I felt like my body felt good. I felt we had a really solid game plan that I wrapped my head around. It was easy to go out there and play with some confidence."

The 6-foot-4, 254-pound Tupuola-Fetui provided his first two-sack game since 2020, when he was all the rage of college football with 7 sacks, including 3 strip sacks, in just four pandemic-season games. Call him the second coming of Marty McFly, doing a Back to the Future football sequel.

He didn't wait long to make something happen in East Lansing, Michigan, bringing down Spartans quarterback Noah Kim from behind on the game's fourth play for a 9-yard loss.

"I was honestly hoping that he didn't throw it; I was praying, praying," ZTF said of chasing Kim. "From what I'd seen, he didn't have to look to the tips because he could have just thrown something to the sideline. As soon as I saw him square up, I thought, 'Ah, I've got a chance.' I needed to make the most of the moment there."

Cal comes into Husky Stadium with a couple of former UW players in All-Pac-12 linebacker Jackson Sirmon and wide receiver Taj Davis, plus a propensity lately for keeping things close on the scoreboard with the Huskies.

Last season in a night game held in Berkeley, the Bears held DeBoer's prolific offense to its third-lowest output of the season before losing 28-21. Everybody played more defense than offense in this outing.

With a proven talent in Sirmon controlling play in the middle, the Cal defense again should be troublesome for the Huskies. Coach Justin Wilcox and his defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon, both former UW assistant coaches, are known for their astute defensive game-planning, as well.

"It's an experienced group, it's a group that can adjust, so we'll have to dig deep and find a lot of different looks for them to look at," Husky offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said of the visiting Bears. "[We'll try and confuse them a little bit and see if we can execute at a higher level than we did last year."

On the other side of the ball, Tupuola-Fetui and his fellow Husky defensive starters are following a similar approach as they turn to their farewell game against Cal, woking hard to get better, planning all along to become as disruptive as possible. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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