UW Spring Preview: Husky Edge Rushers Form Deeply Talented Group
For two seasons, Bralen Trice didn't play in a game for the University of Washington football team. Not one outing, series or down. It was determined he needed to develop as an edge rusher. Build confidence. Gain strength.
He found himself buried in the depth chart, lining up behind fellow Husky pass rushers such as Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, Ryan Bowman, Zion Tupuola-Fetui, Laiatu Latu, Sav'ell Smalls and Cooper McDonald.
Trice was hardly an unknown quantity. In one of the bolder UW player assessments offered in a number of seasons, former edge-rusher coach Ikaika Malloe flat-out promised Trice someday would be better than Tryon-Shoyinka, then an NFL first-round draft pick, before this kid from Phoenix, Arizona, had even logged his first game appearance.
Look at both of them now — Malloe and Trice. Nothing but the truth.
The erstwhile edge-rusher coach works for UCLA, taking the medically retired Latu with him to Westwood and making him a football player again, but he easily could have bagged coaching and opened up a business as a spot-on fortune-teller.
As for Trice, the 6-foot-4, 269-pound junior likely is way better than Tryon-Shoyinka and all of those other current or former Huskies for that matter, if not every other player at his position across the college football landscape.
He is exhibit A of how the light suddenly comes on, matching performance with all of his notable physical attributes.
Or, it's even possible the previous UW coaching staff, and we're talking about decision-makers above Malloe's pay grade, might have mismanaged Trice some, proving delinquent in putting the kid on the field sooner and just letting him play with his hair on fire.
Remember in his third Husky game in 2021, Trice, as an eager redshirt freshman, came off the bench against Arkansas State, picked up a fumble and lumbered 72 yards for a touchdown.
Yet he didn't start for the Huskies until the final two games of that disturbing 4-8 season, against Colorado and Washington State, once coach Jimmy Lake was fired and an interim and different point of view was in place. That staff was known to squabble about such things.
Either way, Trice turned up as a full-fledged starter last season for Kalen DeBoer and his coaches, even leap-frogging the highly accomplished Tupuola-Fetui, and he delivered in a big way.
With spring football practice getting an extra-early start on March 6, we're taking a hard look at each personnel group going into the 15 workouts stretched out over 47 days that end with a spring game, and the Husky cornerbacks are on the clock here.
LIVING ON THE EDGE
As it stands, DeBoer's coaching staff hope to have the best of both worlds in 2023 by starting Trice and the 6-foot-4, 249-pound ZTF together up front rather than alternating them. They bring amazing football resumes.
Trice earned first-team, All-Pac-12 edge rusher honors in 2022; ZTF held that distinction in 2020, and was even made a third-team AP All-America selection.
Finishing third in the conference, Trice registered 9 sacks in 13 games last season; ZTF finished with 7 in four pandemic-influenced outing three years ago, with his 1.75 average making him the national leader.
Trice enters the 2023 season having appeared in 25 games and started 11 of them; ZTF, with an Achilles injury and concussion docking him a half season in 2021, has 36 appearance and 9 starts.
Gentlemen, start your engines.
This clearly seems like it could become the Huskies' most prolific position area, further enhanced by all sorts of interesting players lining up behind the two headliners.
Anthony James, the prized member of DeBoer's incoming recruiting class from Wylie, Texas, and already a 6-foot-5, 265-pound physical specimen, is in the mix, as is transfer Zach Durfee, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound sophomore who had 11 sacks in 11 games for NCAA Division II Sioux Falls, though starting just twice. They're joined by a third newcomer with impressive size in 6-foot-5, 230-pound freshman Jacob Lane from Puyallup, Washington. Note the 6-foot-5 minimum height for each player here.
Already in the system is Smalls, a 6-foot-3, 259-pound junior who was once a 5-star recruit and a one-game Husky starter as a freshman and remains on the cusp of more playing time.
Maurice Heims, a 6-foot-5, 261-pound sophomore from Germany, appeared in seven games in 2022 and registered his first career sack against Colorado. The coaches seem to like him a lot.
Sekai Asoau-Afoa, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound senior and one-time JC transfer, appeared in nine games, providing more strength than speed it seemed.
And, finally, there's Lance "Showtime" Holtzclaw, a 6-foot-3, 217-pound redshirt freshman from Arizona, same as Trice, who played in three games in his first season — which was three more than Trice — and has the best nickname of anyone on the team.
The Huskies have a lot of intrigue at edge rusher, if not the best player in the country at that position.
UW EDGE RUSHER CANDIDATES
Bralen Trice, 6-4, 269, Jr., played in 25 games, 11 starts
Zion Tupuola-Fetui, 6-4, 249, Sr., played in 36 games, 9 starts
Sav'ell Smalls, 6-3, 259, Jr., played in 29 games, 1 start
Maurice Heims, 6-5, 261, So., played in 7 games
Sekai Asoau-Afoa, 6-4, 275, Sr., played in 9 games
Zach Durfee, 6-5, 250, So., played in 11 games, 2 starts (Sioux Falls)
Lance "Showtime" Holtzclaw, 6-3, 217, R-Fr., played in 3 games
Anthony James, 6-5, 265, Fr., ready to debut
Jacob Lane, 6-5, 230, Fr., ready to debut
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