Husky Priority is Turning Secondary Great Again
The University of Washington football team turns up in all preseason national polls.
Tight end Cade Otton, linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio and edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui, plus offensive linemen Jaxson Kirkland and Luke Wattenberg, have received their fair share of individual attention.
So what's the Husky weakness?
Where's the tipping point between good and great?
While the wide receivers have gone through a quick shuffle, with three veterans transferring out, and the defensive line gave up a lot of yards in 2020, needing a healthy Tuli Letuligasenoa to come back strong, the position area still the most under the microscope is usually the Huskies' strongest one.
The secondary.
For the past decade, the UW defensive backs as a unit have never failed to rank among college football's elite, with the Huskies sending ready-made safeties and corners to the NFL, from Budda Baker to Desmond Trufant and now Elijah Molden.
It's one reason Jimmy Lake and his coaching staff with outstretched arms welcomed Brendan Radley-Hiles, a three-year starting cornerback from Oklahoma, into the program last week, needing a starpower boost.
Yet even with Radley-Hiles and junior corner Trent McDuffie on board, still not everyone is convinced this is the typical powerhouse secondary the Huskies are known to turn out.
Stayaliveinpower5.com, which does more intense player research than most — i.e., it doesn't just pick an Alabama player at every position it breaks down — recently selected a top 20 cornerback ranking and similar grouping for safeties and no Huskies turned up.
Granted, Radley-Hines and McDuffie drew honorable mention, but when was the last time a top UW corner had to settle for that?
No, the Husky secondary has a lot to prove in the months ahead.
To pro scouts, analysts, opposing teams.
Can McDuffie take a big step forward and be mentioned among the college game's best corners?
Who will be better and a first-team All-Pac-12 selection or more, Radley-Hines or McDuffie?
Who's a future No. 1 draft pick?
Will Asa Turner bounce back after a decidedly ho-hum sophomore showing?
Can Cam Williams jumpstart his UW career and beat out Turner again?
Is Kyler Gordon here to stay as a cover guy?
Are Jacobe Covington and Makell Esteen, the promising redshirt freshmen, ready to push somebody aside, enter the lineup and stay there?
In 2017, the Huskies came up with 15 interceptions, with seven different players headed for the NFL providing them.
The following season, it was 11.
It's a number that always says a lot about the UW secondary.
After all, Keith Taylor is seeking an NFL roster spot after failing to come up with a college pass theft.
While the Huskies played just four games during pandemic times in 2020, they finished with three interceptions, getting shut out in two outings.
No, it's time for the UW secondary to reclaim any luster that's been lost. It doesn't have Molden to cover for it anymore, someone who moved from slot corner to free safety last season because others weren't getting the job done.
The Huskies need a new leader, in fact more than one ballhawking guy, to lock things down again and make opposing quarterbacks unnerved and uncomfortable.
Considering the assembled manpower at hand, possibilities remain for building new national reputations.
Guys just have to earn it.
Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven
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