Inside Saturday's Scrimmage Was a Whole Lot of UW Defensive Attitude
Tuli Letuligasenoa, short, stocky and snarly, prowled the defensive sideline on Saturday at Husky Stadium, shouting to anyone who could hear him.
He and his University of Washington teammates had just stuffed the No. 1 offense and he wanted everyone to know it.
"Back to normal!" the heavily bearded defensive tackle barked. "Back on schedule! Can't [bleep] with us!"
As coach Jimmy Lake sent his Huskies through a full-pad but still contact-constrained scrimmage, one thing he couldn't soften was the attitude of his defense.
For six months now, all Letuligasenoa and his fellow UW defenders have heard is how they can't stop the run.
How they got run over.
That they're so soft.
It didn't matter that Letuligasenoa, expected to be a force up front last fall, was injured right before the opener and sat out almost all but the last game of the pandemic-shortened season.
He was on the field for the Stanford game, the UW's only loss, and still seems to have taken it all very personal.
On a sun-splashed morning before fans — yes, a modest turnout of fans — the Husky defense seemed to have the upper hand through much of the two-hour session. At least with the first unit, which was quarterbacked by sophomore Dylan Morris.
In predominantly red-zone situations, the UW offensive units pushed across eight touchdowns from various scenarios, but only two came from the No. 1 group, both on short passes from Morris to junior tight end Devin Culp.
Otherwise, the top defense had Morris running for his life, with redshirt freshman outside linebacker Sav'ell Smalls chasing him down to end the first series. Smalls was one of those who filled in for the injured Zion Tupuola-Fetui, who appeared to sprain an ankle on Friday and wasn't in uniform for the weekend scrimmage.
Letuligasenoa got in the face of Morris, too, forcing him to rush a throw that fell incomplete to disrupt the second series.
Following his verbal tirade, Letuligasenoa wasn't done providing commentary as he watched the other units go at it.
He seemed to relish a hit that sophomore defensive tackle Noa Ngalu laid on freshman running back Jay'Veon Sunday — the showboat performer from Texas who's been nicknamed "the Little Tasmanian Devil" by offensive teammates — and he let him know it.
"High step that, boy!" Letuligaseno said emphatically.
While each of the UW quarterbacks seemed harried, in particular freshman Sam Huard, the new guy still threw a pair of short TD passes to junior-college transfer Quentin Moore. The second one ricocheted off a cluster defenders in the end zone and into the arms of Moore, a new tight end.
Most of the completed passes ended up in the hands of tight ends, because of the situational nature of the plays. Culp and Moore each caught two scoring tosses.
Senior wide receiver Terrell Bynum, wasn't too worried about where the number of catches went, suggesting his group will get plenty. However, asked later about the rapid turnover in the receiving corps, he had this to say, "It was actually a little devastating. I was super close with those guys like outside of football. We still stay in contact."
At the same time, Bynum mentioned how he welcomed portal newcomers Ja'Lynn Polk from Texas Tech and Giles Jackson from Michigan, with the latter joining the Huskies in the fall.
Closing out the scoring, freshman backs Caleb Berry and Sunday and seniors Sean McGrew and Kamari Pleasant each were credited with short TD runs, plus kickers Peyton Henry and Tim Horn each provided field goals.
A funny sight was the 6-foot-6, 365-pound Ulumoo Ale and the 6-foot-6, 340-pound Henry Bainivalu, the UW's first-team offensive guards, lumbering 60 yards to get in position as the Huskies attempted an extra-point kick.
Near the end of Saturday's practice, with Lake introducing a point system to determine whether the offense or defense would run extra after play was over, Letuligasenoa and Smalls broke through to touch Morris down for a 10-yard sack to quell one series.
Morris and the No. 1 offense came onto the field for one last time to try and score and avoid the running exercise, but junior linebacker Jackson Sirmon intercepted the quarterback's first pass, eliciting a loud roar from the entire defense.
Sirmon got up off the ground and raced 60 yards to the end zone in celebration, accompanied by nearly two dozen teammates.
Then they watched the offense run, and not them, from sideline to sideline. It was good for their attitude.
