Washington Football Position Preview: UW Set With Browning
By Alec Dietz
Chris Peterson heads into his 3rd season with the University of Washington, and looks to finally break Stanford and Oregon’s stronghold on the Pac-12 North. With football season coming up, we look ahead to where the Dawgs are set, and where their might be some battles.
A Year Ago…
Peterson rolled the dice and started UW’s first true freshmen quarterback ever, Jake Browning. The young quarterback had his ups and downs as a starter, but many consider his season last year to be a success, as the quarterback threw for 2,955 yards, 16 touchdowns, and connected on 63.3% of his throws, however, the freshmen did throw 10 interceptions last season. He’ll hope to improve his numbers heading into year two in the Washington football system.
Meanwhile, backup quarterback KJ Carta-Samuels appeared in mop up duty for the Huskies frequently, and started one game against Stanford, and finished 10 for 24 on his throws, with no touchdowns.
While we didn’t see the best of Carta-Samuels last season, we also need to remember that he was a redshirt freshmen last season, and was definitely not receiving the reps that Browning was.
The third quarterback on the roster was junior Jeff Lindquist, who didn’t complete a throw last year, but did appear in goal line sets last year in a wildcat-type formation, and had one rushing touchdown last year.
This formation was largely ineffective last season, as it was attempted many times, but yielded only 3 yards per rushing attempt by Lindquist.
Washington Huskies
Saying Goodbye…
The Huskies do not lose a single quarterback from their roster last season.
New Faces…
- Daniel Bridge-Gadd, Fr., 6’2″, 195 lbs.
Current Roster:
- Anthony Berg, Sr., 6’2″, 212 lbs.
- Daniel Bridge-Gadd, Fr., 6’2″, 195 lbs.
- Jake Browning, So., 6’2″, 205 lbs.
- K.J. Carta-Samuels, So., 6’2″, 219 lbs.
- Tony Rodriguez, Jr., 6’3″, 191 lbs.
2016 Preview:
With senior Lindquist moving on to play tight end for the Huskies, as well as carry on his position on the punt coverage team and as the team’s placekick holder, the Huskies main battle at the quarterback position is who will be Browning’s backup. Both backup last year, Carta-Samuels, and Rodriguez, who redshirted last year after transferring from junior college, are in the running to backup the star sophomore.
Many suspect that Carta-Samuels is the most likely backup, as he has seen more action as a Huskies quarterback – granted, it was one game – and he is already in his third year with the program.
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However, Rodriguez left a good impression with the coaching staff during spring practices, and Carta-Samuels didn’t play well enough to close the door on the competition. It will be interesting to see how this plays out during the course of the season behind Browning.
As for the starter, well, as stated above, Browning has a firm grip on the starting quarterback spot, and figures to start every game barring injury. The real question with Browning is whether or not he can improve his deep throw.
Several times last season, the Husky offense was hampered by Browning’s poor arm strength and accuracy on deeper throws of more than 30 yards. If Browning can improve his arm strength and ability to hit some speedy receivers in stride – like John Ross III – this Husky offense can improve drastically in production.
With Browning in place, and many other weapons Peterson has established around his young quarterback, the Husky offense looks to finally break through from it’s lackluster past two years. If Browning can improve just a few aspects in his game – as he is likely to – Washington has a great shot to finally retake the Pac-12 North mantle.