Grow Up! Washington Football team 2018 recruiting class supersized

Thanks to Washington Football team‘s playoff loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, head coach Chris Petersen learned an important lesson. He is building an offense to match up to those big ole SEC teams

We’ve had some time to absorb this Washington Football team. The loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2016 CFP Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl was a tough loss to a Cinderella team. The Washington Huskies struck first. But from that moment, Alabama silenced the Washington Football team’s offense to score 24 unanswered points. That Alabama defense, the best in the nation, was big, burly, brawny, and bad-assed.

That 2016 Washington Football team was ahead of schedule.  Head coach Chris Petersen had a plan and a timetable. But the Huskies blew through that time-timetable in short order. Some believe that gives this team a disadvantage. Success, too soon, will now force the Huskies to face repeating NCAA Football College Football Playoff appearances, all the while rebuilding a championship team on the fly.

This is a tall order.

Cinderella left the big dance early too…

Few gave the Washington Football team much chance. After all, the team built success from just slightly better than average recruits. This was a recruiting class which was not touted nationally. In fact, this team was not even highly ranked among the Pac-12.  But what  the team lacked in pedigree, they made up for with passion, dedication, and commitment.

Until they encountered a team with equal passion, but bigger in size.  The Washington Huskies lost a game that was essentially a home game for Alabama. The question now is, how with the Washington Football team handle the loss? It could set everyone – coaches and players alike – back on their heels.

Silver lining in that stormcloud

But it will likely work to Petersen’s advantage. It’s tough to recite an answer if you don’t know the question. Now, the Washington Football team knows the questions intimately: How can they defeat Alabama?

Well, despite the score, the Huskies played rather well against a far more seasoned opponent. For the record, quarterback Jake Browning was playing injured in the game. Running back Myles Gaskin got the Huskies there by rushing for 159 yards to defeat the Colorado Buffalo for the Pac-12 championship.

Alabama did what Alabama does

But Gaskin was held to 34 yards by Alabama.  Browning was held to 150 yards passing in that game. They entered the game as the top rated NCAA defense.

But Alabama simply did what other teams did previously.  Oh, and they just happened to hire former UW head coach Steve Sarkisian as the offensive coordinator before the game. Sarkisian was the head coach of the Washington Football team from 2009-2013, and had recruited many of the players on the Washington team.

Alabama knows how to stack a deck to win.

Alabama followed the script other teams wrote

But the secret to beating the Washington Huskies was not a script written by Alabama. That script was written by Pac-12 teams. Alabama simply had enough horsepower to pull that load.

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November 2016 was not a great month for running back Myles Gaskin. While he had a huge game against Colorado, he struggled against three of four teams faced that month.  He rushed for 74 yards against California. After that he put up just 51 yards against USC.  Finally, in the Apple Cup game, he ran for just 50 yards against cross-state rival Washington State.  His only solid game prior to facing Colorado was a 127 yard effort against Arizona State.

Stop the run, lose to the pass. Unless you can stop both

With the lone exception to the USC game, the Huskies won all other games by a huge margin.  If the opponent shut down the run, the Huskies turned to Browning to throw the ball. He did fine, despite the injured throwing arm, until he faced the Colorado Buffalo. In that game, he tossed just 118 yards passing but threw two touchdowns.

His arm did not return against Alabama, where he was limited to just 150 yards. Now, it’s back to the drawing board.

Grow Up Washington!

The average player for the Washington Football team in 2016 stood 6-foot-1.6 inches tall, and weighed in at 232 pounds.  That is significant, as it is the average player prior to encountering Alabama in the post-season.

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• Washington Huskies begin conference play against Cal in Week 4
• Jack Westover is a breakout star for the Washington Huskies
• Washington football: Negatives and Positives in win over Michigan State
• Huskies offense slices through the Spartans in 41-7 win

Since that time, this team has focused on recruiting players for the class of 2018.  Just out of curiosity, what does that class average?  Well, what a coincidence! So far, this class of 2018 is averaging 6-foot-3.5 inches tall, and weighing in at 236 pounds.

Before the fact slips through the cracks, keep in mind we are talking about high school players about to enter their senior seasons.  They are still growing.

Recruiting supersized Huskies

This 2018 recruiting class is not simply large on talent. They stand tall against the competition, literally. Two incoming quarterbacks average 6-foot-4. Three receivers average 6-foot-4. Three offensive linemen average 6-foot-6.  Coincidence?

It’s the response to facing the more physical defense of Alabama. To defeat that team, the Washington Football team needs to dominate the line of scrimmage.  Running takes open lanes. Passing takes physical receivers who can fight past that line of scrimmage and catch the ball over defenders.

To beat ’em, you have to join ’em

Head coach Chris Petersen is one of the savvier NCAA had coaches.  That is too often overlooked when prognosticators begin the preseason hype for a newcomer.  In the end, coaching makes all the difference in the world. And right now, Chris Petersen and his staff are the surest thing to a lock in the Pac-12.

Ramblin' Fan

But it’s not all just X’s and O’s. Petersen saw the Alabama Crimson Tide up close and personal last year.  And that made quite an impression on him.  In fact, this is not the first time we mentioned the “Beat ‘Bama Basics” in an article. We revealed that to be an underlying strategy to defeating Alabama when discussing two quarterbacks in a twin-barrelled shotgun offense.

Beat ‘Bama Basics

Offenses hoping to defeat Alabama must do the following to improve their chances.

• Step 1: Spread things out
• Step 2: Use play action to get downfield
• Key Step 3: Find a mobile quarterback
• Step 4: Get passes to the outside, particularly the right side
• Step 5: Find some luck

For many coaches, that is a mouthful, and would be enough to thwart their ambitions for a national title.  Coach Petersen is not that guy.

Coach Petersen does not play it safe

To a Pac-12 head coach who just won the conference, it makes perfect sense not to mess with the status quo. Stick to the formula. Do what works! That is not head coach Chris Petersen’s style.  He faced a tougher team, and has immediately set about since that encounter to prepare for the next one.

Autzen Zoo

There is a book on how to defeat Alabama. It’s five simple but tested steps.  That’s not good enough for the Washington football team coach. Why stop at five when six is better? And so, there is a new clause added to reflect Huskies’ Coach Petersen’s strategy:

Step 6: Match up in the trenches.

How do you like me now?

After the loss, the Washington Football team was hit pretty hard by the 2017 NFL Draft.  The team lost three offensive players and five defensive players to the NFL.  Add In linebacker Psalm Wooching to rugby, and you’ve quite a few set of cleats to fill.

But Petersen did not rest on his laurels. The 2017 class is one of the best yet.  In fact, they are preparing for the 2017 football season as you read this.  They already have some playmakers . Keep an eye on running back Salvon Ahmed, tight end Hunter Bryant, and cornerback Brandon McKinney.

Recruiting talented DBs paying off

The defensive backfield was expected to be a worrisome part of the team this year. But great recruiting and of course, coaching from Jimmy Lake seems to have everything under control.

And no, Jake Browning is one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the NCAA.

On second thought, keep an eye on all the defensive backs. After all, Coach Jimmy Lake is one of the best in the nation, and I’m eager to see his latest masterpiece. The team improves, little by little, each year.

The only way to win is to bet on yourself

This is not a one-and done football program at all. Coach Petersen is not playing it safe, nor is he simply replaying the same tune to carry into a five-seven year career for the Washington Football team. He wants to win, repeatedly.

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The best way to do that is improve recruiting. Load up on players who fit that new team scheme. Check out that 2018 recruiting class.  Twelve mighty young men who will band together to face the future together. It’s a class still small in number but mighty in talent and passion for the game. The strategy may aim at bigger recruits now, but they are still focused upon players who fit the team culture.

Well played, Coach Petersen, well played

I admire and respect Coach Petersen more and more. He is not scheming to play it safe, or to guarantee long term employment. He is working to compete nationally for a championship. And not in small steps either. He is able to rebuild an entire team, and reformulate the scheme almost instantaneously.

Next: UW Football: Who will challenge for the Pac-12 North crown?

In college, the only true constant is the coaching staff. I am growing more and more confident in the Huskies coaches. This is a team making the right moves to win. Now, following up the success of last year, the team has the opportunity to climb into the national spotlight once more.