Two Washington football defenders honored after OSU
After an incredible performance, two of Washington football’s biggest standouts were honored with weekly Pac-12 awards
Washington football’s defense had far and away its best performance of the season in Corvallis against Oregon State, holding the Beavers to 119 total yards of offense, and just eight of those yards came in the second half.
One of the biggest changes came when Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week, Edefuan Ulofoshio came in and along with Jackson Sirmon, played middle linebacker for the better part of the second half. He recorded nine of his season total of 20 tackles on Friday, and his first career sack (he recorded 1.5 in the game).
Will the breakout of the walk-on redshirt freshman signal the shift on defense? Will we see him and Sirmon first on the depth chart next week against Colorado? Only time will tell, but for those who have maligned the play of the inside linebackers this season, the future is bright in the hands of players like Ulofoshio and Sirmon, and true freshmen Daniel Heimuli and Josh Calvert, who should will definitely see more playing time next season.
While Ulofoshio had an incredible game, he wasn’t the only member of the Husky defense that was honored after the big defensive game. Joe Tryon had his best game in a Husky uniform, recording seven tackles, 4.5 of them for loss, and had his second straight two-sack game. After only managing two through the first eight games, Tryon has managed to bring his season total to six after two straight great weeks.
While this season is lost when it comes to making a New Year’s Six bowl game, it’s important to build for the future, and with some young stars in the making at defensive tackle, Tryon, Laiatu Latu, and Sav’ell Smalls coming off the edge, and a young core at middle linebacker, the Husky defense will be ready to get back to its elite status in 2020.
Congratulations to Edefuan and Joe for their honors and outstanding performances, and there are definitely going to be many more of them in the future!