Predicting Washington football’s defensive two deep roster

While there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding Washington football’s offense, let’s take a look at what their defense might look like before Week One

We’re here Washington football fans! It took a little longer than some might’ve liked, but it’s finally game week. With that said, let’s take a look at what this defense will probably look like before the Huskies take the field against the Cal Golden Bears on Saturday night.

Defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski doesn’t run a standard base nickel defense, he runs a 2-2-2-5. That means two defensive tackles, two outside linebackers, two inside linebackers, and five defensive backs. The outside linebacker designations are BUCK and SAM, the BUCK is usually a bigger player, who’s more of an edge setter that plays on the boundary (i.e. Ryan Bowman). The SAM plays the wide side of the field, and is athletic enough to drop into coverage, but is more of a pure pass rusher (i.e. Joe Tryon). With that being said, let’s get into what we think the roster will look like!

Defensive tackle

Starters: Josiah Bronson (sr.), Tuli Letuligasenoa (rs soph.)

Backups: Taki Taimani (rs soph.), Faatui Tuitele (rs frosh.)

Breakout player: Letuligasenoa- In his first full year as a starter, Letuligasenoa is going to make a name for himself, and become Washington’s best defensive tackle since Vita Vea. Just like Vea, he’s the full package, as both an excellent run defender, and pass rusher. He’s not quite the athlete that Vea is, but he’s going to prove this year that he can have the same impact.

Riser: Jacob Bandes (rs. frosh.). The redshirt freshman is another member of the stellar 2019 defensive line recruiting class, and all reports from practice indicate that he’s ready to step into a bigger role in 2020. While he might not crack the initial depth chart, don’t be surprised if he makes an impact over the course of the season.