Brock Huard’s keys: Discipline on defense vital for No. 9 Huskies in Pac-12 opener at Arizona
Sep 22, 2016, 3:52 PM | Updated: 5:02 pm
(AP)
No. 9 Washington (3-0) vs. Arizona (2-1)
• Where: Arizona Stadium (Tuscon, Ariz.)
• Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
• TV: Pac-12
• Line: Huskies by 11.
Washington at a glance: The Huskies got their run game going with Myles Gaskin rushing for 93 yards on 13 carries last Saturday, but even with their 41-3 victory over Portland State they dropped a spot in the AP poll to No. 9. That more than likely was mostly due to their weak schedule in the first three weeks, but that’s over now as UW begins Pac-12 play on the road against an offensive-minded Arizona team. The especially-efficient start to the season by quarterback Jake Browning (12 touchdowns, one interception) will be presented with somewhat of a hurdle against a Pac-12 opponent, but it’s the vaunted Husky defense that will get its first real test of the year.
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Arizona at a glance: The Wildcats suffered a pair of big blows at the beginning of the year, as quarterback Anu Solomon suffered a knee injury in Week 1 and the season started with a loss to BYU. The ‘Cats have picked themselves up since then, however, with sophomore Brandon Dawkins taking over at QB and leading head coach Rich Rodriguez’s frantic offense in back-to-back wins over Grambling and Hawaii. Solomon is listed as questionable this week, but with Dawkins performing well in his absence, including 215 yards and five touchdowns on the ground already, Arizona will probably wait at least another week to go back to Solomon. The Wildcats offense has weapons, though running back Nick Wilson (43 carries, 257 yards) will be out. Much less impressive is its defense, which has allowed 435.3 yards per game this year (1ooth in the nation) despite not having played an especially difficult first three games.
Brock Huard’s key No. 1 for UW: Play 11-man team defense. “Rich Rod was one of the first to do the zone read system at Tulane and West Virginia and everywhere he has been, and he always tries to create that box-count advantage. He does it with quarterbacks, he does it with wildcat quarterbacks, he does it with quarterback run game – he does it with all sorts of personnel. But the very basis of it, the foundation of it, is he’s going to attempt to outnumber you with his personnel because of the quarterback run and the option around it. When you play that system, and you hear this all the time but it’s 100 percent true, it takes the discipline of 11 on the other side. That will be to me will be the most critical element. The Huskies are a group that plays the best team defense in the conference, and I would argue one of the five best in all of college football. There is no level – D-line, linebackers or on the back end of the secondary – that does not understand the very team nature of every guy’s job and how it influences the other guys. When playing against Rich Rod’s system it’s critical to have that kind of discipline.”
Huard’s key No. 2: Dominate between the tackles to limit Arizona’s dynamic offense. “The mandate for Pete Kwiatkowski, defensive coordinator at Washington for Chris Petersen, is he’s going to demand his 300-pounders up front to influence the game the same way BYU did in its season-opening win over Arizona. BYU is one of the more physical teams I think in college football and built around its defense. The biggest danger to me with Arizona is its reckless, fearless nature, being able to do whatever whenever and however they want to do it. The Wildcats are unorthodox and unconventional, and the way you shut so much of that down is by physically dominating between the tackles. Washington should have a real opportunity like BYU did in the opening week to do the same.”
Huard’s key No. 3: Continued improvement on the offensive line to promote balance. “Much like last week we talked about balance, and that will be the key once again. Obviously the offensive line is the most unsettled part of this UW team, so it’s important to find that ability with those guys to be on the same page against an undersized crew. The Wildcats are not Portland State – they’re better, they’re a Power 5 conference school. But as far as front sevens go, yours is the best in the conference and theirs is near the bottom of it. The Wildcats are undersized so they try to create movement and miscommunication on your part, so UW needs those guys on the O-line to work in unison up front and just give Myles Gaskin a crease. He doesn’t need much, but like most good backs he needs the ability to get started. If he gets that and he hits the crease, well here comes the play-action, here comes the fly sweeps, and here comes everything off that run action.”