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Greg McElroy: No. 5 Washington even more improved in 2017

Oct 14, 2017, 1:51 PM | Updated: 2:16 pm

No. 5 Washington takes on ASU Saturday night. (AP)...

No. 5 Washington takes on ASU Saturday night. (AP)

(AP)

According to Greg McElroy, the Washington Huskies offense isn’t just fun to watch – they also have a unique approach to confusing their opponents.

Blue 42: Brock Huard explains Huskies’ offensive technique

The former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst joined Brock and Salk Thursday to talk about Washington’s upcoming showdown in the desert.

The Arizona State Sun Devils have won the last six meetings. The Huskies last victory in Tempe was in 2001. This year, though, No. 5 Washington could put an end to that streak.

“I’ll tell you what, there’s not a lot of weakness on this team, that’s for sure,” McElroy said of the Huskies. “There hasn’t really been a team this year, outside of maybe Colorado, that’s been able to consistently move the football (against them).

“(And) the depth they have defensively, there’s not much of a drop-off. I’ve never seen a team that rotates at will the way they do with such little drop-off. Those two’s play like one’s on most other teams.”

While McElroy was most impressed with the Huskies’ defensive front seven, he made an interesting observation while studying film to prepare for Saturday’s matchup.

“Offensively, the personnel is good, but the scheme is about as good as it gets. It seems like they have a lot of simple concepts, but with the way they move pieces around and do formations and create formations with their shifts in motions. I charted at one point, they ran 17 straight plays in different formations before they repeated a formation. These guys, they really know how to mix it up and put stress on the defense while still making it very simple for their own players,” he said.

“It’s a fun group to prepare for; I’ll tell you what, if I ever got into this coaching thing… I’d like to do it how Washington’s doing it right now.”

This will be the college football analyst’s first time covering Washington this season. It was also his first time meeting head coach Chris Petersen – and it comes after an interesting week for ESPN and the Huskies coach.

After Petersen lamented Washington’s late kickoff times last week, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said Washington should be “thankful” ESPN broadcasts its games (he since clarified his remarks with Brock and Salk). During the broadcast, ESPN’s Quint Kessenich used cupcakes as props to illustrate Washington’s non-conference schedule, further ruffling the feathers of Huskies fans.

After speaking with Petersen, McElroy calls it “water under the bridge.”

“I understand where everybody’s coming from,” McElroy said. “In a perfect world for Washington’s fans they could play at 4 p.m. local time. Unfortunately though, in that time slot, I don’t know if they’d get as much viewership nationally because of all the other games and just how much content there is at that time. The beauty of Pac-12 after dark, regardless of where I am (or) what game I’m calling, I’m making a point at 9:30 central time, every single week, I’m watching that Pac-12 after dark game. I don’t think there’s any one team or any one person at fault here… but Washington’s a great football team. I would try to encourage them to focus on their team on the field because man they are exciting (and) I think they’re much more legit than they were a year ago, believe it or not, with the way they’re executing.”

McElroy explained his reasoning for believing the Huskies are even more improved this year and told Brock and Salk which ASU player will be a real test for Washington’s secondary. Listen to entire interview here.

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Greg McElroy: No. 5 Washington even more improved in 2017