Year 3 for Huskies under Chris Petersen: ‘100 percent different’

When the Huskies kick off the 2016 season at 11 a.m. Saturday, they’ll be doing so against a Rutgers team in a state of flux due to a brand new coaching staff and a lingering mystery about who will be its quarterback.

It wasn’t that long ago that it was the Huskies in that exact same situation – two years, in fact.

It may seem like only a distant memory these days, as the uncertainty that surrounded that initial Chris Petersen-led team in 2014 is long gone. Instead, Washington enters the campaign as a darling of the national media, ranked No. 14 by The Associated Press even though the Huskies narrowly qualified for a bowl in 2015 and finished the season just a game above .500.

There’s reason for the hype, though. The defense is stacked for a third straight season, even with some of last year’s best players off to the NFL. The offense has a more experienced Jake Browning poised for a breakthrough at quarterback, fellow sophomore Myles Gaskin hoping to build off a stellar debut as UW’s main running back, and the ultra-quick John Ross back from injury to be a deep threat the wide receiving corps never had last year.

Perhaps most importantly, though, is that in Year 3 this is truly Petersen’s team – it’s mostly his recruits, and his system has had enough time now to be fully in place.

“In terms of just the flow of things, the organization of things, I think the belief and buy-in of things that we’re about outside of football is 100 percent different, just because they’ve heard it now for a long time,” Petersen said Monday when asked to compare his first year at Washington to the current state of the program. “I think they’ve seen and believe in some of the benefits of some of the other things that we talk about in terms of culture and this thing being bigger than just football. I think it’s opened their eyes and they’ve opened their ears and their hearts.”

Now they’re just counting down the days until they get to put it all in action against the Scarlet Knights in front of a home crowd at Husky Stadium.

“I’m really excited to see these guys go compete, is really where we are. I mean, that’s the bottom line,” Petersen said. “(The offense has) been playing against our defense for whatever it is, 6,000 team reps from spring ball to fall camp, and so we know each other pretty well.

“Now it’s time to go see if we have improved.”

Notes

• Junior WR Brayden Lenius has been suspended for the first three games of the season for a violation of team rules, Petersen said.

• Junior LB Sean Constantine is not expected back this season while he recovers from what Petersen described as a “long” surgery for a broken ankle suffered during a scrimmage in fall camp.

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