Underappreciated Bruener Draws Some Overdue Attention
Pro Football Focus must have felt guilty. Always driven by analytics rather than random opinion, the website picked its top 10 returning college football linebackers for 2024 — and listed 11 guys. For this numbers-oriented entity, that didn't quite mesh.
Top-of-the-ladder backers, in this order from the very top down, were LSU's Harold Perkins, Clemson's Barrett Carter, Iowa's Jay Higgins, Oklahoma's Danny Stutsman and Michigan's Jaishawn Barham.
For a second five the media outlet singled out Oklahoma State's Collin Oliver, Notre Dame's Jack Kiser, Vanderbilt's C.J. Taylor, Kentucky's Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Oregon's Jeffrey Bassa.
Perkins does it all, Carter was considered the top linebacker in the NFL draft before choosing to play one more college season, Higgins pulled 985 snaps last year, Stusman had 19 tackles for loss and Barham transferred from Maryland to Michigan to fully realize his greatness.
All good choices 1 through 10, but PFF couldn't stop right there in handing out linebacker recognition.
It made a case for yet another second-row maestro, a player who's made a career of not being fully appreciated, someone who constantly serves up reminders that you better be paying attention to him at all times — the University of Washington's Carson Bruener.
Last season, the 6-foot-2, 226-pound senior from Woodinville, Washington, was one of the best linebackers in the conference, earning All-Pac-12 honorable-mention attention, but he had trouble convincing Kalen DeBoer's coaching staff of his high value, and started just one of the Huskies' 15 games in 2023.
PFF couldn't ignore Bruener because he might be the nation's top linebacker in pass coverage — it's either him or Iowa's Higgins, based on their respective ability to get out and run with opposing receivers.
The website broke down Bruener's play over the past two years and came up with the following detailed assessment, noting the linebacker's specialty or emphasis for guarding the flat is exemplary:
"While many of the linebackers on this list are at their best working downhill as run defenders and pass rushers, Bruener’s game is centered around his outstanding coverage ability. His 84.3 coverage grade since 2022 is second among returning Power Five linebackers to only Jay Higgins. In that same group, Bruener was the fifth-most valuable this past season according to PFF’s wins above-average metric. Expect him to take on a larger role in his senior campaign with Edefuan Ulofoshio off to the NFL."
That sort of size-up would suggest Bruener isn't lacking for any foot speed, often a deciding factor between starting and coming off the bench. He enters his fifth Husky football season with 39 games played, but just six starts, because he's had to play behind the since graduated Edefuan Ulofoshio, who went out as a first-team All-Pac-12 selection, and returning senior Alphonzo Tuputala, a 28-game starter for DeBoer's pair of UW teams.
By all accounts, the Huskies, with Jedd Fisch's new coaching staff putting together the next starting lineups, should find it near impossible to not open games with Bruener this coming season.
Yet the veteran Tuputala was a 2022 All-Pac-12 honorable-selection pick, while San Jose State transfer Bryun Parham comes off an All-Mountain West honorable-mention season, plus redshirt freshman Deven Bryant should pull significantly more game time as a fleet-footed player who can cover a lot of ground in a hurry, making Husky linebacker an extremely competitive position.
The difference is, as PFF sees it, is Bruener, and only Bruener in a Husky uniform, rates among the nation's best at his position.
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