3 Questions For The Huskies

Heading into Week #1, will the Washington Huskies find an answer to these 3 questions?

With just 3 days until the Huskies 2019 season opener against Eastern Washington, I have 3 questions for these Dawgs. Well of course I have a LOT more than 3, but we are going to stick with just 3 for now since it’s the theme of the day. So here we go...

1. Will Jacob Eason live up to the hype?

There are a lot of expectations for the University Georgia transfer. But expectations are nothing new for the 2015 high school Gatorade player of the year and Lake Stevens native. A 5 star recruit coming out of high school, Eason was expected to help lead Georgia back to glory in the SEC and back to national respect and prominence.

As a true freshman, Eason started 12 games for Georgia, throwing for 2,430 yards and 16 touchdowns. Ultimately an injury in the first game of his sophomore season, and the emergence of SEC newcomer of the year Jake Fromm effectively ended the Eason era in Georgia, and the prodigal son returned to his home state, transferring to the University of Washington. Now that Eason has won the starting role for the Huskies, and is the de facto leader of the 2019 team, will he live up to the expectations that Dawg fans have of him?

( TH - Yes. It’s been a long time since I have seen a Husky QB this polished. Period.)

2. How do you replace BBK?

Ben Burr-Kirven was always a paradox for me. Small. Relatively unimpressive to the eye. But on the football field, BBK became a machine. In 2018 Burr-Kirven had more tackles than anyone in college football. 

Anyone. The only person who has had more tackles than BBK in the last decade is perennial all pro NFL linebacker Luke Kuechly while he was at Boston College. BBK was awarded the Pac 12 Defensive player of the year and selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the 2019 NFL draft. How do the huskies replace 176 tackles, 6 passes defended, 2 int’s, 4 ff’s?

(TH- I dunno! But I’m sure it will take a group effort!)

3. Will the pass rush improve?

In 2018 the Huskies were one of the worst teams in college football when it came to sacking quarterbacks. Out of 130 FBS team in the country, UW ranked 100th in sack totals. And 118th in tackles for loss. The huskies want and NEED to improve in this area - Drastically. The push in the middle will have to come from Levi Onwuzurike, the 6’3, 295 Jr from Allen, Tx. He began to emerge late last season, being named UW lineman of the week for his production vs Colorado. Coming off the edges, the Dawgs will need more help from Sr linebacker Ryan Bowman and sophomore linebacker Joe Tryon. At 6-5, 265 lbs, Tryon has looked stronger and faster than he was in 2018 and the Husky coaching staff is looking for him to have a breakout season in 2019. Yet the question remains: will the husky pass rush improve from where it ended in 2018?

(TH- It HAS to! It can’t get much worse!)

What do you think? Chime in below to let us know if these questions can be answered in week one.