3 Young Huskies Who Are Better Than Fisch Probably Knows

These second-year Husky players all should compete for serious playing time.

Dan Raley | Feb 12, 2024

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Washington Huskies

A month ago, Kalen DeBoer and several of his coaches left for Alabama, taking a handful of University of Washington football players and recruits with them.

People bemoaned the sudden turnover of manpower in Montlake, further wounded by the overall loss of so many familiar faces through graduation and the transfer portal all at once.

In Tuscaloosa, Alabama experienced similar roster fallout amid questions of whether DeBoer could effectively recruit or not.

The answer to that rather pointed inquiry down South is a resolute yes.

All one has to do is follow the bread crumbs from the Husky 2023 recruiting class to game-day snaps, especially late in the season, and DeBoer and staff clearly left behind some fairly capable players from their lone concentrated canvass of high school talent for the UW.

While freshmen running back Tybo Rogers and center Landen Hatchett drew much of the newcomer attention last fall as they burned through their redshirts, three other first-year players threatened to play a lot as the Huskies went on their national championship run and these guys had to be corralled some.

Once he gets a good look at them, new UW coach Jedd Fisch should have a hard time keeping the threesome of linebacker Deven Bryant and cornerback Leroy Bryant, who are no relation, plus edge rusher Jacob Lane, off the field this coming season.

That's three ready-made defensive players, each possessing significant speed for what they do, to put into the game-day rotation, if not some of them in the starting lineup, once things begin to shake out.

DeBoer continually reminded everyone that he had an unusual amount of sixth-year seniors and other experienced veterans that for the most part would prevent most of his 2023 players from playing much at all this past season and would have to redshirt.

The Bryants and Lane will bear that out in the coming months.

In speaking with each of them during the College Football Playoff or at the very end of the regular season, they each gave off a confident vibe in their abilities and seemed overly mature.

Lane suddenly showed up on defense at USC in the final moments with everything on the line. Leroy Bryant appeared in seven games and still maintained his redshirt status. Deven Bryant was all over the field every time he got on it.

The following is a primer breaking down each of these three young players for Fisch and his coaching staff to ponder as they dig into the game film and get ready to see what they have going into spring ball.

Deven Bryant

The 5-foot-11, 216-pound linebacker from Carson, California, was so ready to go when the season began he had 4 tackles in his college debut, in just a quarter of action, against Boise State. He enrolled early to take part in winter conditioning and spring football practice. He played in the first four games of the season and then was held out to preserve his eligibility. He's probably the Huskies' fastest player at his position in a number of seasons. He should play a lot this fall. "It was a really good experience for me, especially learning from Eddie, Zo, Carson and Ralen," he said, naming off last season's veteran linebackers. "They really helped me come a long way."

Leroy Bryant

From Fairfield, California, this Bryant came in with more highly regarded cornerbacks in Caleb Presley from Seattle and Curley Reed from Lake Charles, Louisiana, and got on the field first. The coaches liked his instincts in coverage. The 5-foot-11, 178-pound corner played mostly on special teams against Michigan State, California, Stanford and USC, sat down to preserve his redshirt and then appeared in the three postseason games against Oregon, Texas and Michigan. He got a sample taste of big-time football. He'll continue to move up. "In the Sugar Bowl, I made a little bit of tackle and I slowed him down," he said. "That was like my first real excitement on the kickoff team."

Jacob Lane

The Huskies tried to redshirt the 6-foot-5, 250-pound edge rusher to no avail and he wasn't a special-teamer either. He ended up playing in nine games, even pulling defensive snaps in the Pac-12 title game, the Sugar Bowl and the national title game. DeBoer's coaches used him in a designated speed-rush group, especially on third-down passing situations. Now a sophomore, he should be a starting candidate at the edge this spring. You can't faze him. He felt he belonged. "I was ready for it," Lane said. "It was a little surprising, though, that it actually came to happen. But when it came time to do it, I just had to be ready to go."

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Published Feb 12, 2024

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.