Inside The Huskies

Even With Portal Commit, UW D-Line Remains Issue and No. 1 Priority

Anterio Thompson from Western Michigan and Iowa hasn't shown he can handle the Big Ten just yet.

Dan Raley

UW defensive tackle Jayvon Parker celebrates an Apple Cup moment.
UW defensive tackle Jayvon Parker celebrates an Apple Cup moment. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Life was so much easier for the University of Washington football team when it had Steve Emtman coming out of a stance at defensive tackle.

For each game, the Huskies would just let Emtman out of his cage, send him out for the coin toss where he would intimidate everyone just by smirking at them, and then once the game began watch him toss people around like he was King Kong in lower Manhattan.

In the three decades since, the Huskies haven't had another Emtman, but they've done reasonably well with the likes of players such as Vita Vea, Danny Shelton, Greg Gaines and Levi Onwuzurike standing their ground against the rush and squeezing the pocket on passing downs before each headed to the NFL.

Lately, though, the UW has struggled mightily to find another D-line dominating presence.

Jimmy Lake's coaching downfall was expedited by his line generously giving up 300-yard rushing outputs to Michigan and Oregon. Kalen DeBoer's Huskies got run over in the CFP national championship game by Michigan for another 300-plus yards. Even Jedd Fisch's guys were no better against Rutgers, Iowa, Indiana, Penn State and Oregon, waving at runners as they zipped past into open space.

Defensive tackle remains the Huskies' biggest position need. It should be their No. 1 transfer portal priority.

On Monday, Fisch's staff received a commitment from Western Michigan's Anterio Thompson.

So desperate are people to see this position group updated with an infusion of talent, one website that covers the Huskies described Thompson as "coveted" while another UW-related site suggested he comes with "dazzling athleticism."

Oh.

These hopeful media outlets should be reminded that Thompson was a starting defensive tackle when Ohio State rushed for 273 yards and 6 touchdowns in a 56-0 physical pummeling of his MAC team in mid-September in Columbus.

Another cautionary tale is the fact the 6-foot-3, 293-pound Thompson played in seven games for Iowa in 2023, all as a reserve, and picked up a lone tackle before bolting from that program.

To be fair, this portal newcomer will have every opportunity to see how he fares against the Buckeyes, with better players around him, when the Big Ten powerhouse visits Husky Stadium next September.

It's hard to find proven line talent in the portal, offensively or defensively, before everyone starts bidding on it like some house in lower Queen Anne.

"It's huge to be able to push the pocket," UW coach Jedd Fisch said. "It's part of the Belichick defense. You've got to be able to push the inside of the pocket, to squeeze the pocket down."

Whlie the Huskies continue to mine the portal maybe for yet another DL, they're hoping to get junior Jayvon Parker back from an Achilles rupture tear in relatively good shape, plus his twin brother Armon, a sophomore who has had a pair of season-ending knee injuries since signing on with Washington.

It's possible the two Parkers, naturally powerful and side by side, could be an effective duo in slowing down the rushing yards that the Huskies generously gave up this past season. Three players went for 100 yards or more against them, topped by Iowa's Kaleb Johnson with 166, plus multiple Penn State and Oregon players just missed the century mark against the UW because they had to share the football in those games. Yet the Parkers need to stay healthy once and for all for that to happen.

Injured Jayvon Parker is helped to the locker room at Rutgers.
Injured Jayvon Parker is helped to the locker room at Rutgers. / Dan Raley

The 6-foot-3, 297-pound Jayvon Parker appeared on his way to DL legitimacy when Pro Football Focus graded him out as the nation's third-best player at his position against Rutgers. Unfortunately for him, that's the day he ruptured his Achilles.

Meantime, the Huskies also have Elinneus Davis, Bryce Butler, Logan Sagapolu and Omar Khan as DL candidates in the mix coming back, plus incoming recruits Caleb Smith and Dominic Macon arriving with the usual hopeful projections.

All it takes is one of these guys to step up and really hold his ground against burly Big Ten offensive linemen for the UW to make itself much more competitive defensively in its new conference.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
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.

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