UW Will Try to Figure Out Which Way Spartans' Windmon Is Blowing

The Michigan State newcomer is no stranger to the UW coaching staff.

University of Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb refers to him only as No. 4, as if the guy was in that low-budget, sci-fi movie "I Am Number Four." 

You know the one, where extra-terrestrials anonymously blend into the population, possess super powers and each are identified only by a solitary digit. OK, so you haven't seen it.

Yet Grubb wasn't disrespecting Michigan State linebacker Jacoby Windmon by not naming him. All coaches do this during their frantic week of game preparation, relying on numbers to reference opponents rather than memorize an entire roster. 

No, the Husky OC knows exactly who this guy is — Grubb game-planned for him each of the past two seasons when he was coaching with Kalen DeBoer at Fresno State and Windmon was an All-Mountain West selection and leading tackler for UNLV.

A coaching change and a portal transfer later, Grubb and Windmon (pronounced Wind-Min) meet again. The veteran OC once more must figure out how to neutralize the overly aggressive, 6-foot-2, 250-pound player, a New Orleans native who currently leads the nation in sacks with 5.5 and already twice has been named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week.

"Four is a challenge," Grubb said. "He's a good player. I'm familiar with him when he was at UNLV. He's a good football player. One of the things you have to look at immediately is making sure one guy doesn't beat you."

Jacoby Windmon caused three fumbles against Akron last weekend.  :: Junfu Han/USA TODAY Sports

In their previous two meetings, Windmon finished as the leading tackler each time out, coming up with 8 last year in a 38-30 loss in Fresno and 9 the season before in a 40-27 defeat in Las Vegas.

The guy is a handful. He caused three fumbles and recovered one, had a sack and a half, and provided a pass break-up in last week's 52-0 romp over Akron. 

Windmon, similar to Husky quarterback Michael Penix Jr., left a 2-10 team to enter the portal and find a new college football setting for a different perspective and maybe a better launch pad for pro football.

"The whole reason of me transferring just was a better opportunity for me and my future,” Windmon said in fall camp. “I just wanted to be around more guys that had the same passion for the game and more guys that wanted to get better and just be coached by a different coach that could probably teach me more and get me ready for the next level."

He apparently found what he was looking for in Mel Tucker's football program in East Lansing. 

Jacoby Windmon was an All-Mountain West linebacker for UNLV :: Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY Sports

“He’s a mature player, a mature young man and he understands opportunity," Tucker said this week. "He understands what it takes to play great football."

Meantime, Windmon presents the first real test for a reconfigured Husky offensive line, in particular the young tackles in sophomore Troy Fautanu and redshirt freshman Roger Rosengarten, plus sixth-year senior Jaxson Kirkland, if he's finally ready to go following ankle surgery and a testy recovery.

"We'll have to have good tackle play, honestly, with Roger and Troy and potentially Jaxson," Grubb said. "Our guys are going to have to have good football games. You let those [Michigan State] guys get started early and they can be a problem."

Especially that No. 4.

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