Husky Defense Needs Lot of Work, New Faces, After Sun Bowl Defeat

The UW stop unit couldn't put any pressure on Louisville's replacement quarterback.

Russell Davis II talks to Zach Durfee, with the Parker twins standing in front of them at the Sun Bowl, all injured UW defensive players. / Dan Raley

EL PASO, Texas -- Emerging from the Sun Bowl, the quarterback position looked fairly secure going forward for the University of Washington football team, with freshman Demond Williams Jr. mesmerizing everyone with his 374-yard, 4-touchdown performance against Louisville that just fell short of rescuing a 35-34 loss.

A more pressing concern is what to do about that Husky defense that was never very stout this season against the better teams it went up against. That included this patched-together ACC entry on New Year's Eve that prevailed over UW by winging it with a career back-up quarterback.

The stat sheet will show that the Huskies had zero sacks against the mobility challenged Harrison Bailey, who was never bothered as he stood in the pocket and completed 16 of 25 passes for 164 yards and 3 scores.

There was almost no pressure coming off the Husky edge against a player who hadn't started a college game since 2020 and kept things simple in directing Louisville on four scoring drives and to 371 yards of total offense.

One of the problems was the collection of mostly veteran defensive players that was clustered together on the sideline, not in uniforma and doing no more than watching everything unfold with a front-row seat.

Junior edge rusher Zach Durfee wore a black, protective boot on his right foot and moved around with the aid of a metal cane. Fellow junior edge rusher Russell Davis II his had left arm encased in a heavy black plastic brace, one that stretched from his bicep to his forearm. Then there were the Parker twins, Jayvon and Armon, who were resplendent in their white Sun Bowl sweat suits and never far from each other as they kept tabs on the action as spectators.

Zach Durfee, cane in hand, watches his UW teammates play without him in the Sun Bowl. / Dan Raley

To reiterate, Durfee started just three games and played briefly in three others before a series of nagging injuries ended his season. Davis came off a fall camp injury to appear in three games and earn co-Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors for his 3-sack outing against UCLA and get hurt again.

The twins?

They're recovering from an Achilles tendon rupture at Rutgers and a spring knee injury, respectively, and still haven't played together in three seasons as Huskies, with Jayvon lasting just four games and having a breakout game when he got hurt.

Once the Louisville game ended, no one thought to ask Jedd Fisch about the status of defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, who is expected to join his father's North Carolina staff, as if he had already been forgotten or deemed a figment of everyone's imagination following another porous UW defensive effort.

Earlier in the week, Belichick wouldn't address his coaching situation, other than to offer what seemed like an offhand farewell, in speaking with media at the Sun Bowl, including Ty Gilstrap, who writes for the Daily UW and On Montlake.

“Hopefully I changed it in a positive way,” Belichick told Gilstrap. “I give it my all with these players. I appreciate the effort and commitment they put out on the field. My job as a coach is to do everything I can to prepare them to get ready to go. I got no secrets with those guys when I give them all the information I have and all the information they can handle. But I appreciate those guys a lot.”

Sounded like good bye. Belichick is expected to check out soon and, unless something happened in a week's time, be replaced by former Purdue coach Ryan Walters. It's interesting how people have pushed aside his recent firing as the leader of a dismal 1-11 Boilermakers team only to tout him for his time previously spent as a defensive coordinator at Missouri and Illinois. If he's coming, Walters will need to prove himself all over again.

Finally, the Huskies have 13 transfer portal pick-ups and eight of them are defensive players, with three of them linebackers entrusted with replacing departing seniors Carson Bruener and Alphonzo Tuputala, not to mention a possible dozen defensive players signed as incoming freshmen, including local linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, who could provide immediate help..

While his defensive unit wasn't very effective in El Paso, Bruener played well once more, collecting a game-high 11 tackles against Louisville, giving him 104 for the season and making him one of two Big Ten players so far this season to top the century mark. He finished with 306 tackles for his career.

The UW started seven seniors on defense in the Sun Bowl, meaning there was going to be a lot of work to be done on the Husky defense no matter how well that unit played against Louisville.

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