In Year of Great Change, Bruener Has Been Huskies' Resilient One

The linebacker has become the leader of the UW defense and a decorated player.

UW linebacker Carson Bruener tracks down Texas running back Jaydon Blue at the Sugar Bowl. / John David Mercer-Imagn Images

For all that's happened to the University of Washington football team over the past 11 months -- playing for a national championship and having the program turned upside down by a coaching change and a transfer portal exodus -- Carson Bruener has been the resilient and reliable one.

As his Husky career comes down to its final three scheduled outings and possibly a bowl game in December, the 6-foot-2, 226-pound senior linebacker has seized the moment to show everyone just how good he is and quite possibly that he was greatly underutilized by Kalen DeBoer's departed coaching staff.

On Saturday night, Bruener provided the game of his college football career in a 26-21 victory over USC with 12 tackles, 2 interceptions and 2 pass break-ups at Husky Stadium, a performance worthy of being named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week.

In a year's time, he has gone from designated DeBoer reserve with limited snaps to singled out as the conference's top defensive player, at least for a week. He's a team captain and the UW's leading tackler, rather than someone solely relegated to a back-up role. He just never let that bother him to the point he couldn't be effective. He kept moving forward, always confident but feeling no need to be overly impressed by himself.

"Yeah, I could say, 'Oh, I had a great game,' but it wasn't just because of me -- it was because of everyone," Bruener said of his USC showing, sounding like a coach and next borrowing from his position leader Robert Bala to make a point. "It's something that we've always kind of talked about, and we talked about it recently, is we've talked about momentum and really how that affects going forward. Bala put it best: momentum stops as soon as you look back. "

These past few months, Bruener has played with tremendous momentum. That might not have been the case at all times in 2023 because of a coaching disconnect. In what seemed like a counterproductive moment during last season's glorious 14-1 run, former co-defensive coordinator William Inge loudly dressed down the linebacker as a practice came to a conclusion, telling him for all to hear that he was making excuses.

Inge and Bruener just never seemed to totally see things eye to eye. Coaches view players differently -- consider cornerback Elijah Jackson going from 15-game starter for Fisch's staff in 2023 to sub only this season for Jedd Fisch's coaches -- and Bruener just wasn't considered starting material unless an injury popped up.

Yet Bruener didn't just become a good player overnight. In 2021, he came up with a 16-tackle, 1.5-sack outing as a redshirt freshman and a first-time starter against Stanford, was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week and was the lone bright spot down the stretch as a five-game starter in the Huskies' 4-8 free fall of a season..

Carson Bruener stares across the line at the Michigan offense. / Skylar Lin Visuals

In one of his more telling moments in 2023 on consecutive weekends, Bruener replaced an injured Alphonzo Tuputala as the starter at Oregon State and piled up 14 tackles, and returned to his back-up role the following week against Washington State and came up with another 14 tackles.

Even more reason to question his situation back then, Bruener was named as an All-Pac-12 honorable-mention selection by the league's opposing coaches -- largely as a reserve player. They knew how good he was.

Fisch's staff clearly knows what it has in Bruener. As the man in the middle, he's been the defensive centerpiece, the guy calling all of the shots from the second row, someone repeatedly making big plays.

Similar to DeBoer's staff installing Troy Fautanu as its starting left offensive tackle and gently asking then two-time, first-team All-Pac-12 pick Jaxson Kirkland to move from that role to offensive guard, Bruener has been the main man on defense this fall while Tuputala has become a utility player of sorts by moving from linebacker to edge rusher to rover and back.

Carson Bruener celebrates a fumble recovery against Michigan. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Heading into Penn State this weekend, Carson Bruener acknowledges he's going home in a sense. He was born in Pittsburgh, when his father Mark played tight end for the Steelers, and the elder Bruener remains employed by that NFL franchise as a scout. Dad might be trying to tell the front office about this hard-nosed linebacker from Washington he knows.

As for that linebacker son, he continues to shrug off the past, as well as shoulder and knee injuries this season that have left him hunched over and limping badly this season, and he continues to play at a high level.

"I think the real strength for us is going out there and believing in ourselves and believing in our coaching," he said, "and just going out there and making plays."

No matter what anyone says, Bruener does that very well.

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