Top Returning Huskies: At No. 1, Trice Has Been as Good as Advertised

The UW junior edge rusher so far has lived up to the forecast of former UW assistant coach Ikaika Malloe.

Bralen Trice, just a redshirt freshman edge rusher at the time, was going to be good. Early in 2021 spring football, then-Washington outside linebackers coach Ikaika Malloe famously guaranteed it.

“Without putting so much pressure on him, Bralen will be probably better than Joe Tryon,” Malloe told reporters.

That was Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, who came off an eight-sack 2019 season to leave early for the NFL draft and become a first-round pick, No. 32 overall, for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Trice has done everything, if not more, than Malloe, who's now the UCLA edge-rusher coach, predicted that spring day.

As a redshirt freshman in 2021, Trice recorded his first two career sacks in the same game against Arizona State, two weeks before the Apple Cup. In comparison, Tryon recorded only one sack in his redshirt freshman season in 2019, against Washington State.

As a sophomore, Trice piled up nine sacks last season to lead the team, edging out senior Jeremiah Martin by a half a sack — and one better than Tryon-Shoyinka at the same time in his career. 

Pro Football Focus listed Trice with a 91.1 pass rush grade, ranking him ninth overall among all defenders in college football and No. 1 in the Pac-12.

Trice recently was named as an Associated Press preseason All-America selection. His coaches and teammates always point to him when asked who stands out in scrimmages or practice reps. With all of that fanfare, Trice ranks No. 1 in  our countdown of the top 10 returning UW players.

Excited for these leaders of our team were chosen by their teammates to be our 2023 captains! Congratulations gentlemen! pic.twitter.com/77rSXTZVRh

— Kalen DeBoer (@KalenDeBoer) August 23, 2023

Coming off a 4-8 season in 2021, it wasn’t hard for Trice to accept what the new staff, in particualr UW coach Kalen DeBoer and edge coach Eric Schmidt, had in store for him.

“I think, for me, I was able to buy into it because I knew something needed to change, that we needed a positive change,” Trice said early last season.

Trice would go on to have a pair of multi-sack games against Stanford in week 4 and at California in week 8. He also was credited with a half sack on Oregon quarterback Bo Nix with thirty-three seconds remaining in that game, a play that effectively sealed the UW’s 37-34 victory over the Ducks.

Texas quarterback Qwinn Ewers met a similar fate when Trice sacked him on the second play of the Alamo Bowl for a 6-yard loss, a play that led to a quick three-and-out for the Longhorns and set the tone for a 27-20 UW victory.

Trice is positioned to enjoy another productive season and likely an early finish to his Husky career in favor of the NFL draft. Maybe someone should ask Malloe how high he'll be selected. The coach hasn't been wrong yet.

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