Inside The Huskies

They're Bookends: Trice Matches Martin as Pac-12 Defensive Lineman of the Week

The Husky edge rushers claim same honor in consecutive weeks.

Dan Raley

In this story:

Two years ago, his then-University of Washington position coach boldly proclaimed that Bralen Trice would someday be a better edge rusher than Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, who went from the Huskies to the NFL as a No. 1 draft pick.

This season, his new UW coaches determined early on that Trice was slightly better than Zion Tupuola-Fetui and handed him the starting job over the one-time, first-team All-Pac-12 selection.

This 6-foot-4, 269-pound sophomore from Phoenix, Arizona, continues to make everyone look like they know exactly what they were talking about and what they're doing. 

On Monday,  Trice was named Pac-12 Defensive Lineman of the Week, giving the Huskies back-to-back recipients after teammate Jeremiah Martin received this same accolade last week. That's a true set of sack-minded bookends.

For that matter, it's the fifth time in three seasons the UW has had a defensive lineman honored by the conference, with ZTF claiming the weekly reward three consecutive times in 2020.

Trice was singled out following a 5-tackle, 2-sack outing in a 28-21 victory over the California Golden Bears last Saturday night in Berkeley, leading the way as the Huskies sacked opposing quarterback Jack Plummer five times. 

"It was just energizing out there with our defense," Trice said in a postgame interview. "We were just doing our thing. Getting into the backfield, we pride ourselves in that. Before the game, we said let's all meet in the backfield every single rep."

With 6.5 sacks on the season, the Husky standout ranks second in the conference and 10th in the nation in sacks.

With the win over the Bears, Trice and his UW teammates improved their record to 6-2 and became bowl eligible. He hasn't played in a postseason game at the UW yet.

"It's amazing and we're all over here partying and we've been getting loud," Trice said of the locker-room celebration. "We got that sixth win and it just feels great coming from last season."

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12

Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation or @DanRaley3

Published
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.

Home/Football