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UW Secondary in 2014 (long)
whatshouldicareabout
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 12,939 
The secondary in 2013 was one of the best units in recent memory, headlined by three senior starters (Parker, Shamburger, Ducre) and one key reserve (Watson). The unit was 10th in the country in pass efficiency defense, though 59th in terms of total pass yards allowed per game. Still, this secondary played a significant role in helping our defense be one of the best units since our 2001 Rose Bowl squad.
With four of our five best players now gone and three positions open, there are certainly some questions for our secondary, especially who will step in to the two safety positions, the corner position opposite Peters and the nickel position.
Cornerback: For the CB position, we return three (3) players and only 2 with any experience playing: Peters (R-JR), Dixon (R-SR), and Kelly (R-FR). We are bringing in four (4) new freshmen CBs; Gardenhire, Hale, Jones and Lewis. We also have Hawaii transfer Brian Clay (JR), who played some CB and S this Spring and an early enrollee walk-on Aaron Chapman. There's also a number of walk-ons that I'm not counting, but this means our scholarship depth at this position going into 2014 is 8, assuming everyone makes it in, with only 1 having played in more than 4 games at UW.
My thoughts on this position are that 2-3 of these incoming freshmen will likely have to step in at some point and that's not even factoring in for potential injuries. Our top 2 will be Peters and Kelly with the option of Clay at nickel, though I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Hale or Gardenhire makes a push for that 3rd CB slot (Clay split reps at CB and S during this spring, but focused more on S toward the end). Our back-ups will be two freshmen unless Dixon has a break-out year (he really hasn't shown much of anything in the four games he's played at UW). It's a position I feel comfortable with at the top, but one that will make me nervous when going against 4 and 5 WR sets in the Pac-12.
Safety: Our safety position returns some more experience including some starting experience last year due to some injuries. Our returning scholarship players are Beaver (R-SO), King (true-SO), and Walker (true-SO). Beavers played in 6 games at UW, starting 1; King played in 10 games and started 2 before injury ended his season; Walker played in 6 games, though mainly on special teams. Brian Clay was mentioned before in the CB section but should be noted for playing first-string S during some spring practices. Our incoming freshman class includes 3 new players; Baker, McIntosh and Washington. This means that our strength at this position is only 7 deep in 2014.
My thoughts on this position are that we'll also see some freshmen stepping up, but hopefully to a lesser degree than at CB. It's widely speculated (or assumed at this point) that Baker will start at one position, but the other remains a mystery. Based on the results of last season alone, it seems like Beaver or King would be the logical choices, though Clay must've impressed to coaches this spring given him playing with the ones. We should have 5 players rotating among the safety position, meaning we should be able to redshirt McIntosh and Washington, but given the lack of scholarship athletes at this position, I wouldn't be surprised if one plays this year (or both if there are injuries).
So, as an overview of the unit, is looks like we have a total of 15 scholarship players for 2014 with only 2 having played in more than 6 games and only 1 in more than 10 games at UW. Although the unit is extremely inexperienced, it does have some solid talent at the top, with Peters, Kelly and Baker being the sexiest names of the bunch (and Beaver too, hardy har har). Fortunately for us, our non-conference schedule is a cake-walk, which should give 2 months for Coach Lake to experiment and play around with the secondary before Stanford rolls into town for the first game of the season. Our total person-games (total number of games played by all players) right now as a unit without Peters is 26 games (coincidentally, Peters has played in 26 games at UW), but it should jump to somewhere between 54-62 person-games after our four non-conference games, essentially doubling or tripling our existing game experience (albeit against inferior competition). There will be some nervousness and uncertainty heading into 2014 with our secondary and we will be playing several true freshmen, but there shouldn't be too much concern with the unit overall.
Thoughts?
With four of our five best players now gone and three positions open, there are certainly some questions for our secondary, especially who will step in to the two safety positions, the corner position opposite Peters and the nickel position.
Cornerback: For the CB position, we return three (3) players and only 2 with any experience playing: Peters (R-JR), Dixon (R-SR), and Kelly (R-FR). We are bringing in four (4) new freshmen CBs; Gardenhire, Hale, Jones and Lewis. We also have Hawaii transfer Brian Clay (JR), who played some CB and S this Spring and an early enrollee walk-on Aaron Chapman. There's also a number of walk-ons that I'm not counting, but this means our scholarship depth at this position going into 2014 is 8, assuming everyone makes it in, with only 1 having played in more than 4 games at UW.
My thoughts on this position are that 2-3 of these incoming freshmen will likely have to step in at some point and that's not even factoring in for potential injuries. Our top 2 will be Peters and Kelly with the option of Clay at nickel, though I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Hale or Gardenhire makes a push for that 3rd CB slot (Clay split reps at CB and S during this spring, but focused more on S toward the end). Our back-ups will be two freshmen unless Dixon has a break-out year (he really hasn't shown much of anything in the four games he's played at UW). It's a position I feel comfortable with at the top, but one that will make me nervous when going against 4 and 5 WR sets in the Pac-12.
Safety: Our safety position returns some more experience including some starting experience last year due to some injuries. Our returning scholarship players are Beaver (R-SO), King (true-SO), and Walker (true-SO). Beavers played in 6 games at UW, starting 1; King played in 10 games and started 2 before injury ended his season; Walker played in 6 games, though mainly on special teams. Brian Clay was mentioned before in the CB section but should be noted for playing first-string S during some spring practices. Our incoming freshman class includes 3 new players; Baker, McIntosh and Washington. This means that our strength at this position is only 7 deep in 2014.
My thoughts on this position are that we'll also see some freshmen stepping up, but hopefully to a lesser degree than at CB. It's widely speculated (or assumed at this point) that Baker will start at one position, but the other remains a mystery. Based on the results of last season alone, it seems like Beaver or King would be the logical choices, though Clay must've impressed to coaches this spring given him playing with the ones. We should have 5 players rotating among the safety position, meaning we should be able to redshirt McIntosh and Washington, but given the lack of scholarship athletes at this position, I wouldn't be surprised if one plays this year (or both if there are injuries).
So, as an overview of the unit, is looks like we have a total of 15 scholarship players for 2014 with only 2 having played in more than 6 games and only 1 in more than 10 games at UW. Although the unit is extremely inexperienced, it does have some solid talent at the top, with Peters, Kelly and Baker being the sexiest names of the bunch (and Beaver too, hardy har har). Fortunately for us, our non-conference schedule is a cake-walk, which should give 2 months for Coach Lake to experiment and play around with the secondary before Stanford rolls into town for the first game of the season. Our total person-games (total number of games played by all players) right now as a unit without Peters is 26 games (coincidentally, Peters has played in 26 games at UW), but it should jump to somewhere between 54-62 person-games after our four non-conference games, essentially doubling or tripling our existing game experience (albeit against inferior competition). There will be some nervousness and uncertainty heading into 2014 with our secondary and we will be playing several true freshmen, but there shouldn't be too much concern with the unit overall.
Thoughts?
Comments
The coaches may have to play some freshmen, or perhaps not. Either way, it will be interesting.
S- beaver and King
Nickel- Budda Baker
Next in line guys: Walker (s), clay (s), one of the FR CB's
The secondary is the weakest link right now, but it has talent. King do great at the testing and is like 6'2". We need him and Beaver to improve. They have a good chance at being better in coverage than Parker and Shamburger, but it might not be this year. Luckily, we have 4 shit games to get those guys, baker, and Kelly warmed up.
The Eastern game will actually be a good test for those guys because they throw the ball 60 times every game.
Allah
These fucking idiots never learn.
More off-season pressing please.
Ditto