Many will disagree, but I think the 1st rounders outside of Peters are overrated. Shelton is good, and even though his effort improved, he didn't bring it every game. Sometimes he was incredible (early season, Arizona, WSU). Sometimes he was meh (Oregon, UCLA). Almost every sack was against Hawaii and Eastern.
Shaq is a ball hawk, but has average instincts and misses a lot of tackles. Mason Foster was a great LB. Shaq was not. That said, he was a very good RB and that was arguably his best position.
Peters is a future Pro Bowler but he clashed with the coaching staff. That was too bad, but Petersen had to draw the line.
Kikaha was a stud and IMO the MVP of the defense. We saw how the defense performed without him in the UCLA game. I agree with Chuck that he is an intriguing 2nd-4th round pick.
I think Petersen should have won a few more games, but the transition wasn't smooth. We can make excuses, but 8-6 with that schedule sucks no matter who is coaching. On one hand, QB play was terrible and the rest of the offense wasn't much better. OTOH, the offense was the worst in the Pac 12 and the coaches deserve blame and criticism for that.
Agree re Shaq and Peters. But IMO, you're overvaluing Kikaha. And way, way undervaluing Shelton, who is the best player to come through UW in 20 years.
THIS
Took the words right out of my mouth. I had a rant on this somewhere else a while back.
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