Coaches and Scouts view on UW

This is by far the most insightful of this type of offseason article I've ever seen.

I guess because it seems to be mainly from scouts whereas usually they get other coaches' opinions.

#mymolden gonna breakout this year.

These are actually tremendous takes and cut through a lot of the BS

I always laugh when people say the 'OKG' thing means they're good citizens and just okay players. He wants elite people and elite players. That's what 'OKG' means to him. This other crap about it being elitist or whatever is just stupid."

This is what happens when you allow others to potentially narrate the story or messaging for you. It would seem to me that UW Football could be more direct on what Built For Life and OKG means and direct the message. The scout is absolutely correct that there's nothing about OKG that is elitist, etc.

Their QB situation is worse than I expected it to be. In the practices I saw (one closed scrimmage and four regular practices) Jacob Eason didn't look good at all. He was late on his throws, he looked like he'd lost confidence. Is that because of the coaching or has he lost his edge?

Eason aside, I really do agree. Haener is a turnover machine at this point until he proves he isn't. Sirmon has a bigger upside than anybody else on the roster but he's still super raw. Eason obviously has the ability but he needs reps ... it's the point that DDY was making back in Spring that resonates the most because when you haven't taken live reps for close to 2 years it's hard to expect someone to be super sharp. I think that this was some of the thinking behind having the QBs being live during the Spring Scrimmage ... I was shocked when I saw that. Also the point that followed later about so many WR injuries in the upper ranks didn't help and likely resulted in a lot of either check downs (what I saw during the Spring Scrimmage) or forcing balls down the field.

One thing to keep in mind is that practicing against our defense can make decent offenses look like dog shit and from what I saw from the defense this defense has more talent behind it than any to date. Going back to 2016, I remember looking at the offense and thinking that the offense was really, really in trouble. Then you get to the first handful of games during the year and you realize pretty quickly that against "normal" defenses the offense was just fine.

This is full LIPO for me until Fall ... but you really would like to Eason step up early in the Fall camp and show that the job is his and leave no doubt about it.

One guy I like a lot is Austin Osborne. He's strong and faster than you think. The coaches loved his progress and I'd bet he plays a lot this year.

I agree with this take a lot. One of the byproducts of having the top WRs out was that it gave valuable reps for younger WRs to go against top end DBs and see where they are in their development. Worst case, Osborne's going to be a valuable possession WR this year. Best case is that he takes a step forward and pushes Ty Jones.

The guy I think the coaches really like a lot is Richard Newton.

If the season started today, I really do think that there's a good chance that Dick Newton gets the backup RB reps. Pleasant runs well but seems more of a 2nd back in a 2 back set with his versatility. McGrew seems more of the passing option in a 2-minute drill type of situation. From what I saw in Spring, Newton's a little better than JAG at this point. Really want to see what Cam Davis does once he gets on campus. I don't feel like this position is really settled at the moment.

BTW, the Ahmed "he's just a straight line runner" is a load of crap. He was a lot more patient this Spring than I've seen in the past. He will still be in a spot where he outruns everybody if he gets into the open. But the real growth in him will be developing what made Myles so special in that he always got 1-3 yards more than he should have on those runs between the tackles that didn't look like they were going anywhere.

I think they should be better than they're playing. They dominate teams they are better than, but when it comes to teams that are as talented or more talented, they struggle some.

At this point, it's a fair criticism but I'm not 100% sure that I agree with it as being a massive Huff issue. Kaleb's best football is ahead of him and he was a mauler in the run but there were some pass protection issues at times. Nick Harris is going to be an all conference center but there were some issues his first 2 years due to size and playing probably a bit out of position. Kirkland will be a good one but was a tad young last year. Watty is probably an average guy in terms of what we've been recruiting since Huff's come in. Hilbers fits the same bill. Trey it's a health thing. So yeah, up until now I think we've got good players but not massively high end players. I suspect that you'll start seeing in 2-3 years the quality of our OL in the draft go up significantly. We've leveled up massively here and continue to do so.

I'll be shocked if (Levi Onwuzurike) sticks around after this year. When he's on, he's the best d-linemen in the conference and would be right up there with any guy from the SEC or Big 10. He's special."

I agree with this 100%. If all the pieces come together for Levi, and I suspect that they will this year, he's going to be an absolute terror.

"Every year, you think their secondary is going to take a hit with graduation and losing guys to the NFL and every year, they seem to just plug in guys and get the most out of them. Right now, I don't think there's a better secondary coach in the nation than Jimmy Lake. He just gets the most out of his guys. They fit perfectly in the system they run there. Their DBs have excellent size. I was talking with one of the coaches and he just sorta laughed and said the guys they redshirted last season, they probably would have played almost anywhere else, but at Washington, they redshirted. They are just so deep there. The guy that makes that thing go is Myles Bryant. I know he's not the biggest guy, but he plays with an edge, an attitude and I think the other guys feed off of that. Sorta like they did off of Kevin King when he was there. I love Keith Taylor, but, for my money, their best cover guy is (Elijah) Molden. He just 'gets it'. He reads things so well. I'm excited to see what he can do this season as the starter. He's had to wait his turn. Now it's his chance. They love that (Cam) Williams kid. They think he'll be special. (Lake and Will Harris) said they don't think he'll redshirt this season. In that secondary, if you don't redshirt, you're pretty damn good."

Jimmy's great obviously and those in the know recognize it. Nice to see that Will Harris is starting to get mentioned with Lake when it comes to the secondary. Important going forward that Harris is building out his niche as well to help give him creedence from a recruiting standpoint. What's so interesting here is the idea that we know what we want when we are recruiting and we recruit to what we want. That's really important to me. So important to get the right fits for me. Myles really does have an edge to him that we definitely need more in the program. He will be playing on Sunday. The overall quality is just laughable. And agreed in that you can just see that Cam Williams has that IT quality that separates the good from the great ones.

They need a guy who can be a threat off the edge every play. They like Joe Tryon a lot, but I don't think he's as explosive off the edge as they really need,

This will be arguably the biggest question mark heading into the season for me, at least defensively. If Tryon can take a step forward and get up to the 8-10 sack range this defense will be beyond scary. I'm not sure Tryon has the same ceiling that a guy like Latu has, but he's way more talented than anybody that we've had at least since Mathis.

They are sound fundamentally. Bob Gregory is one of the best linebacker coaches I've been around. He's tough on his players, but they respond."

When I read this I pictured the pledge scene in Animal House when they flashed the picture of Kent Dorfman. I think it's really important to separate Gregory the coach and Gregory the recruiter. Anybody that thinks that Gregory can't coach is full of it. The question is fully on Gregory the recruiter.

The biggest key will be getting Eason to live up to his hype. If he does that, they should be in the Playoffs, but if he doesn't, it could be a long season.

This really is the nuts and bolts of it. If Eason plays well and Bush advances as an offensive coordinator, then the Playoffs isn't just a pipe dream but a high likelihood. If Eason struggles though then I think you're looking at another year of grumblings about Pete, the offensive system, and potentially another change in coordinators. I'd bet on Eason figuring things out but there's obviously the "prove it" factor for both Eason and Bush. Until they do, it's the weight that can drag the program under the Vegas win totals.

YellowSnow said:

I still think, even with average to below-average QB play, they will be a bowl team because they're talented enough and their schedule is (soft enough) to get them eight wins regardless, but Petersen and the staff there have them focused on more

We've had average to below average QB play the past 2 years and still have played in 2 straight NY6 games.

The only way for things to get massively worse is to have the QB position to be a turnover machine ... the bar isn't that high for improvement

The biggest key will be getting Eason to live up to his hype. If he does that, they should be in the Playoffs, but if he doesn't, it could be a long season.

This really is the nuts and bolts of it. If Eason plays well and Bush advances as an offensive coordinator, then the Playoffs isn't just a pipe dream but a high likelihood. If Eason struggles though then I think you're looking at another year of grumblings about Pete, the offensive system, and potentially another change in coordinators. I'd bet on Eason figuring things out but there's obviously the "prove it" factor for both Eason and Bush. Until they do, it's the weight that can drag the program under the Vegas win totals.

We went to back to back NY6 Bowls w/ a QB that threw 19 & 16 TD Passes. If Eason can give us 25 we will go undefeated. If everything clicks and he goes for 30-35+ TD's we will win a playoff game. To me Teq, it is all about the Red Zone. We have had no problem moving the ball in between the 20's but the RZ is a different story. This is where Bryant/Jones/Spiker/Osborne I think will be the difference w/ Eason.

Lmao some of these comments. Looks like we might steal the offseason natty crown back from Oregon this summer.

Until Pete and Bush can prove they can run an intimidating offense, they cant

This was written by Eklund. All of them are written by the team 247 scouts. There aren’t real scouts doing this stuff.

What happened to Eason tearing it up on the scout team and being the best QB our? secondary faced all year (until Haskins anyway)?

Now he sucks? JFC

It’s probably Huffman. Lives in WWA.

Also, the sack issue is overrated IMO. Last season was definitely not good enough but the sacks per game had hovered around 3 since CP got here.

More concerning to me is the passing down sack rate. UW was like 84th last year after being top 25 in 2015, 2016 & 2017. If we? can’t get sacks when it’s most advantageous to the D, that’s concerning.

Tequilla said:

These are actually tremendous takes and cut through a lot of the BS

I always laugh when people say the 'OKG' thing means they're good citizens and just okay players. He wants elite people and elite players. That's what 'OKG' means to him. This other crap about it being elitist or whatever is just stupid."

This is what happens when you allow others to potentially narrate the story or messaging for you. It would seem to me that UW Football could be more direct on what Built For Life and OKG means and direct the message. The scout is absolutely correct that there's nothing about OKG that is elitist, etc.

Their QB situation is worse than I expected it to be. In the practices I saw (one closed scrimmage and four regular practices) Jacob Eason didn't look good at all. He was late on his throws, he looked like he'd lost confidence. Is that because of the coaching or has he lost his edge?

Eason aside, I really do agree. Haener is a turnover machine at this point until he proves he isn't. Sirmon has a bigger upside than anybody else on the roster but he's still super raw. Eason obviously has the ability but he needs reps ... it's the point that DDY was making back in Spring that resonates the most because when you haven't taken live reps for close to 2 years it's hard to expect someone to be super sharp. I think that this was some of the thinking behind having the QBs being live during the Spring Scrimmage ... I was shocked when I saw that. Also the point that followed later about so many WR injuries in the upper ranks didn't help and likely resulted in a lot of either check downs (what I saw during the Spring Scrimmage) or forcing balls down the field.

One thing to keep in mind is that practicing against our defense can make decent offenses look like dog shit and from what I saw from the defense this defense has more talent behind it than any to date. Going back to 2016, I remember looking at the offense and thinking that the offense was really, really in trouble. Then you get to the first handful of games during the year and you realize pretty quickly that against "normal" defenses the offense was just fine.

This is full LIPO for me until Fall ... but you really would like to Eason step up early in the Fall camp and show that the job is his and leave no doubt about it.

One guy I like a lot is Austin Osborne. He's strong and faster than you think. The coaches loved his progress and I'd bet he plays a lot this year.

I agree with this take a lot. One of the byproducts of having the top WRs out was that it gave valuable reps for younger WRs to go against top end DBs and see where they are in their development. Worst case, Osborne's going to be a valuable possession WR this year. Best case is that he takes a step forward and pushes Ty Jones.

The guy I think the coaches really like a lot is Richard Newton.

If the season started today, I really do think that there's a good chance that Dick Newton gets the backup RB reps. Pleasant runs well but seems more of a 2nd back in a 2 back set with his versatility. McGrew seems more of the passing option in a 2-minute drill type of situation. From what I saw in Spring, Newton's a little better than JAG at this point. Really want to see what Cam Davis does once he gets on campus. I don't feel like this position is really settled at the moment.

BTW, the Ahmed "he's just a straight line runner" is a load of crap. He was a lot more patient this Spring than I've seen in the past. He will still be in a spot where he outruns everybody if he gets into the open. But the real growth in him will be developing what made Myles so special in that he always got 1-3 yards more than he should have on those runs between the tackles that didn't look like they were going anywhere.

I think they should be better than they're playing. They dominate teams they are better than, but when it comes to teams that are as talented or more talented, they struggle some.

At this point, it's a fair criticism but I'm not 100% sure that I agree with it as being a massive Huff issue. Kaleb's best football is ahead of him and he was a mauler in the run but there were some pass protection issues at times. Nick Harris is going to be an all conference center but there were some issues his first 2 years due to size and playing probably a bit out of position. Kirkland will be a good one but was a tad young last year. Watty is probably an average guy in terms of what we've been recruiting since Huff's come in. Hilbers fits the same bill. Trey it's a health thing. So yeah, up until now I think we've got good players but not massively high end players. I suspect that you'll start seeing in 2-3 years the quality of our OL in the draft go up significantly. We've leveled up massively here and continue to do so.

I'll be shocked if (Levi Onwuzurike) sticks around after this year. When he's on, he's the best d-linemen in the conference and would be right up there with any guy from the SEC or Big 10. He's special."

I agree with this 100%. If all the pieces come together for Levi, and I suspect that they will this year, he's going to be an absolute terror.

"Every year, you think their secondary is going to take a hit with graduation and losing guys to the NFL and every year, they seem to just plug in guys and get the most out of them. Right now, I don't think there's a better secondary coach in the nation than Jimmy Lake. He just gets the most out of his guys. They fit perfectly in the system they run there. Their DBs have excellent size. I was talking with one of the coaches and he just sorta laughed and said the guys they redshirted last season, they probably would have played almost anywhere else, but at Washington, they redshirted. They are just so deep there. The guy that makes that thing go is Myles Bryant. I know he's not the biggest guy, but he plays with an edge, an attitude and I think the other guys feed off of that. Sorta like they did off of Kevin King when he was there. I love Keith Taylor, but, for my money, their best cover guy is (Elijah) Molden. He just 'gets it'. He reads things so well. I'm excited to see what he can do this season as the starter. He's had to wait his turn. Now it's his chance. They love that (Cam) Williams kid. They think he'll be special. (Lake and Will Harris) said they don't think he'll redshirt this season. In that secondary, if you don't redshirt, you're pretty damn good."

Jimmy's great obviously and those in the know recognize it. Nice to see that Will Harris is starting to get mentioned with Lake when it comes to the secondary. Important going forward that Harris is building out his niche as well to help give him creedence from a recruiting standpoint. What's so interesting here is the idea that we know what we want when we are recruiting and we recruit to what we want. That's really important to me. So important to get the right fits for me. Myles really does have an edge to him that we definitely need more in the program. He will be playing on Sunday. The overall quality is just laughable. And agreed in that you can just see that Cam Williams has that IT quality that separates the good from the great ones.

They need a guy who can be a threat off the edge every play. They like Joe Tryon a lot, but I don't think he's as explosive off the edge as they really need,

This will be arguably the biggest question mark heading into the season for me, at least defensively. If Tryon can take a step forward and get up to the 8-10 sack range this defense will be beyond scary. I'm not sure Tryon has the same ceiling that a guy like Latu has, but he's way more talented than anybody that we've had at least since Mathis.

They are sound fundamentally. Bob Gregory is one of the best linebacker coaches I've been around. He's tough on his players, but they respond."

When I read this I pictured the pledge scene in Animal House when they flashed the picture of Kent Dorfman. I think it's really important to separate Gregory the coach and Gregory the recruiter. Anybody that thinks that Gregory can't coach is full of it. The question is fully on Gregory the recruiter.

The biggest key will be getting Eason to live up to his hype. If he does that, they should be in the Playoffs, but if he doesn't, it could be a long season.

This really is the nuts and bolts of it. If Eason plays well and Bush advances as an offensive coordinator, then the Playoffs isn't just a pipe dream but a high likelihood. If Eason struggles though then I think you're looking at another year of grumblings about Pete, the offensive system, and potentially another change in coordinators. I'd bet on Eason figuring things out but there's obviously the "prove it" factor for both Eason and Bush. Until they do, it's the weight that can drag the program under the Vegas win totals.

Son you wouldn't know nuts and bolts if they dribbled down your chin.