Most Improved Players of All Tim
@dirtysouwfdawg poasted a crystal dong in the recruiting thread for what he called BBK 2.0, which got me thinking: who are the Dwags who have improved the most over the course of their time at UW?
I’m hard pressed to think of anyone who improved more than BBK. He went from an undersized scrub getting dragged 10 yards downfield by running backs to a fucking stud as a senior, leaving us lamenting the fact he didn’t get redshirted.
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Will Dissly. His only offer was BSU, then Petersen offered Dissly when he took the UW job. Was widely panned by the TBS crew
Started off at DE, played well there, moved to TE, played even better, and was selected 120th overall in the NFL draft
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Stan Empterman was a 2-star.
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Joe Tryon… kind of.
feeney and Mathis excelled into better than avg guys by their last years. -
Dissly was one of the practice hero types that actually panned out. Players and media were always mentioning him as that next guy then he really did it. Would be interesting to know how he would have turned out as a DE.
To me we are talking about guys who actively played and didn't look good and then turned it on. Not diamond in the rough recruit type. Kevin King comes to mind as do Andrew Hudson and Taniela Tupo. A lot of guys who looked like lost causes under Sark who Petersen developed.
I actually think Budda and Shaq were guys in their first two years who were just good but who suddenly went up to all time great in their third seasons.
KamFab has a shot to be big here.
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Kevin King went from a soft Sark guy to a killer
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Mathis was a bigger loss than Victor, dude was a monster
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Anyone on the 2021 team
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That team needed Mathis at full strength. He was a dominator when he was right, which was for a total of like 3 games, ever. There was nobody comparable to cover for him.
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Psalm played about as good as he possibly could've, but we needed more heat from the edge
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Plus Mathis was naturally big and could muscle up with OTs. He was a force against the run, whereas Psalm was like a flashing sign that said "Run This Way!"
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ja’lynn polk stands out to me, the guy was an obviously talented prospect but no one expected him to develop into his 3rd and 4th year stats… I do agree about Kevin King, he seemed like a reach when they recruited him late in the game and the first 2 years seemed to confirm his JAG status and then the guy blew up into a killer.
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Polk I don't know if you can specifically call him improved as a Husky. He came in as just like the equivalent of a solid 3* transfer guy so he definitely exceeded expectations. He got knocked out on literally the first play of the Montana game after looking like a good athlete and getting a nice gain then had a nice long touchdown against Colorado when he came back.
I'm hoping Giles Jackson enters the chat by having a big 2024.
I think I was completely blanking on Desmond Trufant. From what I remember he was maybe actually bad his first three years then he erupted as a senior as an All-American level guy and first round pick.
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I think Trufant was a little underrated until his last season. I always thought he was pretty good. It just took people a long time to realize it because the overall defense was so bad.
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If we do a list of Huskies who digressed the most as time went on, James Johnson would be on there.
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I remember seeing a photo of him during the off-season where he looked like freakin Megatron. He was an upperclassman at that point and had dealt with some injuries iirc. I thought he'd at least come back and be as good as he was starting out, if not better, but he basically disappeared. It was weird.
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Jake Locker went from All-American safety to an NFL QB in 4 years. If anyone improved more than him, I’d like to see it.
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I'll bite.
Lockner was as good as a freshman as he was as a senior.
Lockner was not an NFL QB. He was a high risk NFL project that didn't pan out.
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Jeremiah Martin popping in 2022 came out of nowhere
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Can’t believe I’m the first to say it but the obvious answer is obvious. Most improved player of all tim is PGOS.
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Maybe most underrated, most improved would suggest they sucked ass early in their career and then became great. BBK is definitely a contender. Maybe Lavon Coleman.
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Coach Pete took some seniors off the scrap heap (Andrew Hudson, Tani Tupou) and turned them into solid players. Dudes always regressed under sark.
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Tom Turnure
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Fair, I agree that Dissly was the most underrated and not most improved.
My vote might be Alex Cook. Was buried at WR for 2 years, switched to safety, learned a new position, and only had 11 tackles his first 2 years on defense. Ended up being a captain and leading tackler for 2022
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Leading tackler on the 2022 defense? How many tackles was that, seven?
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did anyone really think Penix was going to be as great as he was?
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I don't think anyone thought Penix would be anywhere near as good as he ended up being. I think everyone also thought he would barely play and get hurt, me included. Could make a case for him even though part of it is his career at Indiana where he was kind of streaky and just good.
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warren moon was an over looked junior college transfer who went 11-11 in his first two years as a starter and ended up being a rose bowl mvp his senior year
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How in the fuck has nobody mentioned Westover yet.
Guy went from being an accountant to being an NFL player.
Honorable mention, who was actually mentioned, was Dissly.
And our current chubby little walk on to schollie placekicker would be third.
