Another week, another game where the Sun Devils will meet a Pac-12 team in turmoil, and this program drama is relatively fresh. In a matter of two days earlier this week, Washington lost its offensive coordinator and has laced its head coach on suspension. But intangibles aside, we deep dive into analyzing the Huskies’ roster to see what the Sun Devils could expect to see this weekend.
Washington Offense
A member of Washington’s 2019 signing class, Dylan Morris has been the team’s starting quarterback since the beginning of the abbreviated 2020 season, but the results to date have been mixed, to say the least.
In the four games Washington played in 2020, Morris had three without an interception and threw for at least 230 yards in three of the four, with a 254-yard performance against Stanford and a 272-yard effort versus Utah.
This season, however, the Washington offense as a whole has struggled in a variety of areas, and Morris’ days as starting quarterback for the Huskies could be numbered. Between offensive woes, a surprisingly disappointing season thus far, and five-star phenom Sam Huard waiting in the wings, Morris may face an uphill battle to retain his starting job after the 2021 season.
In his past five games, Morris has failed to reach the 200-yard passing mark on four occasions and has just 257 combined passing yards across his past two games. Morris also has thrown more interceptions than any quarterback in the Pac-12 and has been sacked 19 times this year, with four games having been sacked at least three times.
Also, though Morris has -39 net rushing yards on the year, he does have two rushing touchdowns to his credit this season. Last season, Morris showed a greater ability to scamper for yards as he had 57 net yards with two touchdowns in four games.
In all, Morris has completed 60.4% of his passes for 1,920 yards with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Washington figures to use a duo at running back in Sean McGrew and Cameron Davis, with McGrew having taken the majority of the snaps to date in 2021 for the Huskies.
On the year, McGrew has 107 carries for 431 yards (4.0 avg.) in seven games with a solid eight touchdown rushes. He also has six catches for 41 yards.
McGrew has combined more than half his rushing yards for the season in just two games, as he ran for 114 yards two weeks ago against Stanford and earlier this year rushed for 104 yards against Oregon State. The other five games in which he’s played have resulted in 31, 53, 38, 43, and 48 rushing yards. He does, however, have four two-touchdown efforts on the year.
Davis has appeared in all nine games and has 55 rushes for 212 yards (3.9 avg.) with one touchdown, adding six catches for 43 yards.
Kamari Pleasant adds a punch of depth at running back with his 6.5-yard average on 40 carries, totaling 261 rushing yards in addition to his nine catches for 57 yards.
At wide receiver, Terrell Bynum and freshmen Jalen McMillan and Rome Odunze are slotted to be in the starting lineup.
McMillan, a top-100 recruit from the 2020 class, leads the team with 31 receptions and ranks second on the team with 414 yards and three touchdown catches.
One of the better deep threats in the league, Bynum averages 16.8 yards on 26 catches with team-highs of 436 yards and four touchdowns.
Odunze adds 21 catches for 196 yards with two touchdowns, while reserve receiver Taj Davis ranks third on the team with 285 receiving yards and has 22 catches with one touchdown.
One of the premier tight ends in a conference with several very good ones, Cade Otton, was a First-Team All-Pac-12 pick in 2020.
Entering Saturday’s game, Otton has 87 career receptions for an even 1,000 yards with nine touchdowns in 38 games, including 24 catches for 224 yards with one score in seven games this year. He currently ranks fourth in the Pac-12 in receptions by a tight end.
Otton had season-highs of eight receptions for 82 yards in the season opener against Montana, but since then, in six games, he has highs of four catches against Oregon and 33 yards against Michigan.
Jack Westover and Devin Culp also figure to see quite a bit of time at tight end, and on the year, Culp has ten receptions for 102 yards, and Westover has two catches for 11 yards.
The Husky line figures to start Jaxson Kirkland at tackle and Ulumoo Ale at guard on the left side, Henry Bainivalu at guard and Victor Curne at tackle on the right side, and Luke Wattenberg at center.
Kirkland, a First-Team All-Pac-12 pick in 2020, is the clear leader of the Washington line as he has 36 career starts and was a 2021 Preseason Second-Team All-American.
Washington Offense Summary
All-in-all, the Husky offense lacks any true firepower, a general deficiency that has shown up on the scoreboards and in the win-loss columns.
In the past five games, Washington has failed to score more than 24 points in any one game, three times scoring 17 or fewer points.
Statistically, Washington ranks 10th in the conference in scoring offense (22.0), 10th in total offense (332.1), 10th in rushing offense (115.3), and 11th in yards per carry (3.5).
The main aspect of Washington’s offense that can – and should – cause concern for ASU is Otton, as the Sun Devils have storied issues defending tight ends, especially this season.
Washington Defense
The first-team defense for Washington features linemen Tuli Letuligasenoa and Sam Taimani.
Both players have been highly productive as Taimani ranks fourth on the team with 37 total tackles, including 2.0 for loss, while Letuligasenoa has 31 tackles, including 2.5 for loss with 1.0 sack and an interception.
Though not listed as a starter, lineman Faatui Tuitele leads the team with 3.0 sacks and two forced fumbles.
At linebacker, Zion Tupuola-Fetui, one of the most fearsome defenders in the Pac-12, is joined by Jackson Sirmon and freshmen Cooper McDonald and Carson Bruener.
ZTF, who had a monster season in the abbreviated 2020 campaign, suffered an injury during spring ball that kept him out for the early portion of the 2021 season. He has appeared in four games this season and has eight tackles and one sack, including six tackles last week against Oregon.
Sirmon leads Washington with 70 total tackles, including 2.5 for loss with one interception and one forced fumble. Bruener has 39 tackles, including a 16-tackle performance he had two weeks ago against Stanford that netted him Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honors. McDonald has 22 tackles on the year, including a split of the team-high of 3.5 for loss.
Freshmen such as Bruener and McDonald have had to step up in the wake of massively significant losses at linebacker in the form of season-ending injuries suffered by all-conference defender Ryan Bowman and preseason All-American Edefuan Ulofoshio.
The consistently excellent Husky secondary includes Trent McDuffie, Kyler Gordon, Alex Cook, Cameron Williams, and Brendan Radley-Hiles as first-string options.
Radley-Hiles, a high-profile transfer from Oklahoma this offseason, has a do-it-all state line of 35 tackles, including 4.0 for loss with 2.0 sacks with four pass breakups, one interception, and one fumble recovery.
Cook has 34 tackles, while Gordon has 33 and a share of the team-high of two interceptions. McDuffie, a Second-Team All-Pac-12 honoree in 2020, has 20 tackles, including 2.0 for loss with three pass breakups, while Williams has 17 tackles, including 2.0 for loss.
Washington Defense Summary
As usual – and much, much different from its lackluster offense – the Huskies enter this game with one of the premier defenses in the conference and, in at least one category, the top-performing defense in the nation.
Statistically, Washington leads the nation in pass defense (141.4) – yes, ahead of the seemingly impenetrable Georgia defense. The Huskies have also only allowed five passing touchdowns on the year, with Georgia (three) as the only team in the nation having allowed fewer scores through the air.
On a conference scale, naturally, Washington leads the Pac-12 in pass defense while also leading the league in scoring defense (19.7) while ranking second behind ASU in total defense (336.7).
Only once this season has Washington allowed more than 27 points (31 by Michigan), and prior to last week, the Huskies allowed only 13 by Stanford and 16 by Arizona.
There is one noticeable weak spot in the Husky defense – and boy is it a doozy – as Washington ranks 11th in the Pac-12 in rush defense (195.2), most recently allowing 329 yards to Oregon last week, including 211 to Travis Dye. Fresh off a 200-yard explosion of his own, these numbers have to entice Rachaad White for ASU.
Washington Special Teams
Kicker Peyton Henry has connected on 9-of-11 field goal attempts, though all of his makes have been from 38 yards or closer.
Punter Race Porter averages an outstanding 47.21 yards on 42 punts, good enough for seventh nationally and third in the Pac-12 behind Colorado’s Josh Watts (48.33) and Arizona’s Kyle Ostendorp (48.20).
Michigan transfer Giles Jackson handles most of the return duties as he has six punt returns for 34 yards (5.7 avg.) and averages 19.9 yards on 13 kickoff returns. Trent McDuffie also has six punt returns for 18 total yards (3.0 avg.)
Overall Summary
A scenario that has to be unprecedented for ASU – and who knows, perhaps in college football – the Sun Devils face their third straight opponent guided by an interim head coach after Washington’s Jimmy Lake was suspended earlier this week for a sideline altercation with one of his own players last Saturday against Oregon.
Added to that, this week, Washington fired offensive coordinator John Donovan and enter Saturday’s game with a 4-5 record, so, in a common narrative ASU has encountered lately, the Sun Devils will clash with a program in considerable disarray.
However, that element did not cause Washington State to miss a beat two weeks ago, so it can’t be assumed that coaching staff issues invariably lead to poor team play.
ASU didn’t play Washington during the 2019 or 2020 seasons and hasn’t won in Seattle since the unforgettably windy affair in 2014. In the series overall, ASU has a 20-17 edge, but Washington has won two of the last three – 2016 and ’18, both in Seattle. Prior to 2016, of course, the season Washington advanced to the College Football Playoff, ASU had won 10 consecutive meetings from 2002-15.
Prior to 2002, Washington had a stranglehold in the series, mainly due to the overall prominence of the Husky program in the 1990s and early 2000s when UW had six top-20 finishes and four Rose Bowl appearances from 1990-2001, including a shared National Championship in 1991.
However, after Chris Petersen resurrected the Washington program and compiled 32 wins and three consecutive New Year’s bowl appearances, the Jimmy Lake Era following Petersen’s retirement prior to the 2020 season has effectively failed to meet expectations. Heightened by Lake’s recent suspension, his whole body of work appears likely to result in yet another coaching change at Washington in the near future.
Though not technically yet eliminated from contention in the north division, Washington needs a few borderline miracles to transpire with losses already to Oregon and Oregon State, which rank ahead of the Huskies in the divisional standing.
More likely, however, is the potential uphill climb for Washington to gain bowl eligibility as the Huskies need to win two of three against ASU, Colorado, and Washington State to finish with a .500 record.
So, what does this mean for a game that in the preseason figured to be an epic cold climate showdown between top-25 teams in strong contention for their divisions? If the past two weeks are any sort of litmus test, we really don’t know.
Similar to last week, motivation and execution likely will be the tipping points for the winning team – or perhaps more accurately stated, a tangible lack of the two aforementioned qualities will collectively be the catalyst for the losing team.
Strategically, ASU needs to rely heavily on its run game and take care of the ball on offense while continuing to force turnovers on defense while relocating its team-based ability to pressure quarterbacks by multiple attackers that has been lacking the past few weeks.
Familiar Faces
· Washington DB Jacobe Covington (Scottsdale Saguaro HS), LS Jaden Green (Mesa High School), DB Dominique Hampton (Peoria Centennial HS), OL Matteo Mele (Tucson Salpointe Catholic HS), and OLB Bralen Trice (Phoenix Sandra Day O’Connor HS) are Arizona natives
· UW LS Jaden Green’s father, Gerald, played running back for ASU in 1998-99
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