Fall quarter football grades: defense/special teams

By Brice Hamack
Sports Editor

Defensive Line: D

Senior defensive lineman Daniel Te’o-Nesheim came into the season with high expectations, and to be fair he lead the team in sacks, but teams were able to find ways to neutralize him most of the season.  This was mostly due to the fact that the only thing that stood out about the rest of the defensive lineman was that they didn’t show up much and struggled to get push off the line.  Inside tackle Alameda Ta’amu at times showed that he can be a menacing inside presence, but most of the year was not able to get off his block, and didn’t demand the double team coaches had hoped for.  Te’o-Nesheim ended the season with 11 sacks and 14 tackles for loss, the rest of the defensive line combined only managed 7.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss.

Linebackers: B+

Easily the strength of the defense thanks to the stand out play of junior Mason Foster, sophomore Cort Dennison, and senior Donald Butler.  Donald Butler led the team in tackles (94), as is expected of your middle linebacker, and also led the team in tackles for loss (15.5).  Down the stretch Butler played like a man possessed doing everything in his power to will his team to a winning season before he was to graduate.  Junior Mason Foster built upon on his standout sophomore campaign on the strong-side tallying up 85 tackles, good for second place on the team behind Butler, and led the team with three interceptions and six forced fumbles.  The biggest surprise this year was the amazing play of weak-side linebacker Cort Dennison who was forced into action with the nagging injury of the experienced EJ Savannah.  Dennison became one of the most sure fire tacklers on the team and looked to be one of the most energized players on the field at all times.

Defensive Backs: C

At cornerback the Huskies may have found their corners of the future in freshmen Adam Long and Desmond Trufant.  Both played exceptionally well given their circumstances, but still showed lots of room for growth.  Strong safety Nate Williams was consistent throughout the year but doesn’t seem to be improving on some of his flaws, such as looking back for the ball when it’s in the air and making sure tackles instead of always trying to go for the big hit.  The free safety position was one that was filled with a lot of turmoil throughout the season.  To start off the coaches gave freshman Greg Walker a shot, and while he seemed to have a knack for reading where the ball was going, his tackling and lack of play making ability caused him to be benched early on.  Next up was Victor Aiyewa who was able to lay good hits on players, but constantly let plays get behind him, such as the game losing touchdown pass against Arizona State.  Finally the coaches seemed to find a good fit with converted cornerback Justin Glenn, unfortunately Glenn broke his leg in the Notre Dame game and it was back to the drawing board.  Luckily senior Jason Wells came back from his nagging leg injury and was able to hold down the position through the end of the year and did a good job.

Defensive Coaching: C

This year’s defense was an improvement over last year’s unit, but that wasn’t exactly the hardest task to accomplish given the fact that last year’s unit was one of the worst in school history.  The defensive coaches did manage to put together game plans that allowed the Huskies to not become victim to repeated big plays which meant they were in almost all the games this year, however teams were able to rack up long drives and move the ball pretty well.  The vastly improved play of the linebacker and defensive back units as the year went on is a testament to the position coaches and their abilities to show the players what they are doing wrong and how to properly correct it.  However all those close games might have been wins if the defensive schemes of defensive coordinator Nick Holt incorporated a little more pressure in them.  When Holt decided to get more aggressive in his scheming against Cal and Washington State, you saw how effective this defense could be.  To be fair to Holt his secondary was an injured and inconsistent mess all year and it’s hard to get aggressive when you don’t have protection deep, but he never seemed to take that risk until a bowl game was out of the question, and we are left to wonder what could’ve been.

Special Teams: B-

When it came to field goals, kicker Eric Folk gets an A, but when it came to kickoffs he’s not so fortunate.  He was one of the most accurate field goal kickers in years for Washington but had trouble getting his kickoffs past the 10 yard line which gave opposing teams consistantly good starting field positions.  Punting and kickoff return coverage was also lack luster, each unit giving up a return for touchdown this year.  Kick and punt returns also left a lot to be desired, coaches were so desperate for a spark on kick returns that they put starting running back Chris Polk back as the main return man, and starting linebacker Donald Butler back as his lead blocker.  Punter Will Mahan did an above average job on the year and seemed pretty consistent except for a few shanks.