Cal Football Opponent First Look: Washington
If it weren't for Caleb Williams, we would be talking about Michael Penix Jr
After a moderately challenging non-conference portion of the schedule, Cal finally gets a break. Wait……..Washington is the conference opener? Oh dear.
The Huskies were the most improved team in the Pac 12 last year, navigating the Jimmy Lake disaster into a master rebuild from Kalen DeBoer, resulting in an 11-2 record with a victory in the Alamo Bowl over Texas.
Furthermore, Washington in general was very aesthetically pleasing team to watch. Offensive concepts from OC Ryan Grubb that made you do a double take, plays from wide receivers that left secondaries shattered, and a sniper sitting in the pocket in Michael Penix Jr. The story about Penix has been his health and last year he was healthy. Prior to that, the last time he was consistently behind center was when he lead Indiana to a 4-2 start in 2019 before he was injured. One of my favorite games period from the 2022 season was Washington vs Oregon, with a high level offense and execution in the second half from both sides while Cal got pasted by Oregon State that same night.
The Money Maker
As Kalen DeBoer made his name in Montlake, the name of the game was offense and tons of it. UW AD Jen Cohen took a chance on the former Fresno State OC and it has paid off handsomely. Believe it or not, Cal held Washington to their third lowest point total of the 2022 season, at 28 points. They can put up numbers and put them up in droves.
In my mind, they unequivocally have the best receiving core in the Pac 12, and have a top 10 receiving corps in the country. So many names, so many threats, the Huskies offense can be cerebral underneath and a burner over the top. Washington returns their three top targets, Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan, and Ja’Lynn Polk, with Odunze and McMillan each eclipsing the thousand yard mark last season. Not to mention the Bears now have one of their former rotational receivers in Taj Davis.
The running game was inconsistent at times for the Huskies despite it not being a pressing need. The backfield went six deep at times with Wayne Taulapapa, Cameron Davis, Richard Newton, Giles Jackson, Sam Adams II, and Will Nixon all taking significant carries at one point or another throughout the season. As for the offensive line, it was phenomenal last season in pass protection, consistently keeping Penix upright.
However they lost a lot of production from the line. LG Jaxson Kirkland, RG Henry Bainivalu, and C Corey Luciano all ran out of eligibility while RT Victor Curne transferred after starting at RT for all of 2020 and 2021. In the transfer portal, the Huskies picked up RB Daniyel Ngata from Arizona State, RB Dillon Johnson from Mississippi State, and OLB Ralen Goforth from USC among others.
This upcoming season, the ceiling of Washington will be reliant on the offensive line replacements behind the leadership of LT Troy Fautanu and coming up next, their defense.
The Question Mark
Last year, the defense for Washington was up and down throughout the season. Players such as Jeremiah Martin and Bralen Trice were prevalent along the defensive line, especially against Cal last year. Outside of them, there wasn’t much of anything anywhere.
Alfonzo Tuputala showed me some things from time to time and Zion Tupola-Fetui is still trying to navigate his way back to his 2020 potential, where he had seven sacks in three games but hasn’t gotten back to that same level since. Because of the defensive line hit with the departure of Martin, more responsibility falls on the linebackers to plug the holes coming up the middle. Despite all that, that’s not their biggest issue on defense.
Washington’s secondary is a black hole. If the Huskies were going to be beat, it was going to be through the air. Furthermore, teams that had a tendency to stretch the field at the line of scrimmage gave Washington all sorts of fits. UCLA torched and ransacked them while ASU diced them up with Trenton Bourgeut and Emory Jones under center. The Sun Devils only had eight combined incompletetions between the two quarterbacks along with three total touchdowns. Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Zach Charbonnet eviscerated them and forced the offense to try and keep up.
The defense did have a gritty win against Oregon State in the elements of Seattle but other than that, the team was put on the offense’s back and that’s simply so much to ask, exhibit a being 2014-2016 Cal Football. Take a look at their results including wins last year:
UW 49 Arizona 39
UW 37 Oregon 34
UW 51 Wazzu 33
UCLA 40 UW 32
ASU 45 UW 38
The Huskies could sometimes rely on getting redzone stops but the future of this season rides on the defense. Their improvement will mark the ceiling of this Huskies team.
Longtime kicker Peyton Henry also has departed, so in close games, it will be pertinent to look at the placekicking battle to see who can fill his big shoes. Cal fans, how we are feeling about the conference opener?
My younger brother moved from Northern California to Orcas Island over ten years ago. He is now a Husky fan. I never trusted that kid. For that reason alone, I want Cal to beat them at their dumb wet stadium by a bunch of points.
Cal was just a TD away from these guys last year. If their defense, especially the DBs are iffy, we could throw up some points on them. I like our chances!!!