After the halfway point of the 2018 college football season, the Washington Huskies sit at 3-1 in PAC-12 games and 5-2 overall, with both losses coming on the road against ranked opponents. Overall this was not the start I or many husky fans had hoped for coming into this season, but there is still a very good chance of UW winning the PAC-12 and playing in a New Years Six bowl game. With all of that said, here are some things that I would like to see from the Huskies in the second half of the season.
Coaching Adjustments
As mentioned before, both of the teams’s losses came on the road against ranked teams, but both games were feasibly winnable in the 4th quarter of either game. The biggest reason in my opinion for those losses? It wasn’t because UW was the worse team in either case, it was an inability or unwillingness to make adjustments to the gameplan by the coaching staff. This has been my biggest frustration all year; the coaches have an idea for what they want their team to be, and they want to stick with it even when it clearly isn’t working. Whether it is playing conservative offense on the road, or rushing three on third down defense, the schemes that haven’t worked continue to be implemented by Coach Peterson and his staff. This is not to say the Peterson is a bad coach, especially given how much he has developed the talent on this team, especially on defense, but the coaches need to take the past into account when planning for the future. The pass rush just isn’t good enough to be rushing three in critical obvious passing situations, and this offense is at its best when they lean on the running game and take play-action shots down field. A soft defense and an offense with no identity have cost this team two games already, and I would hate to see it cost them another.
Offensive Identity
Speaking of offense, this team has had little consistency in terms of gameplan on the offensive side of the ball. They will run the ball 4 times in a row successfully, then take a deep shot on 1st and 10 that falls incomplete, and pass two more times in a row to try and dig out of 2nd and 10. This falls under the same category as coaching adjustments, but this offense needs to establish some momentum, especially early in games, and the way they have shown that they can do that the best is by running early and often, setting up play-action and driving down field to score. This is an offense with a lot of potential that is being hindered by inconsistency, mistakes, and a poor gameplan.
Young Talent
The 2018 recruiting class was the highest rated class UW has had under Chris Peterson, and so far we haven’t seen much of it. The only freshmen that have received any sort of significant playing time are redshirt freshmen. I understand with an established team not wanting to put freshmen out there when you have more experienced players, but there a so many places where I feel that there is an immediate upgrade available. For instance, at wide receiver. I did not have high expectation for any of the returning receivers, and while Aaron Fuller has absolutely exceeded those expectations and emerged as a clear #1 WR, there isn’t really a reliable #2 playing. Enter Marquis Spiker. Spiker is potentially the highest graded recruit Peterson has ever had at UW, and he looks every bit as good is he is reported to be. He has a combination of both size and athleticism that really isn’t replicated by anyone starting currently. I believe Spiker could add a veritcal threat that isn’t present, and really hasn’t been since 2016 and the combination of John Ross and Dante Pettis. Additionally, Peterson recruited several defensive linemen in this year’s class. The pass rush and defensive line as a whole has been the biggest weakness on this team, and while I like all of the players on the line currently, there may be more production just sitting on the bench.
Consistency
In the end, it’s doubtful that all of these concerns will be addressed, but overall, I just want to see some consistency from this team. They have the talent to compete with anyone they will play this year, and they could absolutely win out and take the PAC-12 North title, win the conference championship, and play in the Rose Bowl. All the Huskies need to accomplish these goals is a but of luck, and some consistency.
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