Molden and Levi

Topic

While most of the discussion about today will be on Skinny declaring (which is fair), it is a BIG DEAL that both these guys are coming back, especially Levi. Now we are basically just waiting on Salvon and I guess Kirkland and KT?

Things we now know:

Our Defense is going to be REALLY fucking good. This is the most talented team we have had since… I don’t even know. Our secondary will match the 16 and 18 groups, with this group being significantly deeper than either of those two, but maybe without the same top end talent (we will see). Our D line will be pretty dominant and if some of the RS-Frosh can earn some reps, very deep. We have never in our history of the program had edge talent like this. Weakness is again the middle linebackers. Fuck you, Bob.

Offense is a big question mark, but there will be a lot of weapons for the the new OC to play with. PLEASE for the love of god bring in a system that is easy to understand and puts our athletes in position to make plays. Even if Salvon leaves I think we have enough guys at that position to be solid (hello, Cam Davis!). Whoever wins the QB jobs will have a lot of dudes to throw the ball to, definitely the deepest (though fairly unproven) receiving group we have had in a long time.

This just makes the OC hire that much more vital. We could definitely win a league title next year with how good our defense will be and how stacked our roster is overall, DON’T FUCK THIS UP!!!

Replies

MillennialDoog wrote:

While most of the discussion about today will be on Skinny declaring (which is fair), it is a BIG DEAL that both these guys are coming back, especially Levi. Now we are basically just waiting on Salvon and I guess Kirkland and KT?

Things we now know:

Our Defense is going to be REALLY fucking good. This is the most talented team we have had since… I don’t even know. Our secondary will match the 16 and 18 groups, with this group being significantly deeper than either of those two, but maybe without the same top end talent (we will see). Our D line will be pretty dominant and if some of the RS-Frosh can earn some reps, very deep. We have never in our history of the program had edge talent like this. Weakness is again the middle linebackers. Fuck you, Bob.

Offense is a big question mark, but there will be a lot of weapons for the the new OC to play with. PLEASE for the love of god bring in a system that is easy to understand and puts our athletes in position to make plays. Even if Salvon leaves I think we have enough guys at that position to be solid (hello, Cam Davis!). Whoever wins the QB jobs will have a lot of dudes to throw the ball to, definitely the deepest (though fairly unproven) receiving group we have had in a long time.

This just makes the OC hire that much more vital. We could definitely win a league title next year with how good our defense will be and how stacked our roster is overall, DON’T FUCK THIS UP!!!

Quote

If tryon puts in the work to increase his strength the way that chase young did last offseason look out.

The D will provide the O time to get things figured out

Tryon could be playing for the league next year.

Keith Taylor should come back..he’s got the length that the NFL loves just needs the consistency

Kirkland has to come back the NFL will take OL projects but you’ve gotta prove it in college.

Levi ….man do I drool about Levi playing with Tuli or Taki on the line with Latu and Smalls on the edge.
Molden…great decision. A season of solid Sr play will make up for the missing inches and slower 40 time.

We are absolutely STACKED on defense. Levi is a big deal because it can help bridge a gap we currently have at DT. I don’t say this lightly, Elijah compares favorably to Budda for me. I think he’s better than Budda, it’s hard to say that but I believe it is true.

Coker wrote:

We are absolutely STACKED on defense. Levi is a big deal because it can help bridge a gap we currently have at DT. I don’t say this lightly, Elijah compares favorably to Budda for me. I think he’s better than Budda, it’s hard to say that but I believe it is true.

Quote

Elijah is there athletically but nobody can match Budda’s tackling ability, sorry, that guy was uncanny and snuffed so many, many run plays. Molden is a great talent, but he is not the truly unique player that Budda was.

Coker wrote:

We are absolutely STACKED on defense. Levi is a big deal because it can help bridge a gap we currently have at DT. I don’t say this lightly, Elijah compares favorably to Budda for me. I think he’s better than Budda, it’s hard to say that but I believe it is true.

Quote

I think Elijah is great, but Budda was a different level. He is one of the best UW defenders of all time. Unbelievable quickness and one of the best open field tacklers I’ve ever seen.

Where this secondary has an advantage over the 2016 group is depth. We have so many amazing players. McDuffie, KT, Kyler Gordon, and Dom are all top end Pac-12 level starters at corner.

This made my day yesterday. What great news. These two guys are studs. If guys stay healthy, our interior DL is going to be SCARY next year. In fact, the entire defense should be much improved.

Our inside LBs are still a problem, but the rest of the defense should be frightingly good. Hoping Trying and some other edge rushers can step up.

With Levi/Molden coming back (and assuming KT does as well) here’s where I see the D next year:

1st, with Pete K going back to DC I see us blitzing less than Jimmy did, and frankly as ineffective as we were at doing at the last two seasons I won’t miss seeing that. Plus if the light has went on with Tyron, along with a natural progression of Latu we could get the edge pressure necessary to take the next step.

We will be better on the front and back end, and there’s no way we could be worse in the middle.

So where does that leave us? I think we will be back under giving up 20 ppg in the Michigan and Pac-12 play games.

The Defense will keep us in 8 games. There will be 2 games where I could see them surrendering in the upper 20’s where they give up a bust or two long plays/td. Those will be on the Offense to try and bail them out

The final two games will look much like the Stanford/Cal/ASU games the last three years where they can’t get off the field all game, can’t generate turnovers, and lose the time of possession badly, yet through timely penalties, poor decisions by the other teams OC, and holding them to threes, will be in a position to still win the game if they can get one final stop, giving the offense one last chance to win it.

It’s those last two games they have to stop having if they want to take the next step, and until they show that they have, are guilty until proven innocent.

8-4 imo

godawgst wrote:

With Levi/Molden coming back (and assuming KT does as well) here’s where I see the D next year:

1st, with Pete K going back to DC I see us blitzing less than Jimmy did, and frankly as ineffective as we were at doing at the last two seasons I won’t miss seeing that. Plus if the light has went on with Tyron, along with a natural progression of Latu we could get the edge pressure necessary to take the next step.

We will be better on the front and back end, and there’s no way we could be worse in the middle.

So where does that leave us? I think we will be back under giving up 20 ppg in the Michigan and Pac-12 play games.

The Defense will keep us in 8 games. There will be 2 games where I could see them surrendering in the upper 20’s where they give up a bust or two long plays/td. Those will be on the Offense to try and bail them out

The final two games will look much like the Stanford/Cal/ASU games the last three years where they can’t get off the field all game, can’t generate turnovers, and lose the time of possession badly, yet through timely penalties, poor decisions by the other teams OC, and holding them to threes, will be in a position to still win the game if they can get one final stop, giving the offense one last chance to win it.

It’s those last two games they have to stop having if they want to take the next step, and until they show that they have, are guilty until proven innocent.

8-4 imo

Quote

If we go 8-4 fire Jimmy Lake and burn Husky Stadium to the ground.

Think our defense should return to being best in the conference. Despite replacing the entire D of 2018 and having holes at some spots we still finished 3rd in conference on D behind Utah/Oregon. Really only Oregon game did the D cost us, the others were due to our offense.

Offense is in total rebuild mode with losing 3 OL, QB, possibly RB, 2 WR’s(they suck but played a ton of snaps) and TE. It’s actually good timing for a new OC as we are going to be so green on offense anyways.

This year we needed the offense to carry the defense and that just wasn’t going to happen with Petersen’s terrible offense. In 2020 the defense will need to carry the offense which I think bolds well given Lake as the head coach and Kwiatkowski as DC.