Top Huskies For 2014 - #7: John Timu

It seems like John Timu has been at the University of Washington for about eight years already. From his signing, to greyshirting, to becoming a (soon-to-be) four year starter at linebacker, John Timu has become as synonymous with UW defenses as anybody recently and the defense's improvement and growth has mirrored his own. He's a two time returning captain, and though they'll be chosen on a week-to-week basis in 2014, there's no doubt that Timu as a senior with 37 games played and 32 starts will be a field general from the first snap of the season whether or not he has the title of captain.

Time probably doesn't get as much credit as he should, probably in part because he has been around for so long, but also because he's always been a solid Pac-12 player, but never one of UW's best two or three defenders. That's something that is as close to a lock to not changing in 2014, but the gap from those guys to Timu isn't as big as you may think. No, he's not a physical monster like Danny Shelton or an athletic freak like Shaq Thompson but he is smart, athletic and experienced. He's got the tools to be the quarterback of and a key player on an elite defense.

In UW's last two bowl games Timu has 29 tackles, 2.5 sacks and an interception. As a true freshman in 2011 he notched a season high 8 tackles with 1 tackle for a loss and a forced fumble against Oregon. A year ago against the Ducks he had 10 tackles with 2 for a loss and a sack. Timu hasn't shied away from the bigger games on UW's schedule since he's been a Dawg. If he can play closer to his peak performance on a weekly basis it would go a long way toward the Huskies being the elite defense that they have the potential to be.