Dots: Big Expectations for Washington Football Cornerback Byron Murphy

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Football Dots

• Adam Jude examines four key questions that surround Washington’s 2017 defense and special teams. As you might imagine, figuring out who will replace Budda Baker at the nickelback position is arguably the most pressing of concerns before Pete Kwiatkowski and Jimmy Lake this offseason.
• Sports Illustrated singled out redshirt freshman cornerback Byron Murphy as one of college football’s biggest potential breakout stars in 2017, and placed the Huskies at No. 8 in their way-too-early 2017 power rankings.
• Chris Fetters and Brandon Huffman share their takeaways from last weekend’s May Madness camp at Newport High School in Bellevue, Wash.

• Sidney Jones has received his new threads, and some good news regarding his contract.

• Darrell Daniels is making some waves in Indianapolis after signing with the Colts as an undrafted free agent.

• Likewise, Jake Eldrenkamp appears to be squarely in the mix for playing time in Los Angeles.

• Coach Pete made sure to send his thanks yesterday to the most important people in the recruiting process.

Misc. Dots

• The UW men’s and women’s rowing teams both earned Pac-12 championships Sunday, marking the first time since 1997 that they accomplished such a feat.

• The women’s softball team erased an 11-run deficit Saturday en route to an amazing comeback victory over Utah. In doing so, they earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament, and will host Big Sky Conference champion Montana in a Friday contest in Seattle.

• Pole vaulter Elizabeth Quick won her second consecutive conference championship yesterday in Eugene, Ore.

• Washington’s baseball team made a classy gesture of appreciation yesterday in honor of Mother’s Day, and followed that performance by shutting out Arizona State 4-0.

• More Mother’s Day love from Washington athletes.

• Christian Caple wades into the issue of why it seems so much more difficult for Washington to recruit graduate transfer prospects than is the case for many other NCAA institutions.
• Former women’s basketball superstar Kelsey Plum has announced an endorsement deal with Nike. In unrelated news, someone get LaVar Ball directions to the nearest burn unit.

• ICYMI last week: Every UW athletic program exceeded the NCAA’s minimum Academic Progress Rate (APR) standard, with the football and men’s basketball programs each earning a perfect score of 1,000 for the 2015 to 2016 school year.
• Finally, no matter where you stand on the issue of amateur athletics, I think that we can all agree that this isn’t a good look from a PR perspective.