30 Day Countdown: Day 2- Best Case Scenarios

We are barely over 48 hours away from the Husky opener. Yesterday, we looked at the worst case scenarios and today we’re examining the best case ones. Give it a read and at the end let us know which you think is the most likely to occur.

Pass Game Offense

It turns out that Jake Browning read all of Husky57’s comments on this board and he’s mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore. Browning, fully recovered from a lingering shoulder issue, regains the zip he had at the beginning of his college career and lights things up. Chico McClatcher returns as one of the national leaders in yards per catch and does a pretty darn good John Ross impression. Aaron Fuller isn’t Pettis but he is crisp running his routes and serves as a reliable safety blanket and the guy that Jake can trust to run an 8 yard route on 3rd and 7 to get the conversion. Meanwhile, Ty Jones emerges as the massive red zone threat that Browning has never truly had in his time as a Husky. A receiver you can just throw a jump ball to and feel confident he’ll come down with it. Hunter Bryant comes back at the end of November and while he doesn’t put up giant numbers, he does give Browning an extra weapon over the middle that had been missing up until that point.

The end result is a stat line in between 2016 and 2017. Browning completes two-thirds of his passes for 8.5 yards per attempt with 34 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Chico ends up with 45 catches for 810 yards and 9 touchdowns. Aaron Fuller has 52 receptions for 624 yards and 6 touchdowns while Ty Jones chips in with 8 touchdowns. Jake ends up finishing 10th in the Heisman voting.

Run Game Offense

Myles Gaskin has rushed for between 1300 and 1400 yards in each of his 3 seasons so far. In 2018, he takes it to another level and winds up with 1540 rushing yards plus 20 touchdowns on the ground. That is made possible by the healthy return of Trey Adams who along with Kaleb McGary and Nick Harris make up a trio of UW offensive linemen to make 1st team all Pac-12 at the end of the year. Not to be outdone, Salvon Ahmed shows that he’s pretty damn good himself with nearly 800 yards rushing on just about 7 yards per carry. That includes a pair of 75 yard touchdown runs one of which blows the game open in Eugene.

Pass Game Defense

The sight of Washington coming up on the schedule makes opposing quarterbacks weep. Ohio State and LSU continue to claim to be the one and only “DBU” but in 2018 there is no doubt as to has the best secondary in the country. Jordan Miller is fully recovered from his broken ankle from day one and the 4M corner combo of Miller, Murphy, Myles, and Molden blankets every receiver they come across. Opponents only complete 55% of their passes for about 175 yards per game and with 0.9 TDs and 1.7 INTs. Justin Herbert is the only QB to throw for more than 300 yards in a game and that’s only because Keith Taylor trips on a go route late in the 4th quarter for a 70 yard TD that brings the Ducks within 28. Murphy leads the country in picks with 9 while Miller chips in for 4 of his own.

The safeties aren’t too shabby themselves as Taylor Rapp joins Murphy and Miller with 1st team all-conference honors while McIntosh is relegated to 3rd team just because he doesn’t get the same publicity. Similar to Vita Vea last season, Rapp doesn’t put up gaudy stats but he’s always in the right place and deters a number of throws from happening because of his instincts even if he doesn’t get the pick.

For the 3rd straight year no Husky winds up with more than 6 sacks but it’s a group effort along the front and the Dawgs still finish 3rd in the conference in that category and top 15 nationally.

Run Game Defense

Without Vita Vea anchoring the middle there is concern entering the year that the Huskies won’t be able to live up to 2017 when Washington was 4th in the country in opposing rushing yards per game. Technically that’s true but the Dawgs still finish 8th in the country in that category instead. Greg Gaines misses the North Dakota game to get an extra bit of rest but from then on is heavily in the rotation all year and anchors the unit. Jaylen Johnson lives up to the promise he showed in the CFP game versus Alabama two years ago with a breakout season. Benning Potoa’e never breaks out as a pass rusher but is reliable setting the edge versus the run.

Tevis Bartlett thrives moving inside with his athleticism and tackling form and is able to replace Keishawn Bierria without any drop off. Commenters continue to give BBK crap because he doesn’t look like what they expect for a middle linebacker but he once again leads the team in tackles and sites like PFF have him as one of the better linebackers in the country.

Special Teams

The kicking game had nowhere to go but up but no one thought it was going to wind up this high. Peyton Henry may be a walk-on but he was one of the better kickers in the Pac-12 in 2018. Henry was 21 of 25 on the year with 3 of the misses coming from 42 yards or deeper. The only miss from inside of 40 yards was an attempt that was blocked when it really wasn’t Henry’s fault. Washington rarely punted the ball but Joel Whitford continued to be up to the challenge whenever they did and his rugby style meant the longest return against them went 12 yards on the year.

In the return game there was no way that Washington would be able to equal the record setting accomplishments of Dante Pettis. Still, the Huskies were well above average in this category. Fuller was serviceable returning punts and did manage to break one for a 52 yard score against BYU. Ahmed’s kick returning only got better as he upped his average from 25.2 to 29.7 yards per return aided by a 102 yard score that ended up as the difference maker in a win at Utah.