Pac-12 All-Conference Teams Released; 5 Huskies Earn 1st Team Recognition

The Pac-12 All-Conference Teams and Awards were released this morning and 13 Huskies in total were selected to the all-conference teams. Washington had 5 players named to the 1st team, 4 to the 2nd team, and 4 as honorable mentions. No players won a specific award. Last season BBK won Defensive Player of the Year with 6 Dawgs making the 1st team, another 3 on the 2nd team, and 5 honorable mentions.

Utah led all teams with 8 total players on the 1st team followed by Washington and Arizona State which each had 5 players selected. It’s interesting to see that Oregon had just 2 1st teamers (Penei Sewell and Brady Breeze) including none for their defense.

The list of Huskies that received recognition is below.

All Pac-12 1st Team Huskies

• Tight End Hunter Bryant led all Washington players with 825 receiving yards which was also 8th overall in the conference and 1st among tight ends.
• Offensive Tackle Trey Adams returned to 1st team all-conference status after missing time away for injuries over the past two seasons.
• Center Nick Harris made a repeat appearance as the 1st team center along the offensive line despite missing a little time due to injury.
• DT Levi Onwuzurike was acknowledged despite not picking up a ton of raw statistics playing often as the nose tackle in Washington’s system. He finished the regular season with 41 tackles and 2 sacks.
• CB Elijah Molden led the Huskies in total tackles with 70. He also finished 2nd in the conference in passes defended with 12, tied for 8th in the conference in interceptions with 3, and tied for 6th in the conference in forced fumbles with 2.

All Pac-12 2nd Team Huskies

• OLB Joe Tryon tied for 5th place in the conference with 8 sacks which led the Huskies.
• Fellow OLB Ryan Bowman had fewer tackles and sacks than Tryon but still wound up with 5.5 sacks, 1 interception, and tied for the league lead with 3 forced fumbles.
• Safety Myles Bryant played well making the transition from nickel back and finished the season 2nd on the team in tackles with 66 to go along with 1 sack, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble, and 2 fumble recoveries
• Kicker Peyton Henry finished 2nd in the conference in FG% making 18 of 20 kicks while also converting all 41 of his extra point attempts.

All Pac-12 Honorable Mention Huskies

• Running Back Salvon Ahmed led the Huskies in rushing with exactly 1,000 yards and 9 TDs on the ground to go along with 58 receiving yards. He finished 5th in the conference in rushing but 3rd in yards per carry among backs with at least 150 carries.
• Punter Joel Whitford finished 1st in the conference in net punting by a sizable margin (among qualified punters) at 43.5 and 2nd in the conference in overall yards per punt at 44.8. The only player with a higher net punting average was teammate Race Porter who edged him out but on only 3 punts.
• Defensive back Kyler Gordon earned honorable mention despite only starting for approximately 1/3rd of the season. They don’t specifically say so but my guess is that he earned the nomination for his special teams play as a gunner for the kick and punt teams.
• Defensive Back Trent McDuffie earned honorable mention for Defensive Freshman of the Year. He finished the season with 41 tackles, 2 passes defended, 1 interception, and 2 fumbles both forced and recovered.

There aren’t many obvious snubs for Washington. Perhaps the biggest one is Aaron Fuller (as a punt returner) who led the Pac-12 in total punt return yardage and also had the longest punt return in the conference this season with an 88 yard TD. You could perhaps advocate an honorable mention nod for Jaxson Kirkland or Jared Hilbers along the offensive line.

The Huskies are definitely losing Myles Bryant, Nick Harris, Trey Adams, and Joel Whitford to graduation as well as Hunter Bryant to the NFL Draft. There is still a chance that Levi Onwuzurike and Salvon Ahmed also declare for the draft. The other 5 players named will all return next year to help form the core of the 2020 team.

Total Players by School (1st, 2nd, HM):

1. Utah- 17 (8, 2 ,7)

2. USC- 14 (3, 5, 6)

2. Oregon- 14 (2, 3, 9)

4. Washington- 13 (5, 4, 4)

5. Arizona State-12 (5, 1, 6)

6. Stanford- 8 (1, 3, 4)

6. Washington State- 8 (1, 3, 4)

6. California- 8 (1, 2, 5)

9. Oregon State- 7 (0, 3, 4)

10. Colorado- 6 (1, 2, 3)

11. UCLA- 5 (0, 1, 4)

11. Arizona- 5 (0, 0, 5)