Wednesday Dots: Bowls Empty

Football Dots

• Mike Vorel writes about the commitment of RB Dillon Johnson from Mississippi State, via the transfer portal. He is the fifth running back transfer brought in over the past year.

• Incoming freshman Landon Hatchett has been impressing at the Under Armor All American game practices. He is one of the top center prospects in the nation.

• Perhaps not the most prestigious of awarding bodies, but FootballScoop has named Washington’s JaMarcus Shephard as the 2022 Wide Receivers Coach of the Year. Well deserved nonetheless!

• Jon Wilner has a review of the Pac-12 Bowls. He has Bralen Trice as the best defensive player, UW as the best team, and several Huskies on his ‘all-bowl’ team-including an unexpected UW CB (Jordan Perryman). He also looks briefly ahead to 2023 expecting UW among 3 Pac-12 teams that could crack the top 10 in the AP top-25 preseason poll (he is one of the voters).

• Roman Tomashoff writes that Kalen DeBoer has ‘Raised the Bar at Washington’ after his very successful first season.

• Dennis Dodd points out that last Monday’s Rose Bowl could be the last one that will feature the traditional Pac/BigTen matchup. He also points out that the last time the Rose Bowl featured the winner of the Pac-12 and the winner of the BigTen was when UW played Ohio State in 2018 (although he mistakenly has it as 2020).

• The Athletic recaps the historic turnaround of the Tulane football program, capped by their huge Sugar Bowl win over USC.

• On the other side, Antonio Morales writes that USC can’t afford to squander Caleb Williams’ brilliance in 2023.

• CBS Sports has an initial list of underclassmen who have declared for the NFL draft. So far no Huskies on the list, but there are several players who UW would have faced had they stayed.

• Nigel Burton and Yogi Roth are excited for the Pac-12 in 2023.