7 minute read
DEFENSE
Football Preview 2024
BELICHECK’S BRIGADE
“I’m big on relationships,” says former NFL coaching mastermind Steve Belichick on building bonds as he rebuilds the Husky defense
BY BART POTTER • FOR GO HUSKIES MAGAZINE
_________________
Steve Belichick wasn’t ready, in late July, to establish any sort of pecking order among the defensive players in his charge as the defensive coordinator for the Washington Huskies.
He knew he had to get there sometime, well before the Huskies open the 2024 football season Sept. 7 against Weber State. He was still learning about his players and letting them learn about him and the new coaches of the position groups. There were a lot of new faces, on all sides.
He didn’t want to pre-suppose anything or rank any one player above or below another — not then. He had the month of August to do that part of his job — the job of placing the best defensive unit on the field that gives his team the best chance to win.
But first, he had to get to know his guys.
“I’m big on relationships,” he said. “I think that’s a huge part of coaching, developing relationships with players.”
Belichick spent the last 12 football seasons on the defensive coaching staff of the New England Patriots, where he was a part of five Super Bowls, with victories in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
Belichick played four seasons of lacrosse at Rutgers before joining the Scarlet Knights football team as a long snapper for one season. He called the Patriots' defensive plays for four years (2020-23), while coaching linebackers (2022-23) and outside linebackers (2020-21). He worked with New England's defensive backs (2019) and safeties (2016-18).
His defensive coordinator job at UW is the first of his career where he’s not in charge of any defensive position groups.
Even if he wouldn’t name names, Belichick said he knew in those early days, and knows now, that there’s talent in every one of the Husky position rooms.
He knows, for instance, about a guy named Carson Bruener, whose relationship with ball carriers is typically violent. Bruener, a senior linebacker, was the Huskies’ third-leading stopper (86 total tackles) in 2023, despite starting only one of 15 games. He was named by coaches as the team’s most valuable special teams player at season’s end.
Elsewhere in the linebacker room, Belichick will look to two-year starter Alphonzo Tuputala (he calls him Zo) as a mainstay after the 6-foot-2, 230-pound senior totaled 140 tackles over 2022 and 2023. A fact his coach might appreciate: Tuputala won the team's Don James Perseverance Award after the 2021 season, when he played in five games after missing the first six with an injury.
For Belichick, it’s about relationships. Sixth-year safety Kamren Fabiculanan (he calls him Kam Fab) was one of the first Husky players he met in Seattle when Tuputala and Fabiculanan came up to talk to him about their former Husky teammate Myles Bryant, known to Belichick from his time on the Patriots roster. Belichick also can appreciate the experience Fabiculanan brings to the secondary after he recorded 26 tackles and two interceptions in 12 games for the Huskies last season.
Junior cornerback Elijah Jackson also brings needed seasoning and some pop to the Huskies’ recipe for 2024. The 6-1, 193-pounder from Carson, Calif., started all 15 Husky games in ’23 and had 61 tackles, fifth-best on the team.
It’s about relationships: Belichick said he established a rapport with Jedd Fisch when the new Husky head coach was quarterbacks coach for the Patriots in 2020. After Fisch built the Arizona Wildcats into a 10-win team in 2023 and then departed to coach Washington, he hired Belichick. Then, a solid group of Wildcat defensive players entered the transfer portal and landed with the Huskies … to Belichick’s benefit.
The most plug-and-play ready among the transfer ‘Cats might be cornerback Ephesians Prysock, who comes to Seattle as a junior after starting all 13 games for the Wildcats in 2023 and gathering 61 tackles, fourth-most on the team.
Two other Arizona imports bring edge-rushing skills to UW after solid seasons for the Wildcats in 2023: 6-5, 227-pound sophomore Isaiah Ward (30 tackles, five tackles for loss, four sacks) and 6-3, 217-pound junior Russell Davis II (16 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks).
Transfer issues that cost Zach Durfee most of his 2023 season were resolved in December, and the 6-5, 256-pound senior appears poised to contribute on the edge for the Huskies after posting 11 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss at the University of Sioux Falls in 2022.
The transfer portal also yielded two All-Big Sky Conference honorees for the Huskies. Defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez (6-4, 305) put up career numbers of 122 total tackles, 24 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks in three years at Montana State. Safety Cam Broussard brings size (6-3, 193), physicality (73 tackles in 2023) and experience to Seattle after four years at Sacramento State.
Another Sacramento State transfer — 6-5, 292-pound DeShawn Lynch came to the Huskies, like Broussard, through the spring portal opening in May. Lynch registered 34 tackles and 4.5 sacks for Sac State in 2023. Broussard and Lynch have played together at every stop since high school football in Folsom, Calif.
The May portal also brought in potential contributors and needed depth to the Huskies’ defensive roster:
• A premium prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, redshirt freshman linebacker Hayden Moore (6-2, 222) transferred from Michigan, where he saw no game action as a true freshman last year. He was credited with 197 tackles (95 solo) in his senior season at Regis Jesuit High in Parker, Colo., and was named all-state and Denver Post All-Colorado.
• Sophomore edge Jayden Wayne (6-6, 245), who prepped at Tacoma’s Lincoln High School, will look for playing time with the Huskies after his transfer from Miami (Fla.). He had 13 tackles in eight games for the Hurricanes in 2023.
• Safety Justin Harrington (6-3, 209) will play a seventh year of college football on Montlake after an injury ended his 2023 season at Oklahoma after two starts. Harrington started his college career at Bakersfield (Calif.) College, where he had 97 tackles and seven interceptions over two seasons.
It’s about relationships: In July, Belichick was looking ahead to the beginning of fall camp about a week ahead. All the pieces were in place … so let the competition begin.
In spring practice, Belichick said, he made sure every defensive player on the roster had room and reps to demonstrate his worth.
“I think they felt like they were getting a fair chance to compete,” he said. “If you’re a leader, then you need to lead people and bring people along and put targets ahead of them so they can hit their targets. That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
