SEATTLE – Come early April when spring football practices return for the Huskies, second-year defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake is expected to have another competitive camp in the secondary.
Gone are Byron Murphy and Taylor Rapp, two of the three AP All-American defenders in 2018 for Washington, both declaring early for the 2019 NFL Draft. In addition to graduating a third All-American, senior linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven, Lake is once again tasked with reloading on defense.
Myles Bryant, who elected to return in 2019 for his final season, will be the lone senior when UW takes the field on April 3. Bryant leads a talented young group of defensive backs that are expected to play a key roll this upcoming season.
One of the four DB’s to sign with UW in 2019, three-star Bakersfield (Calif.) safety Cameron Williams, enrolled in January along with six other recruits in the class.
The other three; four-star Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco CB Trent McDuffie, four-star Carlsbad (Calif.) S Asa Turner, and four-star Westlake Village (Calif.) Westlake CB Kamren Fabiculanan, are also expected to compete for playing time this fall.
All four are the latest batch of talented DB’s to sign with the program. In 2018, UW signed a pair of four-stars; Julius Irvin out of Servite High School in Anaheim, Calif., and Archbishop Murphy HS (Everett, Wash.) star Kyler Gordon.
Lake stressed versatility with the three players UW signed in 2018, along with three-star CB Dominique Hampton out of Peoria, Arizona. He noted that Irvin, the son of ex-NFL DB LeRoy Irvin, could play either corner or safety, and the same can be said when it comes to McDuffie and Fabiculanan.
Turner, a 6-2 and 199-pound two-way standout who can also play wide receiver, is expected to fill a key need at safety for the Huskies. UW beat out Notre Dame for the four-star athlete late in the process after landing a verbal commitment from Turner back in July 2018.
Behind Bryant returning in the secondary are two juniors, Elijah Molden and Keith Taylor. Both have seen their roles grow over the past two years as the veterans above them have gone onto the NFL.
With Murphy and Rapp now leaving a void for the younger players to fill this spring is expected to shed more light on the development of the freshmen and sophomores from 2018. Based on the Pro Football Focus grades for the players coming back, UW should once again feature one of the better secondary’s in the country.
Taylor and Murphy finished with 15.7 snaps per reception in 2018, tied for fourth on the team behind Rapp (51.6), redshirt sophomore Brandon McKinney (50.7) and graduated senior JoJo McIntosh (19.6).
“Coming into this year I just wanted to improve on just making plays on the ball,” Taylor said at Rose Bowl Media Day on Dec. 30. “Getting more interceptions, getting more PBU’s. That was really something coach Lake harped on after last season. I just want to keep building on that, progressing into the next season as well.”
Taylor sat around one of several tables adjacent to the Rose Bowl Stadium with both Murphy and Molden. The trio reflected on the growth that the secondary has had over the last few seasons under coach Lake.
Molden, a former four-star DB out of West Linn, Oregon and the son of ex-NFL DB Alex Molden, noted that the foundation for the success UW had in 2018, and what they expect to accomplish in 2019, has already been laid.
“I didn’t really think about my role this year. I just thought about – I just took it day by day and did the best I could,” Molden said at media day. “I didn’t really have any personal goals I just wanted to improve. A lot of what is going on now this year with me, B-Mac and Keith is just like, our first offseason we worked hard and laid the woodwork for what we’re doing now.”
Bryant (81.7), Taylor (73.8) and Molden (69.7) were the three highest graded Huskies in coverage this season that are returning in 2019, according to PFF. The next four UW players were safety Isaiah Gilchrist (66.2), cornerback Kyler Gordon (62.2), McKinney (59.1) and Hampton (52.1).
