When you first see that title, you probably thought it was a typo and was writing about the Legion of Boom, but no — that’s not the reference.
The LOB, as we called it, has its own Wiki page:
“The Legion of Boom was the nickname that was initially given to the Seattle Seahawks’ defense during their rise to prominence in the 2011–2017 seasons. The original group that was nicknamed the Legion of Boom consisted of the main starters in the Seahawks defense backfield: Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Brandon Browner and Byron Maxwell”
Indeed, there will always only be one Legion of Boom. They were the most dominant, feared defensive backfield group in the NFL. Wide receivers had nightmares about these guys and high school defensive backs had dreams of being a member of this group one day.
But the UW secondary is beginning to establish their own vicious reputation — let’s call them the Legion of Ka-BOOM.
If you watched the game against Utah last Saturday night, on display was one of the hardest hitting secondaries in college football — if not the hardest.
There were jaw-dropping, punishing hits throughout the game.
Led by the master mind of former DB coach and new defensive coordinator, Jimmy Lake, Washington has produced some of the best defensive backs in college football. Jimmy Lake has coached these guys all the way from their first day of fall camp to NFL draft day.
That game Saturday night just illustrates how Jimmy Lake has taken the defensive-back play to the next level; they’ve always been fundementally sound, but the “next level” is the shear physicality that they brought into the game.
It was more evident than ever before.
One former player said, “When you’re a receiver who’s about to play Washington, you look for defensive back’s tendencies; how they break on the ball, if they cheat on a receiver, etc. But what also comes out on film is these big-time hits. And so that has to be in the back of a receiver’s mind.”
Kyle Whittingham said, following the loss to Washington, that his biggest disappointment was all the “dropped balls” by his receivers. He said they need to work on this — but let’s face it — when you see a receiver getting lit up during a game, that can cause dropped balls.
It’s like in basketball; you don’t want to be the guy on ESPN highlights who got a facial from LeBron.
So if you’re a receiver and you’re going across the middle, you don’t want to be “that guy” who gets a crushing hit by Jojo McIntosh, Byron Murphy, or Taylor Rapp being shown over and over and over again on Sportscenter or Twitter gifs.
This is about concentration, and the result can be bobbled and dropped balls. You know that you have to protect the ball, and you know these guys are coming at you — and you get allegator arms.
Will Harris said this week it’s about “imposing our will…we want to be a violent team and the most aggressive team out there — but actually doing it the right way.”
When you’re on a defense like this, especially the secondary, it starts to get infectious. Those hits become the norm.
With Lake and Harris, Washington’s secondary is becoming elite — not just in the way they play — but in the way they hit. And these are clean hits.
Everytime you see a hit like this there’s a message being sent to the quarterback and the offensive coordinator, “Don’t throw that ball across our middle”.
So in honor of the Seattle Seahawks, there will always just be one LOB — but there’s a new era beginning at Montlake — it’s not just “DB-U” anymore, it’s the Legion of Ka-BOOM.
The Huskies need to own it, embrace it, and bring it.
Exhibit A
Jojo McIntosh! ??? pic.twitter.com/DAYbAvy2Qq
— WeAreDBnation (@WeAreDBNation1) September 16, 2018
Exhibit B
Byron Murphy! ??? pic.twitter.com/9QHno8hNjH
— WeAreDBnation (@WeAreDBNation1) September 16, 2018
