We didn’t do the typical position breakdown heading into spring ball; after all, there could be attrition and changes to the roster by the time the team takes the field on Wednesday to begin practicing. Instead, we decided to take a look at the roster, the current depth, and who could be on the verge of making a breakout out both in spring and in the fall.
This is not to exclude any of the exceptional athletes on the Husky roster, but some of these guys are due — and here’s our breakdown.
Colson Yankoff: He will get on the field this year, and both he and Jacob Eason will be able to help Washington’s offense in all the places it needs that boost after the Browning era. At 6-4, 210 and 4.55 speed, Yankoff is an elite quarterback. He has the speed, the size, the quickness, the arm strength, a great football IQ, and the only thing that Eason has over Yankoff is that he started in the SEC at Georgia. If they were both redshirt freshmen right now and Eason hadn’t had that year of starting at Georgia? I would have picked Yankoff to beat out Eason. He is that good. Yankoff will be too good to keep off the field and he’ll be pushing Eason all year.
Austin Osborne: In the 2018 recruiting class, everyone talked about Marquis Spiker, and rightly so. Spiker is a very good wideout — that’s not even up for debate, but the player who doesn’t get the pub is Osborne. Sources have said that he’s transformed his body and has grown into a very physical and very fast receiver. He was the third fastest receiver on the team (4.56) at the combine, and he plays with a chip on his shoulder. Look for him to be one of the more pleasant surprises in the spring and heading into fall camp and a guy who could be a major player during the season as one of the bigger receivers on the team. Osborne has the size, speed, and route-running IQ with a huge ceiling to be one of the top in the Pac-12.
Benning Potoa’e: A true team player. He’s been playing out of position for the last couple of seasons at the defensive end position. In making the move to the inside this year, he’s had the best off-season of his career. He’s played a lot of football, and what moving to the interior will do is show off his skillset there (and gain some weight but still have his quickness). On the edge he didn’t have the quickness, but inside he will. Look for him to have a very good spring and a break-out season in 2019.
Joe Tryon: At 6-5, 267, Tryon is a rush-end with a lot of quick twitch muscle fiber. He was coming on last year but look for him to start taking it to another level this spring and on into the fall. He has such a good first step and he could wind up being one the of the top rush-ends in the conference this year. Watch for him in the spring.
Kyler Gordon: Elite, elite, elite. Why would say that? Last year Realdawg.com spoke with Jimmy Lake after Gordon had enrolled, and he said one word about Gordon, “elite”. Lake had also said that Byron Murphy was the most gifted corner he ever coached — Gordon is a little bigger version of Murphy. He’s thicker and is extremely athletic. How athletic? At 6-0, 190, Gordon posted a sick 42.5 inch vertical leap at the combine. Some writers were saying he was going to back up Myles Bryant at the corner position, but we say he will start in 2019. The cream always rises to the top. Gordon was able to get into the game last season under the new redshirt rules so he’s had game experience.
Henry Bainivalu: At 6-5, 321 we expect him to begin to come on strong both in the spring and in the fall. He’s a big, fast, strong, physical player and he played in all 14 games last season. As a sophomore this year, we expect him to see more significant playing time and his name called. Back when he was being recruited, Chris Strausser was the o-line coach. Strausser would say later that Bainivalu was the best offensive lineman in the state as compared to Foster Sarell. Now, under Scott Huff that development has been taken to a higher level and the Husky o-line is going to begin looking better and better until it’s elite.
Five more to keep a close eye on:
CB Dominique Hampton
OL MJ Ale
DL Levi Onwuzurike
LB MJ Tafisi
DL Sam Taimani
