“Full speed,” Washington defensive backs coach Julius Brown told his defensive backs on day 2 of Fall Camp.  “We can live with the mistakes early.”

It’s not that he loves the screwups it’s that when they occur he wants them in practice where he can correct them.

“Coach Juice”, as he’s known to many,  wants everything on film so that when he’s in his office in the wee hours he can catalog individual areas of improvement.

He’s in the training facility so early that he’s often beating even linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio into the practice facility—on a technically.

”My card has limited access or I’d be in before him a lot of the time,” Ulofoshio jokingly lamented.

After a rough outing in 2022, Brown has been putting in time after normal business hours.  Not normal business hours for the average human being, after normal hours for even a coach.

“I think sometimes he’s up there at midnight,” Ulofoshio joked.  “I don’t know, but I know he has crazy hours.”

While Brown hasn’t taken to walking down the hallways of the coach’s offices in his pajamas—Don James style, his light is usually the first one on in the morning and one of the last to go off at night.

”It’s contagious,” cornerback Elijah Jackson said about Brown’s work ethic.  “You see how much he’s investing and it makes you want to match it.”

Coach Juice isn’t holding back on his effort, and he wants his players to do the same.  He wants them to play without the encumbrance of fear of making mistakes.

He’s isn’t afraid of his players failing and he doesn’t want his players fearing failing—early on.  He wants his guys toeing the edge.  Learning and understanding where the edge is and even falling off of it is an important part of Juice’s process.

“I want them to play as fast as they can and get used to game speed,” he said on the second day of Fall Camp.  “Mistakes we’ll clean up later on.”

Brown understands that to never be out of control means that one won’t be aware of one’s true limits.

”You don’t want to be thinking too much on defense,” Washington strong safety Dominique Hampton said of how Brown’s philosophy has helped him.

Hampton appreciates the beauty of Brown’s philosophy and the freedom that it gives.

“It definitely frees you up knowing that you don’t don’t have to be perfect early on in camp,” Hampton continued.

Eliminating the worry and being present but not perfect is most important to Brown.

”You don’t want to be thinking too much when you’re playing defense.  You’re more reactionary,” he  said.  “(With Coach Brown’s philosophy) you’re free and are allowed to make better plays.”

Juice wants his players to push themselves beyond what they think they’re capable of.  If a player isn’t making mistakes it likely means he isn’t trying hard enough—freely enough.

There’s an adage that says “practice makes perfect” that’s been modified by some to be “perfect practice makes perfect”, and while both are true, Brown has re-engineered the phrase to a different philosophy:

“No tight player has made amazing plays,” Hampton said.

Just like nobody has fallen off of a cliff standing a 100 feet back from the edge, either.  It’s much safer, but the view sucks. But then Hampton’s voice lowered as he reflected on how Brown’s philosophy was impacting him.

With an affirming nod Hampton said, “Free players can make special plays at special times.”

And that’s really the entirety of Brown’s approach.

Not fearing the edge but embracing the edge by playing fast and free has paid off for Hampton registering 12 tackles against Arizona.

I call it the Racer’s Edge.

Professional Auto Racers are literally cheating death at every turn as they fly around a race course.  They have a reverence for the edge: know where it is and go within inches of the precipice on every turn.

That’s Brown’s directive to his DBs when he says “Play Fast”.

The other piece of Brown’s philosophy is that the players must have the trust that when they do make a mistake it isn’t met with ridicule or with the fear of losing their spot.

After an 11-2 season across the board the Washington coaches received a considerable pay increase—save for one: Julius Brown.

The message was clear.

Numbers indicated that the Achilles Heel of the defensive unit was the back end.

Juice is working to establish the level of productivity he attained at Utah State where the Aggies defense was one of the top turnover-causing defenses in the country.  There his Aggies led the FBS with 32 forced turnovers and 22 interceptions in 2018.

The early returns are very good for Brown this season as UW has interceptions in every game so far, eight in total for the defense.

Washington’s interceptions, “We’ll call it a coverage interception as the DBs were in lockdown mode and the pass-rush walls were closing in on the quarterbacks to where opportunity met preparation.”

The defense is giving up just 18.4 points a game, overall but 28 points a game in the conference.

Last year was about establishing a toe hold, off-season was about establishing a foothold.  Now, 5 games into the 2023 season the Huskies are looking to get a stranglehold on a playoff berth.

There is a clear understanding of where the edge is, perhaps the Washington defense can finally discover how high their ceiling is.