{"id":62148,"date":"2024-08-07T15:00:45","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T19:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=62148"},"modified":"2024-08-07T13:28:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T17:28:03","slug":"harrington-and-broussard-at-washington-versatility-at-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/08\/07\/harrington-and-broussard-at-washington-versatility-at-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrington & Broussard at Washington, Versatility at Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Spring practice came to a close, Washington added two transfer safeties in Justin Harrington<\/a> and Cameron Broussard<\/a>. We\u2019ve now seen them suit up in the purple and gold practice gear as the team is about one full week into Fall camp. These two safeties are both listed at 6\u2019-3\u201d. The two continue that trend of length in the back end that we\u2019ve seen Washington target, especially at safety. Washington does not have a safety listed under 6\u2019-0\u201d, and has four defensive backs listed at 6\u2019-3\u201d or greater. This size is no mistake, as we\u2019ve heard this staff discuss their usage of height in the defensive backfield. After practice, we heard defensive coordinator Steve Belichick talk about this as well. The pieces Washington has in the secondary are shaping up to make it a versatile unit in the Big Ten.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Guys at Safety<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The first thing you see with Harrington at safety is that the Oklahoma transfer is every bit of his 6\u2019-3\u201d and 209-pound listing. He has a solid build with quick twitch ability for his size. Harrington worked on backpedal drills in front of us at practice, and he shows explosiveness in changing directions that will be impactful in the secondary. Last season in Norman, Harrington started two games before an injury sidelined him for the season. He played the \u201ccheetah\u201d position on the Sooners\u2019 defense, which is a flex position between strong-side linebacker and nickelback. The new Husky recorded six tackles and a pick in two starts last year. He has the experience to become a starter on this Husky defense and has taken reps with projected first-team players.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harrington has played a lot of college football, beginning his career at the JUCO level. At Bakersfield College, Harrington registered seven interceptions and 97 tackles over two seasons. He enrolled at Oklahoma in 2020. His first full season of action came in 2022 where he played in all 13 of the Sooners’ contests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Broussard transferred to Washington from the FCS level from Sacramento State. The new Husky is a sure-tackling safety. He rated sixth-best in the Championship Subdivision last season with a 91.3 tackling rating according to Pro Football Focus. Broussard moves fluidly during drills and has also been taking reps with players we anticipate to be starters on the defense. There is no depth chart at this time<\/a>, but Broussard and Harrington are already working their way towards competing for everyday roles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thoughts from Belichick<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We asked Belichick about these two new players in the secondary. \u201cThose guys are fitting in well with the veteran group,\u201d Belichick said. At practice, we’ve made note of Broussard and Harrington getting practice reps with the presumed starting group. In a short time with the team, they\u2019ve been able to handle the installation of the defense at a rapid pace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019ve been really good, it\u2019s good to have them out here. They bring more depth and more versatility to the defense.\u201d\u00a0 That versatility is key within the secondary at Washington, especially at the nickelback position they call “STAR”. The STAR position is a hybrid nickelback\/linebacker position that gets involved in several ways. That position lines up closer to the formation, gets involved in the run game, and has to cover space to match up with the slot receiver. Belichick described the position as one that requires, \u201cToughness, good tacklers, and the ability to cover.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s still early in the Fall, and Belichick has been rotating several players in and out of that STAR position. Harrington is a player that has been competing for that role at STAR. Other guys including Jordan Shaw and Dyson McCutcheon<\/a> rotate there as well, but no one has been limited to that one spot. Broussard is a true safety for Washington. He’s been playing the free safety spot, rotating with Kamren Fabiculanan<\/a> thus far in the Fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Length Brings Versatility to Secondary<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Belichick described size and length in the secondary as \u201cA great bonus to have.\u201d Harrington and Broussard have it, as do Ephesians Prysock<\/a>, Fabiculanan, and several others in the Husky back-end. We asked Prysock about what a size advantage brings to the secondary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it brings a lot of versatility,\u201d Prysock said. \u201cWe got some shorter, twitchy guys as well, and it brings a lot of different looks.\u201d Along the same lines as Belichick, the aspect of versatility in this defense is what will make it stand out in the new conference. Washington has guys like Shaw, listed at 6\u2019-1\u201d, who possess explosiveness and quick instinct on the back end. Elijah Jackson at cornerback is also 6\u2019-1\u201d and can jump out of the stadium, making him a difficult player to throw against. Prysock at cornerback is 6\u2019-4\u201d and takes away a high-point advantage from receivers. When you add in the 6\u2019-3\u201d transfers Harrington and Broussard to that secondary, its range grows, and with it, the field shrinks for the opposition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Washington<\/p>\n

Photo from Nick Lemkau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Spring practice came to a close, Washington added two transfer safeties in Justin Harrington and Cameron Broussard. We\u2019ve now seen them suit up in the purple and gold practice gear as the team is about one full week into Fall camp. These two safeties are both listed at 6\u2019-3\u201d. The two continue that trend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":62159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[7983,33576,33456,33356,5961,33792,33377,509],"class_list":["post-62148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","tag-big-ten-football","tag-cameron-broussard","tag-dyson-mccutcheon","tag-jordan-shaw","tag-justin-harrington","tag-kamren-fabiculanan","tag-steve-belichick","tag-washington-huskies"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}