{"id":71845,"date":"2025-01-21T13:30:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T18:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=71845"},"modified":"2025-09-16T21:39:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:39:06","slug":"washington-secondary-big-ten-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/01\/21\/washington-secondary-big-ten-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Washington’s Secondary Become Top Unit in Conference?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington finished last season with the nation\u2019s fourth-best pass defense. Its 166 passing yards allowed per game were second to only Ohio State in the Big Ten. The secondary does lose two veteran safeties in Kamren Fabiculanan and Cameron Broussard into next season. But the returning presence at cornerback and some quality additions in the transfer portal create an argument that Washington\u2019s secondary can become one of the top units in the Big Ten again next season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington Secondary Attrition<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Beginning at cornerback, Washington did lose two of its most impactful coverage defenders from a year ago. Thaddeus Dixon<\/a> transferred to North Carolina, where he\u2019ll continue to play for Steve Belichick and Armond Hawkins Jr.<\/a> in Chapel Hill. Dixon led the Huskies with 10 pass breakups last season and also hauled in an interception. Redshirt freshman Jordan Shaw<\/a> also transferred out, and he\u2019ll continue his playing career at Texas A&M. Shaw had six pass breakups (second-most on the team) and had four tackles for loss in 2024, which were the most by a defensive back on the roster. While those losses are significant, the Huskies did some quality reloading in the transfer portal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington’s Cornerback Room<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Washington landed Tacario Davis<\/a>, the top cornerback in the transfer portal. Davis thrived under Jedd Fisch and John Richardson at Arizona in 2023. He led the Wildcats with 15 pass breakups that season while also pulling down an interception and tallying 25 tackles. Last year, Davis led the team again in pass breakups with six and increased his tackle count to 44. According to On3, Davis was the 12th-best available player in the transfer portal and top cornerback.<\/span><\/p>\n

Davis will be reunited with former Arizona teammate Ephesians Prysock<\/a> in Washington’s secondary. The two combined for 22 pass breakups and 86 tackles in 2023 before Prysock followed the staff up to Washington. Both cornerbacks are 6\u2019-4\u201d and will flank the defense with loads of experience between the two. Prysock returns 392 coverage snaps from last season\u2019s roster. The next most were Dyson McCutcheon<\/a> with 138 and Leroy Bryant<\/a> with 22.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You will typically see just two main cornerbacks in Ryan Walters\u2019 defense<\/a>. At Illinois in 2022, Devon Witherspoon and Quan Martin both had 424 coverage snaps in the regular season, averaging 35 per game. Tahveon Nicholson was the next-most utilized cornerback with just 240 coverage snaps that season for Illinois, playing in 10 games. Behind him, no other Illinois cornerback had more than 80 coverage snaps in the regular season or appeared in more than five games. It\u2019s likely that this year on Montlake we\u2019ll see Davis and Prysock with the most utilization. But behind those two, Bryant and McCutcheon figure to be in the rotation but at a lesser volume. The cornerback position plays a vital role in Walters\u2019 cover-one defense, often on islands of their own. The experience and length of Prysock and Davis figure to pose challenges for passing offenses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington’s Safety Room<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The secondary at Washington also added safeties CJ Christian<\/a> from FIU and Alex McLaughlin from Northern Arizona. Both were tabbed three-star transfers in the Winter class. Christian began his career at Iowa Central Community College in 2021. He had 31 tackles, two tackles for loss, and an interception there before playing three seasons at FIU. At FIU he had 152 tackles, five interceptions, and six pass breakups at safety. Christian started 23 games as a Panther.<\/span><\/p>\n

McLaughlin is another player who arrives at Washington with significant experience. Though he\u2019ll be just a true junior, McLaughlin also has 23 career starts and over 1,200 snaps played. In 2024, the new Husky had 96 tackles, six sacks, two picks, and two forced fumbles. McLaughlin was a reliable tackler and top-coverage defender in the FCS.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Safeties in Walters\u2019 Defense<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The safety position is arguably the most important in Walters\u2019 defense. Cornerbacks have the man coverage responsibility, but the safeties must understand their role as help defenders and as tacklers. The two transfers will join sixth-year Makell Esteen<\/a> who returns the most defensive snaps at safety from last year with 370. Redshirt sophomore Vincent Holmes is next, returning 123 defensive snaps at safety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Walters\u2019 defense, the safety is responsible for playing the eyes of the quarterback in passing situations, and getting up quickly in run support to fill the open middle portion of the field. As such, a veteran presence is valuable such that the safety does not over-anticipate a throw or get off balance due to a play action. Between Esteen, Christian, and McLaughlin, Washington returns 53 starts at safety.<\/span><\/p>\n

Safeties will also wind up becoming one of the team\u2019s top tacklers by the end of the season. In 2021, Illinois safety Sydney Brown led the team in tackles with 81, and he finished fourth the following season with 59. There\u2019s an increased responsibility for safeties in a cover-one defense, but Washington is shaping up to have the veterans make it possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Big Ten Landscape<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The question of the best secondary in the Big Ten is one that certainly involves this Husky unit. Walters transformed the talent in the Illini secondary into the nation\u2019s top-scoring defense in the span of two seasons. His ability to refine skill in talented and athletic players helped the Illini thrive in 2022 and ultimately earned Walters a head coaching job at Purdue a year later. At Washington, the talent is in place for similar results. A pair of talented cornerbacks with length and proven statistical track records. Multiple veterans at safety can mold into the requirements of the position. Spring practice begins in a few months, and we will start to learn a lot about how this secondary shapes up in the landscape of the Big Ten.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington finished last season with the nation\u2019s fourth-best pass defense. Its 166 passing yards allowed per game were second to only Ohio State in the Big Ten. The secondary does lose two veteran safeties in Kamren Fabiculanan and Cameron Broussard into next season. But the returning presence at cornerback and some quality additions in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":71866,"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":[2,5,35612],"tags":[34555,7983,34798,33356,10272,33144,34002,4516,509],"class_list":["post-71845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","category-washington-huskies","tag-alex-mclaughlin","tag-big-ten-football","tag-cj-christian","tag-jordan-shaw","tag-ryan-walters","tag-tacario-davis","tag-thaddeus-dixon","tag-transfer-portal","tag-washington-huskies"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71845","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=71845"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71867,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71845\/revisions\/71867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}