{"id":73380,"date":"2025-04-07T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=73380"},"modified":"2025-09-16T21:38:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:38:54","slug":"washingtons-ryan-walters-sees-progress-in-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/04\/07\/washingtons-ryan-walters-sees-progress-in-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington’s Ryan Walters Sees Progress in Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington suited up in full pads for the first time this Spring during Saturday\u2019s practice inside Husky Stadium. The defense continued to showcase well, recording a few takeaways and tackles for loss on the day. \u201cWe\u2019re on pace for where we need to be right now,\u201d Washington defensive coordinator Ryan Walters said after practice. After one week, the defense is not fully installed, but Walters is optimistic that his side of the ball is progressing well. \u201cIt\u2019s been steady improvement and that\u2019s what you want to see in Spring ball.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan Walters On Washington’s Progress<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Physicality at Defensive Back<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Illinois\u2019 2022 defense under Walters<\/a> was so good in large part because of the assignment-sound secondary. The cornerbacks and safeties were very veteran and they executed their responsibilities at a high level. At cornerback, that included a lot of man coverage. As far as the installation goes at Washington, \u201cWhat we do have in, they\u2019ve been executing pretty well,\u201d Walters said after Saturday\u2019s practice. In particular, the new Husky defensive coordinator likes the potential he sees in cornerback Tacario Davis<\/a>, nicknamed \u201cBobo\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Bobo out here, you see the elite traits he has,\u201d Walters began. \u201cThe length and being able to get in and out of breaks for being that tall.\u201d At 6\u2019-4\u201d, Davis\u2019 height is an advantage in the secondary. He\u2019s able to close passing windows with his wingspan by stretching or elevating to the football against the receiver. This Spring, Davis has already recorded three pass breakups and pulled down an interception off a bobbled pass.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou just gotta be able to compete,\u201d Davis said, describing his role at cornerback. \u201cIf you come here, you\u2019re a defensive back.” He explained that the role of a cornerback meshes with that of a defensive back. \u201cYou gotta play it all, you got to be physical, be able to cover, and be able to compete.\u201d Walters has taken note of the physicality he\u2019s seen out of his defensive backs this Spring. \u201cIt\u2019s expected,\u201d Walters began. \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as a cover corner anymore. Everybody has to be involved, it\u2019s the Big Ten, you\u2019re going to have to make tackles on big backs. Physicality is a must and a premium, especially in this defense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Single-High Safety Responsibility<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Physicality extends to the back end of the defense as well. Walters utilizes a lot of single-high safety formations in his defense. Since 2021 at Walters\u2019 previous stops of Illinois and Purdue, the safety led the team tackles in three of those four seasons. Sydney Brown<\/a> was Illinois\u2019s leader in 2021 with 81 tackles. He finished fourth the next year with 59. In both seasons at Purdue, safety Dillon Thieneman<\/a> had team highs in tackles with 106 and 104 in 2023 and 2024, respectively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got to be able to get sideline to sideline,\u201d Walters said, describing the responsibilities of the single-high safety in the Washington defense. \u201c[He has to] take good angles to eliminate explosive plays.\u201d There\u2019s a lot of ground to cover in the back end as the team\u2019s safety blanket, and it\u2019s important that they diagnose the play and help where needed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got to be cerebral in some of our motion adjustments,\u201d Walters added. This new defense includes a lot of disguised coverages and adjustments based on the pre-snap motion of the offense. The safety has a primary role in communicating coverage assignments before the snap. Thus far, we\u2019ve seen a handful of different players rotate in at that single-high safety spot. It includes FIU transfer CJ Christian<\/a>, who has 152 career tackles and five interceptions. Christian has taken the majority of first-team reps so far at that position. Vincent Holmes has rotated in with the second team, while redshirt freshman Paul Mencke Jr. and true freshman Rylon Dillard-Allen have also seen reps at safety.<\/span><\/p>\n

Big Ten Size Up Front<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One player who\u2019s already made a statement this Spring is Western Michigan transfer defensive lineman Anterio Thompson<\/a>. He\u2019s listed at 6\u2019-4\u201d and 306 pounds on Washington\u2019s Spring roster. Thompson is not only a physically imposing figure up front, but he moves with an unconventional quickness for someone at his size and at his position.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe explosion, and the power and agility that you see running around cones, and lifting weights in the weight room, it’s translating to the field,\u201d Walters said of Thompson. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely a mature young man, and recognizes the opportunity he has.\u201d Earlier this Winter, Thompson discussed his style of play<\/a>, routinely using the word \u201cHavoc.\u201d On Saturday\u2019s practice in full pads, he delivered some punishing hits at the point of attack during the team periods. One of which was a tackle for loss in the team\u2019s fourth-and-short situational drill. It received a roar from the defensive sideline.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe look like a big ten team,\u201d Walters said about Washington’s defensive line after Saturday\u2019s practice. \u201cThe guys that we\u2019ve added, they fit in this conference.\u201d He credits Washington defensive line coach Jason Kaufusi for the unit\u2019s attention to detail. \u201cCoach Kaufusi is a stickler for the details, and it shows,\u201d Walters said. “They\u2019re able to play with extension and get off blocks.\u201d After one week, progress is already being observed at all levels of the Husky defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Washington suited up in full pads for the first time this Spring during Saturday\u2019s practice inside Husky Stadium. The defense continued to showcase well, recording a few takeaways and tackles for loss on the day. \u201cWe\u2019re on pace for where we need to be right now,\u201d Washington defensive coordinator Ryan Walters said after practice. After […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":73384,"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":[34739,34798,35019,10272,33144,509,33385],"class_list":["post-73380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","category-washington-huskies","tag-anterio-thompson","tag-cj-christian","tag-jason-kaufusi","tag-ryan-walters","tag-tacario-davis","tag-washington-huskies","tag-washington-spring-practice"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73380","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=73380"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73386,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73380\/revisions\/73386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}