Washington Football: 5 Huskies Making an Impact in 2016

The Washington Huskies are undefeated in 2016, stirring up memories of ’91 and ’00, and these five players have been hauling the sled.

It is the Year of the Yes for college football in Seattle. Yes, Washington is 6-0. Yes, they are ranked No. 5 in the latest AP poll. And yes, it has been over two decades since Husky Stadium has felt this good about a team going into the middle of the football season.

Sure, along the way there have been many Husky squads who were 5-1 to start a season. But you would have to go back to the Don James years to find a Washington team that started out 6-0. (James’s Huskies did it back to back in ’91 and ’92.)

Chris Petersen’s 2016 team is 5th in the nation in points scored per game (49.5) and 7th in the nation in points allowed per game (14.2). At the halfway point in the season, their defense already has a total of 17 takeaways, extracting the ball from opposing offenses almost 3 times a game.

The “big games” they’ve played so far have been anything but. Stanford was no match for them. Oregon simply couldn’t keep up.

In fact, the Huskies have only had one close game this season, an overtime thriller at Arizona. Aside from the Wildcats, only one team has come within 5 touchdowns of the Huskies: Rutgers did it back in Week 1, losing 48-13.

The Pac-12 gets to try to catch its breath this week as Washington has a bye.

With a week to reflect, let’s look at the five players who have been impacting the field for one of the year’s most impressive teams.