Auburn football: What Tigers can expect from Washington on Saturday

The ninth-ranked Auburn football team plays No. 6 Washington on Saturday in Atlanta and to get you up to speed on what to expect from the Huskies, we caught up with Bret Stuter from the Husky Haul.

What better way to find out about an opponent than getting an inside take from the other side?

We already know the basics when it comes to the Washington football team:

• The Huskies have one of college football’s top coaches in Chris Petersen.
• The 1-2 punch of QB Jake Browning and RB Myles Gaskin is one of, if not the best QB-RB duo in the country.
• The defense is really good and the secondary might be the best in the country.
• Washington has reached the College Football Playoff once and trip No. 2 is its goal for 2018.

But we want to give our Auburn football readers more, so we asked Stuter, who covers the Huskies for FanSided’s Washington site, the Husky Haul, to dive deeper into some subjects and here’s what he told us about the Huskies:

Q. What do you see as Washington’s greatest advantage against Auburn?

Husky Haul’s Bret Stuter: I think the greatest advantage for Washington against Auburn is the long-term familiarity between running back Myles Gaskin and quarterback Jake Browning. The two have played together for three seasons, and this year marks their fourth. That’s unusual indeed in college football. How that translates into an advantage for the Washington Huskies is simple: they’re quite familiar with one another. The Auburn defense is formidable and will challenge the Huskies offensive line all day.

Having a great tandem of Browning and Gaskin, both in their senior years, will give the Washington offense the ability to create offense on the fly. In a game likely to be decided by a field goal, that can prove to be a difference maker.

Q. What do you think is Washington’s biggest concern with Auburn?

Bret Stuter: Unfamiliarity. SEC football is some of the most physical football in the country. And the fanbase is some of the most supportive and vocal group of fans anywhere in the nation. Tagged as a neutral site, this game is essentially a game one mini-bowl game for the Washington Huskies. The distance is huge. The national spotlight is trained on them. The time zone difference is disruptive. This is a game that tests the focus, coaching, discipline and resolve of the team right out of the gates. There is no light opponent to tighten up the execution. There is no smaller school team to work out the kinks. This is a huge stage for Washington. It’s go all in or go home.

That’s a huge challenge for any college team opener.

Q. What kind of game do you expect from Myles Gaskin?

Bret Stuter: I expect Myles Gaskin to have a good game, as long as Washington sticks with feeding him the ball.  Last season, Gaskin did not get on track until the fourth game of the season at Colorado. But it was not due to poor running.  Against Colorado, Gaskin carried the ball 27 times for 202 yards. The previous three games? He carried the ball for 24 times for 153 yards.

Throughout his collegiate career, Gaskin has averaged better than 5.7 yards per carry. The reason you haven’t heard as much about him as other college running backs? Washington had games where they simply abandoned the running game despite its proficiency. By comparison, Stanford’s Bryce Love missed a game last season due to injury, and still managed to carry the ball 41 more times.

All that being said, the closer this game plays out, the more like Gaskin gets his carries. Since I expect a close contest, I look for a huge game from Gaskin.

Q. We keep hearing about how good Washington’s secondary is. How good is it, really?

Bret Stuter: Facts are facts. Defensive coordinator coach Jimmy Lake is one of the best coaches in the NCAA period. The former defensive backs coach, Lake coached the incredible trio of Sidney Jones IV, Budda Baker, and Kevin King, all of whom heard their names called in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft. Budda Baker made the NFL Pro Bowl as a rookie special teamer.

This year, the team boasts one of the deepest secondaries in the country. Starting Byron Murphy and Myles Bryant at cornerback, with JoJo McIntosh and Taylor Rapp at safety — all look to be impactful forces throughout the game — against both the run and the pass. Their backups are Austin Joyner and Elijah Molden at corner, and Brandon McKinney and Isaiah Gilchrist at safety.

This is not a squad aiming at defending the pass. This group considers any ball in the air fair game, and seeks to intercept for a touchdown. That’s a huge philosophical advantage. Yes, they are not perfect. But over the course of the game, they will get their plays in.

They are really good on paper. Just how good are they will play out on Sept. 1.

Q. How important is this game for Washington and the Pac-12, to beat an SEC team, and get momentum for a spot in the playoffs?

Bret Stuter: I think this is incredibly huge. There is a natural bias for sports media to tout the SEC for several reasons. First of all, they have pretty much dominated the national championship discussions, thanks to the presence of Alabama. But there is that time zone factor as well. Saturday college football schedules are dictated to television scheduling. SEC games will get the first two programming slots nationally. That means an 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. start time for their games. Pac-12 schools generally slide in at a 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. time slot. For east coast audiences, that 10 p.m. time slot is a killer. Few sports fans stay up long enough to see a game’s outcomes.

That translates into flashes of exposure, like an image captured by a strobe light. This game will be the majority of Pac-12 football many from the east coast will witness this season. Should Washington do well? That creates an impression about the entire conference. Should Washington fail to deliver? That likely will hurt the entire Pac-12 chances this season.