By Danny Williams Posted on

Offensive preview for Washington’s matchup against Utah State

The No. 19 Washington Huskies’ (1-0) offense heads into Saturday without its two top ball-carriers and without a starting receiver. The Utah State Aggies (0-1) played two quarterbacks in a head-scratching loss to FCS Idaho State. Here are the need-to-knows for the offensive matchup between the Huskies and Aggies for their week two matchup.

Washington running back situation

As mentioned above, both Quaid Carr and Jayden Limar suffered injuries against Washington state, leaving the Washington running back room with a lot of question marks. On Thursday’s presser, Fisch made it clear that freshman Brian Bonner Jr. and senior Trey Cooley will receive the bulk of the carries on Saturday. Tight end Kade Eldridge and freshmen Ryken Moon and Ansu Sanoe could receive carries as well.

“A lot of [the running backs] took reps [in practice], certainly Bonner, Ansu, and Trey took the most amount of reps, but we’ve got a good room,” head coach Jedd Fisch said. “Kade is taking some running back reps…Ryken Moon has had a very nice couple of days, and then we’ll also be able to sprinkle in the other guys and see what it looks like.”

A new star emerges at receiver

The running back situation has been well documented over the past week, but another hiccup UW suffered against WSU on Sunday was the loss of senior receiver Christian Moss on just the second snap of the game. Moss was slotted to play a major role for the offense heading into the season after transferring from Kennesaw State.

Luckily for the Huskies, a star emerged on Sunday in Moss’s place. Sophomore Chris Lawson stepped in and provided a major boost for the offense. Lawson ended with four receptions for 87 yards, including a 46 yard reception to set up a UW score. The emergence of Lawson puts the Moss absence on the back-burner, but the question now becomes can the young player be productive in back-to-back games?

Who gets the start at right guard?

Going into last week the right guard battle was initially won by sophomore Champ Taulealea, but the youngster has yet to win the war. Taulealea committed two crucial holding penalties in the first quarter and was replaced by senior Geirean Hatchett. For most of the game the two traded drives. it now opens the door to see who receives the start on Saturday: the seasoned veteran, or the youngster.

“Champ had a rough go, in terms of the holding penalties, absolutely critical, in critical moments, in critical positions on the field,” Washington offensive line coach Michael Switzer said. “We’ll continue to work that rotation [of Champ and Geirean], and I thought Geirean came in and did some really nice things, he’s a guy with a ton of experience and I know he’ll do anything to help this team.”

Utah State offense sputters in week one

402 yards of total offense isn’t too shabby, but when you surrender four interceptions, it makes everything else positive go out of the window.

The quarterback duo of McCae Hillstead and Grady Brosterhous completed less than 50% of their passes and threw four interceptions, yikes. Hillstead started the game, but after throwing three of the four aforementioned interceptions, head coach Bronco Mendenhall opted for Brosterhous.

The latest Utah State depth chart pins Hillstead as the starter, but it would not be a surprise if both signal callers saw time on Saturday.

Offensive weapons to watch

Fifth year senior Javen Jacobs is the go-to-guy for the Aggies in the backfield. The former Arizona State and New Mexico player totaled 20 carries for 80 yards and four receptions for 27 yards. No other running back carried the ball over three times on Saturday. Jacobs will undoubtedly be a focal point on Saturday and can be dangerous in the passing game as well.

“I do think he does a really good job of getting out in the passing game, you can tell that [Utah State] features him a lot,” Washington defensive coordinator Ryan Walters said about Jacobs. “We’ll definitely have our antennas up about him in the passing game.”

Senior receiver Eli Wood led the way in the air with six receptions for 90 yards and a touchdown. The 6-2 and 210-pound target could create some problems for the Washington defense with his size. Like Jacobs, Woods was by-far the leading man among pass-catchers with no other receiver totaling more than 31 yards.

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