College Football: 25 breakout players to watch in 2016
By John Buhler
The Washington Huskies have to be one of the teams vying to win the Pac-12 this year. Should they get past Pac-12 North rivals in the Oregon Ducks and the Stanford Cardinal in back-to-back weeks relatively early in the season, Washington will be the favorite to come out of the superior Pac-12 North.
Not only do the Huskies have their best head coach since Don James in former Boise State Broncos head coach Chris Petersen, Washington might have its best quarterback since Jake Locker was the starter at Husky Stadium in Seattle in Jake Browning.
As a freshman in 2015, Browning played in 12 games, throwing for 2,955 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions with a quarterback rating of 139.3. Perhaps most impressive about his 2015 freshman season for Washington was that he completed 63.1% of his passes playing mostly in the drearier Pacific Northwest.
Essentially, Washington might have its best team in well over a decade, with a head coach that knows how to build a national power, and a sophomore quarterback that can throw darts in the Seattle rain.
Getting over Oregon will be tough, as the Huskies haven’t beaten the Ducks in almost forever. Stanford may have the Pac-12’s most explosive player in Heisman finalist running back Christian McCaffrey.
One could argue that the Huskies have the best quarterback in the Pac-12 not named UCLA’s Josh Rosen. If Browning asserts himself as the playmaker he can be at quarterback for the Huskies, this could be a very dangerous Washington team that could end up in the third annual College Football Playoff should they catch a few lucky breaks.
Next: 2. Desmond King.