Washington football's defense stands out in spring scrimmage No. 2

The Washington Huskies held their final scrimmage of spring practice as things begin to wind down in the month of camp ahead of the finale at Friday's spring game.

After 130 plays, head coach Jedd Fisch seemed very confident in his young and somewhat inexperienced team, which could be led by one of the strongest defenses in the Big Ten if Saturday's workout is any indication of what things will look like in its second season under defensive coordinator Ryan Walters.

"The players continue to get better, so it enables (Walters) to be able to have a little bit more flexibility in his scheme," Fisch said on Saturday of the defense. "He's able to do more and more things, and given us, given the offense more challenges, because he's capable of playing with three safeties. Then he's capable of playing with two safeties, two linebackers—three linebackers, two corners—so more base defense, then he's capable of jumping into multiple fronts and multiple pressures."

That defense generated a trio of turnovers on the day, with the first coming from redshirt freshman defensive back Kayden Greene, who earned an interception off of Demond Williams Jr. in the end zone after he ripped a jump ball away from sophomore wide receiver Justice Williams as the two battled all the way to the ground.

Later on in practice, backup quarterback Elijah Brown threw a pair of picks. The first came on an overthrow, which fell into the waiting arms of freshman safety Gavin Day, before later on in the practice, his classmate, cornerback Elijah Durr, rose up over a horde of players in the end zone to haul in the turnover.

Walters showed off several of those different pressure looks throughout the day, which caused a lot of trouble for the various quarterbacks. Three of the signal callers: redshirt freshmen Treston Kini McMillan and Dash Beierely, along with true freshman Derek Zammit, weren't dressed in the standard black no-contact jerseys that they've donned all spring, because Fisch wanted to see them take true live-action reps.

"We've got to see who can play," Fisch said of the quarterback depth competition. "I don't know how you evaluate guys that have never really played in a college football game. What would they be like if it's actually not people that have to stop when they're near them? So, our plan was: Demond and Elijah have both played in college football games; the other three guys, not. So, we got to see with the other three guys, who's gonna be the third, who's gonna be the fourth, and who's gonna be the fifth, and we're gonna run out of days to be able to know that."