For the record, Ryan Walters agrees that he's "probably" the best defensive coordinator in the country.
Here's Jedd Fisch, speaking back in February.
"Ryan Walters is probably the best defensive coordinator in the country," Fisch said. "Hiring Ryan was a huge priority for us, he was the candidate I immediately went after upon having the final conversation with Steve...we certainly felt that everything Ryan had to offer is perfect for what we needed."
When asked how he felt about that statement, Walters' answer was simple.
"I agree," he said.
The average fan remembers the 39-year-old Walters for his 5-19 run at Purdue, but prior to that his 2-year stint at Illinois should probably warrant a statue somewhere in the Champagne-Urbana metro area. A defense that ranked 108th in the year prior to his 2021 arrival, whose high-water mark in the previous five seasons was a No. 55 yards per play ranking, tied for 34th in 2021 and was No. 2 in the country by 2022.
The 2022 Fighting Illini had, statistically speaking, the best passing defense of any FBS team over at least the past nine years. Opponents' 415 passes resulted in 213 completions for 2,259 yards (5.4 per) with nine touchdowns against 24 interceptions. Those Illini were first or second nationally in opponent completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown passes allowed and interceptions swiped. Since 2016 (the furthest-back year in the CFBStats.com database), only two teams have swiped more picks. They intercepted every opposing quarterback except one (a 19-17 loss to eventual B1G champ Michigan), then made up for it the next week by picking off Northwestern five times. Against the run, Illinois allowed 3.28 yards per carry and six touchdowns on 395 carries -- again, second in the nation. They allowed 12.8 points a game, 11 touchdowns in 31 red zone trips (the best ratio in college football over the past three seasons) and set a school record with 32 takeaways.
The Purdue years are irrelevant. That is the Ryan Walters that Jedd Fisch hired. In fact, Fisch viewed Walters's Purdue years as a plus.
"I went back and looked at the last couple years of teams that have won championships," he said at Big Ten media days. "I looked at last year's four playoff teams, and all four of those playoff teams had a head coach on the staff. You look at when Coach Franklin brought in Tom Allen, Coach Sarkisian having Kyle Flood, you look at Coach Day having Chip Kelly, Coach Freeman having Coach Golden, who I worked for at Miami, there's a great value there of having former head coaches. For me, it was one of the most critical things we could do."
Fisch's first Washington team played in line with expectations considering its unique circumstances. Losing almost every single key figure from a 2023 Huskies team that played for the national title, an expansion team in Washington uniforms went 6-7 on the year. U-Dub won every single game at Husky Stadium, but didn't win a single game elsewhere. They even lost to Washington State at the Seahawks' stadium in Seattle. Part of the reason why was Walters's speciality -- forcing turnovers. An otherwise solid pass defense (34th in FBS) grabbed only eight interceptions on the season: six in their six home games (again, all wins) and only two in their seven games outside of Husky Stadium (again, all losses). The 2024 Huskies forced five fumbles at home, and two on the road. On a yards per play basis, Washington ranked fifth at home and 88th on the road. Find me a bigger discrepancy in college football.
"Our musts on defense are effort and physicality," Walters said. "We'll be great in the red zone, we'll be great on third downs, and we'll be great taking the football away. We'll be multiple, Coach Fisch alluded to us schematically being very similar to what UW was a year ago, so I believe in presenting different pictures up front, attacking offenses on early downs to get into advantageous situations on third down. Then we'll be great on third down and great in the red zone."
Speaking of different pictures, Washington present two photos that opposing quarterbacks don't often see. The Huskies will start two 6-foot-4 corners, both Arizona transfers -- Tacario Davis and the fantastically-named Ephesians Prysock. Schematically, Washington will toy with a 5-1-5 look: three down linemen and two outside linebackers up front, paired with one linebacker and a nickel look behind them.
"He does a really good job of mixing the five-down fronts and the four-down fronts," Fisch said.