Huskies notes: Two UW players earn weekly Pac-12 honors; Ryan Bowman out for season with injury
Two Washington Huskies — freshman inside linebacker Carson Bruener and junior kicker Peyton Henry — were recognized Monday by the Pac-12 with weekly awards.
Bruener was named both the conference’s Defensive Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week following a career game Saturday night at Stanford.
In his first career start, the Redmond High School product played every defensive snap for UW and led the Huskies with 16 tackles — including 11 solo — and added 1½ sacks and a forced fumble to contribute to a 20-13 win over the Cardinal.
Bruener was key in helping UW’s defense limit Stanford’s rushing attack. After the Huskies had allowed 200-plus yards to Oregon State, UCLA and Arizona in their previous three games, they held Stanford to 71 yards rushing — which was the defense’s best result against a conference opponent this season.
“It started in practice. … He showed that he was able to diagnose plays fast and pull a quick trigger. He did the same thing in the game,” UW coach Jimmy Lake said during his Monday morning press conference on Bruener’s success last against Stanford.
“We always talk about practice execution becomes game reality. He does it in practice and then, sure enough, he does it in the game. It was awesome to watch.”
Bruener is the first player to win both awards since the freshman weekly award was created ahead of the 2019 season, per the conference’s release.
He is the first Huskies player to earn the weekly award on defense since inside linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio — who Bruener started in place of against Stanford after Ulofoshio’s season-ending arm injury — won it in 2019, the release says.
Bruener is also the first to earn the freshman award since quarterback Dylan Morris won it twice during the four-game 2020 season.
Henry, now in his fourth season kicking for the Huskies, also was key in the win over the Cardinal, consistently keeping UW in good position by connecting on all four of his field goal attempts, which tied a career high for a single game.
Henry kicked field goals of 24, 37 and 32 yards in the second quarter to give the Huskies a lead at halftime and added another of 35 yards in the third quarter, keeping UW in front until Stanford took a fourth-quarter lead.
He is 9-for-11 on field goal attempts this season and has not missed an attempt inside 40 yards. He is also 18-for-18 on extra-point tries.
Per the conference release, Henry is the first UW player to earn the special teams nod since wide receiver Dante Pettis won three times in 2017 as a returner.
Bruener and Henry are the first two Huskies to be honored as Pac-12 weekly award winners this season.
INJURY UPDATES
Veteran outside linebacker Ryan Bowman will miss the rest of the season after sustaining an arm injury against Arizona two weeks ago, Lake confirmed Monday.
Bowman had started every game for the Huskies this season before missing last weekend’s trip to Stanford, has long been a steady presence on UW’s defense and piled up 22 tackles, including 3½ for losses, two sacks and a fumble recovery prior to his injury.
Through five seasons playing for the Huskies, the former Bellevue High School and IMG Academy standout has collected 124 tackles, including 28 for losses, 16 sacks, one interception, four forced fumbles and the one recovery.
“He’s been a tremendous Dawg,” Lake said. “He represents everything we talk about. He came here as a walk-on, climbed the depth chart with his work ethic and his toughness. He represents everything that we try to make our Dawgs be. He became a starter and earned a scholarship and also was a member of our leadership council and is still a huge leadership figure on our team.
“He’s undergoing surgery today and then after that he’ll be around the team for the rest of the year.”
UW was also without some other key players last week against Stanford, including starting left tackle Jaxson Kirkland, running back Kamari Pleasant and safeties Alex Cook and Asa Turner.
Kirkland, who started the first six games for the Huskies at left tackle, has now missed the past two. Pleasant was on the sideline at Stanford, and Lake said postgame he was available if needed but did not end up playing. Cook remained out after he was injured in the first quarter against Arizona the previous week. And Turner was absent after starting the game in Tucson.
Lake said “anybody that didn’t make the trip or did not play is all injury-related” and listed them as week-to-week.
“We hope to have some of those guys back this week, or the week following, or the week following that,” he said.
EXTRA POINTS
▪ True freshman defensive lineman Voi Tunuufi collected his first and second career sacks on the first two series against Stanford and finished with three total tackles while playing 33 defensive snaps, per Pro Football Focus.
Tunuufi has now played in seven of eight games this season, and Lake said Monday when the 6-foot-1, 275-pound lineman first arrived on campus earlier this year, the Huskies “knew right away that he was going to play as a true freshman.”
“He’s twitchy. He’s hard to block. Gets in the backfield. And with his stature he does a really good job of playing underneath blocks and staying low and leveraging guys. And he’s strong,” Lake said.
“So proud of him. He was voted on for us as a coaching staff as lineman of the week. And I think this will be another big confidence booster for him. He knew he could do it, but for him to go do it against one of the better teams in the Pac-12 North is going to gain a lot of confidence.”
▪ Game time has been announced for the Huskies’ Nov. 13 game against Arizona State. The Huskies are set to host the Sun Devils at 4 p.m. at Husky Stadium. The game will be broadcast on FS1.
This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 4:25 PM.
