By Khalid Bennett
The Seattle Medium
The Huskies kicked off their 2019 college football season by welcoming in-state opponent the Eastern Washington Eagles. The last time Washington faced Eastern they survived a shootout that ended in a 59-52 victory for the Huskies. It was Chris Petersen’s first year as head coach and even though Washington won the game, they allowed Eastern to score the most points any opponent has ever scored in Husky stadium which did not sit well with Petersen. Since then, Washington has led the PAC-12 conference in scoring defense and total defense the last 4 seasons.
The past four seasons Husky fans have been used to seeing two familiar faces leading Washington’s offense. Jake Browning and Myles Gaskin were four year starters in the Husky program, and now it was the start of the Jacob Eason era at Washington. Eason, a top high school recruit and standout from Lake Stevens, transferred from Georgia to Washington last season. The 6’6”, 227 pound quarterback had to sit out last season due to transfer rules, but may be one of the most anticipated players to come through the program in some time. Salvon Ahmed and Sean McGrew would try to replace what was lost in the running game with the departure of Gaskin.
The defense had to replace names such as Taylor Rapp, Byron Murphy, and the PAC-12 defensive player of the year Ben Burr-Kirven. Senior linebackers Kyler Manu and Brandon Wellington would lead a group of young, inexperienced but very talented defensive unit.
It didn’t take long for Washington to get on the scoreboard finishing their first drive with a 23-yard touchdown run by Richard Newton out of a wildcat set to give the Huskies an early 7-0 lead. Washington’s next drive took only one play as Eason went 50 yards down the right side to Andre Baccellia for his first touchdown pass as a Husky. His second touchdown pass came on the next drive as Eason was able to find Aaron Fuller who made a spectacular one hand grab for a 7 yard touchdown.
From there the Huskies cruised to a 42-14 win over Eastern in the season opener for both teams.
