Offense: QB Keith Price (Sr.)
Keith Price was just a completed 4th-and-10 pass away from likely beating Stanford, the best team in the Pac-12.
The senior quarterback from Compton, Calif., hasn’t made many mistakes this season – throwing just four interceptions compared to 18 touchdowns – but his biggest one on Oct. 5 sent the Huskies on a very different season trajectory than they had anticipated.
The three-point loss to Stanford lingered, and the Huskies dropped their next two games by three touchdowns and four touchdowns to Oregon and Arizona State, respectively.
Nine games into the 2013 season, the senior ranks middle-of-the-road or better in the Pac-12 in most passing categories. He’s second in yards per attempt, fourth in completion percentage and fifth in passing touchdowns.
As a quarterback, Price has speed. He has had five or more rushing attempts in each of his last six games but maintains a more consistent pocket presence than UCLA’s defense has become used to so far this season.
In Washington’s 59-7 victory over Colorado on Saturday, Price had just 29 yards on seven carries, but two of them went for touchdowns. The Bruins understand that Price isn’t the most prolific rusher but is efficient when he does decide to take off.
“I think (Price is) a really good leader as far as owning the offense and taking control,” said redshirt junior safety Anthony Jefferson. “He makes plays in the pocket like Brett and he scrambles a lot, too, like Brett. We really need to put a pocket around him.”
Defense: LB Shaq Thompson (So.)
Two summers ago, Shaq Thompson couldn’t hit.
Fresh off his senior season at Grant High School in Sacramento, Thompson, the 18th-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2012, went 0-for-39 at the plate in a summer stint in the Gulf Coast League.
Now in his sophomore season as a Huskies linebacker, Pac-12 offenses have been made painfully aware that Thompson can hit just fine.
Even in two consecutive losses to Stanford and Oregon, Thompson recorded a combined 15 tackles. In his worst statistical performance, last week against Colorado, in which he made just one defensive stop, it didn’t matter all that much; his team won 59-7.
Over the course of his second season, he has proven to be a unique athletic talent at his position. A converted safety, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound sophomore has more lateral quickness and acceleration than most Pac-12 linebackers.
Led by Thompson’s burst, the Huskies have performed well as a defense, holding the Pac-12’s fourth-best scoring defense at 21.8 points per game. Their performance in the red zone has been nothing to sneeze at, either. Opponents score on just 77.1 percent of their red zone opportunities against Washington.
Compiled by Andrew Erickson, Bruin Sports senior staff.