After a crazy game on Saturday night where their team came back from a 21-point deficit in the second half against Utah to get to 3-0 on the season, one of the biggest themes coming from the players has been the competition the coaches foster every day in meetings and on the practice field. Two sophomore contributors to Washington's success, not only this past weekend, but also the whole season so far are defensive back Kyler Gordon and defensive lineman Sam Taimani. Both met with the media and Tuesday and talked about the win over Utah, including a key play by Gordon that forced a fumble deep in Washington territory in the fourth quarter.
Taimani, a Utah native, knows quite a few players on the Ute roster as well as the entire staff who recruited him back in 2018, so Saturday's win was big for him. One person who wasn't able to watch was his grandmother, the woman who helped raise him, but it wasn't because she was doing something else that conflicted with watching the game. She was so "stressed out", according to Taimani, that she wound up going down to her basement and fell asleep. It wasn't until his grandfather woke her up and she was able to jump on the phone with her grandson that she found out the final score of the game.
Both players also talked about the competition encouraged by the coaching staff every day in practice has helped the team improve on both sides of the ball.
Taimani talked about how Zion Tupuola-Fetui's success has helped the offensive line improve while Gordon said the secondary competes every day and that has improved the entire group and that is why you have seen some of the success from that group over the past couple of years.
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