Caple discusses the most important part of the team.

Vea will step right in for Shelton next year. Qualls is doing fine. He has earned decent reviews so far and will be a good depth player. Mathis should have been red shirted. My guess is if Mathis sticks it out here he will be one of those guys who is good as a senior and we'll all think "he really needs another year."

The other thing about the DL is it improved noticeably at the end of last season but it went unrealized. Littleton, Hudson and Jamora all improved.

Too bad Vea probably won't be ready to contribute this season. The push from the middle is where further improvement can be made.
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I think Mathis and Vea both redshirt this year.

I'm fairly certain Mathis is injured since he hasn't been running with the 1s, 2s or 3s in fall camp (and didn't run gassers during the open practice). If he's going to miss significant time early this season, the coaching staff should just redshirt him and get him ready for 2015.

Vea didn't have the entire spring and summer to work out with the team and likely doesn't have the conditioning to last the entire season at NT. He should be destined for a redshirt year this year.
 
Vea will step right in for Shelton next year. Qualls is doing fine. He has earned decent reviews so far and will be a good depth player. Mathis should have been red shirted. My guess is if Mathis sticks it out here he will be one of those guys who is good as a senior and we'll all think "he really needs another year."

The other thing about the DL is it improved noticeably at the end of last season but it went unrealized. Littleton, Hudson and Jamora all improved.

Too bad Vea probably won't be ready to contribute this season. The push from the middle is where further improvement can be made.
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I think Mathis and Vea both redshirt this year.
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I hope you're right. Right now Mathis is on the long list of redshirts that were burned by stupid people.

Addendum: In Caple's most recent practice report, Mathis wasn't even mentioned. Me thinks your suspicion of an injury could be accurate. Either that or he is just completely underperforming.

Link: blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports/2014/08/13/day-10-troy-williams-jaydon-mickens-connect-for-play-of-the-day/#more-31387
 
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The defensive line: thenewstribune.com/2014/08/12/3328421/uw-football-whos-next-in-line.html?sp=/99/512/513/524/

I honestly thought that Tupuo would make the kind of splash that Kikaha made when he arrived, or that Dissly seems to be making now. Hopefully this means the Everett native is finally showing up.

Occasionally we're hearing about Vita Vea and Jaylon Johnson, but one name that I haven't seen in the local rags - Greg Gaines. Kid is probably getting pounded by Charles, Tanigawa, and Christe, and getting in shape in the process.

My man crush on Caple will be complete if he continues with pieces like this.

The Formula: Push up the middle and Heat from the edge.
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The Formula!!!
 
I'm not so sure Vea redshirts. Maybe they play him into shape the first couple games. A redshirt year would be great, but they might need him to be Shelton's primary back up.
 
I'm not so sure Vea redshirts. Maybe they play him into shape the first couple games. A redshirt year would be great, but they might need him to be Shelton's primary back up.
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Qualls is Shelton's back up right now and Qualls has done well with the 2s. I don't see any reason why they should play Vea this year, especially if he is out of shape since he missed spring and summer conditioning.
 
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