In a 41-24 loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Washington Huskies allowed 263 rushing yards, by far the most under defensive coordinator Ryan Walters. The next closest came in a 24-7 loss at Michigan in 2025, when the Wolverines racked up 187 yards on the ground.
In a largely uncharacteristic performance for a unit that came into the game allowing 111.4 yards per game, Walters took the blame for the struggles containing running back Kamari Moulton, who ran for 208 yards and 2 touchdowns on Friday.
"Last week's performance was disappointing, humbling to say the least," Walters said on Tuesday. "I felt like I didn't do a good enough job preparing us for how physical the style of play that Iowa plays with (is). I know better, that's on me at the start
of it."
When asked how he can help fix up the run defense ahead of a matchup with Purdue, after running back Fame Ijeboi rushed for 195 yards and 3 touchdowns against Minnesota, Walters laid out what he wants to see from his unit.
"Owning your gaps, getting downhill to take off double-teams, and then wrapping on contact and getting the guy down," he said. "Obviously, it'll be a different type of running offense with Purdue, a lot of gap schemes. They do a really good job of ID'ing their combos at the second level and trying to create leverage in some of their fold schemes, so we've got to really have good, disciplined eyes, and that running back is a very good running back, much like we've seen over really the last three weeks. So, we definitely have our work cut out for us."
Heading back to West Lafayette, Indiana, where Walters was the Boilermakers' head coach in 2023 and 2024, may provide a little extra inspiration for him to have a bounce-back performance along with his unit.
"We had a good, physical practice yesterday. Guys were focused and want to get that taste out of their mouth from last Friday. Since I've been here, we haven't played like that, so guys are chomping at the bit to get back out there and compete."
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington football looking to fix uncharacteristic run defense issues
