While several members of the Washington Huskies looked extremely uncomfortable during their 38-26 win on the road at Purdue, as a good portion of Jedd Fisch's team was dealing with the flu, one person who looked as comfortable as he's ever been in his second year of college was safety Rylon Dillard-Allen.
In West Lafayette, the 2025 Freshman All-American tied with his running mate Alex McLaughlin for a team-high 7 tackles, while he added a pass breakup and the second interception of his young career, but his comfort level came in a way that won't show up on the stat sheet.
Since the former four-star recruit stepped on campus, he's had a reputation of being a physical, hard-hitting presence in the secondary who can come downhill and provide an extra
body in run support, while his speed and athleticism have always given him a high ceiling as a free safety in coverage. Against the Boilermakers, he appeared to take a big step forward in that department.
Rylon Dillard-Allen caps @UW_Football's road win off with a pick 😤 pic.twitter.com/c5T0lawjpM
— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) October 17, 2026
As the Huskies held quarterback Ryan Browne to a season-low 51.2 completion percentage and forced a pair of interceptions, after the veteran signal caller had thrown just one on the year, Dillard-Allen was a big reason why. He displayed his instincts in coverage throughout the game, reading Browne's eyes well and making early breaks to help step in the way and force incompletions.
However, defensive coordinator Ryan Walters disagreed with that assessment and instead highlighted his play as a veteran performance from the sophomore.
"I told him after the game this was the most vet-like style of game that I've seen him play," Walters said on Tuesday. "Detailed with his alignments, detailed with where his eyes were, and in turn, it allows him to make plays and use his God-given talents and his natural affinity for the physicality of the game. So I thought it was his best game that we've seen him play; the most consistent, and it didn't look like a young game out there, so that was really good to see and hopefully that gives him confidence in trusting the details of what we're asking him to do, and if he does that, sky's the limit with his play."
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Rylon Dillard-Allen looked confident as ever at Purdue
