McLaughlin Joins Elite Group of Husky Opportunists

Previously, McLaughlin returned an interception 47 yards for a touchdown in the UW's 59-32 Apple Cup win over Washington State in mid-September.

“I’ve never scored two defensive touchdowns in a season before so I like them both," he said when asked to pick a favorite. "But probably Washington State, because it was a rivalry game.”

McLaughlin generally is all over the field for the Huskies, leading them in tackles with 80, which is 20 more than the next closest UW player, linebacker Deven Bryant.

With two defensive-minded TDs in hand, McLaughlin becomes one of five Huskies over a dozen seasons -- there's that 12 popping up again -- who have scored twice in a season as a defender, joining Brandon Wellington, Sidney Jones, John Timu and Shaq Thompson.

McLaughlin, Thompson and Jones all reached the end zone with both an interception and a fumble recovery in hand -- with Shaq doing this in the same game against Illinois in 2014.

Thompson, a linebacker, scored four times on defense that year, including three times with a fumble runback. His fumble returns covered 32, 52 and 100 yards against Stanford, Illinois and California, respectively, while his pass theft covered 36 yards against the Illini.

Wellington, another linebacker, had a pair of fumble returns for scores covering 5 yards against Arizona and 69 yards against BYU in 2019.

Timu, yet another linebacker, returned a pair of interceptions for TDs in 2014, going 35 yards against Georgia State and 63 yards against Arizona State.

Jones, a cornerback, went 70 yards with a California fumble and 69 yards with an interception against WSU in 2015.

On Saturday night, McLaughlin was credited with not falling for UCLA's fake field goal, rather he made the Bruins pay for for their sloppiness, negating the element of surprise.

"If you have that awareness you can stop, pop and do what Alex did, which was see the ball, trigger and then obviously an exceptional job of scooping and scoring," Fisch said.