Tallying the 2014 production that left the Washington front seven requires a calculator: 462 tackles, 64 stops for loss, and 44 sacks are gone.

Keeping track of the defensive star power that is now in the NFL is no cakewalk, either. Between Danny Shelton, Shaq Thompson, Marcus Peters, and Hau'oli Kikaha, the Huskies produced three first-rounders and one second-round pick this spring. We haven't even gotten to leading tackler John Timu yet (he's gone, too).

No team in the nation must replace more up front than Washington this season, and concern regarding that truth has reached Vegas, where oddsmakers have set the Huskies' win total at a paltry four games.

"They have us among the last teams in the Pac-12," linebacker Travis Feeney said. "We love that. That's motivation for us. Let them say we're not going to be that good. Because we're going to shut everyone up and that's how it's going to be."

Defiance.

If there's one word that best describes the attitude emanating from Seattle, that's it. Because on the surface, it sure looks like the Huskies are trying to disobey gravity. After all, Shelton was a 340-pound block-gobbler who disregarded double teams and posted massive numbers anyway. Kikaha, the national leader in sacks, is the Pac-12 defender who Jared Goff was most happy to see leave. Thompson was a machine programmed to score defensive touchdowns.

Teams don't typically absorb such losses without skipping a beat. Washington, though, is confident it is in an atypical situation.

"We will have an entirely different defense," defensive tackle Elijah Qualls said. "But I absolutely really do feel like we will be a better defense."

For one, Feeney believes the Huskies are deeper this season, even if they're missing the headliners up front. Qualls echoes that sentiment and adds that summer conditioning simultaneously packed muscle and stamina onto the front seven -- the big sophomore himself is up to 311 pounds, and he says that he can last up to seven plays in a row now without needing a breather. Last season, he was gassed after four.

"Our offseason was not wasted," Qualls said. "People are definitely gonna struggle against us in the run."

On paper, such stoutness would appear to be ideal for Washington, as it would force opponents to challenge them through the air. And the Huskies' secondary, considered the Achilles' heel of the defense last season, is now the veteran strength of the defense behind the likes of Budda Baker and Sidney Jones.

"We got our feet wet last year," Jones said. "We got used to the environment, to playcalling, to breaking down film. We have a lot of faith in ourselves now."

In his second year at the helm, head coach Chris Petersen understands the challenge facing a defense that's lost its big guns. But like his players -- "everyone is flying around to the ball, even the offense is saying that we're swarming more," Qualls said -- he senses better cohesion and a more urgent "hair-on-fire" attitude this time around.

"We’ve got all this young talent, all these young guys," Petersen said. "But the process still feels better."

The Huskies realize they won't get the benefit of the doubt from outsiders until that process translates into tangible production on the field. They are certain, though, that underestimation is indeed real, and it's been a popular conversation topic this offseason.

"I hear our coaches talk about it," Jones said. "They used it as motivation in conditioning and they're using it as motivation during camp. We know what we're going to do. We have faith in ourselves [to] prove everyone wrong."