Choosing the UW Starting Lineup: Getting It Right at Left Tackle
The Pac-12 Conference decided to revisit whether to have a football season or not in this calendar year.
We're doing the same thing with choosing a left tackle starter for the University of Washington football team.
When the schedule went into the tank, there were certain to be some Husky defections, impatient with this postponement process — and there were.
Defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike and outside linebacker Joe Tryon opted out, choosing to pursue NFL careers over waiting for some unknown restoration of a Pac-12 football schedule.
We thought there might be more.
Maybe Elijah Molden.
And more.
With the new Pac-12 season just 42 days away, four days following the presidential election, we continue to choose a Husky starting lineup, giving new coach Jimmy Lake something to reference.
He's got enough going on trying to keep an entire football roster healthy and prevent anyone else from leaving.
We revisit left tackle, one of the positions that is starting over, but one we thought would really go through some churn.
Mainly, because the leading candidate hasn't left.
In fact, he was one of the first to tweet his happiness at the conference reversing its earlier decision to mothball everything.
Thursday's Pac-12 announcement should prevent anymore roster damage, especially for the Huskies.
We break down the far left side of Lake's line right here.
Leading LT candidates: Jaxson Kirkland, 6-foot-7, 322 pounds, junior; Victor Curne, 6-3, 313 pounds, sophomore; Henry Bainivalu, 6-6, 320, junior; Matteo Mele, 6-5, 305, sophomore; Julius Buelow, 6-8, 330, redshirt freshman.
LT starting experience: Senior Luke Wattenberg started five games at LT as a redshirt freshman in 2017. We don't have him in the mix here.
Our selection: Kirkland. We projected Jaxson to opt out for NFL reasons and made. Curne our guy. Sorry Victor, but Kirkland apparently isn't in any hurry to move on, preferring to learn his craft at left tackle after moving over from right guard. Either way, Kirkland could become one of the Huskies' better ones at LT. If so, he probably leaves early after this season. He's been an absolute maniac in the weight room, sculpting his body into something far more fit than most left tackles. He looks like Trey Adams when Adams was a sophomore without surgical scars. Kirkland also has that down and dirty approach to football that only the great ones have. The son of Dean Kirkland, a fearsome Husky offensive guard, got all the attributes to make him the best player in the conference at his position and one of the best in the country.
Other options: Curne could start right now. We had him at LT with the understanding Kirkland was leaving. He's got great feat, though more of a compact LT frame. Bainivalu was the right-tackle starter on the depth chart for the Las Vegas Bowl, but he opened that game and the Apple Cup at right guard in 2019 as an injury replacement for Kirkland. Mele is another possibility, recruited as a tackle and seasoned with a solo start at center against Arizona, stepping in last season for an injured Nick Harris. Bainivalu and Mele have ideal tackle size. This position battle could have been one of the most competitive battles on the team. It all Kirkland now.
Greatest Husky LT: Lincoln Kennedy. The man named after two assassinated presidents. He held office for three seasons on the left side, making 27 of his 31 career starts at that position. He checked in at 6-foot-7 and 335 pounds. Kennedy remains the UW's only consensus All-American at left tackle. He was the mainstay of the Huskies' 1991 national championship team and Rose Bowl winner. He was considered the nation's top offensive lineman as a senior in 1992. He remains one of just two UW left tackles to be drafted in the NFL's first round, going No. 9 overall in 1993. College Football Hall of Fame inductee.
Other LT legends: Trey Adams, a 46-game starter and a two-time first-team All-Pac-12 choice, whose career was limited only by injuries; Curt Marsh, the Huskies' other left tackle to go as an NFL first-rounder, taken with the 23rd overall pick in 1981; Paul Schwegler, first-team All-American in 1930 and 1931; Vic Markov, the starter for the UW's 1937 Rose Bowl team and a College Football Hall of Fame inductee; Senio Kelemente, who went from starting defensive tackle to right guard to a two-year starter at left tackle in 2010 and 2001.
The 2021 UW Starting Lineup:
Left tackle — Jaxson Kirkland
Left guard — Ulumoo Ale
Center — Luke Wattenberg
Right guard — Corey Luciano
Right tackle — Henry Bainivalu
Tight end — Cade Otton
Tight end — Jacob Kizer
Wide receiver — Puka Nacua
Wide receiver — Ty Jones
Running back — Richard Newton
Quarterback —
Kicker —
Punter —
Outside linebacker — Laiatu Latu
Defensive tackle — Tuli Letuligasenoa
Defensive tackle — Josiah Bronson
Outside linebacker —
Inside linebacker — Edefuan Ulofoshio
Inside linebacker — Miki Ah You
Cornerback —
Cornerback —
Nickel back —
Strong safety —
Free safety —
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