Fautanu, Latu Win Morris Trophies as Pac-12's Best Linemen
For two seasons, they were University of Washington teammates, promising linemen who would become opponents because one suffered a scary neck injury.
Yet Troy Fautanu and Laiatu Latu have emerged as healthy, well-decorated college football players, earning various All-Pac-12 and All-America honors over the past week and now sharing this week in the Morris Trophy — given to the top Pac-12 offensive and defensive linemen, respectively, as voted on by conference players.
The 6-foot-4, 317-pound Fautanu, a fixture and increasingly dominant presence at left tackle on the UW offensive line for two seasons, and Latu, in his second year at UCLA as a healthy and unstoppable edge rusher, will be honored at a Jan. 18 luncheon ceremony at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle.
Fautanu becomes the 16th UW player to win a Morris Trophy and the seventh from the offensive side, and with the Huskies moving to the Big Ten next season, the final one.
The junior from Las Vegas played in all four UW games in 2020 as a reserve, drew three starts the following season as his career began to take off and has been a 26-game starter for Kalen DeBoer's coaching staff over the past two seasons as the 13-0 Huskies enter the College Football Playoff and pursue a national championship.
Latu piled up 13 sacks for UCLA this season, and 23.5 in two years, after transferring from the UW, where he had taken a medical redshirt. He has opted out of the Bruins' L.A. Bowl appearance against Boise State to prepare himself for the NFL draft.
In 2020 with the COVID pandemic rapidly unfolding, Latu was challenging for a starting Husky job on the edge when he injured his neck in practice. He subsequently was examined by several medical experts who recommended his football career come to an end. During spring and fall practices in Montlake, Latu merely was a forlorn spectator.
However, the 6-foot-5, 265-pound senior from Sacramento, California, left school after Jimmy Lake was fired, was cleared to play for UCLA and became one of the college game's finest players.
Previous UW players who won the trophy are as follows:
UW MORRIS TROPHY WINNERS
1981 — Fletcher Jenkins, DT
1984 — Ron Holmes, DT
1986 — Reggie Rogers, DT
1989 — Bern Brostek, C
1990 — Steve Emtman, DT
1991 — Steve Emtman, DT; Lincoln Kennedy, OT
1992 — Lincoln Kennedy, OT
1993 — Demarco Farr, DT
1996 — Bob Sapp, OT
1997 — Olin Kreutz, C
2000 — Chad Ward, OG
2017 — Vita Vea, DT
2018 — Kaleb McGary, OT; Greg Gaines, DT
2023 — Troy Fautanu, OT
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