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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Unveil 6 Team Captains, Most Hail From Offense

The strength of the team shows up with the leadership choices made.
Dan Raley|
Landen Hatchett and Demond Williams Jr. are UW co-captains.
Landen Hatchett and Demond Williams Jr. are UW co-captains. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Four of the six University of Washington team captains are offensive players, which shows everyone exactly where the strength of this football team is centered.

On Saturday, the Huskies unveiled sophomore quarterback Demond Williams Jr., junior wide receiver Denzel Boston, senior running back Jonah Coleman and junior center Landen Hatchett as designated game-day leaders with the season opener a week away, as well as senior edge rusher Zach Durfee and senior free safety Makell Esteen.

With the extra-swift Williams at the controls, and either handing off to a 1,000-yard rusher in Coleman, throwing to elite pass-catcher Boston or tucking the ball and running, the UW offense is expected to be a high-energy, high-scoring unit this coming season.

For the 6-foot-2, 315-pound Hatchett as a captain, he's officially come full circle after beginning last season in a limited role while coming back from a knee injury and working his way into the lineup as a starter at three positions in left guard, right guard and center.

The same holds true for the 6-foot-5, 256-pound Durfee, who missed most of last season with a pair of toe injuries that required surgery, while Esteen has established himself as a veteran presence in the UW secondary entering his sixth year.

What's interesting is how many starts the six captains have in their back history, with Coleman leading the way with a combined 20 at Arizona and the UW, Boston opening 14 games for the Huskies, Esteen pulling seven game-opening assignments, Hatchett receiving six starts, Durfee three and Williams two.

Twelve months ago, the Huskies were more defensive-oriented with senior inside linebackers Alphonzo Tuputala and Carson Bruener selected as captains. They were joined by senior safety Kamren Fabiculanan, as well as senior quarterback Will Rogers, senior running back Cam Davis and a lone underclassman in kicker Grady Gross.

Davis, of course, since has transferred to Minnesota to play a seventh college football season this fall and was voted as a team captain for the Gophers.

The UW opens the season next Saturday night against Colorado State at Husky Stadium, with these new captains walking out to call the coin toss for the 8 p.m. kickoff.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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