Inside The Huskies

Husky Roster Review: Flores Overshadowed By Bigger Freshmen OL

Hovering around 300 pounds, the first-year player still was a lot smaller than his peers.
Dan Raley|
Jake Flores pauses for a moment before entering the Husky locker room.
Jake Flores pauses for a moment before entering the Husky locker room. | Dan Raley

A fairly solid looking and well-proportioned freshman offensive lineman, Jake Flores showed up for University of Washington spring football practice and probably wondered this -- what did he have to do to get noticed?

The answer was eat. A lot. One trip after another through the team buffet line.

For 15 practices, fellow first-year players and early enrollees John Mills, Jack Shaffer and Champ Taulealea drew plenty of attention to themselves after it was revealed they came to the UW weighing between 350 and 360 pounds.

Meantime, the 6-foot-5, 295-pound Flores from Mission Viejo, California, was almost an afterthought, treated as if he was malnourished or something, compared to the others. In other words, he was the runt of this offensive-line litter.

Imagine that, when 300 iis no longer considered robust size -- and for a teenager who should have been finishing up high school classes at that.

Jake Flores gets into a stance inside Dempsey Indoor.
Jake Flores gets into a stance inside Dempsey Indoor. | Skylar Lin Visuals

This is one in a series of articles -- going from 0 to 99 on the Husky roster -- examining what each scholarship player and leading walk-on did this past spring and what to expect from them going forward.

While considerably lighter, Flores at least looked older than his fellow freshmen, wearing a scraggly beard from ear to ear and a black durag beneath his helmet.

Jake Flores and Champ Taulealea head for the UW locker room.
Jake Flores and Champ Taulealea head for the UW locker room. | Dan Raley

Where Flores resembled the others was he showed up in Montlake with a similar glossy recruiting reputation. He held 22 offers, with Florida, Michigan, Ole Miss, Oregon, Penn State, Texas A&M and USC among them.

Once at the UW, the first order of business for this Southern California native was settling on a position. While working largely with the No. 3 offense, he bounced between right tackle, right guard, center and left tackle during the spring scrimmages. He was at right tackle when the Spring Game ended.

Moving forward, Flores will be out to show that bigger isn't necessarily better.

JAKE FLORES FILE

What he's done: Flores kept the talent moving from JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, California, to the UW, following wide receiver/punt returner Dante Pettis, center Nick Harris and center Luke Wattenberg, all eventual NFL players, from his alma mater to Montlake.

Starter or not: He's likely starting material once he's fully developed as a Husky lineman, though that doesn't necessarily mean he needs to pack on another 50 pounds. Maybe 15-20, though.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Published | Modified
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.

Home/Football