UW Prepared to Put Faasolo Back in Starting Lineup If Needed

Growing impatient, a handful of University of Washington offensive linemen left last year's football team, shopped themselves around in the transfer portal and each seemingly found comfortable landing spots.

Paki Finau now gets in a stance for BYU, Zach Henning for Arizona, Max McCree for Washington State and Davit Boyajyan for Cal Poly, all finding more playing time this fall over what they had back in Montlake.

Older than all of them and similarly limited in 2025, Soane Faasolo could have joined these guys on the bus out of town.

However, the 6-foot-8, 320-pound blocker from East Palo Alto, California, stayed put. In fact, the Huskies' tallest player chose to remake his body and return for a fourth season in Montlake.

Now it all could pay off for him with playing time as a starter against Penn State (4-4 overall, 1-4 Big Ten) on Saturday afternoon at Husky Stadium.

With UW offensive linemen continuing to go down in battle, coach Jedd Fisch painted a scenario in which he could start Faasolo at right offensive guard should both Kolt Dieterich and Champ Taulealea be unable to play against the Nittany Lions, which is possible.

"Soane has started games and played in a lot of games for us," Fisch said on Thursday. "So he would be the first who would go at guard for us."

GET READY TO COMPETE

Pick your champion (you can change it later). We’ll email you when brackets open.

No purchase necessary. 50 U.S./D.C. 18+. Entry opens 3PM ET Dec 6, 2026 and closes 8PM ET Dec 18, 2026. Void where prohibited.See for complete details. The College Football Playoff (CFP) is not a sponsor or administrator of this contest.

Faasolo hasn't started for the Huskies (5-3, 2-3) since 2024 when he opened four games at left offensive tackle as a redshirt freshman, as the first to replace NFL-bound Troy Fautanu at that spot from the national runner-up team.

Yet he's appeared in 34 games for the UW so far, if only as a special-teams player, so game time won't be a shock to his sytem.

Rather than exit the program, he decided to try and improve his situation in Seattle by losing 10 to 15 pounds this past offseason.

"Soane has dropped a lot of weight from his first year here," UW offensive-line coach Michael Switzer confirmed before spring ball. "He's just under 320, which is a great accomplishment for him. He's worked incredibly hard this winter, this offseason. He's taking it very seriously and very excited about his opportunity to compete."

Soane Faasolo hits John Mills during a blocking drill. | Dave Sizer photo

Faasolo lately has been a back-up offensive tackle in waiting, but the Huskies tried him at offensive guard in fall camp when Geirean Hatchett was still recovering from a torn biceps muscle.

Now with multiple teammates beat up from physical battles against the likes of Iowa and Nebraska, the patient one may get a playing time payoff this weekend.

Add us as a preferred source on Google