Two by Two, UW Produces Top Talent in Pairs, With Tackle Next Up
Over the past two seasons, even through a coaching change, the University of Washington football team has had a tendency to provide its greatest players in position pairs.
Consider that cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Kyler Gordon both emerged as first-team All-Pac-12 selections in 2021 and high NFL draft picks last April, with McDuffie now headed to the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs.
UW edge rushers Bralen Trice and Jeremiah Martin followed them this past season with matching first-team All-Pac-12 rewards while making opposing quarterbacks greatly uncomfortable.
Add to that wide receivers Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan, who were both 1,000-yard receivers, with one a first-team all-conference pick and the other settling for honorable mention thinking he should have had more.
Entering this coming season, the reinvigorated and talent-laden Huskies aren't done with this Noah's Ark approach to college football excellence, not by any means.
In this two-by-two arrangement becoming commonplace in Montlake, the UW is preparing to send a pair of tackles into battle this next fall — junior Troy Fautanu and sophomore Roger Rosengarten — who may have no equal across the Pac-12.
These offensive-line bookends recently appeared as first-unit selections for SuperWest Sports' way too early All-Pac-12 team, as prepared by Jack Follman, in what likely will be the first of many preseason accolades sent their way.
Rosengarten, in fact, drew extra plaudits on this list as a player headed for untold greatness.
"He has the potential to be the best lineman in the conference very soon," Follman said of the Colorado native.
Fautanu and Rosengarten are the remaining remnants and now the building blocks from a highly productive UW offensive line that permitted just 31 tackles for loss, ranking it No. 1 in FBS, and allowed just 7 sacks, which left it tied for second at football's highest level.
At left tackle, the 6-foot-4, 312-pound Fautanu forced the highly decorated and NFl-bound Jaxson Kirkland to move to left guard this past season, while Rosengarten, a 6-foot-6, 303-pounder, beat out two-year returning starter Victor Curne at right tackle, causing the latter recently to transfer to Mississippi.
SuperWest Sports also selected Odunze and McMillan as first-team All-Pac-12 receivers, giving them their first taste of comparable accolades.
It's two-by-two, on the way to UW greatness.
Noah would be proud.
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