UW Offensive-Line Mystery Comes on Second Unit
Spring football is all about competition, experimentation and trials and tribulation, but over the first three University of Washington practices, the No. 1 offensive line was static.
Without exception, the Huskies trotted out returning tackles Troy Fautanu and Roger Rosengarten, heir apparent center Matteo Mele and elevated guards Nate Kalepo and Julius Buelow for every snap, looking for continuity.
One senior, three juniors and a sophomore. Each one has started at least one UW football game previously in his career.
No, all the action and intrigue regarding Montlake's men in the trenches comes from the guys behind them on the Huskies' second offensive line. That's where players have been treated like lab rats, sent through a maze of assignments and paired in different combinations.
Sophomore Geirean Hatchett, a 6-foot-4, 297-pounder ready for a job promotion at any time, took a turns at center, right guard and right tackle. He's the offensive lineman most likely to move up if the aforementioned first five don't hold up.
Gaard Memmelaar, another sophomore seeking rapid advancement, stood out in the final practice before spring break by trying to fight everyone on the Husky defense. He carries a 6-foot-4, 302-pound frame.
Redshirt freshman Parker Brailsford, yet to appear in a regular-season game and a little undersized at 6-foot-2 and 272 pounds, spent most of the first week of spring ball as the No. 2 center.
Sophomores in 6-foot-6, 290-pound Samuel Peacock and 6-foot-7, 290-pound Robert Wyrsch, more physically filled out yet in a slow maturation process, manned the second-unit tackle positions for the most part. Wyrsch hasn't got on the field for a Husky game yet while Peacock has made just two mop-up appearances.
Kalen DeBoer has said he prefers to develop offensive linemen in his program rather than find them in the transfer portal.
Other scholarship linemen looking to move up are sophomore guard Myles Murao, who's been bogged down by knee problems since coming to the UW, and sophomore center Owen Prentice, who looks a little undersized compared to the others, but is listed at 6-foot-3 and 304 pounds.
The 6-foot-3, 299-pound Murao, who has slimmed down by more than 20 pounds since reaching a peak UW weight, was the most-touted offensive lineman from the Huskies' well-regarded Class of 2020 that also included Rosengarten, Hatchett, Memmelaar and Peacock. That distinction now belongs to Rosengarten.
Freshman tackle Zach Henning, a 6-foot-5, 290-pounder, was the first of five new offensive linemen to report and seemed to handle himself well in his early review, and a second lineman, 6-foot-3, 300-pound center Landen Hatchett, Geirean's little brother, will pull on pads when spring practice resumes on March 29.
They'll be joined by the rest of the 2023 class in good-sized 6-foot-7, 280-pound Elishah Jackett, 6-foot-8, 280-pound Soane Faasolo and 6-foot-6, 300-pound Kahlee Tafai in fall camp.
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