Skip to main content
Inside The Huskies

Not Big on Honors, Wattenberg Gets One — East-West Game Invite

The UW center will join teammate Jaxson Kirkland for all-star contest in Las Vegas.
Dan Raley|
Not Big on Honors, Wattenberg Gets One — East-West Game Invite
Not Big on Honors, Wattenberg Gets One — East-West Game Invite

Luke Wattenberg just completed his sixth season in his extended career as an offensive lineman for the University of Washington football team, making it time to move on. 

He started parts of five seasons for the Huskies, at three different positions, 43 games in all, which was a noteworthy accomplishment in itself.

Yet as durable and versatile as he was, Wattenberg largely went unnoticed by those who hand out individual rewards until he was named All-Pac-12 honorable mention a year ago, his first accolade on the college level. 

Now he has another.

On Monday, Wattenberg accepted an invitation to play in the East-West Shrine Bowl on Feb. 3 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

He'll join UW teammate Jaxson Kirkland, a fellow lineman, in the game, which is considered a precursor to an NFL career. The Pro Bowl will be held in the same stadium on Feb. 6.

Wattenberg, a 6-foot-5, 300-pounder from Trabuco Canyon, California, originally played left tackle while earning a starting job as a redshirt freshman in 2017 for the Huskies. He switched to left guard for the next two seasons and spent the last two seasons as the No. 1 center.

"It's probably my favorite position I've played here," Wattenberg said of hiking the ball.

While not heavily decorated as a college player, the center's staying power appears attractive enough to NFL teams and he should be a late-round draft pick. 

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Husky Maven stories as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Husky Maven on Facebook by searching: Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
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