Sebastian Valdez Might Be Important Piece to Husky Football Puzzle

The Montana State transfer will be asked to stop the run for the UW.

As good as the University of Washington football team was last season, it ultimately couldn't go 15 rounds in the trenches with the best the Big Ten had to offer.

In the CFP national championship game, Michigan physically wore down the Huskies and pulled away in the fourth quarter to win 34-13, finishing with 303 yards rushing, with Wolverines running backs Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards each topping 100 yards.

Well-worn Husky defensive tackles Tuli Letuligasenoa and Faatui Tuitele were on their last legs that night in Houston. They sat out spring football to have surgery and heal from the previous season, were in and out of the lineup throughout the run to the playoffs and didn't have a whole lot left in the tank for the grand finale.

For that reason alone, Sebastian Valdez might be the most important man on the football field for the Huskies these days.

He's a Montana State transfer originally from Spring Valley, California, who presents a rock-solid 6-foot-4, 291-pound physique. Edge rusher Zach Durfee describes him as the strongest man on the team, though Valdez corrects his new teammate and defers that in-house reputation to junior offensive guard Gaard Memmelaar. Valdez says he can bench press 405 pounds.

As Jedd Fisch and his new coaching staff put together a Husky team that enters the Big Ten as a first-time member in the fall, their biggest challenge will be making sure their guys can take a punch and deliver one to Michigan, Penn State, Iowa and the others on their suddenly much more bruising schedule.

If the UW were the Dutton ranch in the acclaimed TV series "Yellowstone," everyone around Montlake could only hope Valdez, this newcomer from Montana, proves as rough and nasty as Rip Wheeler, the fictional enforcer played by actor Cole Hauser, who absolutely fears no one.

While the lineups often have been in flux this spring, with everyone getting a chance to show the new staff what they can do, Valdez and the 6-foot-3, 297-pound junior Jayvon Parker from Detroit more often than not have been the No. 1 defensive tackles.

Once he entered the transfer portal, Valdez was a wanted man. He fielded offers from 15-plus schools, among them Miami, California and Oregon State. He signed with Kalen DeBoer's staff, then stayed put when DeBoer left for Alabama, comfortable enough with Fisch and his promises.

"It was a hard decision, for sure; lot of confusion at first," he said. "But I trust these guys I came in with and ultimately I thought the new staff was going to develop me to become the player I wanted to be, and ultimately it just came down to trust. I thought in the bottom of my heart this was the best decision."

Early reviews are Valdez presents a bigger body than Letuligasenoa, who relied mostly on grit to present problems to opposing teams, and he'll be much healthier than Tuitele, who basically medically retired with a year of eligibility remaining.

In the transition from the Big Sky to the Power 4 level, he says things move a lot faster and the practice detail is greater, but there hasn't been anything he can't handle. He's aware bigger challenges are ahead.

"There's not a big difference yet, but I know as soon as I step on the field in the Big Ten, there will be," Valdez said. "But ultimately, at the end of the day, it's just football."

In three seasons at Montana State, Valdez was a first- and a second-team All-Big Sky selection and started 34 games, including eight in the FCS playoffs, going all the way to the 2022 national championship game as a freshman. Similar to the Huskies, his Bobcats lost 38-10 to North Dakota State with everything on the line in Frisco, Texas.

Asked if he was deserving to be a Power 4 player coming out of high school and was simply overlooked, he had a slightly surprising answer.

"I'd say humbly no," Valdez responded. "I don't think I should have as a high school player, but that's what happens in football. You develop as a player, you get better and now I think I am."

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