SEATTLE – Until next year, University of Washington student-athletes are on an unofficial official hiatus. Players have remained on campus and they are able to participate in voluntary, non-contact workouts.
But, for now, that’s all.
Last Tuesday, the Pac-12 became the second Power Five conference to cancel its 2020 college football season due to ongoing concerns related to Covid-19. Several questions remain unanswered as to how the canceled season will impact scholarship distribution numbers moving forward.
Without question the decision to not play this fall negatively impacts every single player in in the Conference of Champions. That said, football will be played again. How and when haven’t been determined quite yet.
If the answer is a shortened spring schedule – UW head coach Jimmy Lake said last Friday that he would prefer eight games – that would provide unique benefits and drawbacks, depending on the player and his situation.
Regardless of what the response is from the Pac-12 presidents and chancellors, as to what the next move is for football in the conference, when players return to the field there will be some who benefitted from not having a 2020 season.
Nothing can replace the significance of live game reps, but there is credence to the idea that not playing in 2020 can have a positive impact.
TheDawgReport.com has highlighted five position groups that stand to benefit the most from the 2020 season being canceled. Up first…
Offensive Line – More than half of the returning UW offensive linemen have seen a five-pound weight change between last season and this fall. For most, the difference has been net positive.
Based on player weights from the official UW football roster, redshirt freshman offensive tackle Julius Buelow lost the most weight of any scholarship player on offense – 12 pounds, down to 330 from 342 to blend with his sequoia-esq 6-foot-8 frame.
Buelow, a former four-star recruit out of Kapolei, Hawaii, is one of seven offensive linemen who have dropped weight in the past calendar year. Senior left guard Luke Wattenberg dropped three pounds (300 to 297) while junior guard Henry Bainivalu lost six pounds (326 to 320).
Sophomore Victor Curne, who played the most snaps at right tackle behind senior Jared Hilbers last season, lost seven pounds (320 to 313). Jaxson Kirkland, a preseason All-Pac-12 first-team honoree, lost one pound – a prime example of net positive weight change.
Kirkland reportedly hit the weight room hard this offseason and what he didn’t lose in mass he gained in strength.
At 6-foot-7 and 322-pounds his frame and athleticism gives fourth-year offensive line coach Scott Huff flexibility to choose whether or not to keep Kirkland as an interior lineman or kick him outside to left tackle.
Over the past two recruiting classes Huff has elevated the caliber of recruit the program has signed up front. Combined between the 2019 and 2020 cycles the Huskies signed five four-star linemen, including Myles Murao, the No. 3 ranked center in the country this past cycle, based on Rivals’ rankings.
Murao, listed at 6-foot-3 and 304-pounds, picked UW over scholarship offers from Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Oregon, Texas A&M, and USC. The Trojans continued to pursue the interior lineman until Murao signed with UW last December during the early signing period.
The other two four-star linemen who signed in his past cycle; Highlands Ranch (Colo.) Valor Christian offensive tackle Roger Rosengarten and Ferndale (Wash.) offensive guard Geirean Hatchett.
Huff coupled that trio with two other under-the-radar signees, three-star Middleton (Id.) guard Gaard Memmelaar and two-star Gig Harbor (Wash.) tackle Samuel Peacock to give UW five total linemen in its 2020 recruiting class.
The previous cycle Huff signed four linemen, two of which were four-star recruits.
Nate Kalepo out of Rainier Beach High School (Seattle, Wash.) and Buelow.
UW also signed three-star Liberty HS (Henderson, Nevada) tackle Troy Fautanu and Juco lineman Corey Luciano, who converted to tight end last season and has since re-converted to being an offensive lineman.
Fautanu added seven pounds to his 6-foot-4 frame over the past year, up from 395 to 302 this fall. One of his other signing classmates, Kalepo lost four pounds from 346 to 342, a small change that will still allow room for the redshirt freshman to grow into his frame more.
If UW had played its 2020 season as scheduled, the first question to answer on offense would have been, who is taking the first-team reps at center?
As a redshirt freshman last season, Matteo Mele appeared in five games and started one, at Arizona, playing a total of 152 snaps. For comparison, senior Nick Harris played 768 snaps last season at center and 925 the previous year, after playing his first two seasons as a backup guard.
Harris had more snaps combined as a true freshman (491) than Mele has entering his third year in the program. In the spring, Huff said there was a plan to have Luke Wattenberg move inside to center and follow a similar path as Harris.
In fact, there was consideration to move both of the Huskies starting guards outside this fall. The other lineman on the move, redshirt sophomore Jaxson Kirkland, was slated to switch to left tackle to replace Trey Adams.
If Huff elects to move Kirkland from right guard to left tackle Bainivalu is expected to be the next man up at right guard for UW.
“He’s another guy who has played a lot of different positions,” Huff said of the junior lineman back in April. “We’d like to play him inside at guard if possible. He did a really nice job of stepping in for Jaxson when he got hurt in the Colorado game and in the Apple Cup.
“And in the bowl game, he played really well against Boise State.”
Bainivalu did not allow a sack in the 261 snaps he played last season and he was flagged the second fewest number of times – three – behind only Jared Hilbers, of linemen who played at minimum 250 snaps in 2019.
With no fall season and the potential for a shortened spring campaign the door could be open for Huff to experiment with more line combinations.
In one scenario, if Washington were to play a five-plus-one spring schedule against the other schools in the Pac-12 North Division, with the sixth game serving as a pseudo championship game, Huff could use the abbreviated slate of games to evaluate some of the younger linemen.
Based on previous snap counts and from what Huff stated earlier this spring, here are a few different OL groupings that could be tried out in the spring.
From left (tackle) to right (tackle):
Kalepo – Ulumoo Ale – Murao – Bainivalu – Buelow (weight: 1,648 / avg. 329.6)
Kalepo – Ale – Murao – Kirkland – Bainivalu (weight: 1,640 / avg. 328)
Buelow – Ale – Wattenberg – Kirkland – Bainivalu (weight: 1,621 / avg. 324.2)
Kirkland – Ale – Murao – Bainivalu – Curne (weight: 1,611 / avg. 322.2)
Kirkland – Ale – Wattenberg – Bainivalu – Curne (weight: 1,604 / avg. 320.8)
Kirkland – Wattenberg – Mele – Ale – Curne (weight: 1,589 / avg. 317.8)
Kirkland – Wattenberg – Murao – Bainivalu – Buelow (weight: 1,573 / avg. 314.6)
For comparison, last season UW’s starting offensive line (Adams – Wattenberg – Harris – Kirkland – Hilbers) averaged 311 pounds as a unit. The prior season was almost identical, and no combination of five linemen amassed 1,600 pounds in the Chris Petersen era.
Led by a defensive-minded head coach in Jimmy Lake, when Washington does take the field again it will do so with its largest offensive line unit in recent memory.
