Inside The Huskies

Husky Offensive Line Receives Moore Award As Nation's Best

The UW blockers are feted for being a punishing group.

Dan Raley

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The University of Washington football team hasn't won a national championship just yet, but more and more the Huskies are showing they just might have the proper personnel to get the job done.

On Thursday, the UW offensive line received the Joe Moore Award — a relatively new accolade given to the nation's top college line — by beating out Georgia, LSU and Oregon.

Big boy football is what the Huskies call it. 

To understand the significance of this reward, consider the previous winners: Alabama (2015), Iowa (2016), Notre Dame (2017), Oklahoma (2018), LSU (2019), Alabama (2020), and Michigan (2021 and 2022). No lightweights there.

"It feels great," UW redshirt freshman center Parker Brailsford said of something that was a team goal. "That's what we worked on at the beginning of the season. Up on our rack, it says motivation."

For the second year in a row, the Huskies ranked among the nation's best in sacks allowed, giving up just 11, plus they permitted only 46 tackles for loss.

“Washington was on the committee’s radar almost immediately due to its rare combination of physicality and athleticism,” said Aaron Taylor, former Notre Dame lineman, CBS college football analyst and Moore Award co-founder. “They got better as the season progressed and consistently stepped up when it mattered. But what seemed to put them over the top was their junkyard dawg demeanor and how they looked to punish and set the tone with their physical style of play."

The Moore Award is named for Joe Moore, who was widely regarded as one of the best offensive-line coaches to come through college football, most notably for his work at Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. He sent 52 linemen to the NFL.

Over the course of the season, the Husky line consisted of seven starters and four lineups. Among the players taking a bow are junior left tackle Troy Fautanu (13 starts), sophomore right tackle Roger Rosengarten (13 starts), junior left guard Nate Kalepo (13 starts), Brailsford (13 starts), junior right guard Julius Buelow (6 starts), sophomore right guard Geirean Hatchett (5 starts) and senior center Matteo Mele (2 starts).

Among the committee member comments directed toward the Huskies and their unmatched offensive-line performance were as follows:

  • “Perfect blend of athleticism and physicality. Love their ability to get out on the perimeter on pin and pull schemes and be so effective in space. about this group.”
  • “These dudes look to punish and it shows with them being one of the best in the country at yards before contact, highlighted in the USC game, where 199 of Dillion Johnson's 256 yards were before he was touched by a defender. That’s pretty remarkable.”
  • “No. 71 ( Kalepo) looks like the alpha, but none of them overlook an opportunity to set the tone. They are physical all around. Nasty, nasty group that’s really fun to watch.”
  • “It’s not just what they do, it's how they do it. They try to punish and demoralize when they play. I realize a lot of people are going to excuse it with their quick throw game, but when they needed Dylan Johnson to be the hammer, they hammered it down.”
  • “They are enforcers. Not watchers. They’ll be tested mightily against a stout and athletic Texas front, but they’ll be up for that challenge and won’t back down from anyone for any reason, I promise you that."

The Moore trophy is as big as a couple of well-sized offensive linemen, weighing 800 pounds and going 7 feet tall.

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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.

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