Husky Roster Review: It's Time for Durfee to Have It All

The UW edge rusher needs to put all obstacles behind him.

Zach Durfee delivers a blow to UW offensive guard Aidan Anderson. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Five plays. Twenty-six seconds. Half of a defensive series.

That would describe the entirety of Zach Durfee's University of Washington football career. The senior edge rusher from Dawson, Minnesota, remains an extremely promising yet sorely untested and mysterious presence for the Montlake team -- maybe holding the title of the greatest Husky who's never really played.

Kalen DeBoer's previous UW coaching staff, unable to utilize Durfee during the 2023 regular season because of an NCAA eligibility rule that no longer exists, was prone to discuss the defender almost in scientific terms, discussing his amazing genetics and such, as if he were put together as another Robocop or simply emerged as a freak of nature.

"He probably has the ability to be able to play with power and the ability to be able to play with speed, and with a little bit of finesse," said Eric Schmidt, then the UW edge-rusher coach and now San Diego State's defensive coordinator, "as much as anybody on our team."

DeBoer was more succinct when discussing the supposedly imposing Durfee after he had transferred in from Sioux Falls, which was DeBoer's alma mater and a prior coaching stop: "He's a big guy who can run."

Yet a year and a half since he arrived at the UW, Durfee has had difficulty even practicing for uninterrupted periods, suffering a spring-ending elbow injury midway through the recent 15 offseason workouts, let alone pulling season game snaps.

Still, this 6-foot-5, 255-pound edge is similarly held in high regard by Jedd Fisch's new coaching staff, which had Durfee running with the No. 1 defense until he walked off the field in Husky Stadium, hunched over in obvious pain, gingerly holding his right arm. Fisch promised he would be healed in two months and ready to go by fall camp.

This is one in a series of articles -- going from 0 to 99 on the Husky roster -- examining what each scholarship player and leading walk-on did this past spring and what to expect from them going forward.

Zach Durfee drew his only UW game time in the Sugar Bowl against Texas. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Durfee is an interesting physical specimen, Midwest sturdy, and very much his own person, either wearing his hair shaved or bushy. He's also fairly direct in how he views things, neither promoting nor scoffing at the unreal expectations that have come his way at the UW with almost no game time to show for it.

"It's cool," he said in a deep voice. "I appreciate all the support. It just gives me another reason to go prove it."

Against Texas in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day, Durfee made his only Husky appearance, drawing five consecutive plays. With the first half coming to a close, he was inserted as the left edge rusher opposite Bralen Trice, replacing Zion Tupuola-Fetui.

On his first Power 5 play, Durfee used a spin move to get close to Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers, who threw a pass that was knocked down by UW defensive tackle Tuli Letuligasenoa. On the next snap, Durfee drove his man into Ewers, who stood in there and threw a 12-yard completion.

Durfee switched sides with Trice and coming off the right corner got hung up by a blocker on the third play, but an open Texas receiver Jaydon Blue dropped a Ewers pass. The Husky edge rusher tried another spin move on his fourth play, but Ewers was unbothered by the pass rush and threw a 14-yard completion. The fifth play was a 3-yard run by Texas tailback CJ Baxter that went away from Durfee and into Trice's waiting arms.

With 54 seconds left in the half and the ball at the UW 47, the Huskies called timeout and made several personnel changes, with ZTF taking back his spot from Durfee. Twenty-six seconds had come off the clock since the drive started withTexas in a hurry-up mode. That was it for Durfee's season. Five plays later, Texas scored to tie the game at 21 going in at halftime.

Even though there was that Sioux Falls connection between them, Durfee never considered going elsewhere after DeBoer took the Alabama job, as many of his teammates did. In January, he was one of a handful of Huskies who showed up at Firsch's introductory news conference. He's been greatly encouraged by having Steve Belichick leave the NFL and become his new Husky defensive coordinator and his more famous father, former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, show up as a spring practice visitor.

"I always get texts from my grandparents talking about the Belichicks being around and, yeah, it's crazy, having a great football mind like that in our building being our DC," he said. "It builds a confidence about you. I'm so confident about what our defense can do."

Now all Durfee has to do is get healthy and back on the field -- and stay there.

Zach Durfee (15), Alphonzo Tuputala (11) and Kam Fabiculanan (13) are expected to be UW defensive leaders. / Skylar Lin Visuals

ZACH DURFEE FILE

What he's done: Durfee redshirted for a season and played only in 2022 for Division II Sioux Falls. He piled up a team-leading 11 sacks, which ranked him third in the conference, with four of them coming in his college debut against Minnesota State Moorhead. Curiously, he started just the last two games of that season for an 8-3 team; otherwise he was used as a reserve because he was a converted tight end learning a new position. Still, it didn't prevent him from being named as an All-NSIC Southern Division selection.

Starter or not: Durfee is the leading candidate to start on the edge for the Huskies among a fairly impressive group of players. After coming off the bench for a season for Sioux Falls and sitting on it for another with the Huskies, this guy should get healthy and be ready to play, and play a lot, and become one of the UW defensive stalwarts.

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