Husky TE Has Become More Important, Not Extinct Like Some Thought
Deep inside the University of Washington football locker room, while coaches were upstairs cleaning out their desks and Kalen DeBoer was newly hired and filling out a staff as quick as he could, urgent talk centered around the changes that no doubt were coming.
Considerable despair was registered that the tight end, a position given great emphasis by Chris Petersen and Jimmy Lake, would fall into serious neglect, according to insiders.
Three of them left, most prominently Mark Redman, a California native who had played steadily as a true and redshirt freshman and wound up at San Diego State.
Eight games into the new coaching regime, the Husky tight end seems more important than ever, with DeBoer's coaches having to get extra creative to find people to accomplish everything they want to do on offense in that role.
Or did you not notice over the past two weeks that edge rusher Jeremiah Martin and offensive guard Geirean Hatchett pulled tight-end duty over and above their normal responsibilities?
The Huskies want to use multiple tight ends and they want to use them a lot.
"The tight-end position, I always think, has been a huge and critical piece of our success," DeBoer said this week. "The wide receivers do get a lot of the attention, but those [tight ends] are just behind the scenes wracking up some catches, picking up yards. They give you, to me, control over the middle of the field that I've always believed in."
Coming off a 28-21 victory at California, Devin Culp, the 6-foot-4, 239-pound junior starter from Spokane, Washington, has caught 19 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown. Those numbers mirror his entire 12-game stats from 2021, which were just a reception and 58 yards more and the same amount of points.
Devin Culp shows off his hops by leaping over a Cal tackler.
Darren Yamashita/USA TODAY Sports
Back-up Jack Westover, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound junior from Bellevue, Washington, actually leads all Husky tight ends this season so far with 20 catches for 225 yards, which is more than triple his previous best output.
A third UW tight end, Quentin Moore, a 6-foot-4, 259-pound junior from Kenmore, Washington, has missed the past two games with injuries and was the reason for the Martin and Hatchett grand experiments. He should return soon.
Meanwhile, the Huskies took redshirt freshman tight end Caden Jumper on the road for the first time to Cal, someone who hasn't played yet, all in hopes of having enough able bodies. The 6-foot-3, 253-pound Jumper was described by the previous coaching staff of possessing the talent and ability to become another Will Dissly.
The Huskies also have true freshman tight end Ryan Otton, who at 6-foot-6 and 234 pounds is a bigger body than his position peers, healthy for the first time after dealing with a nagging leg injury though he's had a personal tragedy, dealing with the death of his mother.
Jack Westover goes airborne in a game against Cal.
Skylar Lin Visuals
The tight ends have been noticeable and entertaining during the UW's 6-2 season, to say the least. Both Culp and Westover have hurdled high over head-down tacklers in separate games. Culp recovered an onside kick attempted by Arizona. They continue to get wide open over the middle, which is what DeBoer wants.
Meantime, that once highly regarded former Husky tight end in Mark Redman became the starter at San Diego State. He's caught 9 passes for 80 yards and no scores for a 4-3 Aztecs team that has lost to Pac-12 entries Arizona and Utah.
While he worried about TE becoming a diminished position in Montlake, here's wondering if Redman is concerned at all that he might have made a bad mistake by leaving?
Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.
Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.
Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12
Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation or @DanRaley3
