Jaxson Kirkland Begins to Reclaim Individual Accolades

The Husky offensive tackle ranks among the best at his position once more.

Since the Apple Cup, Jaxson Kirkland entered the NFL draft, pulled out of it, had ankle surgery, asked for a waiver to play a sixth season for the University of Washington and received clearance.

Whew.

After missing all of spring practice while awaiting an NCAA rubber stamp on his personal situation and recovering from his medical procedure, Kirkland is finally settling in for a last college football hurrah.

This week, it became abundantly clear that those in and around the game know that the 6-foot-7, 310-pound Kirkland is back.

The website Conference Commandos ranked Kirkland fourth among the college game's top 53 offensive tackles, trailing only, in this order, Northwestern's Peter Skoronski, Baylor's Connor Galvin and Miami's Zion Nelson.

Also, Phil Steele's college football preview released four teams of All-America selections for the coming season and Kirkland is the only UW player involved, turning up on the second-unit offensive line.

One of the reasons Kirkland returned for a sixth season in Montlake, which is permissible through enhanced pandemic provisions, was to reclaim all of his previous high regard. 

At one time, the Vancouver, Washington, product was projected as a high first-round NFL draft pick, something he seems determined to make happen again, before he was injured and his UW football team came apart and finished 4-8. He's a 39-game starter.

Of the other elite tackles, the 6-foot-4, 294-pound Skoronski has started all 21 games he's played since coming to Northwestern. The junior from Park Ridge, Illinois, has something in common with Kirkland — he likewise was part of a bad football team last fall, one that went 3-9. 

Baylor's 6-foot-7, 310-pound Galvin, a senior from Katy, Texas, has started 37 of the 45 games he's played over four seasons.

At Miami, the 6-foot-5, 316-pound Nelson is a junior from Sumter, South Carolina, who's started 32 of 35 games. 

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