Midseason Report: How the Rebuilt Husky Offensive Line Grades Out

These UW players have played better than expected, considering how they came together.

Drew Azzopardi helps form a pocket against Eastern Michigan. / Skylar Lin Visuals

To open the season, these guys were the big mystery, the quintessential Montlake risk factor, maybe the difference for this remade University of Washington football team in having a winning or a losing year.

Seven games in, the UW's' rebuilt offensive line has leaned somewhat to the surprising side, having held up somewhat better than expected.

Good at times, but not great.

Great was last season.

Great came when the 2023 UW line was singled out as the nation's best and awarded the Joe Moore Award, and those players headed either for the NFL or the SEC to play more football.

Mostly, these current Huskies have been adequate in the trenches and hardly a sieve for sacks, which is maybe the best coach Jedd Fisch and his staff could have hoped for.

"We had new guys and young guys to start the year," Fisch said. "All of a sudden, they miraculously became veteran and we realized they aren't veteran. It's been a challenge."

For all of the smoke and mirrors involved, we give the Husky O-line a C+ grade, which signifies a group hanging in there and often getting things done. Missing are the Fautanus and Rosengartens nimbly pulling and running across the back of the line to flatten people.

Typical of the effort required to fill out the line against Iowa, the UW started sophomore Landen Hatchett for the first time in his career, installing him at left guard for a gimpy Gaard Memmelaar; replaced an injured junior Maximus McCree eight plays into the game with redshirt freshman Soane Faasolo at left tackle, and then replaced the recovering Faasolo with redshirt freshman Kahlee Tafai; and played senior D'Angalo Titialii for most of the game at center even though he was listed as questionable on the Big Ten availability report released before kickoff.

Only senior right guard Enokk Vimahi, the Ohio State transfer, and sophomore right tackle Drew Azzopardi, the San Diego State transfer, were business as usual.

THE HUSKY O-LINE	(starts in parantheses)
LT -- Soane Faasolo (3), Max McCree (4)	Kahlee Tafai
LG -- Gaard Memmelaar (6), Landen Hatchett (1)	Paki Finau
C -- D'Angalo Titialii (7)	Landen Hatchett
RG -- Enokk Vimahi (7)	Zach Henning
RT -- Drew Azzopardi (7)	Kahlee Tafai

As for offensive production, this latest O-line has helped the Huskies average 452.7 total offensive yards and 24.7 points per game. A year ago, it was 462.1 and 36 per game. Similar yards, big gap in points.

As for sacks, the new group has given up 15 in seven games compared to the 2023 crew that allowed just 12 in 15 outings.

The building blocks for the future are Azzopardi, who struggled some at Iowa, and Hatchett, who became a Husky starter a full season before former teammates Troy Fautanu, Roger Rosengarten, Nate Kalepo, Julius Buelow and Geirean Hatchett (his brother) moved up at the UW, even after coming off major knee surgery. The younger Hatchett, who graded the highest among Husky linemen at Iowa, always has had star potential.

Landen Hatchett plays offensive guard and center for the UW. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Memmelaar, who might be the strongest player on the team, missed the entire 2023 season with a knee injury and started the first six games at right guard before playing briefly as a reserve at Iowa. It's unclear if he has a new injury or his surgically repaired knee is displaying some drawback.

Of the other vets, redshirt freshman offensive guard Zach Henning has shown his versatility by starting one game this season -- at tight end against Eastern Michigan, helping fill the void at a position greatly thinned by injuries with his versatility -- while redshirt freshman tackle Elishah Jackett appears to have issues gaining weight.

At the same time, the guys who return in 2025 will be bigger and much more experienced, and as a collective group could be pretty good.

Freshmen Davit Boyajyan, Paki Finau, Justin Hylkema and Michael Levelle Watkins hold promise and currently are redshirting. Five new linemen are coming in with the 2025 recruiting class.

For now, the mixing and matching continues up front.

"We are a young group with a couple of older veteran players," Fisch said, "and we're going to work through the best combination of five guys."

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