Valdez Shows Off Powerful Ability in UW Practice No. 3

The Montana State transfer demonstrates that he's hard to block.

Sebastian Valdez transferred from Montana State to the UW. / Skylar Lin Visuals

The University of Washington football team pulled on the pads on Friday morning for the first time, headed for the East practice field and for the next two hours it was time to begin separating the men from the boys.

In this particular case, the grown-up in the room was new defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez, the 6-foot-4, 305-pound Montana State transfer.

While the UW's third fall practice was still somewhat restrained in terms of physicality, with no open-field tackling, Valdez looked powerful and relatively unblockable much of the time during line drills and short scrimmage segments.

Just walking around, Valdez, a senior from Spring Valley, California, gave off a don't-mess-with-me vibe in his snug-fitting purple jersey with a white shirt hanging out the back, two heavy black knee braces and white gloves with black palms.

"He's a really good player," UW coach Jedd Fisch said. "We're excited he's part of the team. We got to walk into him -- he was here before we got here, as a transfer. So we obviously knew about him."

Midway through Friday's workout, the Huskies put their defensive and offensive linemen up against each other, cracking helmets in one-on-one battles. Valdez didn't lose in any of these gladiator moments. He began the drill by pushing past Ohio State transfer Enokk Vimahi and ended his involvement by bending freshman Michael Levelle Watkins over backward with a show of strength.

While one of the UW starting defensive lineman spots appears up for grabs, with Logan Sagapolu, Jacob Bandes, Jayvon Parker, Bryce Butler, Elinneus Davis and possibly Deshawn Lynch in contention for it, Valdez likely is penciled into the other spot as a starter and can be utilized in multiple ways.

"I expect him to be a major impact up front," Fisch said. "I think he can probably primarily play the 3 technique but he has some ability to go inside as the shade over the center. He's strong, he's powerful and he's an extremely good worker."

When the Huskies lined up on defense for the first time in pads, they resembled a slot machine winner with their front four players all wearing the number 5 in some manner -- Valdez, in his No. 50, lined up next to Bandes, who wears 55, and they were surrounded by edge rushers Zach Durfee and Voi Tunuufi, who answer to 5 and 52, respectively.

Jayden Wayne lines up in a one-on-one drill against tight end Owen Coutts. / Dan Raley

When sending out a first unit, the No. 1 Husky defense more often looks like this: sophomore Isaiah Ward and Durfee at the edges, though Durfee was held out of Friday's scrimmage plays because he's still recovering from elbow surgery; Valdez and Bandes on the interior line; veterans Carson Bruener and Alphonzo Tuputala at the linebackers; Arizona transfer Ephesians Prysock and Elijah Jackson as the cornerbacks; Sacramento State transfer Cameron Broussard and Makell Esteen at the safeties; and Indiana transfer Jordan Shaw at nickelback.

The safety position actually took a pounding on Friday, with Kamren Fabiculanan in uniform but unavailable because of some ailment, Broussard coming out after one play with some sort of hand issue and Esteen running behind a goal post and a camera lift where he got on his hands and knees and became ill, possibly because of the heat, with defensive coordinator Steve Belichick loudly calling for a trainer to attend to the downed player.

Yet another safety and nickel candidate, sophomore Tristan Dunn, hasn't particpated in fall camp, missing all three workouts.

Fisch acknowledged his absence, without providing any detail, saying only, "He's not been here yet and we'll see when he comes back."

The Huskies are off on Saturday and return to practice on Sunday morning.

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