Inside The Huskies

UW Aims Big, Offers Gigantic Virginia Offensive Tackle

Fletcher Westphal just completed his sophomore year and measures 6-foot-8 and 330 pounds.

Dan Raley

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Fletcher Westphal already plays football for a team called the Huskies, which describes Tuscarora High School in Leesburg, Virginia.

While his hometown is 33 miles from the nation's capital, Westphal resembles another Washington Monument when he stands up.

He's 6-foot-8 and 330 pounds, and about as lean as you can be at those dimensions.

He has an 84-inch wingspan. 

Ten-inch hands.

Size 18 shoe.

Hand-timed 4.72-second dash over 40 yards.

Westphal, a 4-star recruit, just finished his sophomore year at Tuscarora.

Fletcher Westphal (76) towers over teammates and opponents alike.
Fletcher Westphal (76) just finished his sophomore year. He has a UW offer.  / Tuscararo

One of the interesting things about college football recruiting is all of the unusual and almost inhuman physical specimens who suddenly emerge from the shadows each year and present themselves.

Big Fletch is one of them.

He's a must-have player, ready made for the college game and seemingly the NFL as he gains strength, experience and more size.

On Saturday, the University of Washington and offensive-line coach Scott Huff officially stepped to the back of the long line forming for this man mountain's football services by offering him a scholarship, his 21st overall. 

 

A Class of 2024 member, Westphal counts defending national-champion Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Miami, Stanford, Penn State, Michigan State, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Illinois, Virginia, Virginia Tech and West Virginia among his other suitors, to name a few.

With five highly reputable redshirt freshmen offensive linemen currently on their roster, the Huskies haven't felt compelled to sign many made for trench warfare over the past two recruiting cycles. 

A player such as Westphal changes that line of thinking. No matter how many guys you've got in the fold, a 6-foot-8, 330-pound guy like this who can run well and carries his weight as easily as he does gets your attention, an offer and a regular dialogue until he's off the market.  

Get him to Seattle for a four-year stay, and he becomes a West Coast Washington Monument, certainly a college football tourist attraction.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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