The voice of Washington football Tony Castricone sat down with UW head coach Kalen DeBoer last week on the Husky Football Coaches Show to talk about the upcoming season. Despite a massive coaching overhaul DeBoer explains why he decided to keep Scott Huff as the team’s offensive line coach.

“There was just a lot of things we saw… I understand the offensive line maybe wasn’t the best position last year on paper or which you saw on film I guess,” DeBoer said of Huff and the team’s offensive line. “I’ve known Scott since really about the 2010-11 time. I’ve seen him work. I’ve seen him out on the road recruiting. And I saw his work ethic. I saw what type of a person he was. I got obviously a lot of feedback from a lot of people. I saw the room when I met with the offensive line. That was probably the most unified [group]… Especially with more numbers it’s easier to show up that way. But it was a unified room. It was room that showed it had a lot of talent in it. It’s also a room that has produced even during coach Huff’s time here more guys to the NFL out of the Pac-12 than I think any other program in the Pac-12 during that time”

It just goes to show you how bad of a scheme the Huskies were running offensively last season. They have a talented offensive line and a good offensive line coach. But if you don’t have a proper scheme in place on offense it can make even the most talented group look bad.

While the offensive line was tight-knit group there were some obvious holes in the brotherhood created by the pandemic.

“The summer before his senior year, Taniela Tupou took his defensive line teammates to the San Juan Islands to build an even tighter bond,” recalled RealDawg.com’s Mike Martin.

There were 4 Super Bowl-winners on that trip: Greg Gaines, Elijah Qualls, Vita Vea and Benning Potoa’e.

A similar bond is invaluable on the offensive line, but retaining Huff was important in keeping Jaxson Kirkland at Montlake.

Coming to Washington from Boise State in 2017, Huff was a fast-rising star. He helped turn Kaleb McGary into a Morris Trophy winner and put 5 players onto NFL rosters.

”2021 was an uncharacteristic performance by the offensive line,” explained Martin. “It was a confluence of issues from scheme, to the broken bond, to health.”

But enter in Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. The Huskies now have a proven offensive scheme that the offensive line will really benefit from. I expect the Huskies to have one of the better O-lines in the conference and get back to where they were when Chris Petersen was the head man.