The most asked question going into the off-season was what will Washington’s offensive line look like in 2024.  It was assumed that left tackle Troy Fautanu would be NFL-bound and possibly Roger Rosengarten would be headed to the League.

Then Nick Saban retired.

Fautanu and Rosengarten went to the league and 3 other Washington starting offensive linemen went to the SEC.

That the entire offensive line would need to be re-engineered was shocking.  However, in the new college football world rebuilding the OL wasn’t thought to be as big an undertaking with the Transfer Portal.

Ironically, it was the portal that gutted Washington, but that also got UW the quarterback that got them to the College Football Playoff Championship Game.

I like the psyche of sticking to your guys.  Showing faith in them.  Renting an OL could fracture then further repeat the  portal dependence in the coming years.

In fact, according to multiple sources, Washington was financially positioned to sign one-year rental agreements but chose to build from within in many cases.

Let’s look at where Washington is with scholarship offensive linemen:

While other sites are putting Hatchett’s return to be in the September range, a RealDawg source says that he’s going to be back for Fall Camp.  Gaard Memmelaar is nearly back and the Huskies recruited that position fairly well.

The quality is there, it’s just young, for  the most part.

Losing 60% of 2024 eligible snaps (Parker Brailsford, Julius Buelow, Nate Kalepo) for the upcoming season more than stings—it’s painful.

All of the Western Front are gone except for Memmelaar (Myles Murao, Geirean Hatchett, Samuel Peacock, Roger Rosengarten) but left behind is  still some quality.

However, sticking by his guys, Fisch is betting on the younger offensive line’s growth.  That by the 5th game they will have gelled to get ready for one of the B1G’s most grueling schedules.

Physically maturity

I expect that the OL, across the board, will gain 2-5-percent more weight by Fall Camp.  The first number in parenthesis is the years of game experience.  The second number is parenthesis after the players’ listed weight is the probable ceiling for their weight to start camp.

Tale of the Tape

Landen Hatchett (1)— 6-2, 310 (316) pounds
Paki Finau (0)—6-5, 285 (299)
Michael Watkins (0)—6-2, 315 (320)
Zach Henning (1)—6-5, 292 (305)
Gaard Memmelaar (1)—6-4, 299 (310)
Soane Faasolo (0)—6-8, 290 (305)
Kahlee Tafai (0)—6-5, 327 (333)
Drew Azzopardi (2)—6-7, 315 (321)
Elishah Jackett (0)—6-7, 259 (271)
Enokk Vimahi (2)—6-4, 310 (315)

Fisch and Co. kicked the tires of a few portal linemen, but they liked what they had in the driveway already.

In speaking with a departed lineman he said that the next wave of offensive linemen are in a great spot.

“It’s their opportunity to build their own legacy”, he said.  “We showed what’s possible at the University of Washington.”

”We always heard, wether it was Coach Sark, Coach Pete, Coach Lake or Coach DeBoer, that there would be position battles,” said RealDawg’s Trevor Mueller.  “But rarely did those materialize.  Who we thought was going to start usually ended up starting.”

But with 100-percent of the OL starters gone and right now there are 5 spots to go between 10 listed above and Summer arrivals of Justin Hylkema, and Davit Boyajyan there will be a ton of Fall Camp intrigue.

“Everything is being set up for some of the best position battles this century,” Mueller said.

And that’s the genius of Fisch’s strategy.