UW HUSKIES

Caple: The unsung heroes of the 2024 UW Huskies

Jan 18, 2025, 2:04 PM

Every UW Huskies’ football season produces a new list of stars to whom that year’s exploits become inextricably linked. When you think of UW’s debut season under Jedd Fisch, for example, your mind likely will go to guys like Jonah Coleman, Denzel Boston, Demond Williams Jr., Carson Bruener, Alphonzo Tuputala, Thaddeus Dixon, Kam Fabiculanan and Sebastian Valdez.

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No degree of success is achieved, though, without contributions from lesser-celebrated players — either those who made plays in relative obscurity, or whose production is appreciated more in hindsight than it was during the season.

Admittedly, assembling this list was easier for teams that finished 11-2 and 14-1 than for the 2024 version that won only six games. But there still were a number of relatively unheralded players who made it possible for the Huskies to get bowl eligible and extend their season.

This year’s unsung heroes are:

TE Keleki Latu

Latu is the classic example of a player who exhausted his eligibility just as he was really establishing himself as a legitimate NFL prospect. Stepping up after an injury to starter Quentin Moore, Latu finished third on the team with 40 receptions, totaling 371 yards and a touchdown while playing 777 offensive snaps, second-most on the team. He also had the highest Pro Football Focus run-blocking grade among regular offensive players. At 6-foot-7 and 244 pounds, Latu should get a look from NFL personnel this winter, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a shot in the league. Missing half of his junior season (at Nevada) due to injury, though, makes it feel like Latu didn’t get the full college experience, even if he spent time at three different schools. Regardless, he wound up a really important player at UW in 2024.

QB Will Rogers

Can the starting quarterback really be considered “unsung,” particularly if the backup beats him out to start the season’s final two games? I say yes, and it’s actually because of Demond Williams Jr.’s ascension that I see fit to include Rogers on this list. In 11 games, the senior transfer from Mississippi State completed 70.7 percent of his passes for 2,458 yards with 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions. All seven of those interceptions came in Rogers’ last six games, including two on consecutive possessions against UCLA, which wound up his final action of the season. There was a time when Rogers was a fairly steady presence. He made some impressive throws. He helped the Huskies to their feel-good win over Michigan. He struggled toward the end, but his presence was a net positive, and by all accounts, Rogers accepted his demotion like a pro.

Fisch mentioned a few times during the season that Rogers and Williams were good friends, and you could see Rogers supporting Williams on the sideline. It was a weird situation for a veteran quarterback to walk into. He was playing for a different head coach than the one who recruited him to transfer, and his backup was a star freshman whom the coach clearly sees as The Guy, and who sometimes received snaps in the middle of a series. If Rogers’ role was to be the bridge between Michael Penix Jr. and the new coach’s hand-picked successor — who, by the end of the season, was easily the most talked-about player on the roster — then he played it well enough.

DL Voi Tunuufi

It was not a banner year for UW’s pass rush, as the Huskies finished 109th in FBS in sacks per game. Tunuufi, though, led the team in pressures with 26 and finished tied for second with 3.0 sacks, splitting his time between edge rusher and defensive tackle. He forced the key fumble late in Washington’s win over Michigan, and had the third-down pass breakup in the fourth quarter of the Sun Bowl to give the Huskies the ball back for their final drive.

LB Drew Fowler

Despite missing three games due to injury, Fowler still managed to lead the Huskies in special-teams snaps for the third consecutive season, and so he lands on this list for the third consecutive season. (Anyone want to guess UW’s last special-teams snaps leader not named Drew Fowler? Anyone? Anyone? That would be cornerback Kyler Gordon, who just finished his third season with the Chicago Bears.) Fowler also played a career-high 98 defensive snaps in his final college season and logged the first TFL of his career. And he might be the first player in history to include the LinkedIn logo in his farewell message.

WR Giles Jackson

OK, so he was probably sufficiently “sung” by the end of the season, but I wonder how many folks are aware that Jackson actually wound up leading the team in receptions (85) and yards (893) after his huge Sun Bowl performance. Jackson, a sixth-year senior, was only available this season because he redshirted last year, when I also included him as an unsung hero for his clutch contributions in limited action (he’s a three-time honoree, in fact, having also made the list in 2022). It was a different story for Jackson this season, as he stayed healthy, played in every game and twice eclipsed the 100-yard receiving mark — and played 721 snaps, fifth-most on UW’s offense — for a team that lacked much depth at receiver. Boston gets a lot of headlines, but Jackson touched the ball quite a bit more, and probably deserves more shine than he’s received.

S Makell Esteen

The coaching staff brought in Sacramento State transfer Cameron Broussard to share time with Esteen alongside starter Kam Fabiculanan. Broussard wound up starting seven of the 12 games in which he appeared, playing 511 defensive snaps, while Esteen played 370 snaps in 10 games with five starts. But it was Esteen who received UW’s third-highest overall defensive grade among regular players, behind only Carson Bruener and Thaddeus Dixon, as the junior safety finished sixth on the team with 44 tackles. He also had the highest PFF tackling grade on the team despite playing through injury. UW recruited another two portal safeties this offseason, but I wouldn’t bet against Esteen finding a way to make an impact.

Honorable mentions

• DL Jacob Bandes: It was a workmanlike season for the sixth-year senior, who set a program record by playing in 59 career games. He also had that cool interception at Indiana.

• DL Logan Sagapolu: The converted offensive lineman played a modest 138 defensive snaps after transferring from Miami, but came up with the big fumble recovery to help UW clinch the win over Michigan.

• EDGE Russell Davis II: He played only 34 snaps in three games, but still managed to finish just a half-sack off the team lead with 3.0. Davis tallied each of those, plus a forced and recovered fumble, in UW’s bowl-clinching win over UCLA.

• OL Landen Hatchett: I wondered at times whether Hatchett would have played as much as he did (591 snaps) coming off an ACL tear if the Huskies’ o-line depth hadn’t been decimated by the transfer portal. UW badly needed him to play a big role, though, and that’s what he did, recovering from injury well enough to play significantly. He now has a full offseason with which to work back toward 100 percent.

• CB Elijah Jackson: He deserves the recognition for his hustle tackle against Northwestern alone.

• EDGE Lance Holtzclaw: Similar to Jackson, Holtzclaw gets a mention for his game-clinching pressure of USC quarterback Miller Moss.

• TE Decker DeGraaf: One of only three UW players with multiple touchdown receptions this season (he had three), DeGraaf received Freshman All-America recognition from multiple outlets after catching 15 passes for 233 yards.

This article was originally published at OnMontlake.com, the home for Christian Caple’s full UW Huskies football coverage. Subscribe to On Montlake for full access to in-depth UW Huskies coverage.

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