Fightin' words: Washington, Texas get chippy with key trench showdown looming

NEW ORLEANS — Troy Fautanu, the most well-known member of Washington’s offensive line, is a giant human. He stands at 6-foot-4 and 315 pounds.

And yet, despite those metrics, he’s about 50 pounds lighter than Texas defensive tackle T'Vondre Sweat.

“He’s huge,” Fautanu acknowledges. “Huge.”

Sure, the high-flying offenses, big-name quarterbacks and explosive receivers will steal the spotlight when the No. 2-seed Huskies meet the No. 3 seed Longhorns in the CFP semifinal on Monday at the Sugar Bowl. But this game, many experts contend, will come down to the big guys, specifically a few big guys: Washington’s offensive line, deemed to be the best in the country, against Texas’ defensive front, thought to be one of the most talented in the country.

Fautanu, a Day 2 NFL Draft prospect, represents the former group, a purple wall of blockers who have allowed the fourth-fewest sacks in the nation this season and won the Joe Moore Award given annually to the nation’s best O-line. Sweat, a Day 1 draft prospect, represents the latter group — a fast, physical and attacking front that also includes another future pro in tackle Byron Murphy and his five sacks this season.

In a game with so much offensive firepower, it’s the bigs who'll decide this one.

Something’s got to give. Texas has 32 sacks this year, ranking in the top quarter of FBS. Washington has allowed 11, bested by only three other teams.

“I do think the Huskies should be favored rather than Texas,” former Washington coach and CBS analyst Rick Neuheisel said. “If the Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line of Washington can handle Sweat and Murphy, well, they’re playing against the 94th-ranked pass defense of Texas.”

On Thursday, inside a conference room of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown New Orleans, each representative got to defend his group’s honor. And boy, did they.

There were fightin' words, like Sweat’s response when asked about playing against that highly acclaimed Washington front five.

“It’s just another O-line to me,” he quipped.

And thus set off a fiery defense from the Huskies.

“Uh, Joe Moore,” said Washington QB and Heisman Trophy runner-up Michael Penix Jr.

“Guess he’s going to see,” Penix later continued. “I’m not going to lie, their D-line is good, but at the same time, they haven’t played our O-line. They do a great job. They play good ball. But I wouldn’t say that we are playing the 49ers' D-line or the Eagles' D-line. We’ll be good.

“You see the teams they’ve played. I don’t feel like those teams have the offensive line we have.”

In an interesting wrinkle to this critical matchup, Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, formerly longtime defensive coordinator at Washington, is close friends with Washington offensive line coach Scott Huff. The two both played at Boise State — Kwiatkowski on the defensive line in the 1980s; Huff on the offensive line in the early 2000s. They worked together under Chris Petersen at both Boise and Washington.

Nothing like adding more drama to this one.

Fautanu is exhausted of all the talk, he says. It’s been nearly a month of buildup. It’s time for talking to end and playing to begin.

But first, more talking.

“The one thing I think of going into a game is ‘respect all but fear none,’” he said. “[Sweat] just another opponent to me.”

Let’s get something straight. Both sides did compliment the other, even if it, at times, came with a qualifier. Fautanu even described Texas as having the best front seven that Washington will play this year. He praised Sweat’s “good hands” and his strength at the “point of attack.”

But if Texas, or anyone else for that matter, is questioning Washington’s toughness, well, they should do their homework.

“I’m so tired of hearing about this ‘West Coast football is soft,’” Fautanu said. “Turn on the tape, that’s all I got to say.”

The tape shows an offensive line that, Fautanu says, plays “chippy and nasty,” one that is at least partially responsible for a passing offense that ranks No. 1 in the country and a quarterback who's put up 33 touchdowns, averages 324 yards through the air a game and has tossed only nine picks.

Washington's starting O-line this season featured seven different players and four different lineups, including junior left tackle Fautanu (13 starts), junior left guard Nate Kalepo (13 starts), redshirt freshman center Parker Brailsford (13 starts), redshirt senior center Matteo Mele (2 starts), redshirt junior right guard Julius Buelow (6 starts), sophomore right guard Geirean Hatchett (5 starts) and sophomore right tackle Roger Rosengarten (13 starts).

As a way to thank them, Penix often takes his O-line out for dinner in Seattle to a handful of restaurant options in University Village, a shopping center near downtown. Through sponsorship deals, he also acquired roundtrip flight vouchers for linemen to go “anywhere they want to go,” Penix said.

They don’t expect or ask for such from their QB, Fautanu said. But it’s a nice gift.

What’s an even better gift? For them all to deliver the Huskies a trip to the national title game in Houston.

To do that, it means, once again, proving that the Washington Huskies own the best, most physical offensive line in the college game — no matter the size on the other side.

“You never want to hear that a defensive line is more physical than you,” Fautanu said. “Just hearing that is for sure motivating. But we are used to the slander.”