Washington's opener showed O-line improvement, and Drew Azzopardi led the way
The fourth-year junior right tackle used yoga, among other things, to change his game this offseason.
SEATTLE — Flexibility was the key.
It was one of the keys, anyway, for fourth-year junior Drew Azzopardi, after he started all 13 games at right tackle for the Washington Huskies in 2024. His only prior action — six career starts — came as a redshirt freshman at San Diego State in 2023, though such duty more or less rendered him a veteran on a UW offensive line that otherwise lacked nearly any FBS starting experience.
It went how it went. Pro Football Focus ranked the Huskies 128th out of 134 teams in FBS in pass blocking, and Azzopardi allowed more sacks, pressures and hurries than any other lineman. Part of that was due to availability; he was healthy all year, and led the team in snaps played. But it also was simply a rough transition from the Mountain West to the Big Ten.
“I worked really hard this offseason to get bigger, get faster, get stronger,” Azzopardi said this spring.
It showed up on Saturday night against Colorado State, a game in which the Huskies rushed 51 times for 283 yards. Maybe the most encouraging individual development, though, was Azzopardi finishing as the highest-graded offensive player on the team by PFF, and as UW’s top-graded pass blocker.