30 Day Countdown-Day 20: Jake Eldrenkamp Award

In our countdown we once again reach the point where we look back at the players from last year and wonder who will be missed the most. And that leads us to the “Jake Eldrenkamp Award for Excellence”. For those unfamiliar with this award, here is the description:

Jake Eldrenkamp Award For Excellence in “Oh S*** he was Actually Way Better Than we Realized Until he Left and Now We’re Feelin’ It.”

The JEA4EiOShwAWBTwRUhLaNWFI is awarded to the most recent former Husky who becomes the answer to “Who are the Dawgs gonna miss most that we haven’t yet realized we’re gonna miss?” It is the state and indeed nation’s most prestigous honor. And not just in college football. In life.

Gabey Lucas is no longer contributing, so we won’t have her ‘gut feeling’ about who should be nominated for this award. Instead, I’ve come up with a couple of criteria.

• It is someone who played on last year’s team that is no longer on this team-or any other college team (which means that they didn’t transfer to another school).
• It is someone that is a bit unheralded, which would indicate that he was not drafted nor did he receive any post-season honors (from other than UW).

Obviously that eliminates guys like Denzel Boston, Jonah Coleman, Anterio Thompson, and Zach Durfee, but also Adam Mohammed and Bryce Butler. Who’s left?

The Candidates:

WR Omari Evans

While the transfer from Penn State only had 17 catches last season, he did have one of the highest average yards per catch of last year’s receivers with almost 15. His first catch last season for the Dawgs was a 59 yard touchdown in the Apple Cup.

Two things will be missed about Omari. First was his speed. He was a receiver last year that was a threat to “take the top off of the defense”, and that opened up routes for Denzel Boston and Dezmen Roebuck. The other thing that will be missed is his veteran presence. In a WR room with a lot of first and second year players, that could provide something that this year’s WR room could use.

But, even though there are a lot of young guys in the WR room, there is plenty of talent and potential. And, Christian Moss was brought in to help provide some of that veteran presence.

K Grady Gross

There is a history of specialists winning this award. Punter Joel Whitford won in 2020 and Race Porter in 2022.

Grady Gross had and up-and-down career with UW. He was 18 of 22 in FG attempts in the 2023-2024 season but then struggled in a few games in 2024. He rebounded last year, making 10 of 13 FG attempts. He never missed an extra point in his time at UW.

UW hands the kicking duty to a new kicker this year. Tyler Robles appears to be the favorite to handle the place kicking duties this fall. The former USC Trojan who transferred from Texas State (now a Pac-12 school) where he connected on 21 of 23 and hit his last 14 consecutive field goal attempts. He was 3 of 4 from more than 50 yards last year and didn’t miss a FG from less than 40 yards.

One reason for Grady Gross getting the honor? Tyler did miss one extra point last year. So maybe if UW is scoring TD’s instead of FG’s and Tyler starts missing some, Grady may be missed.

LB Anthony Ward

Anthony Ward started out at UW, transferred to Arizona, and then transferred back to UW in 2024 with his brother Isaiah (who’s still on the team). He played in 25 games for UW, mostly on special teams. He is credited with just one tackle in his time at UW.

With the talent and experience that UW has at LB, he won’t be missed much at that position. But there are a couple of reasons including Anthony. One is that as a senior last year he was one that helped fire up the team before the game. Just listen to him (16 seconds into this video) before the Purdue game last year.

Also of note: he was the one that blocked the punt against Wisconsin which led to UW’s only TD in that game. And it was the only punt or kick block for UW last year. He won the UW Special Teams Most Valuable Player Award last year.

Will his special teams presence be missed this year? Possibly. But there appears to be plenty of young guys who could fill his role.

S Makell Esteen

Makell Esteen was on UW’s football team for 6 years. He played as a freshman in 2020 and then started in 11 games last year when he had 50 combined tackles-good for 4th on the team. He had 2 INT’s last year, including one to seal the game against Colorado State (for which he earned a game ball); he had 5 INT’s in his career at UW. He was a steady force for UW and was one of the team captains last year. Makell won the Guy Flaherty Award last year, the oldest and most prestigious honor for Washington football.

There is no question that Makell will be missed this year. But with guys like Rylon Dillard-Allen, Paul Mencke, and Rahim Wright coming on, will UW feel it now that he’s gone?

TE Quentin Moore

Who can forget Quentin Moore’s TD against the Ducks in the final Pac-12 championship game? (I’ve rewatched it many times!) But it wasn’t his receiving ability that he was really known for. He was clearly the best blocking TE on the team last season. Just take a look at this block last year against Purdue that helped spring Jordan Washington’s long TD run.

UW has a lot of TE’s on the roster this year. And from reports it seems that Decker DeGraaf’s blocking has improved, and Baron Naone looks like he will be filling Quentin’s role. But, it isn’t clear that any of the TE’s this year will be the blocker that Quentin was. And there is only one TE on the roster this year that has played in more that 7 games as a Husky.

The Verdict

In keeping with what happened with the original recipient of the award, I’m going to go with a player who was not drafted, but did get on an NFL team as an undrafted free agent. Obviously that original recipient is Jake Eldrenkamp. And my pick for this year is Quentin Moore. Just look back at that video above and tell me which TE this year will be doing something like that this year. While some of the TE’s may have improved their blocking, there is a reason that Coach Fisch called Quentin Moore one of the best blocking TE’s that he’s coached.