OL Zachary Henning is a Husky

Washington continued to restock their offensive line this morning when Zachary Henning officially signed his letter of intent and will join the Huskies next year.

Henning is listed at 6’6 and 275 pounds coming out of Grandview HS in Aurora, Colorado. He’s currently the lowest rated recruit in UW’s 2023 in the 247 Sports Composite but is listed as the #10 player in the state of Colorado. He picked the Huskies over offers from Utah, Oregon State, Kansas State, and Colorado.

Back in June Henning took part in Washington’s huge official visit weekend where they solidified the majority of their 2023 recruiting class. Henning decided to make certain and took an official visit to Utah a few days later but immediately afterwards knew the move that was right for him and he committed to Washington and hasn’t looked around since. It also appears that he’ll be an early enrollee and so will be on campus to go through spring practices and get adjusted to the program.

For a more in-depth scouting report on Henning, check out our own Coach B’s recruiting profile on him from before his senior season. Here’s an excerpt from that piece about Henning’s fit:

In my opinion, Henning has some potential as an inside-outside OL candidate. Similar to Jaxson Kirkland, Henning has the strength and physicality to compensate for being an atypically tall iOL early in his career as he refines his technique and works through the S&C program. Like Kirkland, an early stint at iOL will help to highlight his run blocking strengths, hide his raw pass protection technique, and help him get early career reps that’ll accelerate his development later in his career.

He’s not quite up to P5 starting-caliber playing weight just yet, but its not unrealistic to think he could be near 290 by the time he shows up on campus, which is on the light side but close enough that he won’t be on a multi-year bulking/cutting program like some others. Alternatively, Huff could try him at OT first to see if his agility can hold up on the perimeter and then decide from there if it’s worth him cross training between OT and iOL. Regardless of where he ends up, it’ll be nice to see him bring some grit to the OL room that needs to find its groove again under Huff.

Obviously the groove ended up being found this season but Washington is losing the entire starting interior of their offensive line as Jaxson Kirkland, Corey Luciano, and Henry Bainivalu all ran out of eligibility. Regardless, it’s highly unlikely that any of the 5 true freshman will see any playing time given UW’s depth at the position and that you almost never see true freshmen contribute on the OL as they spend at least a year reshaping their bodies in a college weight room.

Welcome to the Dawgs, Zach!