Geirean Hatchett has already begun to live out his goal of playing his final season of college football surrounded by his family.
After one season at Oklahoma in 2024, which saw Hatchett — a former Washington Huskies offensive lineman who spent 2020-23 in Seattle — play just 55 snaps for the Sooners in their opener against Temple before missing the remainder of the season due to a biceps injury, and elected to enter the transfer portal.
It didn’t take more than one day of the window being open before he knew where he wanted to go.
“I really enjoyed my time down at Oklahoma,” Hatchett said in an interview in early March at an NIL event.
“Just with my injury being so early on in the season, I had a lot of time to think. Going into my last season of eligibility just really wanted to be back up with (his younger brother, junior center Landen Hatchett), back home close to the family, and it just meant a lot to be able to come back here and hopefully live that out and get to play next to him for at least one more year.”
During his first stint with the Huskies after signing with the program out of Ferndale High School as part of the 2020 recruiting class, Geirean suffered a bit of unfortunate timing by not having a normal freshman season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He didn’t see the field in either of his first two seasons of college football under then-UW coach Jimmy Lake, but appeared in 21 games and made 5 starts for Kalen DeBoer in 2022-23.
Thus far, through his first spring under coach Jedd Fisch has taken the majority of first-team reps at right guard in April, right next to Landen, the projected starter at center for UW this fall.
Geirean knew upon his return to Montlake that his role would be undetermined to an extent. With a handful of underclassmen along the interior, the coaches sought the elder Hatchett’s veteran experience to be a suitable stopgap, while not hindering the chances for sophomore Zach Henning, freshman Champ Taulealea, and other young players competing for time.
“I just want to be able to contribute in any way I can,” Geirean said. “Being an older guy, we have a lot of young guys along the o-line. I just want to be able to kind of help them out with the experience that I have and guide him (Landen) as the leader on the o-line.”
After surrendering a Big Ten-worst 39 sacks last season, Fisch bet big on the young beef taking another step up in 2025, but having established players like Geirean could prove to be just as vital when all is said and done.
