About 15 miles outside of Las Vegas in Henderson, Nev., a University of Washington flag is propped on the side of a house each weekend.
That’s because Dave Williams never misses a game and wants people to know it.
Don’t know Williams? You should. He was a Washington tight end from 1964-66 and is watching Austin Seferian-Jenkins topple his tight end records at the school.
Coming into this season, Williams held several tight end records despite playing in the run-dominated scheme of coach Jim Owens back in the ’60s. Williams held the record for most receiving yards by a tight end in a season (795 in 1965), career (1,133 yards during his three years), catches in a game (10, twice in 1965) and career touchdowns (10).
Williams also holds the Washington record for receiving yards in a game at any position, with 257. In addition, he holds the record for most long receptions in a season (50-plus yards), set in 1965 when he caught four passes in that category.
Seferian-Jenkins is on his way to breaking every Washington tight end record. His eight-catch, 154-yard game against Cal last week moved Seferian-Jenkins past Williams and to the top of the career yardage chart with 1,170 receiving yards in just 22 games. He has 10 touchdowns the last two years to tie Williams and John Brady for the school’s career record by a tight end.
By the time the season ends, Seferian-Jenkins should have the single-season reception and yardage records for UW tight ends, plus the career record for receiving yards, touchdowns and receptions. Seferian-Jenkins is 163 yards short of Williams’ record for single-season receiving yards by a Washington tight end. Last week, he tied Jerramy Stevens’ record of 48 catches by a tight end in a season. He’s six catches behind Mark Breuner’s record of 95 for a career.
Williams was so enamored by what Seferian-Jenkins did last week, he fired off an email to his family about it.
“His performance against Cal was one of the most courageous things I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Williams, who played at Lincoln High School, said. “I know he’s been hurt. I know how hard it is to play on a bad ankle. And to see him come in in those key situations and make those key catches to really propel the Huskies to win, I was extremely impressed.”
Williams ran track in addition to playing football. He lined up on the line at times, but was mostly in the slot when the Huskies used a rare passing formation. He was 6-foot-1 and about 208 pounds with good speed in his playing days. Seferian-Jenkins is 6-foot-6 and 266 pounds.
Though Williams hears time to time from his oldest son or sisters living in Seattle about the status of his records, he doesn’t go around worrying about them.
“I have no pride about those records,” Williams said. “I hope he gets them all.”
It appears he’ll get his wish.
Extra points
Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday that “we’re getting a few guys back, a couple guys we’re not” for Saturday’s game against Utah. Several Huskies, including cornerback Desmond Trufant, were hurt against Cal last Friday. Sarkisian does not share specific injury information with the media. “We’ll be playing some guys who haven’t had a whole lot of action, but have had enough.” Sarkisian said. He also said, for the most part, the injuries are short-term. … Sarkisian called this version of the Huskies a “black-and-blue team.” He said he loves being that way and would rather win ugly than lose pretty, the way they did in the Alamo Bowl last season against Baylor.
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