Legacy continues: Tumwater 4-star tight end Ryan Otton commits to Huskies
Ryan Otton, the youngest in a long line of Ottons to come through Tumwater High School’s storied football program, will continue his football career with the hometown Huskies.
Otton, a four-star recruit, announced his commitment to Washington — where his older brother Cade, another former T-Birds standout and All-Pac-12 tight for the Huskies last fall, is about to enter his fifth season — on social media Friday.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” Otton told The News Tribune following his commitment Friday. “I’ve had my top three since June. All of July has just been me thinking every night while I’m trying to go to sleep.
“I have so many connections to UW, not just because of my brother, I know a lot of the commits, a lot of the current players.”
Otton said he made his much-anticipated decision Thursday, before officially making his commitment Friday.
“It just felt right for me to come to UW,” Otton said. “I didn’t make my decision until last night. I wanted to get it done now, I have a football season coming up Aug. 18. I just wanted to get that weight off my shoulders.”
Otton, considered the No. 4 recruit in Washington in the 2022 class by 247Sports Composite, and No. 6 tight end in the country, has been a key two-way contributor for the T-Birds during back-to-back undefeated runs the past two seasons.
Tumwater’s program won its sixth state championship — and first since 2010 — when the T-Birds capped a 14-0 season with a Class 2A title in 2019, when Otton was a sophomore. Though the COVID-19 pandemic delayed and shortened Otton’s junior season, the T-Birds were considered favorites to repeat as 2A champions, and shut out each of their 2A Evergreen Conference opponents, as well as routing 2A powers Prosser and Steilacoom on their way to another perfect 6-0 finish.
Otton hauled in five passes for 172 yards and a touchdown in Tumwater’s run-based Wing-T offense in the condensed campaign, and added 23 tackles and two sacks at defensive end. He was named to the 2A EvCo and Olympian All-Area first teams, and was a second-team All-Area pick by TNT as a junior.
Tumwater coach Bill Beattie said the Huskies are getting an elite blocking tight end who is just scratching the surface of his potential.
“I still don’t think in his mind that he understands he can dominate anyone he wants to, whenever he wants to,” Beattie said. “The upside to Ryan is huge. I think there’s a whole lot of steps he’s going to take to make himself such a great football player. He’s just going to keep getting better and better. His muscles are going to catch up to his body.”
In many ways, Otton is a mirror image of his older brother, Cade. Though Beattie, who coached for two decades at Olympia before taking over at Tumwater in 2017, didn’t coach Cade in high school, he sees plenty of similarities between the two as far as their skill sets are concerned. He also sees a few small differences.
“From everything I heard, Cade was a little further along in the coordination, athletic development a little bit,” Beattie said. “When I watch Cade, I see someone who really knows the game of football. … When Ryan puts all of that together, it’s going to be really interesting to watch. Physically, he’s going to be bigger than Cade. If all that stuff comes together and he decides to cut loose, it’s scary to think what he could do.”
Otton enters his senior season this fall with Tumwater again expected to contend for a title. He said making his commitment ahead of fall camp will allow him to shift his focus to his final high school games with the T-Birds.
“I can focus on my season now without worrying about decisions, where I want to go,” he said. “I can just focus on winning a state championship.”
“The leadership part is going to be huge,” Beattie said on his expectations for Otton in his final season. “When you’re that type of player and carry that name on your back, there’s certain expectations. I expect him to step up in the leadership. I expect him to be an anchor on defense. ... It’ll be fun to see the mismatches with Ryan. The ability to put the ball up in the air, he can go up and get it.”
Otton, who is 6-foot-6, 225 pounds, plays on both sides of the ball for the T-Birds, but is projected to join UW’s offense when he arrives on campus in 2022.
“It’s always been tight end,” he said. “The defensive coaches like to joke with coach (Derham) Cato that they want me on defense though.”
Prior to his commitment, Otton had collected more than a dozen Division I offers, including nine Pac-12 schools, and said he narrowed his choices to the Huskies, Oregon State and Stanford in June.
By choosing the Huskies, he continues an Otton era at UW that began in the summer of 2016, when his brother Cade also committed to the hometown program over several other Division I schools.
During his four seasons at Tumwater, Cade Otton broke several program receiving records – he finished with 95 catches for 1,705 yards and 33 touchdowns – in helping lead the T-Birds to a 47-5 record and four consecutive appearances in the 2A state playoffs. He was named the 2A state player of the year in 2016, as well as the 2A EvCo MVP, The Olympian’s All-Area player of the year and a TNT All-Area first-teamer.
After redshirting in 2017, Cade Otton has played in 31 consecutive games for the Huskies, including starting 27, compiling 776 receiving yards and eight touchdowns on 63 catches.
While the older Otton has carved out an important role in UW’s offense during his four seasons in Seattle, Ryan Otton said his decision to join the Huskies went beyond the fact that his brother also plays at UW.
“This is the place I wanted to go,” he said. “Cade being there — coach (Jimmy) Lake likes to joke sometimes — it’s kind of like having a spy in the building. But, he wanted me to go wherever I wanted to go. He’s been a big help for me in recruiting. I’m happy I made this decision.”
“Can’t wait to watch you blaze your own path at UW,” Cade Otton wrote on Twitter following his brother’s commitment. “Love you bud, GO DAWGS!”
Ryan Otton not only follows his older brother in joining a Division I football program, but continues a decades-long family legacy.
Sid Otton, his grandfather, played at Weber State before he became the all-time winningest coach in Washington state high school football history in 49 seasons at Coupeville, Colfax and Tumwater, where he compiled a 394-131 record.
Both of Sid Otton’s sons, Tim — Cade and Ryan Otton’s father, who is also Tumwater’s current defensive coordinator — and Brad also played Division I football at Weber State, and Brad later transferred to USC where he won a Rose Bowl with the Trojans in 1996.
Ryan Otton becomes the ninth commit to join UW’s 2022 class, joining two other four-star recruits in Liberty (Henderson, Nev.) wide receiver Germie Bernard and Timber Creek (Keller, Texas) athlete Emeka Megwa, and three-star recruits in East (Salt Lake City, Utah) defensive lineman Ben Roberts, Saguaro (Scottsdale, Ariz.) offensive lineman Parker Brailsford, Lincoln tight end Chance Bogan, Graham-Kapowsin offensive lineman Vega Ioane, Desert Ridge (Mesa, Ariz.) defensive end Lance Holtzclaw, and La Jolla (La Jolla, Calif.) quarterback Jackson Stratton.
This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 5:17 PM.
