Washington center Landen Hatchett out for the season

Hatchett announced it himself on Instagram on Monday afternoon, and the screenshot was all over Husky Twitter within minutes.

Roman Tomashoff

@rtomashoff34

Landen Hatchett has announced he’ll miss the remainder of the season

This one hurts because of how long he fought to get back. Hatchett broke his wrist in the 42-25 win over Illinois last October, tried to play the next week at Wisconsin in a cast, got pulled from that game and had surgery in December. He had started 9 games at center as a junior co-captain before the injury. A broken scaphoid then cost him the first 5 games of this season, and Kolt Dieterich, a transfer from Sam Houston State, snapped the ball while he was out.

Once he was back, the difference showed right away. He played against Iowa, then took every snap at center the following Friday at Purdue for the first time since Illinois. Washington ran for 186 yards that night, its most in 9 games across 2 seasons, and gave up 1 sack after allowing 18 over the previous 3 games. Two games in, the line finally looked like itself again.

Then this. ESPN's Adam Rittenberg pointed out that this isn't Hatchett's first run of bad luck. He has started games in each of the last 3 seasons and dealt with injuries in 2 of them.

Adam Rittenberg

@ESPNRittenberg

Washington center Landen Hatchett, who has started games in each of the past 3 seasons but has dealt with injuries in the last 2, announced on IG that he won't return this season after being evaluated for a head, neck and spine injury. t.co/GAL3UVcYqw

With a head, neck and spine evaluation, football is the second question. Shutting it down is the right call, and nobody in Seattle should be arguing with it. Jedd Fisch praised Hatchett's leadership of the offense and the running game, and the Purdue numbers back that up. You can't just slot someone in and replace that.

Next up for the line, Dieterich is expected to slide back over to center after recently playing left guard. That fixes one spot and opens another, and the depth the Huskies spent September begging for is gone again.

The timing is brutal too. Washington goes to Lincoln to play Nebraska on Saturday, October 31, at 8 p.m. ET on BTN. It's the first time the Huskies have played there since 2011, when Nebraska won 51-38. A rebuilt interior line on the road at night is the storyline to watch, and the guy who made the run game work for 2 weeks will be watching from the sideline.