Center: Dawson Deaton
Picking the center on the 2010s all-decade team is tough because it’s been the position where Tech has had the most reliable but not spectacular options. That’s why I’m going with the player that I think it the best and not the only who had the most accomplished career in this decade.
My pick is Dawson Deaton, the redshirt sophomore who started at center for the first time in 2019. The 2017 signee out of Frisco High School was tremendous for the Red Raiders this fall and was arguably the team’s best lineman (though left tackle Travis Bruffy could have had something to say about that).
Deaton earned Big 12 honorable mention honors this year making him one of three Red Raider centers to receive that recognition this decade. But what separates Deaton from the pack for me is that he did so despite a revolving door around him, especially early in the season when he was getting his feet wet at his new position. Don’t forget that Deaton held up tremendously while missing his normal right tackle, Jack Anderson, who was Deaton’s high school teammate, missed nine games in 2019.
You could make a case for Paul Stawarz as well. He was a two-year starter at center in 2017-18 after playing both guard positions in 2016 as a sophomore. The former JUCO transfer was an underrated force and steadying presence along a line where he was the only upperclassman starter his junior season and the only senior starter in his final year. He was also named honorable mention all-conference in 2017 and was named a Remington Award watch list member to begin 2018.
Jarred Kaster also deserves consideration. From 2012-15 he started 37-straight games and earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors as a senior. Finally, Tony Morales deserves some credit for his career, which included 12 starts at center in 2016 helping protect Pat Mahomes.
But in the end, Dawson Deaton is the guy I’d go with. Of this group, he is the only one that I could honestly say stood out from time to time with his play as it is often tough to recognize individual offensive linemen. And being just a sophomore and having already earned honorable-mention all-conference honors, he’s already at the level of Stawarz and Kaster with two more years to play. Thus he could in fact find his way onto the all-decade team for the 2020s as well.