SEATTLE – Two weeks from Saturday four more players will enroll at the University of Washington to begin their college football careers.

Those four players – quarterback Ethan Garbers, tight ends Mark Redman and Mason West, and offensive lineman Geirean Hatchett – join four other members of the Huskies 2020 signing class who already enrolled back in January.

Of the eight combined players Garbers may well be viewed as one of, if not the most important.

Since the talented four-star Corona Del Mar High School product finished his final prep season with a CIF State Division 1-A championship and a perfect 16-0 record, Garbers’ focus has been on preparing to compete for the UW starting QB job once he arrives on campus March 28.

Over the past three months Garbers has gained 15 pounds, up to 205-pounds since his final game, in an effort to get his body in the best shape possible to handle the hits he knows will come at the next level.

Garbers said he hopes to get to 210, 215-pounds. To gain the additional weight he’s made several changes to his workout and diet.

“Yes, I’ve altered it quite a bit,” he said. “Eating is a huge part, mostly just the intake of how much food I’ve been eating has increased and just consuming healthier foods is instrumental to being healthy.”

Gaining a competitive edge is not new to Garbers. His father, Grant Garbers, played golf collegiately at the University of Georgia and raised both Ethan and his older brother Chase, a redshirt sophomore QB at Cal, with that mentality at the forefront.

While the incoming freshman won’t have a competitive advantage from an experience or game stand point, he will be on a slightly more level playing field with the two other quarterbacks on the roster, Jacob Sirmon and Dylan Morris.

Since December Garbers has had the UW offensive playbook and he added that he’s been “very invested in it” studying the Huskies offensive schemes over the past few months.

Garbers’ dedication to preparation is not restricted to preparing for Friday or Saturday night on the gridiron. When he isn’t training for football the elite signal-caller is putting in just as much work on the golf course to follow in his fathers’ footsteps.

“My dad got me so into it when I was younger,” he said. “But I wasn’t very good. So that drive to be good really pushed me to love the game.”

For comparison, former Cal Golden Bears and current Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has a 3.5 handicap. Washington head coach Jimmy Lake has around a 5 handicap, based on what Lake told Garbers when the two talked about the subject.

Ethan said realistically he has a 3 handicap.

“Oooooo I was going low (and) then I started to pull the ball more than I would like, so recently I tweaked a couple things and now I’m feeling pretty good I’ll be shooting around 70-77 now,” he said.

Garbers has gotten the opportunity to play a few rounds at Pebble Beach on the California coast but hasn’t had the chance to play at Chambers Bay Golf Course near the UW campus. He has, however, played at both Overlake and one other course in the area.

If Lake and Garbers decided to play each other on the course, the incoming freshman likes his chances.

“I think it would be a good match,” he said. “I might have to take him that day though.”