Skip to main content
Inside The Huskies

As Portal Deadline Looms, Cook Has Words of Advice to Teammates Mulling Leaving

The sixth-year senior has been talking to Huskies considering a change of teams.
Dan Raley|
As Portal Deadline Looms, Cook Has Words of Advice to Teammates Mulling Leaving
As Portal Deadline Looms, Cook Has Words of Advice to Teammates Mulling Leaving

In this story:

Washington Huskies

Now that spring practice has ended, Alex Cook could be saying goodbye on Sunday to some of his University of Washington football teammates. With the transfer portal in play, players come and go like subway trains these days.

A year ago, a couple of Husky linebackers checked out. The season before, it was a bunch of wide receivers. Players have to declare by May 1 if they want to be eligible next fall.

Cook, however, is a sixth-year senior safety for the Huskies who's been through a lot in Montlake, has been talking to teammates who are on the fence after yet another coaching change to Kalen DeBoer and has a word of advice for the antsy:

Don't go.

"I tell them whether you leave or stay, it's going to be the same situation," Cook said after Saturday's scrimmage. "You still have to learn a new defense, have to build new relationships with coaches and earn your stripes."

Cook showed up at the UW in 2017 and redshirted as a wide receiver. In his second season, he came off the bench for 11 games before starting the Rose Bowl against Ohio State, again as a pass-catcher. 

He switched to safety and played mostly special teams in 2019 before finally becoming a full-fledged starter the past two years.

Cook could have got frustrated and left at any time over the painstaking process, yet he stayed in Montlake and will be part of the program for a half-dozen seasons by the time he's done. 

"I don't really see the value of leaving when you're already in a good spot here," he said.. "You're going to have to compete no matter where you're at, no matter where you are on the depth chart, one, two or three."

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Husky FanNation stories as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Husky FanNation on Facebook by searching: Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated

Follow Dan Raley of Husky FanNation on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Football