As UW Safety, Christian Will Try to Take People to the Cleaners

The Florida International transfer has transitioned well in his short time with the Huskies.

CJ Christian met with media members following Tuesday's practice. | Dan Raley

On a day when not much happened at University of Washington spring practice, with limited scrimmage time and a lot of tedious drills, leave it to transfer safety CJ Christian to change things up a little.

Meeting with the media, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound defensive back told how he got a job in his hometown of Normal, Illinois, once his college career got put on hold after he was ruled a non-qualifier at Division III Augustana.

Christian worked at a dry cleaners.

It was a little different than coming up and smacking a wide receiver or a running back.

"People would bring in like their loads and I'd have to take all of the stuff out of the pockets and bring it to the back," he said of a place called Starcrest Cleaners. "I was kind of [with] the front desk people. I didn't do the actual hard cleaning work."

Christian does the hard stuff now in pursuit of a starting safety job with the Huskies. So far, he's run a lot with the first-team defense.

He comes to Montlake after spending three seasons at Florida International and another at Iowa Central Community College.

He teamed with Husky offensive tackle Max McCree at the JC school and talked to him before committing last December.

"He was like, 'You're going to love it here -- it's not JUCO. It's got great resources, just everything,' " Christian said.

The defensive back fully intended to finish up at Florida International, where he started 20 of 27 games, but his coach Mike MacIntyre, who had previous stops at San Jose State and Colorado, got fired.

So Christian decided to leave, as well, and see where his football career would take him.

"I wanted to play at a bigger place against bigger teams," he said. "When I got into the transfer portal, Washington was one of the first teams to hit me up."

So now he's in Seattle, playing on the back row, with that dry cleaners front desk way behind him.

Observation No. 2: Mostly in seven-on-seven and nine-on-nine competition, Demond Williams Jr. had a reasonable afternoon throwing the football. He tossed a 35-yard touchdown pass to Rashid Williams -- Williams to Williams -- beating freshman cornerback D'Aryhian Clemons. In the subsequent celebration, both Williams did a little dance together, obviously rehearsed, in which the sophomores were hopping up and down.

Observation No. 3: Freshman offensive lineman John Mills, a guard throughout the first six practices, worked some at tackle on Tuesday. He's one of two first-year players up front who's expected to pull a considerable amount of game time, if not start, this coming season.

Javon Parker, looking more robust while in Achilles tendon recovery, leaves the field with his twin Armon (95) and Elinneus Davis. | Dan Raley

Observation No. 4: Defensive tackle Jayvon Parker, recovering from an Achilles tendon tear and not involved in spring practice, hasn't been just sitting around. Coming out to watch the latter part of practice, he looked huge through the biceps and lower trunk. He might be the strongest Husky on the team. Now listed at 6-foot-3 and 320 pounds, he's heavier than his twin brother Armon, who goes 315 and has always been the bigger brother.

Observation No. 5: Redshirt freshman safety Paul Mencke Jr., unable to prevent a 25-yard completion from Demond Williams Jr. to freshman Chris Lawson in a passing drill, came running off the East practice field hard and hit a concrete surface like it was a skating rink, sliding several feet on his cleats while letting out a "whoa" exclamation and then luckily catching his balance and not going down.

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