Inside The Huskies

Bryce Butler Joins List of Portal-Bound Huskies

The defensive tackle played in 15 games for the UW, starting once.
Dan Raley|
Bryce Butler holds up the Huskies' first fumble recovery of the season from the Apple Cup.
Bryce Butler holds up the Huskies' first fumble recovery of the season from the Apple Cup. | Dave Sizer photo

Every once in a while, Bryce Butler blew something up. on the football field.

Coming out of a stance, the 6-foot-5, 320-pound University of Washington junior defensive lineman stuck his nose in there and recovered a fumble at Washington State, slipped through and collected a sack against Rutgers and crashed into the backfield at UCLA and wrestled down another sack.

He was part of the three-headed monster that represented one Huskies' defensive tackle spot, basically sharing it with sophomore Elinneus Davis and senior Anterio Thompson, with each drawing starts in that role.

Defensive coordinator Ryan Walters once even described Butler as violent.

Yet on Tuesday, Butler reportedly became the the sixth UW player ready to try his luck with the transfer portal and seemed to bid farewell to the Huskies with a social-media posting.

A Canadian originally from Toronto, Butler spent two years at Garden City Community College in Kansas, where Jedd Fisch's staff found him and signed him for Arizona, then coaxed him to pivot to Montlake once Fisch changed jobs.

He played in 12 games this past season for the Huskies, starting once against UC Davis, and 15 outings over two seasons.

He finished with 24 tackles, those 2 sacks and the fumble recovery. For whatever reason, he didn't take part in the LA Bowl against Boise State.

Butler was good enough to become a regular part of the Husky rotation, but couldn't dislodge Davis or Thompson and make himself a full-fledged starter.

This trio played opposite senior Tai'ita'i Uiagalelei, who was a 13-game starter in the other down lineman slot even though he was a starting edge rusher the season before at Arizona.

Bryce Butler puts a heavy rush on Ohio State QB Julian Sayin.
Bryce Butler puts a heavy rush on Ohio State QB Julian Sayin. | Dave Sizer photo

No doubt he was looking for a bigger role than the UW was willing to give him, which appears to be the driving force that has him and each of his teammates to the portal.

Previously revealing their intentions to leave were sophomore wide receiver Audric Harris, sophomore linebacker Deven Bryant, senior nickelback Dyson McCutcheon, redshirt freshman center Davit Boyajyan and sophomore cornerback/nickel Leroy Bryant.

Of this group, Deven Bryant was a 10-game career starter, Leroy Bryant opened six games, Harris started once, and Boyajyan and McCutcheon not at all.

Butler has at least one season of eligibility remaining, though it could be more if the NCAA gives waivers to those with junior-college backgrounds as has been discussed.

Either way, his size and UW experience should prove attractive for someone to pick him up.

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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.

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