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UW Roster Review, No. 2-99: Another Sirmon Preaches Determination

The latest in a long line from his family is highly motivated to make Husky inroads.
Dan Raley|
UW Roster Review, No. 2-99: Another Sirmon Preaches Determination
UW Roster Review, No. 2-99: Another Sirmon Preaches Determination

The teenaged quarterback should still be in high school, but he enrolled early at the University of Washington and at the beginning of April he came out for spring football practice.

On the fly, he had to learn the playbook, the Husky system, the college way.

By all accounts, this new guy held up fairly well under pressure and acclimated himself to the increased speed of the game at this next football level, and he made plenty of plays.

That was Sam Huard.

Camden Sirmon fit that description, too.

They seem like two dramatically different quarterbacks, but each followed relatives and family reputations to the UW. 

Huard came to the school with an athletic scholarship amid great fanfare as a 5-star recruit; the other guy joined everyone as this highly motivated walk-on who counted 2 stars on his recruiting profile.

On and off for a decade, Sirmons have been part of the Husky football program. 

Peter Sirmon, Cam's uncle, served as Steve Sarkisian's UW linebackers coach in 2012 and 2013 before all of them left for USC, and he's now California's defensive coordinator.

Cousins Jacob and Jackson Sirmon arrived together in 2018 to play quarterback and inside linebacker. Jacob left for Central Michigan in January, looking for a better quarterback opportunity for him; Jackson solidly remains a Husky, now entering his second season as a starter.

Cam Sirmon, who served as the UW's fourth-string quarterback throughout 15 spring football practices, might be the most determined of all of his football-minded relatives. 

Going down the roster in numerical order, this is another of our post-spring assessments of all of the Husky talent at hand, gleaned from a month of observations, as a way to keep everyone engaged during the offseason.

No question, this Sirmon, who switched from No. 20 to 18 once spring ball was over, is the gambler and scrambler of the family.

Cam and his family moved to Missoula, Montana, from Wenatchee, Washington, last year just so he could play his senior year at Sentinel High School. Washington state had delayed its schoolboy football to the spring, while Montana stayed on schedule.

As a 6-foot-1, 200-pound dual-threat quarterback, Sirmon led Sentinel to a 2A state championship and he was named that Montana classification's offensive MVP. He threw for 11 touchdowns and ran for another 11. Demonstrating his grittiness, he also played linebacker and on special teams.

Drawing more headlines, Sirmon orally committed himself to the University of Montana football program, another place with a family tradition. His uncle David Sirmon, Jacob's father, played linebacker for the Grizzlies' 1995 national championship team and his brother Cy was a starting center through 2019.

However, this Sirmon wanted an even bigger challenge. It mattered little to him that cousin Jacob had bogged down at quarterback with the Huskies, didn't play much and went elsewhere for game time.

In January, Cam Sirmon announced he was withdrawing his pledge from Montana and walking on at Washington. He gave up a possible scholarship offer to see if he could one in Seattle.

"After about a month of trying to figure out where I wanted to spend my next 5 years, I have come to [the] conclusion that the University of Washington will be the most advantageous opportunity for me to play at the highest level," he wrote on social media. 

Realistically, Sirmon had a far better chance of playing for Montana than at Washington, but that didn't deter him.

The Huskies haven't gone four deep in using quarterbacks in a season since 1972, when they had to start Sonny Sixkiller, Greg Collins, Dennis Fitzpatrick and Mark Backman after a rash of injuries kept disrupting the position. 

To move up several levels on the depth chart is asking a lot, but Sirmon continues to press on.

For now, Sirmon backs up sophomore returning starter Dylan Morris, sixth-year senior transfer Patrick O'Brien from Colorado State and that very highly regarded true freshman Sam Huard, and he'll push them as far and as long as he can.

Sirmon's 2021 Outlook: Reserve quarterback

UW Service Time: None

Stats: None

Individual Honors: None

Pro prospects: None 

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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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