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DeBoer Explains Departure of Center Owen Prentice

The Husky coach gracefully describes the player's decision to leave.
Dan Raley|
DeBoer Explains Departure of Center Owen Prentice
DeBoer Explains Departure of Center Owen Prentice

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Washington Huskies

Kalen DeBoer is a coach a lot of people want to play for. He's also a guy you want on your side when you don't want to play football anymore.

Ever diplomatic, the second-year University of Washington coach on Friday was asked about the departure of sophomore center Owen Prentice, a once very highly regarded recruit out of Seattle's O'Dea High School, and he handled the situation with a certain amount of grace.

"Owen decided not to play football anymore," DeBoer said. "He's a phenomenal young person. He's leaving the game on great terms. It was not an easy decision for him."

The 6-foot-3, 304-pound Prentice once held scholarship offers from 15 schools, among them LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, UCLA and USC.

However at Washington, he spent two seasons in the trenches, practicing but not playing on Saturdays. He got trial runs at guard and at center.

Prentice likely determined he either couldn't or didn't want to do more to climb the depth chart in a highly competitive situation.

"Look at the line and look what your future is and what's important to you," DeBoer said. "He does great in school and it was just kind of a change of heart of what he wants to do."

Realistically, Prentice's departure also coincided with the arrival of freshman Landen Hatchett, who has made an immediate impact with his ability to compete physically right away. 

While Hatchett might have to do more watching than playing this upcoming season, all indications are the newcomer from Ferndale, Washington, could be the next great Husky center for a number of years.

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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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