Inside The Huskies

DeGraaf, Twice a Freshman All-American, Destined to be One of UW's Best

The first-year player is on a fast track similar to Mark Bruener and Austin Seferian-Jenkins.
Dan Raley|
Decker DeGraaf catches a 41-yard touchdown pass against Eastern Michigan.
Decker DeGraaf catches a 41-yard touchdown pass against Eastern Michigan. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Of the University of Washington freshmen football players, Demond Williams Jr. proved to be the most visible when he was anointed as the future face of the Huskies and took over as the quarterback starter when the regular season pulled to a close.

Now in the transfer portal, linebacker Khmori House was good early on, receiving Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors for his performance against Northwestern, and also late, when he made a huge fourth-and-1, goal-line stop to preserve a victory over USC.

Maybe not so obvious, tight end Decker DeGraaf was better than all of his UW first-year peers, as well as unmatched in his class nationally at his position.

Decker DeGraaf has that happy feeling that comes from scoring a Husky touchdown.
Decker DeGraaf has that happy feeling that comes from scoring a Husky touchdown. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Over the past week, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound newcomer from San Dimas, California, twice was named as a first-team Freshman All-America selection, first by College Football Network and next by 247Sports.

All of which means DeGraaf is on a fast track to become the next great tight end at Washington and someday he'll be NFL-approved.

Going back more than three decades, DeGraaf already finds himself in the company of Mark Bruener and Austin Seferian-Jenkins -- Husky freshman tight ends who were never going to redshirt and needed almost no time to get acclimated to big-boy football.

For the UW's 1991 national championship team, Bruener, father of Carson, played in every game as the No. 2 tight end and capped off his freshman season in the Rose Bowl with a 5-yard touchdown catch in a 34-14 victory over Michigan. He became a 33-game starter, twice a first-team All-Pac-10 selection and an NFL first-round draft pick.

Twenty years later, Seferian-Jenkins made an even bigger splash, starting 10 Husky games immediately as a freshman and 35 games overall in his three seasons in Montlake, catching a school-record 146 career passes for his position, twice earning second-team All-Pac-12 honors and becoming a second-round NFL draftee.

Now comes DeGraaf, who started for the first time against Michigan in his sixth Husky game, this after catching a 33-yard touchdown pass against Weber State on his very first college play in the season opener. Overall, he's opened five games. Talk about coming in ready to play.

Entering the Sun Bowl, DeGraaf currently stands at 14 catches for 149 yards and 3 scores, which is eight more receptions than Bruener had and 27 fewer than Seferian-Jenkins when they were first-year Huskies.

DeGraaf has been good right away and should be good for a long time.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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