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Ex-Huskies Garbers, Nacua Might Not Play Right Away for New Teams

Transfer rules and an UW objection might prevent both from being eligible for the upcoming season.
Dan Raley|
Ex-Huskies Garbers, Nacua Might Not Play Right Away for New Teams
Ex-Huskies Garbers, Nacua Might Not Play Right Away for New Teams

Ethan Garbers and Puka Nacua departed the University of Washington football program this offseason, but where did they really go?

Their social-media pronouncements said UCLA and BYU, respectively.

Quite possibly, unless the rules change — and that could happen this spring — the redshirt freshman quarterback from Newport Beach, California, and the junior wide receiver from Provo, Utah, could find themselves in transfer purgatory for the upcoming college football season.

Garbers, according to Bruins Report Online, has been blocked by the UW from playing right away after transferring within the conference, something the program successfully did in opposition to quarterback Colson Yankoff leaving the Huskies for UCLA in 2019.

The UW could waive the requirement, but reportedly so far has been unwilling.

As for Nacua, since he's not a graduate transfer, the pass-catcher would need to sit out the upcoming season at BYU under normal transfer rules.

Their only possible reprieve is coming NCAA legislation that goes to a vote in April and, if passed, would enable transfers to play immediately without penalty because of the pandemic.

The way it stands, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Garbers, whose older brother Chase is California's starting quarterback, could be idle for two full college seasons if everything is enforced. He sat out as a redshirt for the Huskies.

Nacua, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound speedster, transferred into BYU with his older brother, Samson, who left Utah as a graduate transfer, fully expecting to play together.

However, that won't happen if Puka has to sit out this fall. He missed a third of his freshman season for the Huskies with a broken foot and sat out the final game of four last year presumably with COVID-19.

Miss another season, and he might not play a full schedule until his fourth year as a collegiate player. Nacua appeared in 11 career games at the UW, starting six of them.

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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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