Breaking Up is So Very Hard to Do: Exiting Huskies' Last Words
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Things change, we know that. The makeup and fortunes of teams change. Dreams change. Young college football players all of a sudden feel the need to replace everything and everyone around them on the spur of the moment.
They enter the portal like they would climb aboard a city bus headed cross town. In each case, they request a transfer.
They no longer can wait for the team to evolve just how they want it or their individual situations no longer align right.
They turn in their jerseys, give the guys around them a final hug or simply disappear.
Such was the case for Taki Taimani, Terrell Bynum, Jacobe Covington and Jackson Sirmon.
University of Washington numbers 94, 1, 12 and 43. Veterans. A defensive tackle, wide receiver, cornerback and linebacker. Most of them starters. All of them Pac-12 opponents now.
Maybe a third UW coaching change was too much bear. Few players know how this feels, though there are former Huskies out there who previously answered to Rick Neuheisel, Keith Gilbertson and Tyrone Willingham during their time in Montlake.
Still, it's somewhat surprising when the disconnect happens. It's like the popular couple in high school that suddenly breaks up. How could those two lovebirds suddenly like each other and then not? So hot, then cold.
With Taimani, Bynum, Covington and Sirmon, they not only split from the Huskies, each ended up elsewhere in the conference. They're Ducks, Trojans and Golden Bears now. Which is a lot like going out with your best friend's ex-girlfriend or a former boyfriend.
Rather than call them traitors or losers or whatever they've heard from upset Husky fans since leaving Seattle, we realize they're still young guys, determined players, college athletes who got impatient, flattered or bored with football life in Montlake and needed to try something new..
The common denominator for each of them was this: all of these former UW player were fairly interesting to listen to, pleasant in demeanor, thoughtful even, while holding court over the past year with the Seattle media.
In recently cleaning out our extensive Husky video library, we came across some of their previous taped interviews and thought it was ironic, curious or impulsive in what was said and what eventually happened.
A couple of these former UW players will get a chance to start over after things didn't work out in Seattle the way they planned. Another simply went home. Yet another reunited with his father.
Taki Taimani (94) is shown against Arkansas State.
Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
We have a clip of Taimani coming off his finest UW performance as a defensive tackle in a game that took place in Oregon, though it was against Oregon State, and he offered a fairly profound vision for what guided him at the time. He knew his Husky history.
"It's just the standard of the people who played here before us, like Vita Vea, Greg Gaines, Josiah Bronson. You have all these guys who we've watched. They kind of set the tone. They showed us what Death Row defense is, what DLO and Junkyard Dawgs are and how a D-line should play. For me, that's my motivation. I want to hold that standard. I don't want that standard to drop. You see all the people who have come before me, all the Husky legends and you see how they play and the pride they took as D-linemen to stop that run and that Washington D-line is supposed to stop the run."
Yet three months later, Taimani was down the road to the Oregon Ducks, becoming the first UW player to join the program's chief Pac-12 antagonist in modern times, with two seasons of eligibility remaining. He'll face the Huskies on Nov. 12 in Eugene.
Terrell Bynum gets behind the Arizona secondary.
Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports
Bynum found himself entering Husky spring football in 2021 as the only older receiver remaining after nearly a half-dozen teammates had checked out. He spoke about getting to know their replacements, the transfers brought, and starting over.
"It was actually a little devastating, I would say, because I was super close to those guys, like outside of football. We still stay in contact so It's not like I thought it was going to be. The guys we're getting, too, I've talked to Giles [Jackson] and talked to Ja'Lynn [Polk] when they got here. They're super dudes, too, It's just new. You've just got to get to know them."
Eight months later, Bynum packed his bags and transferred to USC. He left just like his buddies months earlier. He better understood what those former UW pass-catchers went through. He headed home to Southern California to play a final season of college football and make new friends. The Huskies and Trojans aren't scheduled to play each other next fall.
Jacobe Covington is now at USC.
UW Athletics
Covington's departure from the UW was surprisingly swift after he spoke about stepping up his role with the Huskies. One minute, he was all on board; the next, he was down the road to USC, same as Bynum. After pledging his allegiance to becoming more of a team leader and upholding the longtime Husky secondary standards, he abandoned all of that. He must have received a harsh assessment of his prospects for moving up the depth chart and becoming a starter from the new staff.
"A lot of guys stayed so we know the standard. We didn't want to let the standard drop, learning from coach [Jimmy] Lake and everything. it's been good. We're just trying to keep the standard ... I love it up here. It's just home. It's home. I wasn't going nowhere. I love the fans. I love the city. Anywhere you go, you have to play football. I decided to stay up and stay loyal to the fans."
Twelve days later, Covington was in the transfer portal, no longer interested in the UW fans or those aforementioned standards. Something happened to him, that wasn't spelled out publicly, that made him make a quick exit. Two weeks following his departure, Covington joined USC. He and the Huskies will meet in 2023, unless it happens sooner in a postseason matchup this fall.
Jackson Sirmon (43) signals safety against Oregon.
Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
Whereas most accomplished college football players tend to play for their fathers who double up as coaches, Sirmon came to the UW and played against his dad, Peter, the California defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, and a former UW linebackers coach when Jackson was in grade school. Before last season began, the younger Sirmon was humored by the suggestion that he and his dad weren't together because they needed some football distance between them and that's why they were at competing schools.
"That's a funny question. No, I'm super tight with him. He's awesome. You know there's some things that just don't happen. It's not planned. It's not like I need a separation or anything. He'd be an amazing guy to play for and I'm sure all the guys down there love playing for him. Somethings just don't work out and that's just how it happened."
Five months later, Sirmon and his father were reunited in the current college football landscape when the son transferred to Cal. The linebacker later told others in the Bay Area he specifically left because he had the opportunity to play for his dad, which maybe wasn't there before, and he wanted to take advantage of it. He'll play against the Huskies on Oct. 22 in Berkeley, California.
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