Inside The Huskies

Former Vanderbilt LB Barr Makes It Official He's UW-Bound

He's the latest of a number of SEC transfers to join the Huskies.
Dan Raley|
Former Vanderbilt LB Barr Makes It Official He's UW-Bound
Former Vanderbilt LB Barr Makes It Official He's UW-Bound

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Washington Huskies

No one complains anymore about the lack of locally produced scholarship players on the University of Washington football roster.

Kalen DeBoer's coaching staff raised the bar. To win a national championship — and the Huskies are two games away from doing just that — the personnel has to come from a much wider canvas.

On Saturday, former Vanderbilt linebacker Ethan Barr announced on social media that he is, indeed, joining the UW for the 2024 season.

His addition is noteworthy because he becomes the fourth player from the vaunted Southeastern Conference, considered the holy grail of college football, in recent seasons to come to Seattle.

It began with former Texas A&M edge rusher Jeremiah Martin, a Jimmy Lake signee who became a 2022 first-team All-Pac-12 selection for DeBoer's staff; followed by one-time Mississippi State running back Dillon Johnson, who became a recent second-team All-Pac-12 pick and a 1,000-yard rusher; followed by ex-Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers, the SEC's second all-time leading passer and a holder of 29 school records; and now Barr, a native Texan turned Tennessean and now headed to Montlake.

To beat the SEC, you have to be the SEC.

While the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Barr no doubt got a great education at Vanderbilt, his football prowess has never been properly put on display. He comes from a Commodores program that lost 27 of 36 games in the four years he was there to a UW team that's gone 24-2 over the past two seasons.

A three-year starter and two-time captain, Barr will be brought in to compete for a starting job in 2024 with returning starter Alphonzo Tuputala, reserve yet All-Pac-12 honorable-mention pick Carson Bruener, well-utilized senior walk-on Drew Fowler and current speedy freshmen Deven Bryant and Jordan Whitney.

Since DeBoer took over, the Huskies have turned to the transfer portal multiple times for one-year linebackers, bringing in Cam Bright from Pittsburgh and Kris Moll from UAB in 2022, and Ralen Goforth from USC for this season.

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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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