Inside The Huskies

Fresno Fireworks Show Will Enable Haener, Jones to Pad Stats, Attract Pros

The former Husky quarterback and wide receiver reunite with the pass-happy Mountain West team.
Dan Raley|
Fresno Fireworks Show Will Enable Haener, Jones to Pad Stats, Attract Pros
Fresno Fireworks Show Will Enable Haener, Jones to Pad Stats, Attract Pros

This just in from the University of Washington's Fresno campus: Former Husky quarterback Jake Haener now gets to throw practically whenever and however many times he wants.

Fresno State released a graphic that shows Haener with the eighth-best passing yardage game in school history — 485 against Nevada — and his name etched in the record book alongside the luminous Derek Carr, Dave Telford, David Carr, Trent Dilfer and Kevin Sweeney, all with similar games, some with more than one.

Brothers Derek and David Carr, of course, advanced to the NFL, as did Dilfer, who made the Seattle Seahawks one of his stops. Sweeney is the son of former Washington State coach Jim Sweeney, who coached the Bulldogs. Telford? He played his high school football in Stanwood, Washington, and is now an Indiana State assistant coach.

Haener, who left the UW on the eve of the 2019 season after getting beat out by Jacob Eason, could have been the starter in Seattle now had he not been so impatient. Or maybe not. 

Either way, he gave up the chance to quarterback a now veteran-laden UW team in favor of building a better passing portfolio for the NFL to see. No one faults him for that.

Spotting these potential offensive fireworks, senior wide receiver Ty Jones last month left the Huskies and his starting job on the flank to join Haener at Fresno State and maybe pad his stats for stronger pro-football consideration. No one holds that against him either.

Jones was one of the first to retweet Haener's record-book notoriety, anticipating a lot of offense to come for everyone next fall.

It's almost as if these two one-time Huskies exited the prestige of a traditional maybe now run-first Power 5 program for a seven-man passing league, considering the frequency that Fresno airs it out.

In his first season with the Bulldogs, the 6-foot-1, 194-pound Haener started six games and completed 150 of 232 passes for 2,021 yards and 14 touchdowns. 

At Washington in a reserve role behind Jake Browning, he threw 13 times and connected on 9 for 107 yards, a touchdown and one fateful pick-six interception against California.

For Fresno State, Haener averaged a league-leading 336.8 passing yards per game. He had consecutive 400-plus games. He was selected Mountain West honorable mention.

What the glossy graphic doesn't tell you is this: Haener and his pass-happy teammates lost that December 5 game to Nevada, 37-26. 

Playing catch up, he threw 65 times, completing 41 for a pair of scores. 

The Bulldogs, who finished with a 3-3 record, trailed nearly the entire game in Reno, and by as many as 17 points. 

Hopefully the pros are interested only in his passing stats, not the win-loss column.

Published
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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