Inside The Huskies

Gayton Proved His Point, Played In Husky Game and Left

The walk-on wide receiver from Southern California left before the bowl game for the transfer portal.
Dan Raley|
Luke Gayton stiff arms Rahshawn Clark in the UW Spring Game.
Luke Gayton stiff arms Rahshawn Clark in the UW Spring Game. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Luke Gayton gave it two seasons. And once he got into a University of Washington football game, he was gone.

Not for the end zone. Not for a first down. Not for another down.

By the time the Huskies were ready to play Boise State in the LA Bowl -- in his hometown -- 6-foot-1, 195-pound redshirt freshman receiver Luke Gayton had removed himself from the roster and moved on.

He was a walk-on, one of a rapidly decreasing amount of non-scholarship players on Power 4 teams these days, who showed up at the UW basically to prove he could fit in, which he did, and that seemed to be enough.

On Thursday, Gayton from Palos Verdes, California, made it official what his recent absence had suggested all along -- that he was heading for the transfer portal, looking for a new football gig.

From the looks of what he did in practice for the Huskies, he might entertain the thoughts of becoming a Mountain West or Big Sky pass-catcher, of going somewhere he could play.

Athletic enough. Good hands. Plenty of swagger.

In Montlake, however, Gayton had the misfortune of playing at a time the Huskies brought in possibly their best class of freshmen receivers ever in Dezmen Roebuck, Raiden Vines-Bright, Chris Lawson, Marcus Harris and Deji Ajose.

One of them finished as the UW's second-leading receiver. Two of them started. Three of them played a lot right away.

Gayton made his walk-on breakthrough when the coaching staff sent him in at the end of a 48-14 victory over UCLA for a few plays -- again, in his hometown.

Once the regular season ended, his name dropped from the roster without any fanfare and hardly any notice with him apparently having made up his mind to exit and not hang around for the game at SoFi Stadium.

Unfortunately for him, his Husky online profile says he never appeared in a game, though offensive coordinator Jimmie Dougherty verified otherwise.

"Luke came in and gave us some relief," Dougherty said. "Another guy who's made a lot of plays in those basics periods. He's done a nice job for us."

Gayton showed up at the UW after catching 124 passes for 2,014 yards and 26 touchdowns over three seasons at Palos Verdes High School.

Luke Gayton ponders his next move in UW spring practice.
Luke Gayton ponders his next move in UW spring practice. | Skylar Lin Visuals

He leaves Montlake after making everyone look at him in spring ball when he made an extra difficult, one-handed grab of a 10-yard throw from freshman Dash Beierly for a touchdown in Husky Stadium.

In wrapping up his time at the UW, Gayton was by far the best walk-on of this past spring football. For the 2024 season, he was named the offensive scout team MVP.

He proved something probably more to himself than anybody else. Now he's off to see if can find someone to use him for more than a few plays against UCLA.

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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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