Inside The Huskies

Huskies' Grand Defensive Experiment Goes South

Caleb Smith becomes the latest to bail on Montlake for the transfer portal.
Dan Raley|
Caleb Smith works through a blocking-dummy drill in UW spring ball.
Caleb Smith works through a blocking-dummy drill in UW spring ball. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Caleb Smith was the great Husky experiment.

He was the Southern-polished defensive lineman persuaded to move three time zones away from home to see if he could give the University of Washington football team something Alabama and Georgia typically enjoy.

Maybe a sack machine.

A great disruptor swimming his way through waves of offensive linemen.

An impactful defensive presence.

"He's just scratching the surface in terms of what he's capable of doing," said Matt Doherty, UW senior director of player personnel, of Smith. "I would say of anybody, who I might predict, [and] I don't want to put undue pressure on the kid, his ceiling is extremely high. 

"What he did at the high school level was impressive, but it's not anything remotely close to what I think he can become from a physical standpoint."

Caleb Smith was an early enrollee freshman for the UW.
Caleb Smith was an early enrollee freshman for the UW. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Doherty and the rest of the Huskies will never know.

That's because the 6-foot-5, 270-pound Smith from Birmingham, Alabama, chose not to see things through and on Wednesday entered the transfer portal.

Smith came to the UW as an edge rusher and was making the transition to defensive tackle this past season.

By all indications, he was making progress, though he didn't appear in any games as most members of the freshman class did.

During the countless drills and technique tutorials last spring, Smith offered a glimpse of what he could do in practice No. 5 of 15, when he backpedaled into the left flat and impressively swatted down a Kai Horton pass. 

Linebackers and cornerbacks do that sort of stuff, not guys who line up in the front row. That would be his Husky highlight.

With the UW scouting him, Smith helped his Parker High team advance to Alabama's 6A state championship game and finish 13-1 in 2024. 

At first committed to Georgia Tech, he was pursued by many others, among them Missouri, Memphis, Oklahoma State and Purdue.

He actually signed with the Huskies a month before they hired former Purdue coach Ryan Walters as defensive coordinator, reconnecting those two in Seattle.

Caleb Smith makes a move during a UW spring drill.
Caleb Smith makes a move during a UW spring drill. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Yet now Smith is headed for points unknown, as one of 15 Huskies who have entered the transfer portal so far as the number of departures climbs to an uncomfortable level.

The UW has parted with a starting quarterback, its projected No. 1 running back, a starting wide receiver, a promising offensive lineman, a former starting linebacker and now an experiment that wasn't given enough time to see if it actually would pay defensive benefits.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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.

Home/Football