Inside The Huskies

Huskies Pick Up Third DL in Mississippi State Player

Kai McClendon will become the third player from that SEC school to join the UW in recent seasons.
Dan Raley|
Mississippi State defensive lineman Kai McClendon prepares to face Arizona State.
Mississippi State defensive lineman Kai McClendon prepares to face Arizona State. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Defensive tackle has shown itself once more to be the University of Washington football team's leading priority in the transfer portal -- especially with the quarterback position settled once more -- with the Huskies gaining a commitment on Friday from Mississippi State's Kai McClendon.

The 6-foot-2, 315-pound McClendon, however, comes with a bit of a risk involved: the sophomore is coming off an ACL knee injury suffered in spring football last year, one that forced him to sit out the entire 2025 season.

He is the third defensive lineman the UW has lined up for next season after earlier signing Sacramento State's 6-foot-2, 318-pound junior DeSean Watts and Ball State's 6-foot-3, 284-pound junior Darin Conley.

The Huskies are looking for someone to come in and open alongside returning junior Elinneus Davis, who was a nine-game starter this past season.

When McClendon was healthy, he made an impact right away for his SEC team, appearing in 12 games and starting the last five of the season as a true freshman in 2024.

He finished with 30 tackles, which included 2 tackles for loss and a half sack for the 2-10 Bulldogs. He has three seasons of eligibility remaining.

McClendon will become the third Mississippi State player to join the Huskies in the past four seasons, following running back Dillon Johnson and quarterback Will Rogers to Montlake. The UW can only hope to get similar production out of this guy as it did the others.

Johnson became a 1,195-yard and 16-touchdown rusher and a second-team All-Pac-12 selection for the UW's 14-1 team that finished as the 2023 national runner-up.

Rogers started the first 11 games for the Huskies in 2024 and threw for 2,458 yards and 14 touchdowns before the team was handed over to then freshman Demond Williams Jr. as part of the rebuild in place.

He finished with 12,315 yards and 94 touchdowns while he was at Mississippi State, making him one of the SEC's most prolific passers.

Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson is tackled by Mississippi State's Kai McClendon (90) and linebacker Stone Blanton (7).
Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson is tackled by Mississippi State's Kai McClendon (90) and linebacker Stone Blanton (7). | Caitie McMekin/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

McClendon hails from Gulfport, Mississippi, where he was a 3-star recruit in the class of 2024 at Gulfport High School. He appeared in the annual Alabama-Mississippi all-star game. Though he ended up at an SEC school, he wasn't heavily recruited.

He became part of the Bulldogs' rotation right away in his first year and then moved into the starting lineup for the latter half of the season, where he compiled most of his stats. He had a high game of 4 tackles against Tennessee.

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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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