Is Sirmon the Guy? 240 Days to Michigan
Jacob Sirmon, by virtue of the Las Vegas Bowl two-deeps, is the next man up to be Washington's starting quarterback.
Will the sophomore be ready for his big opportunity? Can he take over and flourish?
Spring football is less than three months away. For that matter, the Michigan opener is 240 days in the distance.
It should be noted that the 6-foot-5, 234-pound Sirmon, designated as a 4-star QB recruit when he came out of suburban Bothell High School, was so highly regarded as a young teen that he had a brief dalliance with the Wolverines.
During his recruitment in April 2016, he tweeted out that Michigan presented him with his fourth scholarship offer, joining Nebraska, Washington State and the UW as serious suitors. Think about it, he could have worn those flashy wings on his helmet and tried doing his own Tom Brady impersonation.
Sirmon, by arcane rule prevented by the UW from doing interviews as a freshman of any kind, had the following to say about Jim Harbaugh and Michigan when he was uncommitted, and sounded media-savvy enough.
"Coach Harbaugh does a great job coaching in general and coaching the quarterback position," Sirmon told 247 Sports at the time. "I'm familiar with what he did in the NFL. He'd be a great coach to learn from. Michigan is a program you know about if you know anything about the game of football.
"They're a real tradition-based program and they should win a lot of games under Coach Harbaugh."
Sirmon, as he heads up the Huskies quarterback competition and everyone gets to know him better, hails from a heavily concentrated football family.
His father, Dave, an associate professor in the UW Foster School of Business, was a linebacker for Montana and won a national championship in 1995. His uncle, Peter, was a linebacker for Oregon and the Tennessee Titans, coached linebackers at the UW and holds the same job at California. Cousin Jackson is a Huskies linebacker, a sophomore likewise bidding for a starting job.
His grandfathers were football players, too, and his little brothers are quarterbacks, according to this homespun KING-TV profile by Chris Egan.
Unconvinced he would play right away at the UW, Sirmon put his name in the transfer portal following spring practice last year before reconsidering and returning as a redshirt freshman. Maybe Eason pulled him aside and told him he was good for only a year with the Huskies.
In the lead video following the Apple Cup, Sirmon probably could have guessed that the other guy wasn't coming back to the Huskies, especially the way Eason was handing out hugs and backslaps that day.
Soon the kid from Bothell will get his chance. Before you know it, the Michigan opener will be here.
