Inside The Huskies

Husky Snapper Caleb Johnston Gets Transfer Portal Status In Order

He split those special-teams duties in every game except the season opener.
Dan Raley|
Former UW snapper Caleb Johnston (82) shakes hands with punter Jack McCallister, now both in the transfer portal.
Former UW snapper Caleb Johnston (82) shakes hands with punter Jack McCallister, now both in the transfer portal. | Skylar Lin Visuals

A non-scholarship long snapper usually doesn't have any bargaining power when it comes to changing college football teams -- because more often there's no sample of game-day work to shop around -- but Caleb Johnston would be the exception.

Still listed on the University of Washington roster and apparently headed with the team to the Sun Bowl, the 5-foot-11, 221-pound sophomore snapper from Ripon, California, posted on social media on Sunday how he officially has entered the transfer portal following some sort of hiccup in the process.

Johnston's football want ad should go something like this: Helped settle down the Huskies' early season snapping issues by handling all place-kick snaps over the final 11 games while splitting the job with Colorado transfer Cameron Warchuck, who pulled punt snap duty.

Caleb Johnston (82) joins the UW special-teams huddle.
Caleb Johnston (82) joins the UW special-teams huddle. | Skylar Lin Visuals

After beating Eastern Michigan 30-9 in the second week, UW coach Jedd Fisch explained Johnston's sudden ascension to game time in the following manner:

"With Caleb Johnston, he was snapping the ball well all week," Fisch said in his first media briefing during Apple Cup week. "We were having no issues. It was coming back with good speed, good velocity. it was hitting his point, hitting his mark, so we went with Caleb there.."

Johnston, a snapper, middle linebacker and running back at Ripon High School located halfway between Stockton and Modesto, joined the Huskies as a walk-on in 2022. He spent the next two seasons practicing but not playing for Kalen DeBoer's coaching staff, lining up behind scholarship snapper Jaden Green, who handled everything for four seasons uninterrupted.

Once Green graduated, Warchuck was brought in from Colorado to replace him, but it was not a smooth transition with a few errant snaps turning up early in the season.

Looking for a fix, the Huskies decided to use Johnston on the shorter snaps and Warchuck on the longer ones, and it worked.

Yet after his game-day breakthrough, Johnston is in the portal, likely seeking total snapping responsibilities somewhere, as well as scholarship assistance.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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