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Inside The Huskies

Husky Stadium Is One Busy Place as Spring Practice Looms

Players return, pro scouts are poised for Pro Day and Kalen DeBoer meets with the media.
Dan Raley|
Husky Stadium Is One Busy Place as Spring Practice Looms
Husky Stadium Is One Busy Place as Spring Practice Looms

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Washington Huskies

Husky Stadium couldn't be busier these days.

Jayden Wayne, the all-everything Tacoma edge rusher who should be considered priority No. 1 for the next University of Washington recruiting class, stopped by on Sunday for an unofficial visit and a photo with new coach Kalen DeBoer.

Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, co-defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell and DeBoer will meet with the media on Monday at noon to size up spring practice.

On Tuesday, the NFL-hopeful Huskies will go through their Pro Day workout for interested pro scouts.

Meantime, players such as defensive back Zakhari Spears and offensive tackle Robert Wyrsch were shown on Twitter leaving from California to rejoin their Husky teammates, part of the exodus of UW players pouring in.

And, finally, spring practice begins on Wednesday morning. 

Wayne, according to 247Sports, holds 40 scholarship offers. The 6-foot-5, 245-pound defensive player has been to all of the top college campuses and football programs since pandemic restrictions came off. 

He looks good in No. 18 in the purple and gold, yet will that become a regular thing or just a souvenir moment? The analysts are guessing that Alabama has the best shot at this Northwest must-have player.

DeBoer's staff has some heavy lifting to do with Wayne to keep him home.

Meantime, the Huskies, as they return from spring break, have 15 practices all the way to April 30 and some sort of spring game or competition.

Everyone gets to audition for playing time all over again with the new coaches.

The Huskies roughly return 11 full-time starters, though 40-plus players on the roster already have pulled a UW game-opening assignment at some point.

A year ago, Jimmy Lake was in charge of this football team. He had big expectations. He talked about annually filling Husky Stadium with fans for the spring game like they do elsewhere. Now he and nine of his coaches are no longer around. 

It's Kalen DeBoer's turn to try and make something happen, to last longer than Lake, to return the Huskies to football success.

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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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