It's Been Hard Being Caleb Presley, Who's Back in the Portal

It's been difficult being Caleb Presley since he emerged from Seattle's Rainier Beach High School as this 4-star cornerback.

He was the can't-miss player who had Washington and Oregon fighting over him before flipping to the Huskies late.

Presley was the guy labeled a local statement player, a program-builder for his actions, by Kalen DeBoer, the former Husky coach now at Alabama.

This week, he was a player on the move once more when he re-entered the transfer portal on Wednesday, leaving behind San Jose State, where he had spent a season after leaving the UW.

San Jose State cornerback Caleb Presley is entering the Transfer Portal. He played in seven games and had 22 tackles, three pass breakups, and one tackle for loss in 2025 and enters the portal with two years of eligibility remaining https://t.co/YX4Hil86T6 pic.twitter.com/bAEwRaXqJF
— Brandon Huffman (@BrandonHuffman) January 15, 2026

He's been on a curious career path after playing in just one Husky game, against Weber State in the 2024 season opener

He moved to San Jose State, where things got a little better but he still wasn't the player who all the analysts said he was.

At the UW, Presley was continually injured during his first season and initially didn't even suit up even for Husky home games.

Once he got going with the Huskies, he stayed buried on the depth chart. Quickness could have been an issue. He got beat a few times in scrimmages.

Caleb Presley makes a coverage play in UW football practice. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Presley gave Jedd Fisch's staff a try, but sat for much of a season and left three weeks into 2025 spring practice, feeling his time in Montlake was done, especially with Arizona transfers Tacario Davis and Ephesians Prysock pegged early on as the starting corners.

For the Mountain West team, he appeared in seven games, all as a sub, and finished with 22 tackles and 3 pass break-ups.

Presley was all DeBoer wanted to talk about when the coach opened up his recruiting news conference in December 2022. He had leaned of the corner's decision while at practice preparing for the Sugar Bowl and a CFP semifinals game against Texas.

"He can make a difference in our program, in showing what he can do, that this is the place to be, that staying home at Washington is what you're supposed to do," said DeBoer, who would counter that thought himself by heading to Alabama a month later.

Presley came to Washington in the Class of 2023 with fellow cornerbacks Leroy Bryant and Curley Reed, and now all three of them have left the program and gone to the transfer portal this year and last in search of something else.

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