Inside The Huskies

Macon Leaves Montlake After Just a Year with UW

The Oregon product came in as an interesting athlete carrying a lot of weight after being a championship wrestler.
Dan Raley|
Dominic Macon heads to the locker room following spring practice.
Dominic Macon heads to the locker room following spring practice. | Dan Raley

Dominic Macon bid an unusual farewell to the University of Washington football program without fully explaining himself when he announced on Sunday that he would enter the transfer portal.

The 6-foot-3, 310-pound Oregon product, coming off his true freshman year in which he didn't draw any Husky game time,

"Due to circumstances beyond my control, I'd like to announce that I'm entering the NCAA transfer portal," he wrote on social media.

Huh?

Maybe the fact that the UW picked up three veteran defensive linemen over the past week had something to do with his decision. To him, this probably meant he wasn't going to make much of a climb up the depth chart anytime soon this next season.

If his coaches weren't happy with him, Macon certainly would have left a lot sooner.

Macon is the fifth member of the Huskies' 2025 freshman class to exit the program after just one season, joining wide receivers Raiden Vines-Bright and Marcus Harris, linebacker Jonathan Epperson Jr. and fellow defensive lineman Caleb Smith.

What it appears is fewer and fewer players are simply willing to stick around and be developed anymore, which has always mandatory before on the FBS level, especially for offensive and defensive lineman.

UW defensive lineman Dominic Macon won an Oregon heavyweight wrestling championship.
UW defensive lineman Dominic Macon won an Oregon heavyweight wrestling championship. | SI

The transfer portal just encourages younger players to skip that step and take a chance in finding another interested school.

He seemed dedicated enough to the cause in Montlake when he came out to fall practice ahead of everyone else at times and worked alone on his steps and punching ability.

Macon arrived as a superb athlete for a big man after he won the Oregon 6A state heavyweight wrestling championship, finishing a perfect 33-0, as a junior at Adrienne Nelson High School in the Portland suburbs. 

A 3-star recruit, Macon played for three Nelson High football teams that advanced to the state playoffs and he earned all-conference recognition each time, from honorable mention to first-team honors. Besides wrestling, he also threw the shot and discus on the track team. 

The Huskies talked him up when he signed a year ago.

"He comes in with an incredible physical base," said Matt Doherty, UW senior director of player personnel. "Long arms, big trunk and obviously very, very powerful."

And he'll go out the door the same way, with Macon hoping someone will take him on with his big body and leverage skills from his wrestling career.

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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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