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Inside The Huskies

McKee Puts Heart And Soul Into Husky Kicking

UW Roster Review: The Spokane product transferred in from Eastern Washington.
Dan Raley|
Hunter McKee (38) slaps hands with CJ Wallace during spring ball.
Hunter McKee (38) slaps hands with CJ Wallace during spring ball. | Dan Raley

One got the distinct impression during University of Washington spring football practice that Hunter McKee was living a dream.

He tried to stretch it out as long as he could -- or at least get it going before everyone else showed up.

More than once, McKee was the first player to wander out on the East Field, off in his own little world.

Four days before the Spring Game, the former Eastern Washington place-kicker emerged nearly a full hour before the 13th practice was called to order and he began running wind sprints from sideline to sideline by himself.

He switched to knee raises as he hopped the width of the artificial surface.

Before long, another kicker joined him, then another, and another, with these special-teamers arriving every 10 minutes until all of them were in attendance before any of the position players made an appearance.

For sure, the 6-foot-3, 211-pound McKee, a sophomore walk-on from Spokane, has some ground to make up in his first year in Montlake.

He's the third-team place-kicker behind Tyler Robles and CJ Wallace, who were pulled from the transfer portal and a high-level Los Angeles high school, respectively.

This is one in a series of articles -- going from 0 to 99 on the UW roster -- examining what each scholarship player and leading walk-on did in spring practice and what to expect from them going into fall camp.

With his considerable range, McKee probably has a much better chance of handling UW kickoff duties, which was his primary role in the Big Sky in 2025.

During team play this spring, McKee attempted four field goals and converted just one of them.

In the fourth practice, he missed wide left on a pair of 43-yarders, a situation made worse because Wallace was off target on 43- and 48-yarders, with all four of these misfires coming one right after the other and each one going wide left.

McKee regrouped by converting a 35-yarder in practice No. 9.

However, he lined up a 33-yard field goal in the 12th practice and sent it bouncing off the right upright, not the way he wanted his spring to wind down.

What he's done: As a freshman in 2025, McKee was the kickoff man for Eastern Washington and he put a foot into 51 of them, with 37 ending up as touchbacks, a notable rate. He also tried and missed on a 51-yard field goal attempt.

Starter or not: McKee has plenty of distance but still needs work on accuracy before he does anything except kick off. Should he earn that job, he would become the UW's second kickoff specialist from Spokane in as many seasons, replacing Ethan Moczulski, who's back at Illinois.

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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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