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UW Roster Review, No. 2-99: Powell Makes a Bid for Husky Relevance

The walk-on for the University of Washington ran with the No. 1 defense most of spring practice.
Dan Raley|
UW Roster Review, No. 2-99: Powell Makes a Bid for Husky Relevance
UW Roster Review, No. 2-99: Powell Makes a Bid for Husky Relevance

Usually you can tell the difference right away. The football player isn't nearly as physically defined as the others. He's a step slower. And he wears some really obscure jersey number. 

This aptly describes the typical University of Washington walk-on, the non-scholarship guy, of which there are many who annually join the program knowing full well they have no chance to ever appear in a regular-season game.

That isn't the case for cornerback Mishael Powell, who was front and center during the Huskies' recently concluded month of spring practices. 

He spent a lot of time with the No. 1 defense. Filled out, he resembled a scholarship player, though he is still responsible for paying for his tuition before and after spring break. He plays on, no charge.

Powell earned an extended opportunity to show what he can do in the top secondary as the Huskies elected to hold out All-America candidate Trent McDuffie of most scrimmage activity to let him concentrate on mentoring the younger players, if not ensure that he didn't get hurt needlessly. 

Either way, Powell afforded himself well when given the chance to audition in the morning workouts. He usually played opposite the other projected cornerback starter, Kyler Gordon, with no obvious falloff in coverage.

"We want guys who love football, first and foremost, fast and physical guys, and then guys who want to go to the NFL," Husky defensive-backs coach Will Harris said when asked about Powell. "And I think Meesh has just taken his game to another level."

Going down the roster in numerical order, this is another of our post-spring assessments of all of the Husky talent at hand, gleaned from a month of observations, as a way to keep everyone engaged during the offseason.

It was two years ago the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Powell emerged from Seattle's O'Dea High School and made it known he would rather play for the Huskies initially without financial assistance than accept a scholarship offer or monetary backing of some kind from the likes of Air Force, Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Yale and Eastern Washington.

Coach Jimmy Lake and Harris encouraged him to become a preferred walk-on, with the ability to earn that coveted college stipend plus considerable playing time. He was told he turned up in a year the UW wasn't focusing on a lot of secondary additions, that it was bad timing.

"They told me if I was a 2020 guy that I'd have an offer," Powell told 247Sports at the time. "So they definitely showed me a path to getting a scholarship, but they aren't just going to hand it to you."

After redshirting, Powell was a fall camp standout with the most interceptions of anyone, believed to be four, being opportunistic as the Huskies conducted a four-man quarterback competition to find a new starter. 

Powell didn't get on the field on game day largely because the pandemic limited the Huskies to just four outings and that cut minutes across the roster. 

With college football gradually returning to pre-COVID times, with full schedules and larger crowds returning, Powell should draw playing time in some manner, though the starting cornerbacks are pretty well set in McDuffie and Gordon. Powell still had a pass break-up in the spring game. A scholarship might not be too far off. 

Inside linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio and tight end Jack Westover have shown it's highly possible to show up without a scholarship and earn one, as they have over the past 17 months.

Unlike the usual walk-on, Powell looks overly muscular. Throughout the spring drills, he was usually step for step with the Huskies' gifted wide receivers. 

"As you can see, he's trimmed up a little bit," Harris said, "and he's honed in."

As for his jersey number, he wore the nondescript No. 34 all the way through spring practice before he requested and received 23 once it was over. 

The idea is that anyone who wears a Husky shirt in the 20s or lower is more likely a significant player rather than an afterthought.

For Powell, it shouldn't be long now before other rewards start showing up.

Powell's 2021 Outlook: Projected as a reserve cornerback

UW Service Time: None

Stats: None

Individual Honors: None

Pro prospects: None yet

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

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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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