Powell Makes Bears Pay on Field, Hopes to Make UW Pay for Him
The Washington-California football game began on Saturday night with redshirt freshman Mishael Powell in the starting lineup at cornerback, front and center, fully aware he was going to get picked on all night.
Midway through the second quarter, little-used freshman Javon Forward lined up at H-back to lead the blocking for a Husky running play, filling in for Jack Westover, who was out with an injury,
The game ended in overtime at Husky Stadium with a Cal fumble squirting loose into the end zone and smartly covered by sixth-year senior Ryan Bowman, good for a hard-pressed 31-24 UW overtime win.
All of these aforementioned Huskies had something else in common outside of their purple and gold uniforms — they are or once were walk-ons.
Free players.
Guys without scholarships, each making big-money plays.
Against the Bears, Powell was the first UW walk-on player to be entrusted with a starting assignment, filling in for the injured Trent McDuffie, since 2019 when bargain-basement inside linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio was sent out on the field for the opening bell at Colorado.
In uniform or street clothes, Powell, Forward, Westover, Bowman and Ulofoshio were their own special team, none of them holding up any recruiting rankings to speak of yet each mixing in among their blue-blood UW teammates and acting like they belonged.
"How about Meesh Powell?" Husky coach Jimmy Lake asked. "He goes out there and makes his first start. He plays solid football for us in a very impactful position. There are a lot of defenses we play and he was able to go out there and execute them."
Powell is the same guy who came out of Seattle's O'Dea High School and turned down an expensive Ivy League scholarship offer from Columbia, much to the disbelief of his parents, because he believed all along he could play Pac-12 football in his hometown.
The injured Trent McDuffie (22) watches Mishael Powell try to chase down a Cal receiver.
Stephen Brashear/USA TODAY Sports
While he got beat on a couple of pass plays by Cal's clever quarterback Chase Garbers — who didn't? — the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Powell came up with six tackles, which tied him for third on the team with Ulofoshio, and he forced a first-half fumble with a big hit.
The Huskies don't just encourage the non-scholarship types to come fill out the roster, they look for the not-so-obvious guys who can play in front of a big crowd and under the bright lights.
Powell is one of them.
Like the others, this cornerback will always be known as a walk-on, but he's the kind of guy, such as Bowman, Ulofoshio and Westover, who eventually gets paid, too.
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