Inside The Huskies

Seeking D-Linemen, Huskies Turn Attention to Former Miami Player

Donta Simpson entered the portal rather than follow his team through its CFP outings.
Dan Raley|
Donta Simpson is in the transfer portal and lists the UW among those showing interest in him.
Donta Simpson is in the transfer portal and lists the UW among those showing interest in him. | Simpson

With Brycer Butler, Ta'ita'i Uiagalelei, Simote Pepa and Logan Sagapolu either transferred or graduated, and the Parker twins battling to regain their health, the University of Washington is nearly running on empty when it comes to defensive tackles.

It's Elinneus Davis and not much else in terms of available and experienced bodies.

One option could be 6-foot-3, 300-pound Donta Simpson, formerly of Miami and a freshman defensive tackle who opted for the transfer portal rather than follow the Hurricanes into the College Football Playoff and a semifinal match-up against Ole Miss.

Over the weekend, Simpson posted he apparently holds offers from Illinois, SMU, Texas and Washington.

He's scheduled to visit the Illini on Wednesday, according to published reports.

If Simpson were to transfer to the UW, he would become the third former Hurricane player to come to Montlake in the past three seasons, joining edge rusher Jayden Wayne, who's now at California, and Sagapolu, who's finished as a college tackle.

This past season, Simpson appeared in eight games for Mario Cristobal's team and collected 4 tackles.

From Hollywood, Florida, he was a 3-star recruit from Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School who originally committed to Maryland and Mike Locksley following a memorable recruiting outing in June 2024

"I already told coach and them I'm coming," Simpson told Inside the Black and Gold at the time. "We went to dinner on the boat that night and we sang karaoke and I told everyone then. It felt like family, family vibes up there."

Two months later, Simpson attended a recruiting barbecue and flipped to Miami right as his senior high school season was beginning.

Donta Simpson has the UW among the schools showing portal interest in him.
Donta Simpson has the UW among the schools showing portal interest in him. | Simpson

The attraction to this defensive tackle is he possesses a lot of quickness for someone his size. After getting playing time parceled out for one of college football's better teams, he just needs to draw a lot of snaps and show what he can do.

With their position numbers so low, the Huskies likely are shopping for more than one defensive lineman, especially with the Parker twins so injury prone and largely unavailable over the past couple of seasons.

The UW has an offer out to 6-foot-2, 280-pound senior defensive tackle Ezra Christensen, who's formerly of New Mexico State and Fresno State and this past weekend hosted 6-foot-2, 318-pound DeShawn Watts of Sacramento State.

While the Husky defensive linemen were fairly stout this past season, the program really hasn't had a dominant player up front on defense since Vita Vea in 2017, when the 6-foot-4, 347-pounder used that season to go to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the 12th overall pick of the NFL Draft.

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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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