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Inside The Huskies

UW's Harrington Re-Enters Portal, Looking for Eighth Season Somewhere

The Oklahoma transfer has appeared in eight games for the Huskies.
Dan Raley|
Justin Harrington attempts to make a special-teams tackle for the UW against Eastern Michigan.
Justin Harrington attempts to make a special-teams tackle for the UW against Eastern Michigan. | Skylar Lin Visuals

As is the case with the randomness of the transfer portal these days, safety Justin Harrington emerged from it to play for the University of Washington football team this season and has chosen to re-enter it and see where he lands.

Coming from Oklahoma, he stuck around Montlake just long enough to introduce himself around in the locker room, get on the field for eight games largely on special teams and maybe one more, and plot ways to see if he can play an eighth year of college football somewhere else, aided by medical allowances.

The 6-foot-3, 209-pound Harrington from Raleigh, North Carolina, revealed he was back on the move on Friday with a social-media posting. He is believed to have accompanied the Huskies to the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, because he still appears on the online roster.

Outside of his fellow Huskies, Seattle never really knew him. In his short stay, he wasn't made available to engage in any media interviews to explain his journey or reveal his personality.

Harrington simply was a faceless No. 4 who made singular tackles against Washington State, Iowa and Indiana on the kickoff team, with the Sun Bowl possibly still to come for him. He didn't appear in games against Weber State, Rutgers, Michigan and Penn State.

Oklahoma safety Justin Harrington is shown at media day in 2023.
Oklahoma safety Justin Harrington is shown at media day in 2023. | NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

He came to the Huskies after four seasons at Oklahoma and two more on the JC level at Bakersfield College in California. He was the second Sooners defensive back to transfer to the UW over the past four seasons, joining Bookie Radley-Hiles, who was a Husky nickelback starter in 2021.

Chances are with a recently repaired knee and his advancing age, there isn't much left in the tank for Harrington, whose best chance to play at a high level came in 2023 when he started the first two games for Oklahoma only to get injured and be lost for the season. In all, he appeared in 19 outings while playing for Sooners coaches Lincoln Riley and Brent Venables.

He was still in recovery when he joined the UW football team and was eased into his limited role while never really a serious challenger for extended scrimmage time or a starting job.

If Harrington does indeed find another team that will give him an eighth year in 2025, he can remind his freshmen teammates how he got started at this level of football when they were midway through grade school.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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