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Curne Becomes 7th Husky to Enter Portal Since Regular Season End

The two-year starter at offensive tackle lost his job to Roger Rosengarten.
Dan Raley|
Curne Becomes 7th Husky to Enter Portal Since Regular Season End
Curne Becomes 7th Husky to Enter Portal Since Regular Season End

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Washington Huskies

Early in the 2019 Las Vegas Bowl, Victor Curne took over at right tackle for the University of Washington as a redshirt freshman, dominated the Boise State player opposite him and never came out of the lineup for two-plus years.

In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season that lasted just four UW games, the 6-foot-4, 320-pound Texan was even recognized by the conference coaches with All-Pac-12 honorable-mention recognition for his limited but steady play.

On Wednesday, however, Curne to no surprise entered the transfer portal after a lost season with the new Kalen DeBoer coaching staff. He gave up his starting job to a younger player who burst onto the scene much like he once did — to redshirt freshman Roger Rosengarten.

The Houston product becomes the seventh UW scholarship player to turn to the portal since the end of the regular season, joining safety Cam Williams (Georgia Southern),  cornerback Zakhari Spears (Connecticut), defensive tackle Kuao Peihopa (Hawaii), wide receiver Lonyatta Alexander Jr., tight end Caden Jumper and linebacker Daniel Heimuli.

Curne was widely heralded as a promising recruiting pick-up when Chris Petersen's UW staff signed him in 2018, as this big-framed player with plenty of athleticism.

Yet, he drew a great deal of the blame for the offensive-line fall-off of 2021, repeatedly getting beat on the corner during the Huskies' 4-8 downturn.  

In fact, it was Curne's missed block that enabled a blitzing Oregon State defender to sack quarterback Dylan Morris on the blindside and send everyone rolling into then-fellow UW offensive tackle Jaxson Kirkland and injuring him.

No one would say this publicly, but Curne's biggest issue might have been his body becoming sloppy rather than well-defined as the new staff demanded.

Consequently, Curne lost his job to Rosengarten last spring, had a trial at offensive guard, moved back to tackle and appeared in just three games this past season.

He leaves with a season of eligibility remaining after playing in 26 UW games, starting 16 of them. 

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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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