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Inside The Huskies

Walk-On Edge Rusher Chooses to Leave Huskies

Jayleel Heath spent two seasons in Montlake but didn't see any game action.
Dan Raley|
Walk-On Edge Rusher Chooses to Leave Huskies
Walk-On Edge Rusher Chooses to Leave Huskies

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Washington Huskies

At its peak, the University of Washington football roster this past season counted 116 players. Nearly a third were walk-ons, or those without scholarships and most likely name, likeness and image deals.

The unpaid show up to live out a dream, surprise the coaches and somehow convince people that they, as the unsung and often undersized, belong on the field on game day.

Jahleel Heath, a 6-foot-1, 235-pound edge rusher from Oregon City, Oregon, was one of those. On Monday, however, he disclosed on social media that he was entering the transfer portal and moving on to points unknown.

A redshirt freshman, he spent two seasons in the UW program, one with Jimmy Lake in charge, the other answering to Kalen DeBoer's staff. 

Of those aforementioned 116 Huskies, 23 ended this past season still without having pulled a UW game-day snap in their careers. Heath was one of them.

After two seasons in Montlake, it was time for this guy to move on, maybe drop down a level, to improve his odds of playing college football somewhere.

The year before, another Oregon-produced player, Brody Reese, a 6-foot-1, 310-pound defensive tackle from Hillsboro, left the UW program after a season and walked on at Tulsa. Center Will Pliska went from Husky walk-on after four years to Texas walk-on, joining the Longhorns while entering a graduate program and took part in Alamo Bowl festivities.

Heath dressed for a few games early in the season, even took a postgame photo with his friend and Portland State running back Ahmir McGee, following their non-conference outing at Husky Stadium.

For two years, Heath wore No. 50, a number that made him the defensive opposite of the Huskies' Myles Murao, a scholarship offensive lineman.

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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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