Inside The Huskies

Willis Is Fourth Husky to Accept Senior Bowl Invite

Midseason injury aside, the offensive tackle had a successful year after transferring from Kansas State to the UW.
Dan Raley|
Carver Willis is shown on the sideline during the UW Spring Game.
Carver Willis is shown on the sideline during the UW Spring Game. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Except for a momentary midseason knee injury, Carver Willis can consider his one-year stay with the University of Washington football team a big success, and vice versa.

A Kansas State transfer, the offensive lineman came in and made the transition from right to left tackle look easy.

He put on more than 15 pounds after arriving in Montlake, pushing him well over the 300-pound level necessary for an NFL career.

He started 10 of the 13 games, missing time only after tearing his medial collateral knee ligament against Ohio State, which wasn't a season-ending malady.

He received an All-Big Ten honorable mention selection by both the coaches and the media.

He was chosen as the UW's offensive lineman of the year at the team awards banquet.

And this week, Willis accepted an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl, which will be held on January 31 in Mobile, Alabama.

After the UW went two years without a representative, Willis becomes the fourth Husky football player to receive and accept to what is considered the premier college all-star game, joining running back Jonah Coleman and cornerbacks Ephesians Prysock and Tacario Davis.

As a mobile and athletic offensive lineman, Willis should expect to be a second-day NFL Draft pick, with CBS Sports projecting him to go at No. 94, which would be late in the third round.

Now that he's put on the appropriate size and established himself as one of the Big Ten's top tackles last season, the Durango, Colorado, product accomplished what he primarily came to Seattle to do -- greatly improve his draft prospects.

Even the knee injury was a temporary setback, with Willis going down in the first half of a 24-6 loss to Ohio State and attempting to come back but being discouraged by the medical staff. He made a point to walk off the field on his own power.

The good news was he suffered an MCL tear and didn't damage the much more invasive anterior cruciate ligament.

"I tried to show I could go back in after half, but it became pretty clear after that that the decision wasn't up to me," he said. "Which I'm grateful for, because they had my best interests at heart."

Willis missed games against Maryland, Rutgers and Michigan, but he came back and finished strong all the way through the LA Bowl against Boise State, sharing in a 9-4 season with the Huskies.

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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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