Inside The Huskies

Xe'ree Alexander Came to Huskies as Linebacker Bearing Gifts

He had his moments, including bowl game MVP, in his first season in Montlake.
Dan Raley|
Xe'ree Alexander turned in an MVP performance at the LA Bowl.
Xe'ree Alexander turned in an MVP performance at the LA Bowl. | Dave Sizer photo

This past University of Washington football season, Xe'ree Alexander showed up like a secret Santa Claus.

The Central Florida linebacker transfer came bearing gifts that people weren't necessarily expecting.

After playing behind Buddah Al-Uqdah and Deven Bryant throughout spring football and into the regular season, the 6-foot-2, 242-pound junior from Auburn, Washington, wound up starting five of the final six games for the Huskies and it turned out very well for him.

He was selected as LA Bowl Defensive Most Valuable Player in the UW's 38-10 victory over Boise State for leading his team with 7 tackles, intercepting a pass and returning it 29 yards, swatting down two others, coming up with a sack and making a fourth-down stop that forced a change of possession.

Alexander also had one other stocking stuffer that he put on display in this postseason outing -- he returned the second-half kickoff 22 yards.

"It's amazing to end it this way," he said of his season. "But it's truly just like coming to work every day. My thought process never changed. I was just coming to work every day trying to beat the guy in front of me, but also encourage my teammates and lead them."

The thing about Alexander is he looks and acts like a laid-back surfer ready at any time to tackle big waves, such as the ones that weren't too far from him in Malibu while he was in town.

Clearly this even-keel mentality led to him having a most satisfying season in Montlake, even though he had to pay some dues early on plua add 20 pounds to his frame to make himself Big Ten ready.

Alexander grew up in the Seattle area, playing for Kennedy Catholic High School, but he was pegged as a Big Sky linebacker and ended up at Idaho for an FCS season. Successful and ambitious enough, he transferred to Central Florida for a year in the Big 12.

Everything went well at each stop. At the two schools combined, he started 13 of 25 games and finished with 143 tackles, piling up a personal-best 17 in a Central Florida game against West Virginia in 2024.

Xe'ree Alexander makes the tackle on special teams in the LA Bowl.
Xe'ree Alexander makes the tackle on special teams in the LA Bowl. | Dave Sizer photo

For the Huskies, he simply got better as the season went on and his minutes increased. He provided a team-high 12 tackles against Illinois and 10 more at Wisconsin.

He finished with 70 tackles to rank second on the team, trailing only safety Alex McLaughlin's 93. His 5 tackles for loss tied him for second on the team, behind only Zach Durfee's 8.5.

Xe'ree Alexander celebrates an LA Bowl moment with Simote Pepa.
Xe'ree Alexander celebrates an LA Bowl moment with Simote Pepa. | Dave Sizer photo

Alexander didn't even start the LA Bowl, giving way to senior Jacob Manu and and freshman Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, both very highly regarded linebackers and players he'll compete with again next season.

Yet he came ready to play against Boise State, even pulling a new assignment on special teams as a blocker lined up deep next to kick returner Adam Mohammed. Coming out of halftime, Alexander settled under a kickoff to open the third quarter and brought it out to the Husky 30.

"They kicked to him, who would have known?" UW coach Jedd Fisch said. "They kicked it to a guy with an elite return game. He was already trying to negotiate being the kick returner for next season as we were walking off the field."

As it turned out, Boise State kicker Colton Boomer played at Central Florida with Alexander, so they knew each other and a return was inevitable.

The linebacker twice had the ball in hands against the Broncos, going 29 yards with an interception and 22 with the kickoff. Even with his 242-pound frame, he looked fairly speedy and nimble with the ball in his hands.

Alexander was entertained by it all, laughing when he said, "I just want to say I proved all of my teammates wrong."

To be accurate, going back to those high school recruiters, it was a lot more people than that.

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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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