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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Among Finalists For Lincoln Kennedy's Son

Tye Kennedy has pared his college choices to six schools.
Dan Raley|
Tye Kennedy, Lincoln's son, is shown visiting Arizona.
Tye Kennedy, Lincoln's son, is shown visiting Arizona. | Arizona

In 1988, a kid named Lincoln Kennedy from San Diego had a big decision to make regarding his college football destination. While he had endless offers to sort through, he wound up choosing Washington over Michigan.

Thirty-eight years later, another kid named Kennedy, who answers to Tye and is the son of the legendary Lincoln, is faced with the same situation.

He likewise has Washington and Michigan courting him.

This 6-foot-6, 275-pound Kennedy from Mountain View High School in Mesa, Arizona, also has Arizona State, California, Minnesota and Utah still in the running for his services.

He promises to have it all sorted out by the end of next month after he has visited, in order, Utah (June 5), Michigan (June 12) and the UW (June 19).

Decisions, decisions.

Certainly everyone knows that football runs in the Kennedy family and teams don't hesitate to run behind them.

Tye Kennedy played the 2025 season for a 7-5 Mountain View Toros team that made the playoffs. He is a 3-star prospect with very good genes.

His father Lincoln, who was 6-foot-6 and 300 pounds when he first arrived in Montlake from Morse High School, made a lot of stuff happen at every level of football.

Lincoln Kennedy played for the Huskies in1988-91.
Lincoln Kennedy played for the Huskies in1988-91. | UW

He became a first-team All-American and a first-round draft pick while playing for the Huskies and a national championship team.

Then it was on to the NFL, where he played 11 seasons for the Atlanta Falcons and the Oakland Raiders.

Unable to get enough of the game, Lincoln Kennedy even joined the Tampa Bay Storm of the Areana Football League in 2007, three years after retiring from the NFL, at the age of 36 to play a final pro season.

Tye's step-brother, Zach Banner, likewise played offensive tackle for USC followed by five seasons in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. He grew up in the Tacoma suburbs and had the UW as one of his options but chose the Trojans instead.

This past year, Banner joined the Houston Roughnecks of the United Football League, adventurous about the game as his father was. Zach retired from football a few months back.

It seems hard to believe that nearly four full decades have gone by since Lincoln Kennedy arrived at the UW from San Diego with an all-everything recruiting reputation, a fresh-looking face and a massive body, initially listed by the school at 6-foot-8 and 300 pounds. 

The Huskies landed dad but missed out on his one son. Will they get the other son to play in Montlake?

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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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