Inside The Huskies

Huskies Pick Up Oklahoma Nickel Coming Off Knee Injury

Justin Harrington will play a seventh season of college football.

Dan Raley

Justin Harrington will transfer to the UW.
Justin Harrington will transfer to the UW. / Kevin Jaira/USA TODAY Sports

Justin Harrington, an Oklahoma nickelback coming off a knee injury that ended his 2023 season after just two games, has committed to join the University of Washington football program through the transfer portal, he posted on social media on Tuesday.

Interestingly, Harrington will play his seventh season of college ball in Montlake. He spent two years at a California junior college and four seasons with the Sooners, one as a regular redshirt and another as a medical redshirt.

Harrington lis the second Sooners nickelback to transfer to the UW in three seasons, joining Bookie Radley-Hiles, who played in 11 games for the 2021 Huskies, starting nine times.

The nickel wasn't necessarily seen as a position of great need for the Huskies, with junior holdover Dyson McCutcheon and Indiana transfer Jordan Shaw waging a fairly competitive spring battle, yet here's one more player to make it interesting,, providing the newcomer doesn't move to safety.

Either way, the 6-foot-3, 219-pound Harrington will provide the Huskies with another good-sized defensive back, similar in dimensions to the departed Dominique Hampton, who was drafted in the fifth round with the 161st pick by the Washington Commanders on Saturday.

Justin Harrington accommodates an Oklahoma fan with a selfie.
Justin Harrington accommodates an Oklahoma fan with a selfie. / Kevin Jaira/USA TODAY Sports

Originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, Harrington began his college career with two seasons at Bakersfield College in California, where he intercepted seven passes. At that point, he picked the Sooners over Houston, Iowa State and others.

After redshirting for Lincoln Riley's Sooners and teaming with Radley-Hiles n 2020, the defensive back became disillusioned and quit the team, only to be convinced to return once new coach Brent Venables took over.

A week after the Huskies opened the Kalen DeBoer era in 2022 with a 45-20 win over Kent State, Harrington came up with an interception against those same Golden Flashes in Norman in a 33-3 victory.

Harrington appeared in four games in 2021 and 13 the following season, all as a reserve defensive badck, before getting his big chance.

Last season, he earned the starting job at Oklahoma's nickel position, known as the Cheetah, opened against Arkansas State and then intercepted a pass against SMU before tearing up his knee and missing the rest of the season.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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.