UW redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Huard has decided to enter the transfer portal, he announced Tuesday.
Huard — a 6-foot-2, 193-pound passer from Bellevue — completed 24 of 44 passes for 265 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions in five career games. He made his lone start in the 2021 Apple Cup, going 17 for 31 for 190 yards with one touchdown and four picks in a 40-13 loss inside Husky Stadium. He appeared in just one game this season, completing 2 of 2 passes for 24 yards in relief during a 52-6 win over Portland State.
The fairytale didn’t come to fruition for Huard, who followed father Damon Huard and uncle Brock Huard in the lineage of Husky quarterbacks. He was relegated to the No. 3 role this fall, behind standout starter and Indiana transfer Michael Penix Jr. and sophomore backup (and former starter) Dylan Morris.
“He’s learning. He does a great job,” offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said on Nov. 21, when asked how Huard fits the Husky offense. “I think the things that Sam does well that fits into this offense is he throws a really good deep ball. I think there are some intermediate throws that he does a nice job driving on. He has to continue to work on having a quick release and things like that, getting the ball out on time on short throws. But all the way back to his high-school film, I think what he’s shown he can do is throw a good deep ball.”
Huard showed that and more in four standout seasons at Kennedy Catholic High School, becoming the state’s all-time leader in passing yards (13,214) and passing touchdowns (153). He was ranked as a five-star recruit, the No. 3 quarterback and the No. 23 overall prospect in the 2021 class by 247Sports.
But a prolific prep career didn’t translate into immediate success on Montlake.
Meanwhile, UW is left with just two scholarship quarterbacks entering the offseason. After the Huskies failed to sign a high school signal caller last month, coach Kalen DeBoer said: “Right now we’re comfortable (with three scholarship quarterbacks). We don’t need to just take a quarterback to have a body on the roster. We need to make sure we find the right quarterback that fits the situation, and right now we have three.
“Assuming that’s the situation, we would stay as is unless something else develops. But if it dropped to two obviously we’d have to figure something out at that point.”
Suddenly, the Huskies have to figure something out — whether that means adding a quarterback from the high school/junior college ranks or the transfer portal. Four-star South Dakota standout Lincoln Kienholz was verbally committed for more than five months before flipping to Ohio State in December.
Huard will be the ninth Husky to hit the transfer portal this offseason — joining safety Cameron Williams (who landed at Georgia Southern), defensive tackle Kuao Peihopa (Hawaii), cornerback Zakhari Spears (UConn), wide receiver Lonyatta Alexander Jr. (undecided), tight end Caden Jumper (undecided), linebacker Daniel Heimuli (undecided), offensive lineman Victor Curne (undecided) and running back Jay’Veon Sunday (undecided). That group does not comprise any consistent starters from 2022.
The Huskies have added seven players from the portal as well: Oklahoma State cornerback Jabbar Muhammad, Cal Poly tight end Josh Cuevas, Arizona State running back Daniyel Ngata, Mississippi State running back Dillon Johnson, Michigan State wide receiver Germie Bernard, Sioux Falls edge Zach Durfee and USC linebacker Ralen Goforth.
This story will be updated.