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Behind the Scenes, Fowler Goes from Walk-On to UW Scholarship Player

Originally posted on FanNation Husky Maven | By Dan Raley | Last updated 3/3/24

After Jimmy Lake took over as University of Washington football coach, he surprised Edefuan Ulofoshio and the rest of the Huskies by awarding a scholarship to the deserving walk-on linebacker in the middle of a January team meeting in 2020.

Once Kalen DeBoer became the UW leader two years ago, he did the same thing with walk-on defensive back Mishael Powell in yet another January team meeting.

DeBoer next surprised kicker Grady Gross after his game-winning, walk-off Apple Cup field goal in late November by announcing in the locker room that Gross would be put on scholarship.

Bedlam resulted each time, with these gleeful moments caught on video of UW players excitedly jumping and down and smothering the lucky recipients while celebrating their good fortune.

For Drew Fowler, the senior linebacker told the Seattle Times how he received a scholarship in the privacy of new UW leader Jedd Fisch's office, just a day after Fisch was introduced as coach on Jan. 16.

Fisch simply asked Fowler if he was on scholarship. When told no, the coach said he would fix that and even gave him a retroactive year of financial aid so that two ultimately would be paid for, the linebacker told the Times.

There was no raucous UW player outburst over this goodwill gesture this time, no social-media video postings anywhere. In fact, it remained out of public view for a month and a half until Fowler recently revealed it. It took four Husky coaches to make this happen, with Fisch waving it through after Chris Petersen, Lake and DeBoer did not.

Awesome story here as Jedd Fisch not only put walk-on Drew Fowler on scholarship but also backdated it to 2023 so that he got an extra year of financial aid and now can be considered a scholarship player last year when he contributed 17 tackles https://t.co/7oeAxlW72Z
— WestCoastCFB (@WestCoastCFB) March 3, 2024

All of which seemed appropriate for the serious-minded 6-foot-2, 221-pound linebacker from Bellevue, Washington, who's story of patience and sacrifice to play for the Huskies has been well known.

Coming out of Bellevue High School, Fowler received a solid scholarship offer from UCLA that he turned down to boldly take the preferred walk-on route at the UW and eventually try to land financial assistance.

Fowler certainly seemed deserving after redshirting his first season in 2019 and then appearing in 40 games over the past four years, including all 28 outings of the DeBoer era.

Drawing linebacker rotations as well as special-teams play, he has 27 career tackles, with 17 of them coming last season. More than anyone else, he's been playing for free.

During spring practice a year ago, fellow Husky linebacker and good friend Carson Bruener openly stumped for Fowler to receive a football scholarship.

In fall camp, Fowler was asked about his scholarship situation, about whether it still mattered to him as his career began to reach its later stages.

"I'd be lying if I said no," he acknowledged. "All I can do is control what I can control."

As a walk-on, it's unclear if Fowler had shared in any name, image and likeness proceeds. Yet as a newly minted scholarship player, he can count on his final two years of college tuition being covered, which is a significant amount of money, and be fully rewarded for his Husky loyalty.

Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on X — @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation.

This article first appeared on FanNation Husky Maven and was syndicated with permission.

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