With Smalls Freeing Up UW Scholarship, Walk-Ons Who Might Benefit

With edge rusher Sav'ell Smalls headed for the transfer portal, the University of Washington football team suddenly has a scholarship at its disposal.

Now the Huskies might need to put that one out of service in order to reach the prescribed NCAA limit of 85. 

They could even set it aside for a transfer portal player to fill Smalls' vacancy.

Or the coaching staff could use it to reward someone on the roster, a walk-on, who's deserving yet currently paying his own way.

It's been 15 months since coach Kalen DeBoer, after taking over the UW program and in one of his first official acts, put defensive back Mishael Powell on scholarship in front of a room full of cheering teammates. 

Now walk-ons receiving scholarships generally are rare but they're not unheard of at Washington. One turns up, on the average, every other year. 

Before Powell, tight end Jack Westover and linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio went from scraping together tuition payments on their own to being totally funded by the school. 

So if the option is Door No. 3, who would be the likely candidates for financial aid?

Carson Bruener, who's a Husky linebacker with a scholarship, recently offered up a suggestion unsolicited when merely asked about the heated competition at his position, which is said to involve four veterans: Alphonzo Tuputala, USC transfer Ralen Goforth, Ulofoshio and himself.

"I would even say big five," Bruener corrected. "Add in Drew Fowler. He came along, I'm surprised he's still a walk-on. Put that there out there."

OK, consider Fowler a prime candidate, maybe at the top of a list of five players we've singled out. Here we'll make the case for each one:

Drew Fowler

The 6-foot-1, 221-pound junior from Bellevue, Washington, has appeared in 25 games in the linebacker rotation or on special teams over three seasons after redshirting. He's entering his fifth year in the program, making him a veteran and someone reliable. Before choosing the Huskies, he received multiple scholarship offers, including one from UCLA.

Grady Gross

He has 12 Husky games under his belt, used as the kickoff man as a freshman. The 5-foot-11, 212-pound Gross from Scottsdale, Arizona, is now the leader in the competition for place-kicker, an all important role that almost always requires a scholarship when the job is won.

Jack McCallister

As a freshman, he came in last year as a walk=on and won the punting job from Idaho State transfer Kevin Ryan, who averaged 45.6 yards per punt in 2021 to finish fifth in FCS and earned All-Big Sky honorable-mention accolades. Undaunted, McCallister from Edmonds, Washington, flat beat him out and averaged 40.8 on 23 attempts. 

Austin Harnetiaux

Similar to Drew Fowler, the 6-foot-3, 234-pound redshirt from Seattle freshman turned down scholarship offers from smaller schools, plus a chance to walk on at Wisconsin, to join the Huskies. He enters his second UW season looking for his first game action.

Milton Hopkins Jr.

After two seasons on the roster, the 6-foot-4, 226-pound sophomore edge rusher from Seattle hasn't played on Saturday yet, but he's worked his way into second-team rotations this spring. 

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