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X Marks the Spot in Husky Linebacker Competition

Originally posted on Washington Huskies on SI
By Dan Raley | Last updated Feb 14, 2025 11:51 AM ET

He's considered the X factor.

In one of the more important transfer portal moves for the University of Washington football team this offseason, the Huskies went out and signed Xe'ree Alexander to come home and play linebacker for Jedd Fisch's staff.

The 6-foot-2, 223-pound junior from Auburn, Washington, by way of Idaho and Central Florida, will be counted on to help restock a Husky position group as wide open for new talent entering spring football as it was locked down a year ago with non-negotiable starters and eventual team captains.

Gone are graduated team leaders Carson Bruener and Alphonzo Tuputala, off to pursue possible NFL careers; the departed Drew Fowler, who's been all over ESPN with his clever job application efforts; plus transfers Khmori House, who will join the Belichick euphoria surrounding North Carolina, and Bryun Parham, briefly a UW player and now answering to Connecticut and Jim Mora, a former Husky linebacker himself.

Alexander turns to the Huskies after emerging from Kennedy Catholic High School, as a promising football player from that south-end school like so many others before him, and taking an interesting career path filled with different twists and turns to end up in Montlake.

He's now at the UW, where his brother, wide receiver Lonyatta Alexander Jr., spent most of his time playing special teams for Kalen DeBoer's staff in 2022 and transferred out in search of more pass-catching opportunities.

This younger sibling wanted to be a Husky growing up and even more after his brother got the chance.

"I did, for sure, I really did," said Xe'ree Alexander, who initially went where he had the best chance of playing. "My brother really showed me I should stay home."

Xe'ree started out at Idaho, where his older brother is now, and became an immediate starter as a freshman linebacker in 2023 and finished second in tackles with 75.

Leaving the FCS school for a step up in competition in the Big 12 Conference, Alexander started at Central Florida next to Ethan Barr, who was briefly a Husky coming out of Vanderbilt but left when DeBoer did. Barr and Alexander finished 1-2 in tackles for the Knights, with 72 and 68, respectively.

One season at rapidly changing UCF, which went 4-8 and now has a new coach in Scott Frost, back for a second stint at the Orlando school, was enough for him.

"It's difficult when you don't have a coaching staff that's set in stone," Alexander said. "I went through three different linebacker coaches in one year. The head coach changed. That program has changed almost every single year."

Curiously, the Huskies added Alexander from UCF while 11-game UW starting guard Gaard Memmelaar transferred to the school, as if it was one-for-one baseball trade.

"I was a little surprised," the linebacker said of Memmelaar joining his former team. "But it's part of the business."

The familiarity of the UW made it easy for Alexander to return to the Seattle area.

"It wasn't hard for me when I entered the portal to come back home because I already knew everybody," he said. "i knew the coaches. I thought it was a great fit."

So now he's one of three linebackers to join the Huskies from the portal with fellow junior Taariq Al-Uqdah, who led Washington State with 76 tackles last season, and senior Jacob Manu, an Arizona transfer who topped the Pac-12 in tackles with 116 in 2023.

Last year, however, Manu, suffered a non-contact knee injury that cost him half a season and will prevent him from practicing until mid-August at the earliest.

That means Alexander and Al-Uqdah -- the AA batteries -- need to take UW leadership roles with a group that also includes sophomore Deven Bryant, senior Anthony Ward and a host of freshmen coming in, most prominently Zaydrius Rainey-Sale.

"Obviously, I'm going to do my best to show up and show I'm here to play, that I'm here to win," Aexlander said. "It don't matter who's on that field as long as we push each other to be the best."

Yeah, but who better to turn to than the Huskies' very own X-Men super hero.

This article first appeared on Washington Huskies on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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