For UW Football, It’s Been a Time for Legacy Offers, Hard Decisions
College football is supposed to be a highly emotional game, but some who arrive at the University of Washington can’t help but have a passion and sentiment that runs far deeper than it does for others.
They are the legacy players, those with some sort of prior family connection to the Huskies that reaches down to their very soul.
Over the past two weeks: the Huskies have lost one, gained one and had two others consider choosing this career path over time.
It’s a heavy responsibility to bear, with the pressure to uphold in-house tradition sometimes overruling a talent evaluation that doesn’t respond with a scholarship up front.
Earlier this month, quarterback Sam Huard, son and nephew for former UW signal-callers Damon and Brock, clearly agonized as he called a news conference to explain his decision to enter the transfer portal because his desire to play immediately had finally overruled his personal dreams of Husky glory.
Last week, the Huskies extended a scholarship offer to San Diego edge rusher Bronx “Boogie” Letuligasenoa, who is first cousins with UW defensive tackle Tuli Letuligasenoa. Yet this California recruit has plenty of time to consider whether to follow in Tuli’s footsteps and continue the family connection — he’s only a St. Augustine High School freshman. Smaller than his cousin, but just as physical.
Also, cornerback/running back Nahmier Robinson from Seattle’s suburban Skyline High revealed he’d been given a preferred walk-on opportunity to join the Huskies and extend a football lineage more involved than almost anyone else’s. His father Nate played cornerback for the UW while his grandfather Jacque Robinson was a Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl MVP running back.
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Finally on Monday, Roice Cleeland, a 6-foot-3, 285-pound center from Vancouver, Washington, and Portland’s Jesuit High — sporting a similar address and enrollment to now former Husky offensive guard Jaxson Kirkland, who was yet another legacy player — revealed how he will walk on at the UW. Cleeland’s father Cam was an accomplished tight end in Montlake before playing in the NFL, and now is a Husky game-day broadcaster. Different positions in this family, yet same motivation.
Nahmier Robinson, middle, has one of the longest Husky legacies to live up to, if he chooses.
Robinson
For the younger Robinson and Cleeland, they have scholarships waiting for them elsewhere with potential financial sacrifices to make. Robinson was offered by Portland State and Colorado State, while Cleeland has opportunities at Portland State and San Diego.
All of these football players are more unique than their contemporaries in their own way, with family histories either influencing their college football choices or at least making them stop and think long and hard about what they should do.
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