As Another Season Approaches, Here's 3 Hard-Luck Huskies

No matter what they do, this trio of UW players hasn't been able to stay healthy.

Caleb Presley makes a coverage play in UW football practice. / Skylar Lin Visuals

As Saturday night's University of Washington football scrimmage came to a close, Caleb Presley walked the sideline, dressed in his purple jersey, a hoodie and shorts, hands shoved deep into his pockets.

As has been the case for much of his two-season Husky career, the 6-foot, 177-pound redshirt freshman cornerback from Seattle was injured and unavailable while dealing with some unspecified physical ailment.

If there was a hint to his situation, Presley from time to time tried to stretch out his legs as he watched his teammates go through the three-hour practice session with the season opener against Weber State exactly three weeks away.

For every UW practice, up to a half-dozen players are sidelined with health issues, left to spend time in the training room receiving treatment or with trainers alongside each practice session doing various flexibility drills. That's just football. It's a violent game and people are going to get hurt. There's no avoiding it.

Ryan Otton (87) tries to get loose during spring ball. / Skylar Lin Visuals

However, sophomore tight end Ryan Otton, sophomore defensive tackle Armon Parker and Presley appear to have more bad luck with their health than most of their UW teammates.

They're guys who arrived with ample playing reputations -- Presley was a 4-star player and an Oregon flip. Otton was another 4-star recipient and the younger brother of former UW and current NFL TE Cade Otton and Parker was part of a Michigan-produced set of twins -- and they haven't really been able to do much on the football field.

Presley hasn't appeared in a UW game yet and has barely dressed for the home encounters, an odd situation especially for someone with skills that have been widely advertised such as. his. He was injured on and off all of last season, again during spring football and yet again this fall. To this point, no one really knows how good he is as a college corner, whether or not he has the skills worthy of all the recruiting attention he received.

The 6-foot-6, 257-pound Otton, who has appeared at the end of games against Colorado in 2022 and Califonia lasat season, ripped his hamstring muscle in his first Husky practice he and it othered him throughout his first season. He became injured again in his second year. Otton showed up for the most recent spring practice looking all filled out and resembling a veteran college football player for the first time, but it was a short reprieve. This fall, he hasn't been able to suit up for the Huskies at all, having become a chronic wounded warrior.

"He's going to go through his process of making sure he's takes care of everything on his end to get back as soon as possible," UW tight-end coach Jordan Paopao said of Otton. "I'm hopeful we'll be able to get him back sooner rather than later."

Finally, there's the 6-foot-3, 312-pound Parker, maybe the most hard-luck of this trio UW players. He tore up a knee while playing pick-up basketball at home in Detroit before reporting to the Huskies, had surgery and missed his entire 2022 freshman season.

Waiting for him to get healthy, former UW co-defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell described Armon as quicker than his brother Jayvon, who was physically ready to play immediately for the Huskies as a freshman defensive lineman, appearing in eight games in 2022 and then another 13 last season.

Armon Parker was injured early on in spring practice for the Huskies. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Armon Parker stayed healthy last season, yet he was so far behind on the depth chart he didn't get into a game. He lasted only a few spring practices this past April before he injured a knee again and he hasn't practiced since.

Presley, Otton and Parker all might be significant Husky football contributors someday, but they'll need to find a way to stay healthy somehow, some way, in order to make that happen.

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