At Husky nickel, Shaw Provides Spare Change

The Indiana transfer gets his shot in the secondary as fall camp unfolds.

Jordan Shaw (3) runs through a DB drill with Anay Nagarajan (40). / Skylar Lin Visuals

On the way to the CFP national championship game, the University of Washington secondary had its moments.

Cornerback Jabbar Muhammad became a second-team All-Pac-12 selection, safety Dominique Hampton an honorable-mention choice. Corner Elijah Jackson saved the Sugar Bowl with a last-play deflection, nickelback Mishael Powell the Arizona State game with a late 89-yard interception return for a touchdown. Safety Asa Turner overcame an injury to each hand to start the three postseason games.

Yet even with all of those accomplishments for the nation's No. 2 team, this season's Husky defensive backfield could be just as good if not better.

The ace of the rearranged UW coverage unit is Arizona transfer Ephesians Prysock, who plays with the same amount of athleticism and aggressiveness as Muhammad, only he does it with six more inches of height and a much longer reach than Jabbar. It will be interesting see where those two ultimately go in the NFL Draft.

Jackson, coming off a season of 15 starts and his New Orleans heroics, stands to be an even better Jackson in 2024, providing he can hold off a challenge from Thaddeus Dixon, who appeared in 14 games and started and played well enough against USC.

Replacing Hampton and Turner are their safety back-ups Kam Fabiculanan and Makell Esteen, providing those two can beat out Sacramento State transfer Cameron Broussard and Oklahoma transfer Justin Harrington, a pair of 6-foot-3 bookends who move well and will push them hard for their spots, plus Vincent Holmes, a hard-hunting redshirt freshman. Broussard was an All-Big Sky seledction. Harrington is a seventh-year senior who started a pair of games last season before suffering a season-ending injury.

That leaves nickel, which was vacated by Powell, who's now at Miami, and so far has been occupied by Indiana transfer Jordan Shaw after Dyson McCutcheon ran No. 1 throughout most of spring practice.

McCutcheon is a third-generation player in an NFL family, the grandson of legendary Los Angeles Rams running back Lawrence McCutcheon. Yet the 6-foot-1, 173-pound Shaw runs extremely well, has a long reach similar to Prysock and started twice last season in the Big Ten, opening against Illinois and Wisconsin. Those two should battle for this spot all the way to the opener.

Jedd Fisch's staff liked Shaw so much they signed him out of the transfer portal when those coaches were at Arizona and brought him to Seattle when hired by the UW.

"They let me play free and develop me at the same time," the Los Angeles product said. "It's a bond. The bond I have with the coaches is deep. It feels like family, so I'm comfortable here."

On Friday, Prysock was particularly impressive as he twice knocked balls away wide receiver Denzel Boston in the end zone. Jackson, with his 40-inch vertical leap, has a confident vibe about him now and doesn't look like he'll let anyone take his job from him. Fabiculanan has been laid by up some physical issue to begin fall camp while Esteen appeared to get heat sick in practice. All of this opened the way for Broussard to get on the field as the starter before he left with a hand issue and was replaced by Holmes.

Jordan Shaw warms up for Indiana last season. / Rich Janzaruk/USA TODAY Sports

Meantime, Shaw is done switching schools after going from Indiana to Arizona to Washington. He also has extra motivation to become the Husky nickelback starter at some point. In the eighth game on the schedule, the UW will travel to Indiana, with Shaw receiving a personal homecoming. He will play against the Hoosiers in Bloomington on Oct. 26, his birthday. He turns 20 that day.

At such a young age, he's been quite the worldly guy, but he's ready to settle down in Montlake, maybe as the nickel starter.

"I'm here for good," Shaw said of the UW. "Going from the East Coast back to the West Coast, I'm closer to home. The weather's better. Everything is like a smooth transition for me."

The same might be said about the coming Husky secondary once everything plays out.

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