UW Fresh Start (No. 32): Brown Will Shake Off Cobwebs in Pursuit of UW Punting Job

The junior has kicked in just two of the last eight football seasons in high school, JC and in Montlake.

Triston Brown has been a scholarship punter for the University of Washington for two seasons, waiting for Race Porter to graduate so he can assume this crucial fourth-down role.

However, Brown might be more underdog than leader in the coming competition to find Porter's replacement.

Amazing enough, the Californian has kicked in just one football season and launched a mere 37 punts over the last seven years. 

He was a senior punter for Brea Olinda High School, located 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles, way back in 2014 — which was Chris Petersen's first season as coach of the Huskies.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Brown next spent long three years away from football and school for reasons unknown before enrolling at Mount San Antonio College, east of L.A. He punted for the JC team only during the 2018 season, logging those 37 spirals.

Brown now has gone another three seasons without entering a college football game of any kind and registering an official punt under duress.

The junior is sort of like an archeological find, uncovered with dinosaur bones or Native American arrowheads.

Addison Shrock, Race Porter, Jarrett North and Triston Brown head to practice in 2021 / Dan Raley

Less than a month until spring practice, we're offering intel and observations gathered on UW football personnel in a series of stories on every scholarship player from No. 0 to 99. We'll review each Husky's previous starting experience, if applicable, and determine what comes next under new coach Kalen DeBoer.

As is the case with any coaching change, it's a new football beginning for everyone, including the Huskies' No. 32.

Yet Brown needs to get started first. Someone once named him the nation's top JC punter even though he averaged a fairly mundane 36.3 yards per punt three years ago. 

With Porter seeking an NFL career after six seasons at the UW, his understudy will compete with Idaho State transfer Kevin Ryan for the job, who has steady credentials that consist of punting and place-kicking for the past four seasons.

Ryan, in fact, finished as the fifth-ranked FCS punter nationally with a 45.6 average this past season. A grad transfer and an Arizona native, he punted the ball 214 times at Idaho State. 

In what will be one of the spring's most competitive battles, let the punting the begin.

UW Starter or Not: 

Brown, not nearly as consistent as Porter, still matched his punting peer for distance at times in the spring and fall camps. It will be interesting to see how he responds to the competition brought in to push him. It will be curious to see how dynamic and flexible his leg remains after so many seasons of inactivity since leaving his California high school and this his JC stop. Brown seemingly has a 50-50 chance to call the UW's No. 1 punting job all his own.

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