Inside The Huskies

Ex-Husky House Finds Home with Belichick at North Carolina

The freshman linebacker started five games for the UW this past season.

Dan Raley

Khmori House will transfer from the UW to North Carolina.
Khmori House will transfer from the UW to North Carolina. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Everything seems so warm and cuddly between Jedd Fisch and Bill Belichick, with the University of Washington football coach showing nothing but reverence and respect toward the NFL coaching legend who resurfaced North Carolina.

He even opened his media briefing this week by acknowledging Belichick's new job, saying, "I want to obviously congratulate the University of North Carolina for hiring the greatest coach of all time. I'm certainly so excited for coach Belichick and so appreciative of all the kinds words that he said about our program over the last five days or so. I've certainly learned a lot more from him than he's learned from us."

Yet on Saturday, Fisch was made aware that his former freshman linebacker Khmori House had committed to the Tar Heels, with Belichick securing the services of a player once projected to be one of the Huskies' top returning defenders for 2025, if not their biggest playmaker on the second row.

Here's wondering what that does to their relationship, especially with Fisch fully expected to lose his defensive coordinator and Belichick's son, Steve, and possibly other personnel to North Carolina once the Huskies play in the Sun Bowl against Louisville on Dec. 31.

The 6-foot, 214-pound House -- a five-game UW starter, a Big Ten Freshman of the Week recipient and a Freshman All-America honorable-mention selection -- arguably is the biggest loss among the 21 UW players who have entered the transfer portal so far.

House became a Husky starter by his third college game against Washington State in the Apple Cup, was rewarded with conference freshman honors after a 3-tackle, 1-interception performance against Northwestern and provided a heady fourth-and-1 stop at the goal line in the fourth quarter to preserve a 26-21 win over USC.

However, none of that was enough to keep House, who hails from Pasadena, California, from leaving Montlake and joining the elder Belichick, who spent considerable time with the Huskies during spring ball and the season as an invited guest.

When hired by North Carolina, Belichick even called Fisch's UW football program a template for him to follow as he resurrects his coaching career on the college level after leaving the New England Patriots after the 2023 season.

It appears that football model includes installing a one-time Husky standout as an integral part of the Tar Heels' defense.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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