Inside The Huskies

Friends, Family and Chance to Make Husky History Await Polk in Texas

The UW wide receiver heads home to play in the Alamo Bowl.

Dan Raley

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Ja'Lynn Polk grew up in what's known as Deep East Texas in Lufkin, an hour's drive from the Texas-Louisiana state line. The wide receiver next spent his first college football season at Texas Tech in Lubbock, considered the hub of West Texas.

Returning home for the Alamo Bowl against the Texas Longhorns, this well-traveled Polk will accompany his University of Washington football teammates to San Antonio, in the lower middle of the Lone Star state, and be more than a suitable tour guide for this holiday season venture.

"I'm excited for all the guys that have never had the opportunity to go to Texas and play this game and to try  the new foods," said Polk, who promises to have plenty of relatives attending the Dec. 29 game. "It's just a new experience."

The 6-foot-2, 199-pound Polk is one of six Texans currently on the Husky football roster, the one who's had the most success this season. Others are running backs Will Nixon (Waco), Jay'Veon Sunday (Waco) and Aaron Dumas (El Paso), plus defensive back Jaivion Green (Houston) and offensive tackle Victor Curne (Houston).

In this Alamo Bowl, the game within the game will be Polk running routes in the vicinity of Texas strong safety Jerrin Thompson. They know each other well. 

They played football together and graduated from the same class at Lufkin High School, and both were recruited by the Longhorns. They've each logged three college seasons, with Polk spending his freshman year at Texas Tech when the pandemic broke out before coming to the UW.

"He's my best friend," Polk said with a wide smile. "Can't wait. It's going to be a dogfight."

At his two schools, Polk has started a combined 16 of 25 games played, missing much of his first Husky season with a broken collarbone, while Thompson has opened 17 of 34 for two Texas coaches, Tom Herman, who recruited him, and Steve Sarkisian, the former UW coach who became Herman's successor two years ago. 

Polk enters the Alamo Bowl with season totals of 38 receptions for 649 yards and 6 touchdowns. Thompson brings 7 pass break-ups into the postseason battle.

As freshmen, they were each briefly on the field as opponents early that season when the Longhorns outlasted Texas Tech 63-56 in overtime in Lubbock.

Friendships aside, the Huskies are trying to become the fifth group in school history to win 11 or more games, joining the 1984 (11-1), 1991 (12-0), 2000 (11-1) and 2016 (12-2) UW teams. Having this opportunity come against the Longhorns and his hometown buddy just makes it that much more fun for the pass-catcher from Lufkin.

"It also adds on to play against a great team like Texas, a great organization," Polk said. "So it's good on good."

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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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