Inside The Huskies

Germie Bernard Takes the Long Route, Re-Commits to Huskies

The wide receiver spent this past season at Michigan State after drawing his UW scholarship release.

Dan Raley

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It seemed all along that Germie Bernard really wanted to play football for the University of Washington. On Saturday, the talented wide receiver reaffirmed that desire by committing to the Huskies yet again after recently leaving Michigan State to enter the transfer portal.

Bernard becomes the UW's 21st commitment, fourth wide receiver and second transfer portal pickup, with the early signing period beginning next Wednesday. 

Twelve months ago, the 6-foot, 200-pound Bernard from Henderson, Nevada, was considered the prize player of Kalen DeBoer's inherited and smallish recruiting class following the coaching change from Jimmy Lake.

DeBoer and his staff had hustled down to Bernard's suburban home outside of Las Vegas to make sure he was still on board. It was the coach's first real UW breakthrough, keeping receiver in the fold.

They signed him to national letter of intent, welcomed him as an early UW enrollee in January and then reluctantly granted Bernard his scholarship release once he wanted out after receivers coach Junior Adams took a job at Oregon. He headed for the Big Ten.

Germie Bernard was briefly a Husky before landing at Michigan State.
Germie Bernard had a pair of touchdown catches at Michigan State :: Nick King/USA TODAY Sports

Along the way, Bernard returned to Husky Stadium with Michigan State and was on the losing end of a 39-28 beating that wasn't that close and featured the UW receiving corps in a big way, with Husky redshirt freshman Ja'Lynn Polk catching 3 touchdown passes that day.

Bernard finished the season with a modest 7 receptions for 128 yards and a pair of touchdowns, plus 6 kick returns for 119 yards, while appearing in all 12 games for the Spartans. He has three seasons of eligibility remaining. 

For more than three years, the UW has never been far removed from this dynamic player. Bernard initially was recruited in 2019 by Chris Petersen's staff, visited Montlake that summer and posed for photos with the head coach.

During the peak of the pandemic in 2020, the then 4-star Nevada wide receiver and his Liberty High School teammates Sir Mells and Anthony Jones, both defensive players, made the pilgrimmage to Seattle on a weekend the Huskies played Arizona.

With spectators prohibited from all games that season and in-person recruiting similarly off limits, the three UW commits got their own airline tickets and hotel room or rooms, and wandered alone around the outside of Husky Stadium before the game began. They had someone take a photo of them posing with the bronzed Husky dog statue at the entrance and put it on social media.

Germie Bernard, center, shares a Husky moment with Anthony Jones and Sir Mells, who will play at Texas and Oregon.
Germie Bernard, center, posed with a pair of high school teammates outside of Husky Stadium during the pandemic / Germie Bernard

Even when Mells and Jones changed direction and signed with Oregon, Bernard still was willing to become a Husky. He stayed the course when Lake got fired and DeBoer was hired.

One of DeBoer's first actions as the UW coach was to make an in-home visit to Bernard's residence. The new coach called the receiver a dynamic player on signing day, as shown in the video above. Everything seemed firmly in place.

However, Bernard felt misled when Adams suddenly left, reportedly angry with everyone when that happened. It was one reason he went to Michigan State on the rebound rather than join Mells and Jones — and Adams — in Eugene.

Now after a season at Michigan State, which went through an unexpected losing season at 5-7 and had several players punished for a postgame brawl at Michigan. Bernard is UW-bound once more, to the place he always to be.

HUSKY 2023 COMMITMENTS

1. Tybo Rogers, RB, 5-11, 180, Bakersfield, Calif. (Bakersfield)

2. Keith Reynolds, WR, 5-9, 170, Adelanto, Calif. (Adelanto)

3. Deven Bryant, LB, 6-0, 216, Bellflower, Calif. (St. John Bosco)

4. Rashid Williams, WR, 6-2, 185, Pittsburg, Calif. (Pittsburg)

5. Jacob Lane, ER, 6-5, 230, Puyallup, Wash. (Emerald Ridge)

6. Diesel Gordon, CB, 6-1, 179, Arlington, Texas (Sequin)

7. Anthony James II, ER, 6-5, 265, Wylie, Texas (East Wylie)

8. Zach Henning, OL, 6-6, 275, Aurora, Colo. (Grandview)

9. Vincent Holmes, S, 6-1, 175, San Jacinto, Calif. (San Jacinto)

10. Jordan Whitney, LB, 6-2, 215, Oxnard, Calif. (Pacifica)

11. Elishah Jackett, OL, 6-7, 280, Orange, Calif. (El Modena)

12. Landon Hatchett, OL, 6-3, 292, Ferndale, Wash. (Ferndale)

13. Soane Faasolo, OL, 6-8, 270, Menlo, Calif. (Menlo-Atherton)

14. Leroy Bryant, CB, 6-0, 175, Fairfield, Calif. (Rodriguez)

15. Elinneus Davis, DL, 6-3, 295, Moorhead, Minn. (Moorhead)

16. Curley Reed, CB, 6-1, 180, Lake Charles, La. (Lake Charles)

17. Kahlee Tafai, OL, 6-6, 307, Lawndale, Calif. (Leuzinger)

18. Thaddeus, Dixon, CB, 6-0, 187, La Mirada, Calif. (Long Beach City College)

19. Zach Durfee, ER, 6-6, 255, Dawson, Minn. (University of Sioux Falls)

20. Taeshaun Lyons, WR, 6-2, 165, Hayward, Calif. (Tennyson)

21. Germie Bernard, WR, 6-0, 200, Henderson, Nev. (Michigan State)

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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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