Inside The Huskies

In Portal Again, Anthony James' Curious College Football Odyssey Continues

The defensive lineman left the Huskies last April and now he's on the move once more.

Dan Raley

Anthony James poses for a photo on his UW recruiting visit.
Anthony James poses for a photo on his UW recruiting visit. / UW

Anthony James entered the transfer portal this week, continuing on one of the more unusual career paths for a University of Washington football player, especially for one who was as highly regarded as he was leaving high school.

As someone watching everything unfold might say, please don't try this at home.

The 6-foot-5, 270-pound James, a defensive lineman from Wylie, Texas, initially was a 4-star recruit who committed to Texas A&M.

He flipped to Washington and was considered by some to be the Huskies' prize recruit for their 2023 class.

James spent last season with Kalen DeBoer's Husky program, injured a shoulder, barely practiced, never appeared in a game and transferred out while new coach Jedd Fisch was conducting spring football last April. Adding to his difficulty, he couldn't seem to settle on a position -- edge rusher or defensive tackle?

"It's hard," James said candidly at the CFP title game in Houston, nearly 260 miles from his hometown. "You don't really know where you fit."

He next transferred to Eastern Washington, didn't appear in a game this past season and now he's shopping for another school.

Almost immediately, James posted that he had received an offer from Missouri Southern, an NCAA Division II school.

In 18 forgettable months, he has gone from being one of Texas' most heavily pursued recruits to the UW's national runner-up team to a brief stop in the Big Sky Conference to entertaining an offer from a school in Joplin, Missouri, that plays in a 7,000 capacity stadium.

Having fallen so far so fast through the different levels of college football, some might question whether James is really wants to play college football anymore.

Others might point to that UW injury that seemingly altered the course of his football pursuits, maybe for good.

It will be interesting to see whether James can make the college game work for him or he simply lets it go.

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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