Inside The Huskies

Jake Haener Reconsiders, Removes Name from Transfer Portal

The quarterback decides to remain at Fresno State after Jeff Tedford is named coach.

Dan Raley

Jeff Tedford will return to the Fresno State football team after a two-year absence. For Jake Haener, his leave lasted just nine days.

Within hours of Tedford accepting an offer to return as coach for next season, the Bulldogs' prolific quarterback removed himself from the transfer portal and decided to finish out his career at the Mountain West school.

Haener now has 10 days to prepare himself and Fresno State (9-3) for the postseason game he was going to skip, the New Mexico Bowl, against the UTEP Miners (7-5) on Saturday, Dec. 18,  in Albuquerque. 

After these corresponding moves, this means the 6-foot-1, 185-pound senior quarterback won't be returning to the University of Washington, where his college football career began in 2017.

Following his second Fresno State coach Kalen DeBoer to the UW initially sounded like a good idea, but the presence of Tedford, his first Bulldogs coach, plus possible transfer issues complicating things, made him reconsider. He could have turned pro.

This past season, Haener completed 303 passes in 449 attempts for 3,810 yards and 32 touchdowns, with 9 interceptions. Counting the pandemic-restricted season of 2020, he has Fresno State totals of 453-for-681 for 5,831 yards and 46 scores with 14 picks.

The Huskies likely will seek another veteran quarterback through the transfer portal to go with returning 11-game starter Dylan Morris and Apple Cup starter Sam Huard, who will be a sophomore and redshirt freshman, respectively.

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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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