Inside The Huskies

Cooper McDonald Transfers to San Diego State to Play Alongside his Brother

The linebackers from Texas will be reunited as linebackers for the Mountain West team.

Dan Raley

The lunch-time order was two Big Macs.

Almost simultaneously on Friday at noon, former University of Washington outside linebacker Cooper McDonald announced on social media he will transfer to San Diego State while his older brother Caden, an Aztecs outside linebacker, revealed he will delay his NFL ambitions and play alongside his sibling next season.

Only two days earlier the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Cooper McDonald entered the transfer portal after spending two seasons at the UW and starting 10 games this past fall as a second-year freshman.

He was the first Husky to transfer after Kalen DeBoer took over as the new Husky coach, replacing Jimmy Lake. 

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Caden McDonald, a first-team All-Mountain West selection for San Diego State in 2020, will return for a sixth college season after starting the past three, spending one season as a reserve and redshirting.

"I am so excited about this step and playing another year with my Aztec brothers and my little brother," Caden McDonald said in a tweet.

"I get the awesome opportunity to play alongside my older brother Caden," Cooper reaffirmed in his post. 

From Haslet, Texas, these two Bible-quoting siblings played together for just one season at Haslet High School, which is 15 miles north of Fort Worth. 

For San Diego State, Caden McDonald has 117 tackles in his career, including 22 TFLs and 10 sacks. He's totaled 47 tackles this season, putting fifth among his defensive teammates.

Cooper McDonald finished with 26 tackles this past season to rank 12th among the Huskies, which included 5.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. He became a starter when All-Pac-12 outside linebacker Zion Tupuola-Fetui ruptured an Achilles tendon during spring practice and had surgery. They ended up starting together near the end of the season.

The Aztecs are 11-2, losing only to Utah State 46-13 in the Mountain West title game and to DeBoer's Fresno State team 30-20 at midseason. They'll play in the Frisco Bowl against USTA (12-1) on Dec. 21 in Frisco, Texas.

The Huskies now have lost a pair of brothers who intended to play together at another school. In May, inside linebacker Josh Calvert transferred to Utah, where his brother Ethan plays the same position.

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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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