Inside The Huskies

Husky Roster Review: McMillan Has Done Everything But Earn Proper Recognition

The receiver will try to have it all in the 2023 season.

Dan Raley

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Michael Penix Jr. is a serious Heisman Trophy candidate entering the coming season. Rome Odunze and Bralen Trice have been mentioned as first-team All-America possibilities. Zion Tupuola-Fetui showed up in a mock draft as an NFL first-round pick.

Where's Jalen McMillan?

While not everyone on a team can be feted and saluted, McMillan probably is the one potential University of Washington headliner who doesn't draw enough headlines.

This past season, he caught 79 passes for 1,098 yards and 9 touchdowns, and the praise was begrudging rather than automatic.

Finishing as the league's third-leading receiver, McMillan, a player known as JMac, was named no better than Pac-12 honorable mention. 

Doesn't he feel a little ignored at times on the national level?

"Hundred percent," McMillan said without hesitation. "But at the end of the day, I can't really worry about that. Rome can't worry about that. We want to make this a statement year. We want to shock the world."

His 79 receptions rank fourth all-time at the UW, trailing only Reggie Williams' 94- and 89-catch seasons in 2002 and 2003, respectively, and John Ross, who snagged 81 in 2016.

His season yardage and 84-yard TD catch against Portland State rank him among the top 10 all-time for the Huskies. Still, he's almost an afterthought at times.

Leave it UW receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard to fight for his guys as well as remind them they have to do even more this season because the competition level in Montlake alone as risen significantly.

DANCE FEVER / Skylar Lin Visuals

Jalen McMillan shows off his moves while the final spring football scrimmage winds down in April. 

HEAD OVER HEELS / Skylar Lin Visuals

Jalen McMillan shows off is football dexterity with this helmet hand stand during spring football practice.

BEST OF THE BEST / Skylar Lin Visuals

The UW receiver corps has to be one of the nation's best with Jalen McMillan (11), Giles Jackson (0), Ja'Lynn Polk (2) and Rome Odunze (1).

HOVERING HUSKY / Skylar Lin Visuals

Jalen McMillan comes flying through this spring drill with conditioning coach Ron McKeefery watching his takeoff.

HUSKY PORTRAIT / Skylar Lin Visuals

Jalen McMillan is caught in a pensive spring moment, with the Husky Stadium West end zone behind him.

WELCOME ABOARD / Skylar Lin Visuals

Jalen McMillan has been a welcoming presence for newcomer Germie Bernard, who rejoined the program after a year at Michigan State.

RECEIVER ROUNDTABLE / Skylar Lin Visuals

Jalen McMillan chats up fellow Husky receivers Germie Bernard (4) and Cam Sirmon (18) during a break in spring ball. 

MAKING A POINT / Skylar Lin Visuals

Jalen McMillan comes off a 79-catch, 1,098-yard, 9-touchdown performance in 2022, lacking only outside accolades.

GLIDE PATH / Skylar Lin Visuals

The always smooth Jalen Polk breezily runs through this spring practice drill on a chilly day at Husky Stadium. 

SAY GOODBYE / Skylar Lin Visuals

This is what an 84-yard touchdown run looks like in mid-stride as Jalen McMillan pops a deep one against Portland State in 2022.

Odunze, coming off his 75-catch, 1,145-yard, 7-touchdown performance, seemed to have the best spring football practice of any Husky player, continually beating all of the defensive backs deep.

While Shephard acknowledged Odunze's March and April efforts, he was quick to interject McMillan into the conversation.

"I think we've got other guys, too," Shephard said. "Jalen is playing at an extremely high level, too. He's showing he really understands the game as it's slowing down for him."

Going down the roster from No. 0 to 99, McMillan, who wears No. 11 on offense, is next up in a series of profiles about each of the Huskies' scholarship players and assorted walk-ons, summing up their spring football performances and surmising what might come next for them.

Slowly, the attention appears to be building for the 6-foot-1, 189-pound McMillan, who doesn't have the DK Metcalf NFL physique that the 6-foot-3, 217-pound Odunze carries, but has just as much speed and comparable hands.

In preseason position rankings over the past month, Odunze and McMillan were slotted as the nation's second- and fourth-best college pass-catchers on one list, respectively, and fourth and sixth on another breakdown. McMillan also recently earned a second-team slot on Athlon Sports All-American team.

That's a start.

McMillan gave some thought to entering the NFL draft before deciding a fourth Husky season would serve him well.

Yet he returned to share in the brotherhood rather than simply to try to show the college level he deserves better in terms of accolades.

"I'm really close with some guys on this team, and I feel like me leaving wouldn't have been the best idea for me," McMilland said. "I feel like since I stayed, it was probably the greatest decision I've ever made."

Meantime, people are digging into McMillan's numbers and finding ways to set him apart from the other wide receivers coming back.

Take Pro Football Focus, for example. The metrics-analyzing group determined that McMillan, lining up in the slot alone, ranks No. 1 nationally in both receiving yards (957) and in catches of 15 yards or more (24).

There's hope for him yet in getting his just dues.

JALEN MCMILLAN FILE

Service: McMillan has started 17 of the 27 games he's played, including 7 of 13 last season. Yet he's never been a back-up, instead he's often come onto the field for the second play because of game-opening formations that don't involve him. 

Stats: He enters what likely will be his final season (he has two left if he chooses because of a pandemic freebie) with 119 catches for 1,584 yards and 12 touchdowns. He could finish in the top five of each category in UW annals. He also has 3 rushes for 16 yards, 4 punt returns for 70 yards, 2 tackles and an incomplete pass thrown by him.

Role: McMillan and Odunze likely will battle each other throughout the season for the team lead in all of these stats categories, as they have done for two seasons. It's a good-natured competition. It's just time for McMillan to receive more acknowledgement over his good deeds.

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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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