Inside The Huskies

Memmelaar Will Join UCF After Playing in Sun Bowl

The Idaho native started 11 of 12 games this season before entering the transfer portal.

Dan Raley

Gaard Memmelaar was limited in spring ball while recovering from a knee injury.
Gaard Memmelaar was limited in spring ball while recovering from a knee injury. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Bench-pressing well over 400 pounds, Gaard Memmelaar was reputed to be the strongest player on the University of Washington football team.

Returning from a torn knee anterior cruciate ligament and resulting surgery in 2023 to become an 11-game starter this past season, the 6-foot-4, 315-pound Idaho native showed himself to be resilient enough.

However, Memmelaar appeared to be yet another older UW player -- similar to fellow seniors in quarterback Will Rogers and running back Cam Davis -- caught up in the Huskies' late-season youth movement and it was time to move on, sending him into the transfer portal.

On Thursday, Memmelaar revealed he has committed to the University of Central Florida, a Big 12 team located in Orlando, Florida, that finished this season at 4-8 and once was prepared to welcome quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to the roster until he settled on Washington and Kalen DeBoer's program.

Memmelaar remains on the UW roster, which means he intends to play in the Sun Bowl on New Year's Eve against Louisville.

While he started 11 of 12 games, Memmelaar increasingly seemed to lose snaps as the regular season wound down. He split time with both sophomore Landen Hatchett and one-time Ohio State transfer Enokk Vimahi over the last half of the season.

This is what happened to Rogers, who gave way as the starter to freshman Demond Williams Jr. for the Oregon game and now the Sun Bowl after playing just a half in each of the previous two outings. Rogers is still hoping for an NFL career.

As the back-up running back, Davis saw his role decrease late in the season to the point he didn't carry the ball over the final three games, falling behind freshman Adam Mohammed in the rotation. Using a medical redshirt, the sixth-year senior entered the transfer portal and is committed to Minnesota.

Memmelaar appeared in all 12 games this season at left guard, giving way to Hatchett as the starter at Iowa, and 16 overall in his career. While he proved stronger than everyone else, he probably wasn't as athletic and mobile as Jedd Fisch's coaching staff would prefer.

He joined the Huskies as part of a five-man class of 2020 offensive linemen that included guard Geirean Hatchett, who transferred to Oklahoma and back; tackle Roger Rosengarten, now a rookie starter with the Baltimore Ravens; guard/tackle Myles Murao, who played the past two seasons at San Diego State; and tackle Samuel Peacock, who retired following the 2023 season.

The attraction to Memmelaar, rated as Idaho's No. 1 recruit when he signed, was the fact he was naturally strong after growing up working early and long hours on a ranch with considerable acreage outside of Boise.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

Published
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.

Home/Football