Husky Roster Review: Coutts Is Best UW Receiver You've Never Heard Of

He's a tall and fast pass-catcher from Seattle who last played in a regulation game in 2017.

Dan Raley | Jul 8, 2023

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Washington Huskies

Spring practice ended for the University of Washington football team once Owen Coutts ran down the hashmark, fought off a cornerback to make an acrobatic grab and sprinted into the end zone to complete an electric 30-yard touchdown play.

Owen who?

This would be the 6-foot-4, 217-pound Coutts, an impressive looking walk-on player from Seattle who last appeared in a regulation football game as a Ballard High School sophomore — way back in 2017.

This would be the guy who missed spring and fall camps last year and didn't join the Huskies until the first day of game week leading into the Kent State season opener. Kalen DeBoer's coaching staff sized him up and wrongly assumed he was a tight end.

With his 4.5 40-yard dash time and a natural playmaking ability, Coutts showed everyone he is very much a Husky wide receiver, which is where he lines up now.

"It's been a little bit longer of a journey than I would have liked," he said. "I was able to play only two years of football in high school. ... It's been a long journey to get where I am, but I feel everything happens for a reason."

Going down the roster from No. 0 to 99, Coutts, who wears No. 82 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.

Owen Coutts brought spring football to a glorious end by catching this touchdown pass on the last play of the final Husky spring scrimmage.

Walk-on Owen Coutts, at 6-foot-4 with great speed, is a big target at wide receiver. UW coaches initially thought he was a tight end.

Owen Coutts, a walk-on wide receiver from Seattle, zips through the Huskies' padded obstacle course during spring ball.

Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is surrounded by receivers in Denzel Boston (12), Owen Coutts (82), Germie Bernard (4) and Mason Wheeler (81) during spring ball.

Jackson Girouard (84) is a 6-foot, 187-pound walk-on wide receiver from Redwood City, California. A sophomore, he played against Portland State in 2022. He's the grandson of former UW recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach Dick Baird.

Mason Wheeler, a 5-foot-9, 173-pound walk-on wide receiver from Vancouver, Washington, played against Portland State and Stanford in 2022. The junior earned three scout-team player of the week honors during the season.

Cam Sirmon, a 6-foot, 180-pound walk-on sophomore from Wenatchee, Washington and Missoula, Montana, has gone from UW quarterback to running back to wide receiver. He's played in five games.

From Mountain View, California, the 6-foot-6, 221-pound John Frazier is a long and lean tight end who is a walk-on redshirt freshman.

So big and so fast, Coutts presents the Huskies with an interesting player in a position group that's overloaded with receiving talent, in both veteran and incoming scholarship guys.

A sophomore as a Husky football player, he's been attending UW classes for three years now and even been accepted into the Foster School of Business.

The game eluded him for various reasons. Coutts was diagnosed with a rare heart condition that prevented him from playing while Jimmy Lake was the UW coach. After an initial negative diagnosis, it took plenty of testing to prove he was in no danger by pursuing a college football career.

He ran track in high school and excelled, but didn't play Ballard football beyond his freshman or sophomore years because he had a disconnect with the coaching staff.

On his spring touchdown pass, Coutts went up and caught it under the tight guard of walk-on cornerback Antonio Hill, a close friend and someone who encouraged him to come out and play Husky football. Coutts pulled in the ball from JC transfer quarterback Alex Johnson, someone else he considers a good friend, too.

UW receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard naturally has been a positive influence fort his non-scholarship player who knows where the end zone is.

"He thinks I have potential," Coutts said. "I know I have potential. Being in his room, with his coaching, will be a great way to maximize that and get me to where I want to be."

OWEN COUTTS FILE

Service: Coutts joined the Huskies 10 months ago with the season about to begin. The recently conducted spring practice was his first opportunity for him to be involved in a camp-like environment in Montlake.

Stats: Thirty is a good number for him. Coutts turned up on the receiving end of a 30-yard touchdown strike from fellow walk-on Alex Johnson to end the spring game and he'll try to build on that.

Role: As good as he is, Coutts faces a very difficult situation with all of the veteran honors candidates ahead of him and the incoming 4-star pass-catchers coming in. Realistically, he's probably going to have to wait until Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan move on before the depth chart opens up a little bit and gives him more of a chance to play.

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Published Jul 8, 2023

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.