Inside The Huskies

Suspended LB Heimuli Latest Husky to Enter Transfer Portal

The Californian never matched his projections in four seasons in Montlake.

Dan Raley

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Daniel Heimuli never seemed long for the University of Washington football program, even before the coaching change to Kalen DeBoer.

On Monday, the sophomore linebacker from East Palo Alto, California — who was serving an indefinite team suspension at the time — entered the transfer portal, becoming the sixth Husky to do so since the regular season ended, according to multiple reports.

Signed by Chris Petersen's staff, the 6-foot, 225-pound Heimuli turned out to be one of those players who simply didn't match his projections as an elite defender once he arrived in Seattle in 2019.

He emerged from Menlo-Atherton High School in the Bay Area holding 25 scholarship offers, and chose the UW over Alabama and Oregon.

While a physical player, Heimuli admittedly struggled with handling his linebacker assignments and this pigeonholed him on the depth chart, limiting his playing opportunities.

"He started out a little slow, so that's one of the reasons we ended up redshirting him," then-UW linebackers coach Bob Gregory said of Heimuli in 2020. 

Heimuli arrived as the most heralded player of a linebacker-heavy class that also included Alphonzo Tuputala, Josh Calvert, Miki Ah You and even walk-on Drew Fowler.

Tuputala became a UW starter this past season, Calvert transferred to Utah in 2021 after suffering a major knee injury and not playing, Ah You gave up football that year after an injury-filled career while Fowler has been a steady special-teams player for the Huskies.

Kalen DeBoer suspended Heimuli before the Apple Cup against Washington State, citing an ICA (Intercollegiate Athletics) code of conduct violation that was not spelled out.

Heimuli appeared in seven games this past season for the new staff, picking up 5 tackles. He last played against Colorado.

In his four-year Husky career, the linebacker appeared in 19 outings and started twice in in 2021 in place of an injured Edefuan Ulofoshio against Arkansas State and Arizona. He was credited with 25 career tackles.

Heimuli becomes the 19th scholarship player to leave the UW program since the DeBoer staff took over, turnover that is fairly standard fare as coaches mold a team in their own vision separate from the prior approach.

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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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