Taj Davis Opts Out, Fourth Husky to Leave for Pandemic Reasons

The wide receiver from Southern California chooses to depart the UW football team. Coach Jimmy Lake hopes to get him back.

Dan Raley | Nov 2, 2020

The University of Washington football team has lost its fourth player for pandemic reasons with wide receiver Taj Davis opting out of the upcoming season, coach Jimmy Lake said on Monday.

Davis, a 6-foot-1, 201-pound redshirt freshman from Rancho Cucamonga, California, hadn't appeared in a game yet.

He joins senior tight end Jacob Kizer, senior defensive back Isaiah Gilchrest and redshirt freshman defensive tackle Sama Paama who have left the team since the COVID-19 health crisis emerged this past winter.

"We hope we can get him back someday," Lake said of Davis. "We respect his decision. He's always going to be a Dawg."

Since the Huskies played their final regular-season game of 2019 against Washington State, they've lost 10 underclassmen for a variety of reasons.

The exodus began with junior quarterback Jacob Eason, junior running back Salvon Ahmed and junoir tight end Hunter Bryant each taking early entry into this year's NFL draft. Only Eason was drafted among this trio.

Next to go were senior defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike and junior outside linebacker Joe Tryon, both preseason All-American candidates who left the program at the end of the summer to prepare for the 2021 draft.

Junior center Cole Norgaard left because of an injury.

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Published Nov 2, 2020

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.