Inside The Huskies

Thaddeus Dixon Goes From Husky Back-Up to Nationally Ranked Corner

The defensive back's rise since coming to Montlake has been overly impressive.

Dan Raley

Thaddeus Dixon soaks up the moment after an Apple Cup interception.
Thaddeus Dixon soaks up the moment after an Apple Cup interception. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Coaches view players differently, there's no getting around it. Take University of Washington cornerback Thaddeus Dixon.

Last year, Kalen DeBoer's Husky staff saw Dixon as a near season-long back-up to Elijah Jackson, using him in 14 games and starting him just once -- against USC -- while Jackson became a 15-game starter.

Enter Jedd Fisch's coaching staff, which took one look at Dixon and elevated him to game-opening player for all eight UW outings so far at the expense of Jackson, who now comes off the bench.

With the Trojans coming to Husky Stadium on Saturday, this UW cornerback shuffle has proved to be a bold personnel move that works. While Fisch's team has been saddled with a 4-4 record this season, the 6-foot-1, 186-pound Dixon has played much better than break even.

In the UW's 31-17 loss at Indiana, in fact, the one-time JC transfer from Los Angeles received the nation's third-highest cornerback grade over the weekend -- 86.6 -- from Pro Football Focus. He finished with 5 tackles and a pass break-up that resulted in an interception for an opportunistic Husky defensive lineman Jacob Bandes.

Only the Hoosiers' D'Angelo Ponds, whose 2-interception, pick-6 outing in the same game helped put the Huskies away in Bloomington, and Texas A&M's BJ Mayes scored higher, at 93.1 and 88.6, respectively.

"My journey has been kind of crazy," Dixon said. "You know, shoot, I got it the hard way. Everything that's coming to me now I just feel like I deserve and I worked for it. You know, shoot, it wasn't always easy."

Dixon was at La Mirada High School in Southern California when he fielded scholarship pitches from Oregon State and Wyoming, and even committed to the Beavers at one point. Yet the COVID pandemic effectively curtailed all of his FBS options, shutting down all communication for him with his suitors, and he retreated to Long Beach City College.

DeBoer's staff brought him north as a transfer even though USC made a late bid for the cornerback, and he played behind Jackson throughout the 2023 season except for one game. The Huskies started both of them against the Trojans and quarterback Caleb Williams in Los Angeles. They put Dixon on the field in his hometown to begin the game as an extra defensive back, a move that helped the UW emerge with a hard-earned 52-42 victory.

Entering this weekend's game, Dixon leads the Huskies with 7 pass break-ups, ranks sixth on the team in tackles with 24 and has one of the UW's five interceptions -- just one of two by a defensive back -- after getting his against Washington State.

He's gone from JC player to reserve Husky to quite possibly an NFL prospect in a hurry, not to mention introspective in a third-person sort of way.

"I always didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel," Dixon said this week. "But to be here now, making plays on the big stage, I just look at my like younger self and I just know he'd be nothing but be proud."

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

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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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