Husky Roster Review: Oh Deer, Toomey-Stout Has Made UW Inroads
Somewhat unnoticed, Sean Toomey-Stout emerged as one of the breakthrough players for the University of Washington football team in 2022.
Against long walk-on odds, the junior safety, from Whidbey Island's Coupeville High School and a Greenbank, Washington, address, appeared in six Husky games in his second season, mostly on special teams.
Now coming from a tiny town combined with paying your own way through Montlake generally means you wear an obscure jersey number and your biggest challenge on Saturdays is to find a good vantage point on the sideline to watch everyone else play.
With a crazed look in his eye and a dark goatee on his chin, the 5-foot-10, 192-pound Toomey-Stout pushed through all of those obstacles and not only logged meaningful minutes, he totaled 7 tackles.
Sean Toomey Stout grabs the ball in a spring interception drill.
Skylar Lin Visuals
Even if he hadn't pulled a lot of snaps, Toomey-Stout is hardly undistiguishable on the depth chart. He forever has an internet persona unlike most, if not all, of his UW teammates.
This past season, he played against the Ducks, Buffaloes and Longhorns. Five years ago, he shared the football field with a whitetail deer. The latter exchange, captured on video, received 300,000 views.
Going down the roster from No. 0 to 99, Toomey-Stout, who wears No. 30 all to himself, 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.
As for that deer, Toomey-Stout returned a kickoff 95 yards for a Coupeville High touchdown and was escorted by that attention-getting creature much of the way.
The future Husky initially had the ball go off his hands, forcing him to retreat to his 5-yard line to capture the muff. Meantime, the deer came bouncing onto the field and took off. As the crowd roared, the graceful intruder led the way to the end zone, with Toomey-Stout not far behind.
Life hasn't been boring for Toomey-Stout. He has a twin sister, Maya. He has two mothers, Lisa Toomey and Beth Stout, with at least one known to attend UW practice in the past. He's a construction management major who plays more than expected.
He hasn't needed anything or anyone to cut him any breaks with the Huskies. For that matter, Kalen DeBoer's staff expects everyone on the roster to be able to play fairly soon and it wouldn't just hand this guy an opportunity without merit.
Toomey-Stout spent much of spring ball bouncing between the second and third defenses, looking to increase his playing time come fall, and maybe even taking a peek behind to see if any wildlife was gaining on him.
SEAN TOOMEY-STOUT FILE
Service: DeBoer's staff gave him six games, using him against Kent State, Portland State, Arizona State, Oregon, Colorado and Texas in the Alamo Bowl.
Stats: He has 7 career tackles, with 3 coming on consecutive fourth-quarter plays from his safety position against Kent State in the season opener at Husky Stadium.
Role: Toomey-Stout needs to fight for everything he can get at the UW. Starters Asa Turner and Dom Hampton are the starters and Vince Nunley and Makell Esteen are the back-ups, with Tristan Dunn mixing in when he's not running with the hybrid Huskies. Toomey-Stout will play, it's just a matter of how much?
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