Trying to Make Sense of Taeshaun Lyons' UW Departure

The wide receiver left on the day his coach was named national receivers coach of the year.

Players typically enter the transfer portal looking for something better than what they have, so Taeshaun Lyons choosing to part ways with the University of Washington football program this week was a serious head-scratcher.

The 6-foot-1, 170-pound freshman from Hayward, California, leaves behind a 13-0 team that's entered in the College Football Playoff semifinals against Texas in the Sugar Bowl with as much of a chance to win out as any of the finalists.

Lyons walks away from the Huskies who are ready to lose all or most of their starting wide receivers to NFL ambitions, creating plenty of opportunity next season for younger players to advance. 

And the former 4-star recruit exited on the same day his position coach, JaMarcus Shephard, was named Receivers Coach of the Year nationally.

The obvious question is where do you go to top all of that?

Winning, playing time, expert tutoring.

The answer is you don't.

While college football is a transient game more than ever now, we asked UW offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard if they could explain this particular player disconnect for the Huskies. 

"Sometimes, it's just a fit for guys," Grubb said. "Taeshaun is a good kid. He's just looking for maybe somebody who fits his personality. Sometimes we're looking for guys who fit ours, too."

These Husky coaches aren't ever going to spell out specifics, so as not to embarrass a kid, but this almost seems to imply that maybe the decision wasn't totally the player's to make.

"There's a piece there with just the toughness and the type of demanding nature that we have in this offense, and in coach Shep's room there's a piece there where we've got really, really good mentors in that room that know how to be professionals every day," Grubb said.

Lyons emerged from Tennyson High School in the East Bay with 24 offers, picking the Huskies over Notre Dame, Miami, Penn State and others.

The system in place seems to encourage a lot of player movement, which could cloud someone's better judgement. At least that's what Shephard pointed to.

"I keep reminding people these young people are not the ones who created the system," the UW receivers coach said. "We, as grown people, are the ones who made the system. We made these decisions, not these 18- to 22-year-olds. We decided they could do these things. They're just living in the world we created. Good luck to him."

The promising wide receiver appeared in only a pair of games against Boise State and Michigan State this past season. He had a potential touchdown pass from Dylan Morris glance off his hands and into a goal-line interception against the Big Ten school in East Lansing. 

In the end, maybe Lyons didn't like the rain. Shephard's extroverted style. His NIL payout. Working as hard as the UW coaching staff demands from its players. Whatever the reason was, he's moved on. He was in Seattle for all of six months.

"There's a lot that goes into decisions like that," Grubb said. "We wish him the best and hope he finds someplace where he's comfortable."

 

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