Inside The Huskies

Unable to Launch UW Career, Darren Barkins Enters Portal Again

The cornerback appeared in just two late-season football games for the Huskies.

Dan Raley

UW cornerback Darren Barkins chases Michigan State receiver Christian Fitzpatrick and suffered a season-ending injury on the play in 2023
UW cornerback Darren Barkins chases Michigan State receiver Christian Fitzpatrick and suffered a season-ending injury on the play in 2023 / Dale Young-Imagn Images

Darren Barkins can really run and he showed off this talent at Michigan State in 2023 by chasing down Spartans wide receiver Christian Fitzpatrick from behind on a 61-yard pass play and bringing him down, 13 yards shy of the end zone.

Unfortunately, for the University of Washington cornerback, he suffered a leg injury while making the tackle, was surrounded by trainers for the longest time before getting carted away and the speedy defender was done for the season.

Now 16 months later, the 5-foot-11, 169-pound Barkins apparently is finished with the Huskies after entering the transfer portal this week, unable to launch his college football career in Montlake for any lengthy period of time.

After starting out at Oregon for two seasons, Barkins appeared in just three Husky games in 2023 through that Michigan State outing and played in only two games late in this season, still struggling with his health.

In fall camp, UW coach Jedd Fisch told how Barkins got healthy and showed off his coverage skills and playmaking ability, yet his resurgence was short-lived as he dealt with more nagging ailments.

This season, he didn't enter a Huskies game until the ninth outing against Penn State and then again the following week against UCLA.

Barkins, who played his high school ball for the Mater Dei powerhouse in Southern California, went to Oregon, stayed healthy and appeared in 12 games while thinking it should have been more, so he joined the Huskies.

He missed out on both UW victories over the Ducks in 2023, still in recovery from his early season injury at Michigan State. He didn't get on the field in Eugene two weeks ago either for a regular-season-ending loss to his old team.

Consequently, Barkins is on the move again.

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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