Inside The Huskies

Son of Former NFL Snapper Pledges His Services to UW

Hunter Solwold gives commitment to Huskies, 26th player to do so.

Dan Raley

Hunter Solwold has committed to the UW.
Hunter Solwold has committed to the UW. / Ohio State

The University of Washington football team was 30 minutes from entering its seventh fall practice when long snapper Hunter Solwold turned to social media on Thursday to reveal he was committing to the Huskies and would be joining them next year.

A muscular 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, Solwold is from Towson, Maryland, and the son of former NFL snapper Mike Solwold, a Wisconsin alum who performed his fourth-down specialty for the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baltimore Ravens in 2001-2004. The older Solwold, who played at 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds, shared in Super Bowl XXXVII with the Bucs, who beat the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in 2003.

Solwold becomes the 26th player in the Class of 2025 to pledge to the UW, with two of the past four filling special-team roles -- he'll presumably be snapping in the future for place-kicker Tyler Prasuhn from Carlsbad, California.

Typically snappers and kickers come to the Huskies as preferred walk-ons, yet with college football's rules continuing to change, Solwold and Prasuhn mostly likely will come to the UW with partial scholarships in hand and the chance to earn more.

An all-around athlete, Solwold played tight end for Loyola Blakefield High School in Towson, as well as handling the snapping duties, for his Dons football team that finished 7-4 this past season. He's also a lacrosse and basketball player.

Fairly heavily recruited in his role, he took unofficial or official visits to Clemson, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Tennessee., among several others.

His father Mike, who received a scholarship from Wisconsin initially as a tight end, became the Badgers' starting long snapper as a junior and senior in 1999 and 2000. He shared in two Big Ten championships and a pair of Rose Bowl victories. An undrafted free agent, he appeared in eight games for the Cowboys, four for the Bucs and one for the Ravens.

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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