Former UW Huskies quarterback Sam Huard announces transfer to Cal Poly

The combination of Sam Huard and Sheldon Cross produced 13,214 passing yards and 153 touchdowns — both state records — in four unparalleled seasons at Kennedy Catholic High School, from 2017 to 2021.

They’ll chase that same success in the FCS.

Huard — a former five-star recruit who announced a decision to enter the transfer portal after two seasons at Washington on Jan. 10 — will transfer to FCS Cal Poly, he announced on the “Brock and Salk” show on Seattle Sports Station 710 AM Monday.

In the Big Sky Conference, Huard will reunite with Cross — who agreed to become Cal Poly’s offensive coordinator this month after seven successful seasons as head coach at Kennedy Catholic.

“Obviously the relationship with coach Cross I’ve had throughout my high school career and just how much he pushed me to grow as a person and as a player … I know I’ve got so much trust in him,” Huard said Monday morning. “An opportunity to go play for him again, it was definitely hard to pass up. Then when I went down there on my visit last week, feeling the support and the trust and the love from all the coaches and the mentality of them and all the guys on the team, there’s such a hunger to go build something special down there.

“It’s an amazing group of people. I just felt right at home with them. I’m super excited to be able to work with them and go give everything I have to that team and that program.”

Of course, Huard spent the past two seasons working at Washington — where his father (Damon Huard) and uncle (Brock Huard) previously starred under center. He completed 24 of 44 passes for 265 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions in five career games at UW, relegated to a backup role behind Dylan Morris in 2021 and both Michael Penix Jr. and Morris last fall.

In his lone UW start — a 40-13 Apple Cup loss inside Husky Stadium in 2021 — Huard went 17 for 31 for 190 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions. The 6-foot-2, 193-pound passer from Bellevue appeared in just one game this season, completing 2 of 2 passes for 24 yards in relief during a 52-6 win over Portland State.

Now, less than two years after enrolling early as a five-star recruit, the No. 3 quarterback and the No. 23 overall prospect in the 2021 class (according to 247Sports), Huard is searching for a fresh start in a familiar offense.

“That [air raid system at Cal Poly] definitely also had a big impact on my decision,” Huard said. “I’ve had two different systems in two years. I know if I was going to go choose another place where I’d have to learn a third system in three years there’s obviously a lot of challenges with that. So the comfortableness and the familiarity with the air raid offense and coach Cross and being in that system, it’s something I love and I played in for four years in high school and my team and I got really good at.

“That was also a big part of my decision — being able to be in a system I’m comfortable in, that I’ve played in and have had a million reps in.”

Huard did not specify what other options he may have had in the transfer portal, though Brock Huard — Sam’s uncle and the show’s co-host — noted that “a lot of times in this day and age kids will have other people make calls. They’ll have runners. They’ll have marketing people. They’ll have agents. They’ll have others put feelers out there while they’re still at their school, and other schools will tamper. They will make those calls. Sam did none of that.”

Huard called Cal Poly “a no-brainer” all the same. And in San Luis Obispo, California, he’ll play under another recognizable name in first-year head coach Paul Wulff — who compiled a 9-40 record in four seasons as Washington State’s head coach from 2008 to 2011. Wulff succeeded Beau Baldwin, who went just 4-21 in three seasons at Cal Poly following a successful run at Eastern Washington.

Meanwhile, Washington is left with just two scholarship quarterbacks this offseason — Penix (who broke UW’s single-season passing record and led the nation with 4,641 yards last fall) and Morris. The Huskies wrapped an 11-2 season with an Alamo Bowl win over Texas and a No. 8 national ranking.

Huard witnessed much of that ascension from the sideline.

It’s an experience the Husky legacy insists he’s grateful for.

“I’m leaving this situation knowing that I poured everything out into these last two years and gave it everything I had to grow as a person, as a teammate,” Huard said. “At this point I’m just excited about the next opportunity.”