UC Davis transfer is ‘extremely competitive,’ brings experience to UW defensive backfield
It didn’t take long for cornerback Jordan Perryman to decide Washington would be his home for his final college football season.
The former UC Davis standout, who spent five years with the Aggies and was a two-time All-Big Sky first team performer with the program, announced the second week of December he was entering the transfer portal.
Five days later, he was committed to UW.
“This kind of happened really fast,” Perryman said Monday morning, following the sixth day of spring practices at Husky Stadium.
The program was quick to reach out to the proven defensive back, who played in 41 games across the past four seasons and appeared in the FCS championship playoffs twice during that stretch.
When Perryman entered the transfer portal, first-year UW cornerbacks coach Juice Brown reviewed his tape, then got in contact with UC Davis coach Dan Hawkins — who also once coached Brown as a player at Boise State from 2000-03.
“He said he was a really good player,” Brown recalled. “He thought he could play here. He thought he could come in and compete. He raved about him.
“So, once a coach I played for spoke really highly of him, we started making contact and were able to get him out here for an official visit that weekend and got it done.”
Perryman knew quickly, too, the Huskies were the right fit for his sixth college season.
“It was just a perfect opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” he said.
Perryman made his way to UW’s campus not long after he committed, arriving for winter quarter in January.
In Seattle, he joins a Huskies program that has produced several elite defensive backs in recent years — and will likely send two more to the NFL in the early rounds of the draft this spring in departing corners Trent McDuffie and Kyler Gordon.
Huskies sixth-year safety Alex Cook, the longest-tenured player in the DB room this season, said Perryman has fit right in.
“Really as a person, this dude fits UW so perfectly, fits this program so perfectly,” Cook said last week. “If you fit the program, it’s going to work out football-wise. It’s just inevitable.”
Perryman joins the Huskies following four impressive seasons at UC Davis. After redshirting his first season there in 2017, he earned starting reps when he was a redshirt freshman and went on to make a consistent impact in the Aggies’ defensive backfield.
He played more than 2,000 snaps — including more than 1,800 on defense — in the past four seasons, per Pro Football Focus.
He tallied 140 tackles, 19 pass break-ups, four interceptions, two forced fumbles and two recoveries.
Last season, he earned his second consecutive All-Big Sky first-team nod, finishing with career highs in tackles (63) and pass-breakups (12) in 12 games and helped pace UC Davis to the first round of the FCS championships bracket. Perryman recorded six tackles and a fumble recovery in that final game with the Aggies.
From a technical perspective, Cook said, Perryman is “second-to-none” and noted his size — Perryman is listed at 6-foot, 198 pounds — and physicality.
“Once we get rolling, you’ll see,” Cook said. “He’s going to have a breakout season.”
What Perryman has shown the Huskies through two weeks of spring practices has already impressed.
“Extremely competitive,” Brown said. “He’s a competitive kid. You watch him out here, he’s going to get his hands on guys, he plays sticky coverage, the moment isn’t too big for him.”
“I feel like it’s going really well,” Perryman said. “I’m out here making a name for myself trying to prove what I can do.”
What Perryman can offer the program from a leadership perspective through his five years of college experience is also beginning to benefit the Huskies’ younger players as practices continue on.
“The guys see him put in the work,” Brown said. “Now is where it’s really starting to show. He’s grabbing guys on the side, helping them with different things, so now his leadership role is really taking over.”
