When Washington passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jimmy Dougherty offered the scholarship opportunity “it took all of maybe 5 seconds” for Shea Kuykendall to arrive at his decision to become a Washington Husky.
“He said, ‘what would you say if I offered you a scholarship to the University of Washington?’,” Shea recalled.
A day full of rain did nothing to dampen Kuykendall’s mood.
“When I arrived it was sunny,” he said. “Then it rained, but I didn’t mind.”
And it rained and rained to the tune of the wettest May 21st in history with over a half of inch of rain in 12 hours.
He was too busy enjoying reconnecting with the former Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits true freshman Jason Robinson and San Jose State linebacker transfer Bryun Parham.
“The coaches knew that I was coming, but I didn’t let anybody on the team know until I landed in Seattle,” he said.
That’s when he let Robinson know that he was in town. The tandem connected for over a third of Kuykendall’s 2,840 passing yards and 32 TDs.
Last season there was one big revelation amid a rough season.
“It taught me a lot about myself,” he reflected. “I learned how much I love this game and how badly I want to win.”
It also helped him as a leader.
“I showed my teammates that I’ma guy that they can look to and know that I’m not going to give up,” he said.
Being former Washington quarterback Jacob Sirmon’s understudy for the first 8 games he also became a better teammate.
“Those friendships in the quarterback room are so important,” he said. “We’ll all compete, but we’re all after the same thing.”
Wins.
And those were elusive last season at Northern Colorado as the Bears went 0-11.
Sirmon started the first 8 games of the season before Kuykendall finished out the winless season.
“You know, I learned how much I love football,” he said with a slight exhale. “But I also learned how much I hate to lose.”
Sirmon demonstrated how to maintain a positive attitude and prepare regardless of the situation.
“I fell in love with the game of football at age 5,” he said. “I played 2 years of flag football before tackle football.”
Being a quarterback at every level he’s developed every throw in the book and became good friends with Washington receiver Jason Robinson, Jr.
“He’s just a leader. He has that dawg in him,” said Jason Robinson, Sr.
He should know as he stood witness of the thousands of passes between Kuykendall and his son. “When Jason was a 7th grader the two helped each other out.”
That was Shea’s 9th grade year. He saw mop-up duty his sophomore season before taking over as a starter his junior year. However, that season had to wait until the spring of 2021 in California’s Covid-shortened 4-game season. The Jackrabbits were unbeaten that season.
Finally on the same field together 2021 when Robinson was a USC commit and Shea was a Northern Colorado commit the pair
He makes a habit of making the best of any situation.
“I started making music during Covid,” he told RealDawg.com. “I didn’t have any training, I just learned it on my own.”
RealDawg will have Part 2, along with a scouting report on Kuykendall tomorrow.
