{"id":73354,"date":"2025-04-05T15:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T19:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=73354"},"modified":"2025-04-05T08:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T12:45:08","slug":"washingtons-kai-horton-embraces-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/04\/05\/washingtons-kai-horton-embraces-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington’s Kai Horton Embraces Opportunity to Compete"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kai Horton wanted an opportunity to compete at the highest level, and he found it at Washington. After evaluating his options in the transfer portal, the former Tulane quarterback committed to play for Jedd Fisch<\/a>. Through two practices in purple and gold, Horton has already begun using his four years of college football experience to benefit the quarterback room. He’s assisting the younger players and playing the role of a veteran, all while delivering some quality throws.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kai Horton Embraces Opportunity at Washington<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Journey to Montlake<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI knew,\u201d Horton recalled when asked about his decision to enter the transfer portal. \u201cHonestly the whole season. Just some things behind the scenes went down in camp.\u201d Horton finished the 2024 regular season with the Green Wave before officially entering. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t any bad blood or anything like that. It was a mutual thing,\u201d he continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

A connection to the Tulane staff is what began Washington\u2019s interest in the senior quarterback. \u201cThe head coach at Tulane is a good friend of mine,\u201d offensive coordinator Jimmie Dougherty<\/a> explained. Green Wave head coach Jon Sumrall put in a good word for Horton when discussing the potential transfer portal target with the Husky staff. \u201cHe really let me know what kind of kid he is, how he operates, and what makes him tick,\u201d Dougherty added. \u201cGreat kid, fantastic kid. He\u2019s smart, a hard worker, all the things that we look for off the field.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fisch would later call Horton, persuading him to visit the Huskies during the offseason. \u201cI wasn\u2019t for sure going to come on a visit,\u201d Horton said. \u201cBut he talked me into it\u2026I watched the offense with Coach Jimmie and Coach Fisch, and I just like what they do.\u201d Washington was the last of three visits that Horton took this Winter, after stopping at Ole Miss and North Texas. He committed to Washington on January 28th. \u201cCoach Sumrall, my old head coach, actually called me and told me congratulations,\u201d Horton said, reiterating the good relationship he had with his previous staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kai Horton on the Washington Offense<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot different, night and day,\u201d Horton said of the Washington offense compared to that of Tulane. \u201cAt Tulane, we were more of a downhill team\u2026We did a lot of play-action stuff, one-two reads, get the ball out.\u201d The Green Wave had an impactful running back a year ago and Horton said their offense was based around him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere, it\u2019s a lot different.\u201d Horton continued. \u201cCoach Fisch throws a lot at you. He wants you to be able to read the defense fully, full field reads, progression reads, and one-high two-high reads.\u201d The new Husky said part of his draw to Washington was Fisch\u2019s ability to coach quarterbacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the prospect of stepping in behind Demond Williams Jr.<\/a>, the \u201cclear-cut starter,\u201d according to Dougherty, has not discouraged Horton in his pursuit of playing quarterback. \u201cI was just told I was going to come here and compete,\u201d Horton said. \u201cI love everything that they do, the offensive system they got in.\u201d Similar to Will Rogers<\/a>\u2019 comments from a year ago, Horton said he felt like Washington was the best place to prepare him for the opportunity to play at the next level. \u201cI know Coach Fisch has a lot of connections. And at the end of the day if it\u2019s meant to be it will be. I just want to play at the next level so I feel like [Washington] was the best option.<\/span><\/p>\n

Operating in the Offense<\/h3>\n

Through just two practices Horton has shown an ability to be accurate with the football. To finish out the team\u2019s first practice<\/a> of the Spring, Horton delivered two consecutive touchdown passes to wide receiver Omari Evans<\/a>. They came in the team\u2019s two-minute drill which routinely ends practice. He placed the football high above the defender, giving Evans the best opportunity to pull down a contested catch. Both passes were well-placed, and both resulted in touchdowns. Evans was swarmed by his teammates after the catches, but Horton\u2019s delivery on both throws was top-tier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve been doing very well,\u201d Horton said after Thursday\u2019s practice. His football studies included communications over FaceTime and Zoom prior to his arrival in Seattle. \u201cThen coming here, they\u2019ve all done a great job of just helping me understand what they\u2019re trying to do as an offense. They explain it very very well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Role of a Veteran<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Horton is the oldest quarterback in the room for the Huskies as a fifth-year senior. He has four starts and 126 attempts over his four-year career. Even though he\u2019s battling for a number two spot behind Williams, Horton explained how he\u2019s already using his experience to help the freshmen and even Williams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI’m able to teach them,\u201d Horton said. \u201cI\u2019m very smart, and I understand a lot of things very well.\u201d Horton\u2019s experience includes starts against Power programs like Ole Miss and Virginia Tech. <\/span>\u201c[Having seen] a lot of things in the games that I have played in, they were against pretty good teams. With that experience, with those games, [I] just help these guys out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The 6′-4″ senior quarterback is confident in his abilities and learned a lot about how he handles himself from former Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt<\/a>. \u201cI sat behind him for three years and learned a lot of things,\u201d Horton said. \u201cI needed to learn how to do the little things like going to class, going to tutoring. And all that stuff matters.\u201d The Husky quarterback continued, \u201cIf you can\u2019t do those little things right, how are the coaches going to trust you to get on the field?\u201d His perspective on all aspects of being a quarterback at a Power program is strong. Horton’s presence in a Washington quarterback room with young players is molding them into a great fit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo: Nick Lemkau Last Word on College Football 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kai Horton wanted an opportunity to compete at the highest level, and he found it at Washington. After evaluating his options in the transfer portal, the former Tulane quarterback committed to play for Jedd Fisch. Through two practices in purple and gold, Horton has already begun using his four years of college football experience to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":73358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[33155,1666,35014,4595,34817,33090,33385],"class_list":["post-73354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","tag-demond-williams-jr","tag-jedd-fisch","tag-jimime-dougherty","tag-jon-sumrall","tag-kai-horton","tag-washington-huskies-football","tag-washington-spring-practice"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73354"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73360,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73354\/revisions\/73360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}