A second member of the Washington Huskies’ 2024 roster has hit the transfer portal in as many days.
After punter Jack McCallister announced his intentions to transfer on Monday, edge rusher Maurice Heims followed suit on Tuesday. Heims is the first scholarship player Washington has lost to the portal since the conclusion of the regular season – linebacker Bryun Parham entered the portal midway through the year.
A fourth-year junior originally from Germany, Heims never played varsity football in high school. He moved to California in 2019, but state rules prevented him from playing varsity in his first season as an international transfer. His 2020 senior season was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite that lack of experience, Heims was rated as the No. 40 edge rusher in the 2021 class by the 247Sports Composite and chose Washington over a host of Pac-12 offers. He struggled to find the field, however, logging only 91 defensive snaps in his career on Montlake. This season, he was relegated to special teams, where he played 65 snaps without seeing time on defense.
Heims got a bit lost in the crowd of a packed Huskies edge room, even with Zach Durfee dealing with injury for most of the year. Isaiah Ward, Lance Holtzclaw, Arizona transfer Russell Davis II, Jacob Lane, and Miami transfer Jayden Wayne all surpassed him on the depth chart. Washington’s use of Alphonzo Tuputala and Voi Tunuufi as edge defenders at times only made things more complex for Heims.
With all of the pure edge rushers set to return next season, there wasn’t a clear path to defensive playing time on Montlake for Heims. He has one season of eligibility remaining and can enter the portal immediately as a graduate transfer.