Details, feedback about ex-Washington safety Mishael Powell, a key UM portal pickup
A six-pack of notes and reaction about the Hurricanes’ newest transfer portal addition, Washington safety/slot cornerback Mishael Powell, who has one season of eligibility remaining:
▪ Not only are the Canes adding a very good starter from a team in the national championship game, but they’re doing it at a priority position where they lost NFL-bound Kamren Kinchens and James Williams.
Now, they will have Powell at one safety spot and at least six options for the other starting spot: Vanderbilt transfer Savion Riley, Arizona transfer Isaiah Taylor, Markeith Williams, Jaden Harris, Kaleb Spencer and four-star Hollywood Chaminade Madonna signing Zaquan Patterson, who was rated by 247 Sports as the No. 3 safety in the 2024 class.
Also competing: Brian Balom, whose role has diminished since his first season and three three-star safeties in the 2024 class: Dylan Day, Ryan Mack and Isaiah Thomas.
Though he can play nickel corner, UM plans to play Powell primarily at safety.
It remains to be seen if the roster will be thinned a bit at that position.
Powell, incidentally, picked the Canes after visiting the UF and UM campuses this week. Per Canesport, UCLA, Texas and Tennessee also showed strong interest.
Powell told Canesport’s Matt Shodell that the UM/UF choice was a tough decision but “once I got down here and seeing not only the campus, it’s paradise down here, but also the care the coaches have for me and the plan they have for me to not only achieve the team’s goals but they have goals that I want to achieve and they want to see me reach those goals. It’s a clear plan set out meeting with coach [Lance] Guidry and [Jahmile] Addae, those were two factors. Those are guys I’ll be with a lot.”
▪ Powell, who started all 15 games last season, had some of the best pass coverage metrics in the nation, per Pro Football Focus.
He permitted an 82.4 passer rating in his coverage area last season, which was ninth best among all FBS safeties who were targeted at least 50 times. That passer rating against was far superior to Kinchen’s 118.4 last season.
Powell, listed at 6-1 and 210 pounds, yielded just 8.8 yards per catch, which tied for fifth among all FBS safeties who were targeted at least 50 times. That was far superior to Kinchens’ 16.9.
Last season, Kinchens allowed five touchdowns, Powell two.
He had interceptions against Michigan State, Arizona State (more on that one in a minute) and Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game. He also had nine pass breakups and 38 tackles.
Overall, Powell permitted 49 of 66 passes to be caught for 432 yards, but the average permitted per catch was excellent.
▪ Powell started nine games in 2022 and all 15 games this past season.
His signature moment came in a 15-7 win over Arizona State on Oct. 21.
Leading 7-6, ASU went for it on fourth-and-3 from the Huskies’ 12-yard line. Powell intercepted Sun Devils quarterback Trenton Bourguet and scampered 89 yards for a go-ahead touchdown with 8:11 left in the game.
Darrell Powell, his father, told The Seattle Times: “Once he hit the end zone, all you hear is the roar of the crowd and [you see] the flickering of the LED lights. It was just pandemonium up there. I was just like, ‘Oh my God, I cannot believe this. I cannot believe this.’
“I have a great relationship with the mayor of Seattle, (former UW linebacker) Bruce Harrell, and he texted me right there and said, ‘Your son’s place will go down in the history books of Husky football. He just saved the season.’”
▪ A three-star prospect out of a Seattle high school in 2019, Powell was the quintessential overlooked recruiting success story.
He said during his senior year that he had six offers: Yale, Eastern Washington, Columbia, Cornell, Air Force and Georgetown.
He bypassed all of those to walk on for the Huskies in 2019 but didn’t play at all in his first two seasons at Washington.
But he emerged in 2021, playing in 12 games and starting three at cornerback, initially filling in for an injured Trent McDuffie, now a Kansas City Chiefs cornerback.
When Kalen DeBoer (who last week replaced Nick Saban at Alabama) became Huskies coach, one of his first decisions was to award a scholarship to Powell at a team meeting.
▪ Teammates cheered that decision by DeBoer.
Here’s what a couple said about Powell:
Defensive back Jabbar Muhammad, to dailyuw.com: “He’s just the same guy every day, and that’s what you want on your team as a leader. We work out all the time at the practice facility together, and I’d just say he’s a perfectionist.
“He tries to perfect his craft, and man, as a nickel, as a slot corner, that’s what you need. Our positions are really hard, we’re out there covering with no help, and he’s a perfectionist.”
And there was this from Huskies linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio, to the Spokesman Review:
“The interesting thing about Meesh is, the very first day he came here they had freshman meetings. I’m coming in, and him and Asa Turner are just coming back from a workout. I’m like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ ‘We just worked out.’ Before their very first meeting they already got work in.
“I knew at that point he would be a special player, because he already had it. When DeBoer came here and he was still a walk-on, I told him, ‘Hey, keep an eye on Meesh Powell. He’s a walk-on, but he works his butt off.’ He’s been working at this since he was 18 years old, so I’m not surprised that he’s making plays, man. I’m super proud of that guy.”
▪ Here’s what Huskies co-defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell told Seattle media after Powell’s interception against Arizona State:
“We all love Meesh Powell. That was an incredible play. I’m so excited for him. I challenged Meesh a couple weeks ago to take the next step in his game, transitioning into a new position at the beginning of the season and now really being able to own that spot. We’re seeing him the last couple weeks play really, really good football.”
The key with Powell last season, Morrell said, was “just challenging him with the details of the position. I think there’s things where, he’s a very good player, there’s no doubt about that, but there’s that next level where guys start making a lot of impact plays and just being able to fully grasp, because we ask so many different things out of him.
“We ask him to blitz, we ask him to play man-to-man, we ask him to play all different types of field zones, so there’s a lot on his plate. At corner, you’re going to play cover two, man, cover three, but at his position now there’s a lot going on. Sometimes he’s in the post, so just mastering the detail of every assignment he had and he’s really taken that on and we’re really appreciative of his mindset toward straining to get better.”
▪ Quick stuff: Powell rushed the quarterback 29 times last season and had nine pressures… Per PFF, last season he played 122 as a deep safety, 165 snaps in the box, 477 snaps at slot cornerback and 34 as a boundary cornerback… His name is pronounced “Meesh-A-elle”... Missed tackles were an issue; he had 14 of them.
This story was originally published January 18, 2024 at 11:36 AM.
