How a Changed Outlook on Life Has Helped Sean McGrew Emerge at Washington
SEATTLE – When Sean McGrew decided to commit to Washington in Spring 2015 it sent a shockwave throughout the college football recruiting world.
McGrew, a four-star running back out of St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California, picked UW over UCLA, who many expected to keep the talented SoCal prospect in his home state.
It took Chris Petersen personally recruiting the No. 4 ranked RB in the 2016 class to put the Huskies over the top. Now, after waiting his turn behind the all-time rushing leader in school history, McGrew is getting his carries.
“He’s done a really nice job. It’s hard. These kids are all competitive,” Petersen said during his Monday press conference when asked about the progress McGrew has made over the past year.
‘They’re all really good players and they’ve done great things in high school, and to come here and wait your turn, but like I said: The cream will rise to the top. Sometimes it’s not on their timetable, but if you stick to the process I really believe it will work out how it’s suppose to.”
McGrew was named the California Gatorade Player of the Year in 2015. He was named to the first-team CIF Southern Section All-Pac 5 Division after rushing for 1,852 yards and 27 touchdowns his senior season.
Ranked as the No. 194 overall prospect by Rivals in the 2016 class, McGrew was the second-highest rated recruit to commit to Petersen at the time in May 2015 behind now-senior UW quarterback Jake Browning to ranked No. 84 overall the prior class.
Still, McGrew redshirted his first season at UW and played in only seven games the following year. He scored a 3-yard touchdown against Montana for his first career score in 2017, adding his second TD of the season against Oregon State.
Following a third consecutive 1,000-yard season from Gaskin the former Bosco decided to change his approach to life, and in turn how he viewed himself as a player.
“I would say I’ve more grown mentally and just having a better outlook on every day,” McGrew said Wednesday reflecting on his new approach. “Just waking up wanting to get better. Wanting to improve my body, improve my mind in all aspects of football whether its watching film and learning defenses or getting stronger in the weight room.”
Huskies RB coach Keith Bhonapha picked up on the changes McGrew had made heading into the spring and saw a clear different in the former four-star recruit.
“I just think he was a young guy coming in trying to figure it all out,” Bhonapha said during the first week of fall camp in August. “The one thing I would say where I noticed the change, for me personally, was coming through spring workouts into spring ball.
“He came out of spring ball really strong. Taking care of business really detailed. Same thing not a lot of mental mistakes and you can tell that this guy was working to take the next step.”
McGrew continued to develop his game during fall camp and became a more complete back in the process.
“Me personally, what I am seeing as far as Sean McGrew’s progression is he is doing a better job of being an overall running back and overall player,” Bhonapha said later in fall camp. “He’s working harder in the weight room. He’s working harder on the practice field. He’s being detailed and knowing what we’re doing protection wise.
“He’s doing better in his pass protection. He’s being more detailed in the run game where he’s pressing his gaps and using leverage, things like that. He is becoming an overall better player. It’s not one thing I’m pointing out exactly because he’s really grown in so many ways.
“For me to cut it down to one would be shorting him for what he’s done.”
Learning from the Best
Before Petersen landed his first four-star in McGrew UW already had begun developing the next great back.
One of the first commitments for the 2015 recruiting class was a relatively unknown prospect outside of the Pacific Northwest. Myles Gaskin, a three-star out of O’Dea High School, had only three scholarship offers when he made his pledge to stay home in March 2014.
The 5-10, 185-pound back picked UW over Arizona State and Washington State and has since been a man on a mission to rewrite the record books.
With five regular season games remaining in his college career Gaskin owns the school record for career rushing yards (4,678), rushing touchdowns (50), total touchdowns (54), and fourth in scoring (327).
Gaskin has done equal damage to the Pac-12 rushing records, too. Entering week eight the UW senior is 10 scores shy of tying former Oregon RB Royce Freeman (60) for conference rushing TD record, and less than 200 yards away from passing former USC great Marcus Allen for No. 5 all-time in Pac-12 history.
“I mean at first obviously it’s going to be a little frustrating. But once you grow a little bit and realize what’s ahead of you and you have a lot of time here. I mean I have the best running back in Washington history ahead of me so all I can do is learn.
“I think that’s what I’ve changed my mindset to is what I can learn from Myles and how we can help each other get better. At the end of the day I know my time will come eventually. So just staying positive and learning from the best.”
Keeping up on Bosco
Three former St. John Bosco players have made their way north to UW under Chris Petersen since he arrived in 2014. Three-star cornerback Naijiel Hale in 2014 (later dismissed for a violation of team rules), four-star wide receiver Terrell Bynum in 2017 and McGrew.
The national prep football powerhouse is a recruiting hot bed for college coaches not only because of their roster, but seeing Bosco play against some of the best states other elite high school programs on a weekly basis.
St. John Bosco defeated Mater Dei 41-18 last Saturday in one of the more star-studded prep football games of the year. McGrew was pleased by the final score.
“Yeah definitely. It was a good feeling to see them actually blow them out because they talk a lot of crap. So it was nice to see that,” McGrew said with a light-hearted smile.