Analyzing the New Big Ten Teams: Washington Huskies

By Sam Merendino

Ladies and gentleman, conference realignment has arrived. Numerous teams will change conferences for this upcoming season, but the headliners are the teams moving to the Big Ten and the SEC. In this series, we’ll just be focusing on the former.

Oregon, USC, UCLA, and Washington will be racking up tons of frequent-flyer miles this year as they begin their inaugural seasons as members of the Big Ten Conference. We’ll take a quick look at each squad’s roster, including returning players and transfer portal additions, and I’ll give my take on what each team needs to do to be able to consider this upcoming season a success. We previously took a look at Oregon and USC , and today we’ll be checking out last year’s national runner-ups, the Washington Huskies.

Roster Preview:

Perhaps no team in the country will have as much to replace this season as Washington. Following one of the best seasons in program history, which saw them win the Pac-12 and finish second in the nation, the Huskies will have a staggering 11 new starters on the offensive side of the ball, and seven new starters on defense. They also watched head coach Kalen DeBoer leave to try and fill Nick Saban's monstrous shoes at Alabama, and former offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb is now with the Seattle Seahawks.

Star QB Michael Penix departed for the NFL, as well as all of his top WRs: Ja'Lynn Polk, Jalen McMillan, and Rome Odunze. Workhorse tailback Dillon Johnson also left for the NFL, and the Huskies lost all five starters from an offensive line that won the Joe Moore award as the country's best a season ago.

While the task of replacing all of that offensive talent seems daunting, new head coach Jedd Fisch actually did quite well in the transfer portal to replenish his team's armory offensively. QB Will Rogers , who, in his time at Mississippi State, racked up the second-most pass yards in SEC history with 12,315, committed to play for Fisch in the offseason. The Huskies' new head coach also wrangled in Cal star wideout Jeremiah Hunter , as well as RB Jonah Coleman , who followed him from Arizona. Fisch also landed Drew Azzopardi , one of top offensive tackles in the portal from San Diego State.

Defensively, the Huskies will replace seven starters, which seems like child's play compared to what they lost offensively. While they did lose star DE Bralen Trice, the players they have returning will be of vital importance to the team. Safety Kamren Fabiculanan , CB Elijah Jackson , and linebackers Carson Bruener and Alphonzo Tuputala will give the Washington defense much-needed stability and leadership.

Besides those four, the defense will be reliant on transfer portal acquisitions to round out the lineup. They'll replace all four defensive linemen from a season ago, with Fisch landing commitments from Zach Durfee (formerly of DII Sioux Falls), FCS Montana State transfer Sebastian Valdez , and he also pulled in two former Arizona players in Russell Davis II and Isaiah Ward .

Speaking of former Wildcats, perhaps the biggest defensive addition for Fisch this offseason was former Arizona CB Ephesians Prysock . While also being a member of the College Football All-Name Team, Prysock garnered All-Pac 12 Honorable mention last season, and he figures to be a plug-and-play asset for the Huskies this season.

Key To Success

Washington will face an uphill battle this year to remain in upper echelon of the sport, and to contend in the Big Ten, but there are plenty of reasons to hope that the Huskies will remain a great team. New head coach Jedd Fisch has fielded excellent offenses in his past two seasons at Arizona, finishing 39th in the country in PPG in 2022-2023 (30.8 PPG), and finishing 14th in the country this past season with 34.3 PPG. With stud signal caller Will Rogers at his disposal, there's little reason to believe Fisch won't be able to field an extremely competent offense yet again this season, despite all of the pieces the Huskies have to replace. Defensively, they'll need to bank on the returning players quickly meshing with the new transfers.

Washington's schedule this season also poses numerous difficult challenges. They'll face three brutal road environments, as they travel to Kinnick Stadium to face Iowa on October 12th, Beaver Stadium on November 9th to face Penn State in a white-out game , and November 30th against Oregon at Autzen Stadium. They'll also host USC and Michigan in a rematch of last year's national championship game.

If Washington can go 2-1 in their toughest road games, I think they can put themselves in an excellent position to contend in the Big Ten, and they can also be a dark horse candidate to make the inaugural 12-team playoff. I think 10-2 with wins over three of Michigan, Penn State, Iowa, USC, and Oregon would get the job done, but I think that's also their ceiling.

Washington simply lost too many pieces from last year, and to expect them to be as good as they were a season ago feels foolhardy. I'm expecting 9-3 or 8-4, but you never know. They've gone 10-2 with a first-year head coach and a roster full of transfers before (just two years ago), so nothing is out of the question.