The Washington Huskies football team has steadily improved in Jedd Fisch's first two years as head coach.

Fisch inherited the program in 2024 following the departure of Kalen DeBoer, who led the Huskies to the national championship game before taking the head coaching job with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Fisch, who was coming off a successful rebuilding of the Arizona Wildcats football program, was tasked with doing the same with UW, which lost the majority of its high-end talent to either the transfer portal or the NFL Draft.

Washington finished 6-7 in Fisch's first year as head coach and 9-4 in his second year.

Fisch will be attempting to replace several of the team's key contributors from last season, including leading receiver Denzel Boston (drafted to the Cleveland Browns) and leading rusher Jonah Coleman (drafted to the Denver Broncos).

The third-year head coach also neared a situation where he would have had to replace the team's leading passer from last season, junior quarterback Demond Williams. He briefly announced he was entering the transfer portal after he signed a contract to return to the program, but went back on that decision two days later.

With Williams back in the fold, the Huskies are expected to take a next step forward as nationally competitive program.

The Athletic recently released its "man vs. machine" rankings, which compared a Top 25 put together by college football writer Sam Khan Jr. to a top 25 generated by a statistical projection model.

On Khan's top 25, Washington ranked 14th. The team ranked 17th based on the model's projections. The Athletic's general top 25, which is comprised of polls from several insiders and site writers, had the Huskies ranked 15th.

If these rankings are indicative of where UW will be next season, that would mean the program would be in the thick of contention for a spot on the 12-team College Football Playoff. Washington has made the CFP twice before, when it was under the four-team format. The year DeBoer led the Huskies to the national championship was the last year of the four-team format.

Williams' return plays a major role in the outside view of the program. He led the Big Ten with 3,676 total yards last season as a sophomore, which was his first full year as a starting quarterback.

But the Huskies' strong roster goes beyond Williams' return.

Washington has four starters from last season returning to the offensive line. The only player not returning will be left tackle Carver Willis, who was picked in the 2026 draft by the Broncos. The Huskies highest-ranked player in the 2026 recruiting class, five-star offensive lineman Kodi Greene, seems set to replace him.

The Huskies also have depth in the front several, bolstered by a combination of youth and experience on the defensive line and the linebacker core has four starting-caliber players in the room to rotate in on two spots on the defense.

The outside cornerback spot is in good hands, as well. Sophomore cornerback Dylan Robinson has been spoken of as a future draft pick by the coaching staff and since-drafted cornerbacks Tacario Davis and Ephesians Prysock, who both started for UW last year, spoke of Robinson highly. The team's other starting cornerback will be Virginia Tech transfer Emmanuel Karnley, who was one of the top performers of spring football.

Washington's roster is in positive shape going into training camp in summer, but there are still several positions the team will be attempting to sort, such as running back and the second outside receiver.

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