Washington Huskies Running Back's Football Future Still in Question

SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies football team's running back room has been mired in a series of unfortunate events over the last year.

At the conclusion of last year, the team's leading rusher in back-to-back years, Jonah Coleman, ran out of eligibility and proceeded to enter the NFL draft, where he was eventually selected and now performing well with the Denver Broncos. The team's assumptive successor to Coleman, second-year tailback Adam Mohammed, opted to enter the transfer portal and joined the Cal Golden Bears in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

With the team's top two rushers from 2025 gone from the program, the Huskies made two veteran additions in sixth-year Trey Cooley (transferred from the Troy Trojans) and fourth-year Jayden Limar (transferred from Oregon Ducks).

Despite the attempts at fortifying the running back, the team has suffered a series of injuries in the room that have resulted in the No. 5 and No. 6 running backs (when everyone's fully healthy) from the preseason getting snaps in games.

The first injury occurred early on in the offseason toward the beginning of spring practice when third-year Jordan Washington, who entered the spring thought to be the favorite to earn the starting job, went down with a neck injury. Washington was stiff-armed to the turf attempting to make a tackle on an interception return and was carted off the field.

Washington was the team's leading rusher from '25 among the players who returned to the program. He totaled 233 yards and one touchdown on 27 carries.

Washington's status for the 2026 season was in question through the beginning of the year. At Big Ten Media Days, UW head coach Jedd Fisch seemed to incline that the running back's '26 season might not be in doubt, but his career in general.

Towards the beginning of the season, it seemed like there was glimmer of hope based on the coach's comments that Washington could return this year if his scheduled check-ups came back positive.

Alas, Fisch confirmed that Washington will be out for the rest of the season last week. And it seems like the Long Beach, Calif., native's status for his career is still to-be-determined.

"We don't (know)," Fisch said in a weekly news conference Monday at Husky Stadium. "We're really all waiting on a medical diagnosis and those are all going to be based upon scans that take place at different markers throughout the different (months). And then they'll determine based upon healing whether or not he'll be cleared and then when he'll be cleared."

Washington originally committed to the Arizona Wildcats as a four-star recruit in the Class of 2024, but transferred to the Huskies to follow Fisch after he left the Wildcats to take the head coaching job in the Pacific Northwest.

Washington redshirted his freshman year in 2024 but seeing an increase in playing time and production last year.