Breaking Down the Current UW Football Roster With What DeBoer Left Behind

Two-thirds of the Husky personnel were signed by the now Alabama coach.

When people get jilted in a relationship, they get hurt and angry and often lash out by serving up insults hard and fast, sometimes without giving much thought to what they're saying — such as University of Washington football fans suddenly disparaging the departed Kalen DeBoer by claiming he was highly successful with the Huskies only because he supposedly used someone else's players.

While some of that was true to a degree in what he inherited, DeBoer still signed 63 of the 99 players currently holding down UW roster spots, including 45 on scholarship.

Now at Alabama, DeBoer retains the biggest footprint of the four coaches over the past six years who are responsible for putting together this latest collection of Husky football talent. This is the third of four stories examining the existing manpower and how it originated in coming to Montlake.

Two and a half weeks before the start of spring practice, the roster is broken down like this in terms of who signed who: Chris Petersen brought in 5 of the players, Jimmy Lake 17, DeBoer 63 and the balance goes to the newly hired Jedd Fisch, who still has plenty of work to do before finalizing his first Husky team.

While all but two starters graduated, retired, headed for the NFL or hit the transfer portal with the idea of learning how to say y'all, DeBoer's personnel contribution to UW football will be lasting for some time. 

Yes, DeBoer certainly got a lot of mileage out of veteran holdover Huskies such as wide receivers Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan and Ja'Lynn Polk, offensive tackles Troy Fautanu and Roger Rosengarten, edge rushers Bralen Trice and Zion Tupuola Fetui, tight ends Jack Westover and Devin Culp, not to mention linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio and safety Dominique Hampton, but the coach took great pains to plan for the future, as well. 

All except wide receiver Taeshaun Lyons, who transferred to Utah for who knows what reason — Big 12 instead of Big Ten, c'mon — remain from the departed Husky head coach's 20-player 2023 recruiting class, with many of them expected to contend for starting roles this April or become serious game-day contributors in some manner in the fall.

DeBoer made significant recruiting inroads with that group, just not everyone was readily aware of it because nearly all of those players redshirted, with the Huskies fielding a lineup older than most as it went 14-1 and ended up in the College Football Playoff championship game.

The 2023 class should turn out to be one the UW can build a fairly competitive team around someday. The top players include center Landen Hatchett, running back Tybo Rogers and edge rusher Jacob Lane, who each burned their redshirts as freshmen and could be honors candidates before they're finished.

Tybo Rogers breaks a tackle in the Sugar Bowl against Texas / Skylar Lin Visuals

DeBoer might have done the program a huge favor with the five offensive linemen he signed out of the high school ranks in 6-foot-2, 310-pound Hatchett, 6-foot-5, 292-pound Zach Henning, 6-foot-7, 259-pound Elishah Jackett, 6-foot-5, 327-pound Kahlee Tafai and 6-foot-8, 290-pound Soane Faasolo. Two or more potentially could be starters this coming season. This is already a huge group, size-wise. The fact that all five of these promising players in the same position area are still together in these transient times of college football is nothing short of amazing.

Add to them linebackers Deven Bryant and Jordan Whitney, known speedsters; cornerbacks Leroy Bryant, Caleb Presley and Curley Reed, all with big credentials; safety Diesel Gordon; wide receivers Rashid Williams, Keith Reynolds and Vincent Holmes, with the latter moving over from safety; and defensive linemen Elinneus Davis and Anthony James, the latter considered the prize pick-up of the class.

DeBoer supplemented the 2023 group with transfers in cornerback Thaddeus Dixon from the JC ranks, the much touted edge rusher Zach Durfee from Sioux Falls, running back Daniyel Ngata from Arizona State and cornerback Darren Barkins from Oregon.

Zach Durfee made his UW debut against Texas in the Sugar Bowl / Skylar Lin Visuals

In 2022, DeBoer salvaged Husky recruiting after getting hired and starting late by retaining and signing Lake recruits in tight end Ryan Otton, wide receiver Denzel Boston and edge rusher Lance Holtzclaw, and signing his own discoveries in safety Tristan Dunn and the Parker twins, Jayvon and Armon, at defensive tackle. For transfers still around, he picked up running back Will Nixon from Nebraska.

This past December, DeBoer signed another promising high school recruiting class for 2024 that Fisch worked feverishly to keep intact — though suffering a few defections — in quarterback Demaricus Davis, tight end Decker DeGraaf, offensive linemen Davis Boyajyan and Paki Finau, linebacker Khmori House, defensive tackle Omar Khan, cornerback Elias Johnson, safeties Paul Mencke Jr. and Peyton Waters, and wide receivers Jason Robinson Jr. and Justice Williams.

Add to that transfers in quarterback Will Rogers from Mississippi State, offensive tackle Drew Azzopardi from San Diego State, defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez from Montana State and wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter from California.

Finally, there are the walk-ons, 18 in all. DeBoer found the Huskies an exceptional place-kicker in Grady Gross, who's now on scholarship. 

Grady Gross went from walk-on to scholarship player with this game-winning Apple Cup kick :: Scott Ecklund/UW

The rest of the non-scholarship list includes punters Adam Saul and Troy Petz, quarterback Camdyn Stiegeler, running back Ryder Bumgarner, wide receivers Owen Coutts, Luke Luchini and Jackson Girouard, defensive backs Tristan Warner and Anay Nagarajan, linebackers Logan Lisherness and Griffin Miller, offensive linemen Parker Cross, Roice Cleeland and Aidan Anderson, defensive lineman Habib Bello, edge rusher Jacob Mason, tight end John Frazier and long snapper Caleb Johnston.

Who said DeBoer couldn't recruit his own talent? Couldn't win with his own players?

People in Alabama already have been raving at the new football coach's ability to recruit players to the SEC powerhouse, no small feat whatsoever. Once the Huskies are two or three years into the Big Ten, DeBoer could be taking bows for helping set them up to succeed on Fisch's watch. 

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