Breaking Down the UW Starting Lineup and How It's Coming Together

The Huskies tentatively have 11 transfers and 11 holdover players as starters.

Defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez (50) will be one of 21 new starters for the Huskies. / Skylar Lin Visuals

In putting the University of Washington football team back together again, newly installed coach Jedd Fisch has talked about doing something that's never been done before, about swapping out nearly an entire starting lineup, of doing some real heavy lifting with personnel.

With the opener against Weber State just over a week away, he's not all that wrong about the radical change involved.

The Huskies, if the first-teamers hold up from this past Saturday's intrasquad game, stand to have a new player in all but one of the 22 starting roles -- senior linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala is the lone surviving regular from last season. That, my friends, is a 95 percent turnover rate.

"There will be always competition here, there will never be a set lineup," Fisch said. "We're always going to see who wants to beat out the next guy. We're always going to compete to see our best 11 on offense, our best 11 on defense and our best 11 on special teams."

However, in taking a closer look at who's who for this greatly reshuffled Washington football team, it likely won't be all that unfamiliar when the starters trot out in the first quarter to face their Big Sky opponent.

It appears the Huskies could go with a season-opening lineup that consists of 11 holdover players from Kalen DeBoer's final Montlake roster combined with 11 newly obtained transfers, with three of the players who changed schools coming with Fisch from Arizona.

UW OFFENSIVE STARTERS	UW DEFENSIVE STARTERS
WR -- Jeremiah Hunter (Cal transfer)	ER -- Zach Durfee (holdover)
WR -- Giles Jackson (holdover)	DT -- Sebastian Valdez (Mont. St. transfer)
WR -- Denzel Boston (holdover)	DT -- Jacob Bandes (holdover)
LT -- Soane Faasolo (holdover)	ER -- Isaiah Ward (Arizona transfer)
LG -- Gaard Memmelaar (holdover)	LB -- Alphonzo Tuputala (return. starter)
C -- D'Angalo Titialii (Port. State transfer)	LB -- Carson Bruener (holdover)
RG -- Enokk Vimahi (Ohio State transfer)	CB -- Ephesians Prysock (Arizona transfer)
RT -- Drew Azzopardi (S.D. State transfer)	CB -- Thaddeus Dixon (holdover)
TE -- Quentin Moore (holdover)	S -- Kamren Fabiculanan (holdover)
QB -- Will Rogers (Miss. State transfer)	S -- Cam Broussard (Sac. State transfer)
RB -- Jonah Coleman (Arizona transfer)	N -- Jordan Shaw (Indiana transfer)

The holdover Huskies who will start are senior wide receiver Giles Jackson, sophomore wide receiver Denzel Boston, senior tight end Quentin Moore, redshirt freshman left offensive tackle Soane Faasolo, junior left offensive guard Gaard Memmelaar, junior edge rusher Zach Durfee, senior defensive tackle Jacob Bandes, senior linebacker Carson Bruener, senior cornerback senior Thaddeus Dixon, senior safety Kamren Fabiculanan and Tuputala.

Moore, Bandes, Bruener, Dixon, Jackson and Fabiculanan previously, have opened from one to 11 Husky games as spot or fill-in starters while Tuputala has 27 starts in 28 games over the past two seasons on his ledger. Faasolo hasn't appeared in a UW outing, let alone started one.

At this point, it appears junior cornerback Elijah Jackson, who started all 15 games in 2023, will come off the bench to begin the season. He played in neither the spring game nor the recent intrasquad contest, with Fisch saying each time he was resting but Jackson may be dealing with a lingering injury, which could be why he's behind Dixon. Or he simply got beat out by his teammate.

Of the 11 new Husky starters from the transfer portal, Fisch will open with junior running back Jonah Coleman, sophomore edge rusher Isaiah Ward and junior cornerback Ephesians Prysock, all former Arizona starters for him last season.

He'll supplement them with other transfers in senior defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez from Montana State, senior safety Cameron Broussard from Sacramento State, redshirt freshman nickelback Jordan Shaw from Indiana, senior wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter from California, senior right offensive guard Enokk Vimahi from Ohio State, sophomore right offensive tackle Drew Azzoparid from San Diego State, senior center D'Angalo Titialii from Portland State and senior quarterback Will Rogers from Mississippi State.

Valdez, Hunter, Azzopardi and Rogers each were first signed or committed to the Huskies out of the portal by DeBoer's coaching staff.

New safety Cam Broussard (8) runs with receiver Keith Reynolds (15). / Skylar Lin Visuals

Add it all up, and 15 of the prospective 22 UW starters were inherited from DeBoer, who's now at Alabama, one way or the other.

Breaking it down even more, Bandes, Fabiculanan and Tuputala originally were signed by Chris Petersen's coaching staff. Moore, Jackson, Memmelaar and Bruener each were brought to Montlake by Jimmy Lake's staff.

In all, these potential Husky starters actually could involve 16 new and old transfers since 2021, with only Bandes, Boston Bruener, Fabiculanan, Memmelaar and Tuputala coming to the UW as freshmen and being fully developed by whomever was running the program.

Which means four different Husky coaches can take credit for the starting manpower that Fisch will send out against Weber State.

Piecing it altogether into one cohesive and effective UW starting lineup is where it all gets a little challenging.

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