Inside The Huskies

Durfee, 9 Others Out for Northwestern Game

Huskies hit by a flurry of injuries entering Big Ten opener

Dan Raley

Zach Durfee enters Lumen Field for the Apple Cup.
Zach Durfee enters Lumen Field for the Apple Cup. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Edge rusher Zach Durfee, the University of Washington football team's sack leader, was ruled out of the Big Ten opener against Northwestern on Saturday for an unspecified injury, according to the conference's availability report.

The 6-foot-5, 256-pound junior and a starter was one of 10 UW players on the mandatory list released two hours before kickoff. He tops the Huskies in sacks with 2.5 and ranks third on the team in tackles with 13.

Starting linebacker Carson Bruener and No. 1 left offensive tackle Soane Faasolo were listed as questionable. Bruener suffered some sort of shoulder or neck stinger against Washington State in the Apple Cup, causing him to come out with 8:14 left to play.

The Huskies (2-1 could be down three starters against Northwestern (2-1) in the UW's first-ever Big Ten conference match-up.

Others ruled out of the Northwestern game were junior safety Makell Esteen, who started the first two outings; senior tight end Quentin Moore, who will miss his third consecutive game, junior JC transfer and defensive tackle Bryce Butler, newly sidelined; sophomore Kevin Green Jr., out since fall camp; freshman safety Rahim Wright Jr., who played in the season opener; junior cornerback Darren Barkins, still struggling to come back after a season-ending injury in 2023; senior linebacker Drew Fowler, out since the opener; sophomore tight end Ryan Otton, out since spring ball; and junior linebacker Anthony Ward, who was injured in the Apple Cup.

Durfee, one of the defense's top playmakers, has had great difficulty building any playing momentum in his two seasons with the Huskies.

A year ago, he had to sit out the first 13 games as mandated by the NCAA because he was determined to be a double transfer, from Sioux Falls and North Dakota State, a rule since rescinded; fractured an elbow during spring football and missed half of it; and then played just 25 snaps of the Apple Cup when the Huskies went with a different scheme that called for an extra defensive lineman and linebacker.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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