It's Eastern Michigan's Turn to Try and Stop Jonah Coleman

The Husky running back set the tone for Jedd Fisch's team in the opener.

Jonah Coleman leaves players sprawled and watching in the UW season opener. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Under Kalen DeBoer, last year's University of Washington football team was all about offensive deception, lining up in all sorts of confusing formations and leaving opposing defenses, especially secondaries, all turned around and flustered.

Jedd Fisch's Huskies can do that sort of thing, but they would rather come out and smack you in the mouth when it has the ball.

If there was any question about this, it was quickly put to rest when a handoff was shoved into the midsection of Jonah Coleman on the Huskies' first offensive play of the season and lots of stuff happened.

The 5-foot-9, 229-pound junior running back went streaking up the middle looking for trouble. Coleman broke a tackle before stiff-arming not one but two Weber State players while moving the ball 25 yards upfield just like that.

Welcome to the new world order at Husky Stadium. Whereas DeBoer's approach was highly entertaining and successful, the Fisch style of college football is meant to command ample respect and ensure the UW is tough enough to navigate the Big Ten.

"The fans bought it today," Coleman said in the postgame media session. "Just to see the place rocking, and finally get my feet wet, get the nerves out and stuff, just wondering, it was good. It was fun to fly around wiith my brothers."

Weber State found all this out this past weekend and lost 35-3 at Husky Stadium. On Saturday beginning with a 12:30 p.m. opening kickoff at the same plae, Eastern Michigan from the MAC will be the next to test out this new-look UW team and see how long it can stay in the ring.

The Huskies threw the ball 32 times in the opener, which might not seem like a low number, but it was the second fewest amount of UW passing attempts over the past two-plus seasons, over 29 games. Only last year's Oregon State game, played in a continuous rain storm in Corvallis and conditions not conducive at all to winging it, presented a more restrictive passing attack with 28 attempts.

Jonah Coleman celebrates a touchdown run against Weber State. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Whether or not the offensive line totally gets it act together anytime soon, Coleman is going to present a big challenge for Husky opponents simply based on his hard-nosed approach to picking up rushing yards.

He ran the ball 16 times for 127 yards and 2 touchdowns against Weber State, with a third score, a 44-yard dash, negated by a block-in-the-back penalty.

"When you give Jonah a head of steam, he's a very hard guy to tackle with one guy," Fisch said.

Jonah Coleman stiff-armed more than one Weber State defender in the opener. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Coleman, who led Arizona in rushing with 892 yards on 123 carries in 2023, expects to run all over people. A year ago, he put up 179 against a Deion Sanders defense in Colorado, another 143 against USC in Los Angeles.

The hard-running back from Stockton, California, was a leader in the UW opener who set the tone for everyone else. It could be a regular thing when the Northwesterns and Rutgers show up on the Husky schedule soon.

"It was just having tunnel vision," Coleman said. "Canceling out all the noise. Really just focusing on us."

As a result, defenses will need to start zeroing in on him and finding a way to limit his damage.

Eastern Michigan, you're up.

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