With Portal Set to Open, Here's What's at Top of UW Wish List

The transfer portal for college football opens on Monday, with everyone lining up like rabid Christmas shoppers ready to fill the aisles, start pushing and shoving to get at the merchandise and overrun some defenseless department store.

While it could stand to add an offensive lineman or two and maybe a veteran wide receiver, the University of Washington football team's greatest need appears to be this: finding an overly disruptive interior defensive lineman.

It's been that way for five seasons now since Levi Onwuzurike earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors for the Huskies and the defensive tackle originally from Texas went on to become an NFL second-round draft pick for the Detroit Lions and the 41st player selected overall.

The Huskies need a player who can stand in there against someone as physical as say Oregon or Penn State, shed blocks and create some havoc.

Jedd Fisch's current UW team, as were those put together by Jimmy Lake and Kalen DeBoer before him, has just been a little too accommodating up front in the bigger battles when it comes to stopping the run.

The current Husky defenive-line starters, Sebastian Valdez and Jacob Bandes, the Montana State transfer and sixth-year senior, have been stopgaps at best this season, though Valdez recently was honored with All-Big Ten honorable-mention honors.

Before the portal smorgasbord is unveiled, Fisch is left with the following scenario among his returnees for 2025.

"As you look at our defensive line, to get Jayvon and Armon Parker back is going to be critical," the Husky coach said. "To get Logan [Sagapolu] back is going to be critical."

The Parker twins from Detroit, of course, are recovering from Achilles heel and leg injuries.

Jayvon Parker, a 6-foot-3, 297-pound junior who has two seasons of eligibility remaining, appeared in just four games this fall, grading out as one of the nation's top DTs against Rutgers by Pro Football Focus on the same day he was helped off the field with his season-ending injury in New Jersey.

Armon Parker, who goes 6-foot-3 and 312 pounds, has not played in a UW game yet in three seasons because of a knee injury and an undisclosed leg ailment that knocked him out of action this past spring.

The 6-foot-2, 368-pound Sagapolu, a Miami transfer and an original Oregon player, appeared in all 12 games, started against Northwestern and came up with 12 tackles after making an offseason conversion from offensive guard. He appears to have more season of eligibility remaining.

Other Husky defensive-line candidates are redshirt freshman Elinneus Davis, who goes 6-foot-2 and 309 pounds, and JC transfer Bryce Butler, a 6-foot-3, 315-pounder, who each got on the field at times this season, plus 6-foot-3, 296-pound freshman Omar Khan, who hasn't played in a UW game.

Yet the consistent push up front hasn't been there since the days of Onwuzurike, and Vita Vea and Greg Gaines before him.

Sacks for the interior guys is not so much a mandatory stat for these guys, yet it's a telling metric. In 2019, the Huskies received 9.5 from their defensive linemen.

Since then, excluding the shortened COVID season, the UW received four from its interior defensive linemen in 2021, two in 2022, one in 2023 and 3.5 this season.

"In the transfer portal in terms of defensive linemen, you have to be able to take the older players," Fisch said.

Let the football Christmas shopping begin.

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