Washington enters Saturday’s Big Ten opener with a 3-0 record, but the early read on the Huskies still comes with plenty of unfinished business.
That’s the picture Andy Yamashita, who covers Washington for the Seattle Times, painted in a five-question exchange with the Pioneer Press ahead of the Gophers’ trip to Husky Stadium in Seattle. And the biggest takeaway is simple: the Huskies have shown flashes, but the answers are still coming.
Washington’s nonconference slate has not exactly sharpened every edge. Yamashita said the Huskies “underwhelmed against two Group of Six opponents - Washington State and Utah State - before beating up on FCS-level Eastern Washington last weekend.” The defense has looked like the more dependable side, aside from penalties, and he described it as “a borderline elite unit” under second-year coordinator Ryan Walters.
The offense, though, is where the questions pile up. The run game has been especially uneven.
Washington posted a season-high 148 rushing yards against Eastern Washington, but the line that was supposed to be a strength - with four returning starters from 2025 - did not control games against Washington State or Utah State. Injuries have made that even harder to sort out.
Junior Jordan Washington, the Huskies’ leading returning rusher, suffered a serious neck injury in spring and is out for at least two more months, if he comes back at all. Sophomore Quaid Carr and senior Jayden Limar were both hit with long-term injuries in the season-opening win over Washington State. That has forced Washington to lean on freshmen Brian Bonner Jr. and Ansu Sanoe, plus sixth-year Troy transfer Trey Cooley.
There’s also a hole at center. Senior Landen Hatchett, a two-year captain, has not played in 2026 while recovering from a wrist fracture he suffered in October 2025.
If Minnesota is looking for the player most likely to tilt the game, it starts with Demond Williams. Yamashita pointed to the quarterback’s legs, noting that Williams already leads the team with 150 rushing yards. But he said the bigger trait is his accuracy.
Williams’ 2025 season, his first as a starter, ranks second in Washington history for single-season completion percentage, and his 71% career mark is a program record. Still, the start of 2026 has brought some inconsistency as he tries to sync up with a new group of receivers.
That transition got tougher when Washington lost starting wideout Christian Moss to a long-term lower body injury on the second play of the Apple Cup. Moss, a Kennesaw State transfer, had been expected to pick up the workload left behind by Denzel Boston, now with the Cleveland Browns, and had taken essentially every first-team rep with Williams during fall camp. Now Williams is working with a group of freshman receivers that Yamashita called intriguing but inexperienced.
On the other side, Washington’s defense has been one of the more solid units in the country so far, ranking 25th nationally at 4.3 yards per play allowed. The Huskies entered the year with real talent already in place, including safety Alex McLaughlin, a consensus All-Big Ten honorable mention, and a linebacker group that features four players who started multiple games a season ago.
But the biggest reason for the strong start may be the defensive front. That was a major unknown after Washington gave up 100 rushing yards per game in Walters’ first season in 2025 and then watched a wave of defensive tackles leave through the transfer portal and the NFL. Only Elinneus Davis, a Moorhead, Minn., native, remained from UW’s top four defensive tackles from last season.
A new piece has emerged quickly in freshman Derek Colman-Brusa, the top player in Washington state in the 2026 recruiting cycle. He signed as an edge rusher, then moved inside to tackle after adding nearly 30 pounds in his first four months on campus.
Saturday’s setting may be just as much of a factor as the personnel. Yamashita said Husky Stadium is built to be loud, with cantilevered roofs that trap sound and create one of college football’s toughest atmospheres.
Washington students only returned to campus this week because the school is on a quarter system, so the crowd is expected to be full. Add in the planned black out and a 10 p.m.
CT kickoff, and the scene gets even more difficult.
Since Jedd Fisch arrived in 2024, Washington is 14-2 at home, with the only losses coming against Ohio State and Oregon in 2025, both College Football Playoff teams.
As for how the matchup plays out, Yamashita said it comes down to the lines on both sides. He wants to see whether Washington can slow Minnesota’s run game the way Mississippi State did two weeks ago, how Colman-Brusa handles an interior line led by Greg Johnson, and whether the Huskies can make Drake Lindsey throw more against a defense that is tied for fifth nationally with five interceptions.
On the other side, the questions are just as direct: can Washington’s offensive line, especially freshman left tackle Kodi Greene, deal with Anthony Smith? Can the young backs hold up against linebacker Maverick Baranowski? And can Washington’s inexperienced receivers keep winning one-on-one battles the way they did against Eastern Washington?
Yamashita called it a fascinating game on both sides. Still, with the late kickoff, the travel and Fisch’s home record at Husky Stadium, he said he leans Washington.
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