Washington’s trip to USC on Saturday will come with a familiar sight on the other side of the field.
When the Huskies face the No. 18 Trojans at 4:30 p.m.
PT at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, junior linebacker Deven Bryant will be lined up against the program he left after the offseason. Bryant was one of Washington’s more notable transfer departures, and now he gets a shot at his former team in the first road game outside the Pacific Northwest for the Huskies this season.
Bryant is not the only former Husky making an impact elsewhere. Washington saw several players leave the program this offseason, and a number of them have gone on to success with new teams.
Junior running back Adam Mohammed, now at Cal, has emerged as one of the better running backs in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Third-year offensive lineman Paki Finau has also been one of the best linemen in the country this season for BYU.
Bryant’s move to USC came after a crowded linebacker room in Seattle. Fifth-year linebackers Jacob Manu and Buddah Al-Uqdah were both back healthy this season after being limited last year by injuries.
Second-year linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, the top recruit in Washington in the Class of 2025, was also expected to have a bigger role in 2026. Add in fourth-year linebacker Xe'ree Alexander, and Bryant’s path to a starting job became difficult.
Washington coach Jedd Fisch addressed Bryant’s departure in a weekly news conference.
"He just wasn't the starter at the end of the year," Fisch said in a weekly news conference. "He got beat out.
Deven was fantastic, Deven's an awesome kid, but Deven wanted to start. And Jacob Manu and Zaydrius were the starters.
And Xe'ree was right there and Deven wanted a chance. Deven and I had amazing conversations, and he's a wonderful kid, and the conversations were real clear-cut, black and white, 'I think I have an opportunity to start If I go in the portal and here, I probably don't have an opportunity to start.
So I'm going to go in the portal and go start.' And we wished him the absolute best. ...
I can't wait to say 'hello' to him after the game. But he's a wonderful person and had three great years here."
Bryant’s production at Washington shows why USC wanted him. Last season, he appeared in 12 games and made 10 starts.
Across the two seasons before that, he played in 12 total games. In 2025, Bryant posted 62 total tackles, 42 of them solo, along with two tackles for loss and two passes defended.
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The forecast adds another wrinkle for Saturdays meeting, with hot weather expected to meet a stadium that offers little relief from the sun. For a late-afternoon kickoff, that combination could again shape the look and feel of the crowd, leaving USC to find out whether interest in a ranked conference matchup is enough to overcome another difficult setup for fans. [Read more 🡒]