With Washington’s 2026 season opener against Washington State set for September 6, the countdown has reached six days - and that number brings a pretty strong run of Husky football names with it.
For a lot of fans, Sonny Sixkiller is the face of Washington’s pre-Don James era. The quarterback from Ashland, Oregon, and a member of the Cherokee Nation, was handed No. 6 because of his last name, and he made the number matter.
As a sophomore in 1970, he got his first start and helped lead Washington to a 42-16 upset of Michigan State in Husky Stadium. That season, he guided the Huskies to a 6-4 record while throwing for 2,303 yards and 15 touchdowns.
By the time his Washington career was done, Sixkiller had piled up 5,496 passing yards and 35 touchdowns, along with fifteen school records at graduation. Even now, he still sits eighth in program history in passing yards, sixth in touchdowns, and his 387-yard game against Purdue in 1971 remains ninth all-time for a single game.
He was inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame in 1985 and named to the Pac 12 Hall-of-Honor in 2018. After college, he had tryouts with NFL teams, got looks from the CFL, appeared as a cast member in the original Longest Yard film with Burt Reynolds that was filmed in 1974, and now works as a media consultant.
Another No. 6 who left a real mark in Seattle was Desmond Trufant, one of the biggest gets in Washington’s 2009 recruiting class. His brother Marcus Trufant was already a standout corner for Washington State, and the younger Trufant looked like he might end up in Pullman too.
Instead, after Steve Sarkisian was hired, he and defensive coordinator Nick Holt made an immediate stop at Wilson High School in Tacoma and landed him. Trufant finished at Washington with 47 starts, 195 tackles, 33 pass breakups and six interceptions, and he ranks second in school history with those 33 career breakups.
The NFL came calling fast. Atlanta took Trufant with the 22nd pick in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft, and he spent seven seasons with the Falcons, earning a Pro Bowl nod in 2015 and posting 349 tackles, 14 interceptions and 83 pass breakups during that stretch.
He then played the 2020 season in Detroit but appeared in only six games because of an injury. Trufant has not been with an NFL team since the 2021 season, and his career totals settled at 302 tackles, six sacks, 14 interceptions, 89 pass breakups, three forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries.
Le-Lo Lang was a big corner for his time, listed at nearly six feet and 185 pounds. He started 33 games for Washington and finished with 182 tackles, 11 pass breakups and seven interceptions. Denver drafted him in the fifth round, 136th overall, in 1990, and he went on to spend four seasons with the Broncos, mostly as a backup.
Vince Albritton took a different path. The Oakland, California, product came in at 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds and began his Husky career at outside linebacker before moving to safety as a junior and senior.
He finished with 97 tackles, one sack and one interception, and didn’t become a full-time starter until his senior year. That one season was enough to open the door to pro football: the Philadelphia Stars picked him in the 16th round, 329th overall, of the 1984 USFL Draft, and although he wasn’t selected in the 1984 NFL Draft, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Dallas Cowboys.
Albritton played eight seasons in the NFL, though injuries limited him to just three full seasons, and he retired in 1992 with 269 tackles, two sacks and an interception.
In Other News...
Huskies Are Fighting For NFL Roster Spots On A Brutal Cutdown Day
The NFLs cutdown deadline has turned into a rough day for several former Washington standouts, with teams across the league trimming their rosters to get to 53 for the regular season. Among the moves: the Chicago Bears waived running back Salvon Ahmed, while other ex-Huskies are waiting to see whether they survived the final wave of transactions.
For others, the news is a little more encouraging, at least for now. Jacksonville handled edge rusher Zach Durfee by placing him on injured reserve with a designation to return, while San Francisco let defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez go as part of its roster cleanup, leaving the next step tied to what happens on waivers. Its the kind of brutal late-August churn that reminds Washington fans just how thin the margin is for even getting a foot in the NFL door. [Read more 🡒]
Jedd Fisch Is Already Facing Tough Apple Cup Decisions
With the 118th Apple Cup on deck, Jedd Fisch is already sorting through the kind of details that tend to matter most in a rivalry game: practice structure, player roles and how Washington wants to frame the week. The Huskies are treating the matchup with the usual urgency, and the fact that it will be played on Sunday only adds a little extra texture to a game that already carries plenty of weight for the program and its fans.
One of the bigger choices is up front, where Landen Hatchett is not expected to go, pushing Kolt Dieterich into the start at center against Washington State. Fisch also spoke about how the Huskies will distribute work in the backfield, a decision that could shape both the tempo and the balance of the offense if Washington wants to keep the Cougars guessing. For a game like this, the roster decisions can say as much as the game plan, and the Huskies still have a few of those calls to settle. [Read more 🡒]
Washington Apple Cup Week Feels Bigger Than One More Rivalry Game
The buildup to this years Apple Cup already feels a little different for Washington, with the Huskies preparing for the 2026 season and getting set for the first Labor Day weekend meeting with Washington State. Rivalry week always carries its own weight, but this one comes with extra layers of history and timing, from the familiar annual pride on the line to the sense that the game is arriving in a new slot on the calendar. Even before kickoff, there is plenty of nostalgia in the air, along with the usual offseason chatter around recovery, coaching changes and what this team can become next fall.
A look back at the rivalry only deepens the mood, especially when the conversation turns to the past and the people who helped define it, including Steve Sarkisian and Chris Petersen. The article also reaches into a wider memory bank of Washington football moments to frame why this stretch matters so much to fans, and why another Apple Cup feels bigger than a single game. For all the familiarity of the matchup, there is an undercurrent here about what this rivalry still means and how long it may keep taking center stage. [Read more 🡒]