Washington’s stance on former NFL players is clear, and Jedd Fisch didn’t leave much room for interpretation.
With the Huskies about to open the 2026-27 regular season against Washington State in the Apple Cup at 1 p.m. PT at Husky Stadium, Fisch used his weekly news conference Monday to draw a hard line on roster additions. If a player has already spent time in the NFL, Washington is not bringing him back.
“Yeah, we're not taking them back,” Fisch said Monday. “I don't believe in that.
I don't understand how anyone can do it because we all have roster sizes that we're only allowed to have. This whole thing is really weird to me. ...
I guess they're using designated student athletes. I can't imagine you would count that in your NFL list, of designated guys that went to the NFL as a designated student athlete.
So I'm not sure if they're booting guys off their team or what they're doing, but no. We're not bringing anyone back.”
That position matters now because college football has seen a recent wave of players return to rosters after being cut in NFL preseason. Washington, though, is drawing a sharp distinction between those players and the two fifth-year veterans who were in camp this summer.
Defensive tackle Ta'ita'i Uiagalelei and kicker Grady Gross both came back after their eligibility had run out, thanks to a class-wide injunction against the NCAA filed by a U.S. District Court judge in Colorado. That ruling gave players who enrolled in the 2022-23 academic school a fifth year of eligibility because they had not been grandfathered into the NCAA’s new rules, which allow five years of playing time while eliminating redshirts and medical waivers.
Under the NCAA’s new setup, players in the Class of 2023-26 were grandfathered in, while those in the Class of 2027 and beyond will operate only under the new rules.
Gross and Uiagalelei were eligible to return and had not made an NFL training camp roster. But a ruling from a judge in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the earlier injunction, reversing that decision and preventing both from practicing with the team.
Even so, Fisch spoke in present tense when discussing the roster, saying it stood at 102 players before Uiagalelei and Gross arrived and referring to a 104-man roster.
Both players were also included in the UW team photo shared on social media last week.
There is still another possible route for players in their situation. Athletes who filed suit against the NCAA in state courts, including former Huskies women’s basketball player Hannah Stines, remain eligible for a fifth year. For Uiagalelei and Gross to pursue that path, they would need to file in their home states rather than Washington, which Fisch said would mean California for Uiagalelei and Arizona for Gross.
Their return would then depend on how judges in those states ruled.
“We'll let them do what they want to do,” Fisch said. “If they want to get that done, if the judge grants it, they're not guys that signed with an NFL team.
They're not guys that went to an NFL camp. They're not guys that were playing in preseason games.
Those (other) guys are NFL players.”
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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 🡒]