Washington’s countdown to the 2026 football season has reached 23 days, and the jersey number brings a pretty varied Husky lineup into focus.
One of the headliners is defensive back Nesby Glasgow, a heavily recruited product of Lynwood (Ca.) High School who became one of Don James’ first defensive standouts at Washington.
Glasgow helped deliver one of the program’s signature moments when his late interception deep in Washington territory sealed the Huskies’ upset of third-ranked Michigan in the 1978 Rose Bowl. He was named a team captain the next season and earned First-Team All-Pac 10 honors in both 1977 and 1978.
By the time his Washington career was over, he had posted 168 tackles and five interceptions. The Baltimore Colts took him in the eighth round, 207th overall, of the 1979 NFL Draft, and he spent nine years with the Colts before finishing his pro career with five seasons in Seattle.
Glasgow ended with 15 interceptions in the NFL, won the Colts’ Defensive Player of the Year award in 1984 and the Seahawks’ Defensive Player of the Year award in 1990, was named to Washington’s All-Century Team in 1990, and entered the Husky Hall of Fame in 2001. He died in 2020 at age 62 after a long battle with stomach cancer.
Walter Bailey’s path to Montlake had a much different kind of origin story. Growing up in Portland, he said he wanted to be a Husky early on because he thought the big “W” on the helmet stood for “Walter” instead of “Washington.”
Washington signed him in 1988, but academic issues sent him to Western Washington first, with the plan that he would eventually join the Huskies. Starting in 1990, Bailey made the most of his three seasons in the program, helping Washington win two Rose Bowls and a national title while finishing with 69 tackles and 12 interceptions.
That interception total still ranks sixth in school history.
Don Coryell’s place in this group comes less from what he did at Washington and more from everything that followed. He was a lightly used halfback on Montlake, lettering only in 1949 after nearly four years away serving as a paratrooper in World War II.
After graduation, he got into coaching and worked with early versions of the I-Formation at every school where he served as an assistant. He is not generally credited as the inventor of the concept, but he is widely regarded as one of its early pioneers, and he helped install the offense at USC in 1960 under John McKay.
The Trojan attack took hold and produced a couple of Heisman Trophy-winning tailbacks.
Coryell’s biggest imprint came once he became a head coach. He took over at San Diego State in 1961 and began pushing a more wide-open offense before later becoming head coach of the St.
Louis Cardinals and then the San Diego Chargers. His most notable NFL success came with the Chargers, where he went 69-56, won three AFC West titles and reached the AFC Championship Game twice.
His system helped launch the Hall of Fame careers of Dan Fouts and Kellen Winslow, along with John Jefferson, Wes Chandler and Charlie Joiner. Coryell finished 127-24-3 in 18 seasons as a college head coach and 114-89-1 in 14 NFL seasons.
He is also considered the mentor of Hall of Fame head coaches John Madden, Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs, as well as offensive minds Ernie Zampese and Al Saunders. Many consider him the father of the modern passing game.
Vince Newsome arrived at Washington as a highly coveted recruit from Vacaville, California, and though he started only one season - his senior year in 1982 - he still played a key role on the 1981 defense that helped the Huskies win the conference title and beat Iowa 28-0 in the Rose Bowl. Newsome finished with 97 tackles and two interceptions before the Los Angeles Rams picked him in the fourth round, 97th overall, of the 1983 NFL Draft.
He spent eight seasons with the Rams and three more with the Cleveland Browns. Today, he serves as a Senior Player Personnel Executive with the Baltimore Ravens and has spent most of his post-playing career as a scout or personnel executive with that franchise.
Andre Riley rounds out the group as one of those players whose one big season left a lasting mark. He lettered for four years from 1986 through 1989, but his breakout came in his senior year.
At 5-foot-9 and 177 pounds, he fit the run-and-shoot era well, and he first made his name as a punt returner. He remains one of Washington’s top return men, averaging 8.7 yards per return on 64 attempts.
In 1989, he broke through as a receiver with 53 catches for 1,039 yards and four touchdowns. The Cincinnati Bengals selected him in the 12th round of the 1990 NFL Draft, but he never caught on with a pro team.
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Washington Tight Ends Could Unlock More For Demond Williams Jr
Washingtons tight end room has become one of the more interesting parts of camp as the Huskies look for ways to make Demond Williams Jr. more comfortable and more dangerous. Tight ends coach Jordan Paopao is working with a group built around versatility, and the emphasis has been on finding players who can handle both the dirty work in the run game and give the passing attack another layer when needed.
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Among the names in the mix are Omari Evans, Grady Gross and Anthony Ward, each of whom filled a role that mattered in a different way. Evans brought a playmaking element, Gross handled the pressure that comes with special teams reliability, and Ward offered the sort of steady presence that can be easy to overlook in the moment. The question is less about who posted the flashiest rsum and more about which absence will leave Washington feeling the biggest ripple, and that is the part the award is designed to settle. [Read more 🡒]