Jordan Washington Injury Situation Clarifies Huskies Running Back Room
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Washington Huskies second-year running back Quaid Carr (21) is among the candidates to start the Apple Cup. (Photo courtesy of Washington Athletics) [/caption]
The cloudy Washington Huskies running back situation received some clarity Thursday at the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago.
As long suspected, Jordan Washington will not be ready to join the team in August, and it will be “a reach” to play this season, head coach Jedd Fisch told On Montlake’s Christian Caple.
After leaving Husky Stadium in an ambulance on April 4 during the first week of spring football, the third-year running back remains in “major rehab-type, physical therapy,” Fisch told Caple while explaining that Washington remains hopeful to play football again. Another check-in with the surgeon soon could set a timeline for his recovery.
Washington was able to move his extremities immediately after the injury, but the damage was severe enough that he was still wearing a neck brace nearly a month later at the May 1 spring game. Fisch had been non-committal about his running back’s potential timeline, though he also appeared less than optimistic about a quick return at the end of spring ball.
A speedster who ran a 10.2-second 100 meters in high school, Washington likely would have been a contender to start for the Huskies this fall if healthy. Now he hopes to find his way back to the football field at some point.
If Washington does miss the season, it’ll be up to a group that includes Quaid Carr, Jayden Limar, Trey Cooley and Brian Bonner Jr., among others. With the graduation of Jonah Coleman (156 carries, 787 yards, 15 touchdowns) and the loss of Adam Mohammed (106/530/5) to the transfer portal, UW’s leading returning running back is walk-on Ryken Moon, who rushed five times for 22 yards last year.
The situation could be seen as dire for a team that is believed by many to be a contender for a College Football Playoff berth after going 9-4 in Fisch’s second season last year. Both Washington and Fisch remain optimistic about UW’s options to take handoffs from third-year quarterback Demond Williams Jr., however.
Washington, fourth on the team last year behind Coleman, Mohammed and Williams (143/611/6), rarely posts on social media, but he replied to a “Welp, season’s over” comment on X/Twitter.
“Nah, something exciting is going to happen,” Washington posted. “Great staff and players put together. Have faith!”
Limar, a fourth-year transfer from Oregon who missed spring football due to ankle surgery, brings in career totals of 95 carries, 442 yards and four touchdowns. Cooley, a fifth-year transfer who played at Louisville and Georgia Tech before transferring to Troy and missing the 2025 season with a knee injury, comes to UW with 215 attempts for 1,009 yards and six scores.
Carr, a second-year running back, appears to be in the pole position to start the season-opening Apple Cup against Washington State on Sunday, Sept. 6. Though he enters the season with six career college football snaps (per Pro Football Focus), including four rushes for 14 yards, Carr ran with the first-team offense the majority of the time with Washington, Limar and Cooley out for most of the spring.
“We went into the portal and got Jayden Limar,” Fisch said Thursday on the Big Ten Network. “We went into the portal and got Trey Cooley. And then we have, I think, a special, special young running back named Quaid Carr, who was a true freshman last year. Played about 10 snaps, and I think we're going to let him rip this year and see what it looks like.”
Bonner, a four-star freshman out of Valencia High School (Santa Clarita, Calif.), could also vie for carries this season. Listed at 6 feet, 195 pounds, Bonner is likely to be worked in slowly as he becomes accustomed to the college game while adding more bulk. With players having “five for five” eligibility going forward, there will not be any redshirt decision to make for Bonner and others.
One player who will not need more bulk is freshman back Ansu Sanoe, who is listed at 6 feet, 240 pounds. Sanoe showed power potential in the spring game and could carve out a short-yardage role.
