3 Freshmen We Want to See Right Away at UW Spring Ball

Spring football practice opens next Tuesday afternoon and Jedd Fisch and his University of Washington staff will welcome roughly 90 players, including newly obtained transfers and most of the freshmen signees.

They'll go padless initially to meet NCAA requirements and let everyone unlimber their muscles, and then step it up with some physicality.

Once that happens, we've spotlighted three freshmen we want to inspect right away, honestly to see up close if they match the early hype.

While Fisch and his coaches usually are fairly generous with their praise of the players they've persuaded to join them in Montlake, they've been particularly effusive about the immediate prospects for offensive tackle Kodi Greene, edge rusher Derek Colman-Brusa and linebacker Ramzak Fruean.

Greene, considered a 5-star recruit from Southern California powerhouse Mater Dei and originally a local kid, received the most startling projection from Fisch for any first-year Husky when the coach seemed to challenge him right away on signing day.

"I'm expecting him to walk in here as a starter," Fisch said, not holding back on the 6-foot-6, 320-pound Greene. "I'm expecting him to come in here and be a very similar player to John Mills, to walk in and to be able to compete right away."

No pressure there, whatsoever.

For that matter, Greene has worked out with Mills in the Husky weight room and been bonding with him, with those two slotted to be side by side at left tackle and left guard.

The 6-foot-5, 267-pound Colman-Brusa, a 4-star edge rusher from Seattle's Kennedy Catholic High, has received similar treatment and more.

Fisch actually brought him to a recent news conference to explain himself, a rare preseason duty for a freshman.

"Derek Colman-Brusa is a great player," Fisch told the Andy and Ari podcast. "We had to beat some of the best programs in the country for him to come commit to us. My inclination is to play him day one. These guys have to be starters early."

And, finally, the Husky coach has not held back in extolling the virtues of his new linebacker in Ramzak Fruean, who played at Bethel High School in 2024 alongside current Husky linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, who started a pair of games as a UW freshman.

"Getting Ramzak Fruean was a huge get for our program," Fisch said. "I think he is going to be a special linebacker. Him coming from the same high school as Zay, knowing Zay, I think is pretty awesome. We beat out some pretty good teams at the end for him."

While Green and Colman-Brusa arrived fairly well developed from a physical standpoint, Fruean now carries a 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame, up 22 pounds in a month's time of weight-room labor since joining the Huskies.

After all, he's got to live up to all that hype.