Inside The Huskies

Adam Mohammed Begins to Line Up Post-UW Suitors

The former Husky running back has Texas A&M and Virginia among those calling on him.
Dan Raley|
Adam Mohammed drew a lot interest to himself for his game against Oregon.
Adam Mohammed drew a lot interest to himself for his game against Oregon. | Dave Sizer photo

Scottie Graham used to joke he kept his recruitment of running back Adam Mohammed hidden from view so as not to tip other schools to the possibilities at hand, that this kid had more talent than maybe anyone else knew.

In the end, the veteran University of Washington running backs coach showed his hand. Showed off his young runner. Got shown the door.

In hindsight, Graham should have kept Mohammed in hiding and prevented the chiseled 6-foot, 220-pound runner from taking the field against Oregon to end the regular season because the then sophomore was great against a very good Ducks defense --- and everyone saw it.

Now five weeks later, what amounts to a bidding war for Mohammed's services is taking place, with the player's agency representation sharing that visits to Texas A&M and Virginia are forthcoming for him and that he was touring California on Friday.

The Bears have a new head coach in Tosh Lopoi, and it was his Oregon defense, in fact, that was made to look ordinary at times by the then Huskies' back-up back.

The UW-Oregon game proved to be an audition that blew up on the Huskies, who had carefully and meticulously groomed Mohammed to replace Jonah Coleman, only not until it was time.

Wisconsin actually ruined everything.

The Badgers were responsible for a Coleman knee injury that put him on the sideline momentarily and forced the Huskies to turn to Mohammed to be the No. 1 guy.

The kid went for 108 yards against UCLA and 105 against Oregon.

"I felt like a proud dad," Coleman said after watching his understudy go over the century mark for the first time against the Bruins.

Where this no doubt got a little dicey is Mohammed had to strain relationships built over a long time, such as with Jedd Fisch and Graham, to go on the open market and see what he's worth.

He drew just two carries h in the LA Bowl after averaging 16 per game in the four outings when Coleman was injured seemingly with everyone aware of what was happening.

Muhammed next walked away from a UW football program that's on the precipice of becoming a playoff team again and was built to make him look good.

The money figures likely being tossed around trumped all of that and have had Mohammed's head spinning. So he left.

This is why some coaches have have gotten rid of their spring games altogether because spies are everywhere and there is absolutely nothing to discourage anyone from player poaching.

No matter how much you try to hide them.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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