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Inside The Huskies

Another Prominent Arizona Player Turns to Transfer Portal

Much-decorated linebacker Jacob Manu has a season of eligibility remaining.
Dan Raley|
Arizona linebacker Jacob Manu will enter the transfer portal.
Arizona linebacker Jacob Manu will enter the transfer portal. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

At Indiana this season, Curt Cignetti set the blueprint for the instantly successful college rebuild by bringing 13 of his players with him from his previous coaching stop at James Madison. This was enough of a familiar personnel infusion for the Hoosiers to produce an 11-1 season and a berth in the College Football Playoff against Notre Dame.

Meantime, Jedd Fisch merely showed up at Washington with six of his veteran Arizona players in tow, not counting those signed to letters of intent, and he was just half as good as Cignetti in guiding the Huskies to a 6-6 record and a Sun Bowl match-up against Louisville.

The thing about Fisch, though, is he might not be done dipping into that Tucson talent pool -- with more of his former players making plans to enter the transfer portal, which opens on Monday, apparently having become dissatisfied with a Wildcats program that dipped to 4-8 under new coach Bob Brennan.

On Sunday, Arizona senior linebackerJacob Manu, a three-year starter made it known he was portal bound, becoming the second former Fisch first-teamer to go this route in recent days, following junior offensive guard Wendell Moe into the college game's free agency.

While these players could end up anywhere, no one would be surprised at all if they wanted to reunite with Fisch, their former leader.

With the Huskies losing seniors Alphonzo Tuputala and Carson Bruener, they're badly in need of a veteran linebacker or two to help fill the gap for next season.

Originally from the Los Angeles area, the 5-foot-11, 225-pound Manu started 32 games in his three years with Arizona, with his service interrupted only after he suffered a season-ending, non-contact knee injury against Colorado this fall.

Manu, a first-team All-Pac-12 selection and the league's leading tackler with 116 in 2023, has career totals of 127 tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks and 7 pass break-ups.

And maybe soon, he might have a plane ticket to Seattle.

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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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