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Inside The Huskies

Fisch Calls for Spring Portal Window Only; Vimahi Returns to Starting Lineup

The UW coach cited the confusion of dealing with player movement while trying to prepare for a bowl game.
Dan Raley|
Enokk Vimahi (57), shown here against Penn State, will return to the starting lineup in the Sun Bowl.
Enokk Vimahi (57), shown here against Penn State, will return to the starting lineup in the Sun Bowl. | Skylar Lin Visuals

EL PASO, Texas -- In this border city and with what goes on here every day, it almost seemed appropriate for Jedd Fisch to talk about people coming and going.

In this case, the University of Washington football coach offered his impression of what's become a very intrusive transfer portal and how it has affected the Huskies.

"It's very different, it's very challenging -- it's very awkward and weird," Fisch said. "You could have a practice going and a portal player visiting, and that portal player is looking at the player whose job he's trying to take, and you have a guy on the practice field looking out there and see a guy watching."

Twenty-four hours before kickoff, the first-year Husky leader said only one of his players who has entered the portal is still with the team and will play against Louisville -- junior punter Jack McCallister, who will join Nebraska following this game, after finishing up three years of handling those duties.

What that means is senior offensive guard Gaard Memmelaar, an 11-game starter who is still listed on the roster and featured in bowl game publicity releases but is not in Texas, will be replaced by Ohio State transfer Enokk Vimahi as the starting left guard.

The 6-foot-4, 315-pound Memmelaar recently committed to UCF to play a sixth season of college football in 2025.

Vimahi, a 6-foot-4, 305-pound senior from Kahuku, Hawaii, started the first eight games of the season at right guard before getting replaced by sophomore Landen Hatchett as Fisch's staff turned to the youth movement at this position.

Fisch called for the transfer portal to be held only in the spring, well after the season ends and the coaching changes have taken place.

"If this is my time to say I think the portal window should not be in December, I will do that," he said. "I think we should take the NFL calendar -- no NFL teams are worrying about free agency today. I believe everything should be done in April, March and April, at the end of the school year."

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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