Huskies Move Young Cornerback to Running Back

Twenty-four hours before spring practice began, Jedd Fisch shared yet another running-back development for his University of Washington football team.

Meeting with media members on Monday, the third-year Husky coach shared that redshirt freshman D'Aryhian Clemons has moved from cornerback to running back to bolster the depth at that latter position.

Clemons, who appeared in two games for the UW in the defensive secondary last season, was a 1,037-yard rusher on 152 carries as a sophomore in 2022 at Spanaway Lake High School in the Tacoma suburbs.

This move was necessitated by newly obtained running-back transfers Jayden Limar from Oregon and Trey Cooley from Troy both unavailable for spring ball while recovering from ankle and knee surgeries, respectively. Cooley missed all of last season for his Sun Belt team.

"With Jayden Limar and Cooley out for the spring, we wanted to make sure we had good competition at running back," Fisch said of the Clemons situation. "He's very talented as a a runner. We felt like we were in a good place to a degree at DB."

Fisch said he will have 13 players miss either some or all of the 15 spring practices ahead because they're recovering from injuries.

Out for the entirety of spring are junior linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah, sophomore nickelback Rahshawn Clark, junior edge rusher Russell Davis II, junior tight end Kade Eldridge, freshman wide receiver Blaise LaVista, sophomore defensive tackle Kai McClendon, and Limar and Cooley.

McClendon is a sophomore transfer from Mississippi State, who suffered a knee surgery that prevented him from playing last season for his SEC team and he's still in recovery. He started five games as a freshman.

"They'll all be on schedule to be cleared for training camp," Fisch said, referring to fall practices in August.

Four players coming off injuries and expected to be cleared at some point during spring ball are senior center Landen Hatchett, senior safety CJ Christian, sophomore wide receiver Justice Williams and junior offensive tackle Kolt Dieterich. Dieterich is a transfer from Sam Houston State.

Hatchett started the first nine games last season for the Huskies before injuring his wrist at Wisconsin and missing the rest of the season.

Fisch had 94 players listed on the team roster that was distributed on Monday, which doesn't include five freshmen still taking high school classes, and the math says he will have 81 available for the initial spring practices.