Jonah Coleman's Unfiltered View of the Transfer Portal

The thing about Jonah Coleman is he hits the hole exceedingly hard when carrying the football under his arm, as hard as anyone, showing that he's fearless when it comes to contact.

The University of Washington running back also doesn't have a problem offering an unfiltered opinion about life in a helmet and shoulder pads in Montlake, taking it head on, with a stance that leans somewhat to the raw side.

While others might be overly supportive or protective of all teammates who walk away from the Huskies, pushing any team loyalty well off to the side, or cover for those who are encouraged to leave the program, Coleman can be brutally frank when discussing the transfer portal process -- one in which he used to his benefit just a year ago, in going from Arizona to the UW.

"For guys that don't fit the culture and don't want to be at that place anymore and [are] just not happy, it gives people a chance to get the bad, the disease out, the whatever," he said. "It gets the people not fitting the culture out."

In other words, don't let that Husky Stadium door hit you when exiting Montlake.

This whole portal thing is hardly a perfect system, with Jedd Fisch and other coaches questioning the timing of it, with it happening in the middle of bowl season and at the tail end of high school recruiting.

While it appears to the public that the transfer portal is simply free agency nirvana for all of the players, and a princely system for team-hopping or player stealing, the down side is it doesn't treat everyone like kings.

Some of these players are pushed in the direction of the portal, whether they want to go or not, leaving them left to fend for themselves on their own. It's a roster cleansing.

"We have to have real conversations with players on scholarship, with guys who are walk-ons, that this is as far as we can take it," coach Jedd Fisch said this week.

One of the obvious losers in the portal process are the bowl games, which are treated as insignificant by more and more players, with Washington State quarterback John Mateer and Louisville signal-caller Tyler Shough among those who have moved on and stripped holiday these match-ups of headliners, if not made the games insignificant.

Hence teams are left to treat the postseason much like spring football by breaking in a new starting quarterback on the fly.

Or, in the case of Marshall, that school didn't have enough veteran players left once the portal opened to be a representative team and had to send its regrets and back out. Others view these games as invaluable in adding 15 practices and getting a team on course for success.

"People think that bowl games are all fun and games, but it's really to set the foundation for the next season you have coming up," Coleman pointed out.

Jonah Coleman gets pulled down at Oregon in the final regular season game. | Skylar Lin Visuals

While the NFL and the portal were options for him, Coleman decided to stay with the Huskies for a number of reasons. He wants to get his degree, to be the first one in his family to do so. He's expressly loyal to Fisch and running-backs coach Scottie Graham. He also wants to win at Washington.

For that reason, he sees added value in the transfer portal simply making things right rather than destroying rosters.

"People don't want to be here [are] gone, don't fit the culture [are] gone. and the people who want to be here {are] here," Coleman said. "We don't want hostages, we want volunteers at the end of the day."

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