Inside The Huskies

Jonah Coleman Shows Off Impressive Offseason Body of Work

The Husky running back has remade his physique, even after coming off a 1,000-yard rushing output.
Dan Raley|
Jonah Coleman has changed his physique some in the UW offseason.
Jonah Coleman has changed his physique some in the UW offseason. | UW

As the University of Washington's starting running back, the most impressive thing about Jonah Coleman last season was his unwavering effort with a football in his hands.

Even behind a patchwork offensive line while taking on plenty of hits from all sides, he always ran with a purpose.

Even when road games were well out of reach, Coleman carried the ball as if every yard had a bearing on the outcome.

And even when there wasn't any place to run at all for a Husky 6-7 team, he still piled up 1,053 yards and 10 touchdowns rushing on 193 carries, averaging 5.5 yards a crack.

One might assume Coleman, often beat up because of the way he played, would use this offseason to rest his body, to take it easy on himself, in order to deal with more punishment in the fall.

No, he's running harder than ever -- and it's not to Dick's Drive-In for a milkshake, fries and a couple of hamburger Specials.

Not quite satisfied with what he did last season or how he did it, Coleman revealed photos this week on social media of a stunning body makeover.

While he wasn't necessarily in bad shape before, with just a little bit of a belly bulge, he's now ready to enter any body-builder competition with his newly sculpted 5-foot-9, 222-pound physique.

Over two months, Coleman dropped 14 pounds and trimmed his body fat by 2.6 percent.

Give this man, standing on the podium, the Mr. Montlake trophy.

This buffer Coleman heads up a UW position group that includes 6-foot, 212-pound sophomore Adam Mohammed, who showed up with a notably cut physique last season, maybe setting the standard.

Add to those two veterans the 5-foot-11, 161-pound redshirt freshman speedster Jordan Washington and a pair of incoming freshmen in 6-foot-2, 230-pound Julian McMahan and 5-foot-11, 185-pound Quaid Carr.

They're all from California with the exception of Mohammed, who an Anrizona native, and they come in all different body shapes and running styles.

"We have two or three guys who are pretty good," said Scottie Graham, the UW running backs coach and a former Ohio State and NFL tailback. "Jordan Washington is pretty good. He's going to help us out a lot. He redshirted last year. We have two freshmen coming in who are pretty good, as well. iI's a luxury we have Jonah and Adam in the room."

Since arriving at the UW as an Arizona transfer, following coach Jedd Fisch from job to job, Coleman has always been his own man.

While others bemoaned the inexperience and talent level of a completely redrawn offensive line, he shrugged it off and insisted things would work out.

When a host of teammates headed for the transfer portal before the Sun Bowl, Coleman said he wanted to play only with the guys who wanted to be there.

Last month, Pro Football Focus listed its top 10 returning running backs across college football and not surprisingly Coleman turned up No. 4.

He trailed only Notre Dame's Jeremiyah Love, Louisville's Isaac Brown and Penn State's Nicholas Singleton.

At the Sun Bowl in a head-to-head match-up, Brown rushed for 99 yards to Coleman's 42, with the Huskies playing catch-up most of the way and having to throw the ball in a game they lost 35-34.

During the regular season in November, Coleman and Singleton compared running styles in State College, with the Penn State back picking up 45 yards to Coleman's 24 in a game the Nittany Lions won 35-6. Neither guy played more than half of the lopsided outing.

Coleman might not have many more opposing runners outrush him this coming season.

For sure, they'll be hard-pressed to show off a better body than his.

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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