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Inside The Huskies

Kodi Greene Touted As One Of Nation's Top Freshmen

The first-year Husky offensive tackle receives generous praise coming out of spring ball.
Dan Raley|
Kodi Greene awaits the play call in the Spring Game.
Kodi Greene awaits the play call in the Spring Game. | Dave Sizer photo

Since spring practice ended, the University of Washington football team has been ranked near the back of the Top 25 polls or not at all.

None of the veterans are fetching any preseason All-America attention so far.

Leave it to fresh-facednoffensive tackle Kodi Greene to make an attention-getting breakthrough in Montlake.

It's what he does.

FOX Sports released its list of Top 10 most impactful freshman for all of college football this coming season and the first-year player from Renton, Washington, came in at a lofty third on this wish list.

Who might be better than him, you ask?

USC's 6-foot-4, 225-pound tight end Mark Bowman and Maryland's 6-foot-4, 220-pound edge rusher Zion Elee are it, according to FOX. Similar to Greene, they likewise arrived as 5-star recruits.

Greene comes in ahead of the following: LSU defensive end Lamar Brown, Ohio State wide receiver Chris Henry Jr., Tennessee quarterback Faizon Brandon, Alabama running back Ezavier Crowell, Michigan running back Savion Hiter, Miami offensive tackle Jackson Cantwell and Vanderbilt quarterback Jared Curtis.

So how would anyone know how good these first-year players might be?

A good indicator are spring football depth charts.

As a youngster, and especially on the offensive line, the 6-foot-6, 315-pound Greene was supposed to be in competition for his position.

Instead, he ran No. 1 at left tackle for all 15 workouts in April and May, with the UW coaches making up their minds fairly quickly that Greene was their guy.

"He does some things naturally that are quite impressive," Husky offensive-line coach Michael Switzer said.

John Mills, last year's Husky freshman sensation at left guard, might have drawn this sort of early attention, too, yet he rotated in and out with others as a starter throughout 2025 spring ball. He went through competition that Greene didn't face.

When healthy, Mills started 11 games at right tackle and his normal guard spot, interrupted only by a high-ankle sprain that briefly sat him down.

With his trim physique as a 300-pounder, Greene just looks different than most freshmen trying to land jobs up front.

With his serious demeanor, he gives off a vibe that he's all business in becoming one of the best in the game, no matter how old he is.

He studies the position, takes all the input anyone will give him and seldom gets beat.

"That's the single most important thing and the biggest jump in going from high school to college -- and he had no issues with it," Switzer said. "I want to see what he can do." 

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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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