Limar Has No Problem Changing Football Allegiances

The question was directed to Jayden Limar and he nodded his head.

He glanced at coach Jedd Fisch, who was sitting three people away to his right.

He looked down.

He laughed.

Rocking back in his chair, Limar gathered himself and revealed where his previous college football allegiances once fell.

For the new University of Washington running back, it was like taking a handoff and hitting the hole.

"Growing up, I hated Oregon," he said. "That's just what it is. I was a diehard Washington fan."

After three seasons with the Ducks, it appears he has regained his memory and his bearings after having been found wandering lost through the Willamette Valley.

"It's a rivalry -- we're going to win the game," Limar concluded. "That's all I really got to say on that."

Limar is just the latest player to enter the transfer portal and change sides in the Northwest football hate-a-thon, following Taki Taimani, Darren Barkins, Jabbar Muhammad and Luke Dunne, with each playing for Washington and Oregon.

Or for Oregon and Washington.

The thing that makes the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Limar unique here is he's the only one of this bunch who grew up within a half-hour car ride of Husky Stadium.

He was the 4,246-yard rusher from Lake Stevens who got away.

Jayden Limar hurdles Oregon State defensive back Mason White in their 2025 game. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Limar turned to Oregon and a new staff led by Dan Lanning rather than get well acquainted with the new staff at Washington that was led by Kalen DeBoer.

He previously told an Oregon reporter that DeBoer's coaches didn't seem all that interested in him.

Either way, he initially went with the Ducks over the Huskies before reversing himself this winter.

"They were very close," he said of his recruitment this week. "Probably the biggest factor was the coaching switches. I didn't have that much time to meet the [DeBoer] staff and get to know them."

Jayden Limar rallies his Oregon running backs on game day. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

However, he did have ample opportunity to get to know the guys who were coaching at Arizona at that time.

"I had an amazing relationship with coach Fisch and coach [Scottie] Graham coming out of high school," Limar said, with the latter now his running-backs leader.

So it's back home for him to finish up his college career at the UW and feel those initial impulses when the rivalry game reappears once more at the end of the season.

Graham even predicted this is how it would turn out for him.

"He always told me I would end up here," Limar said. "I had an opportunity and had to jump on it."

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