Inside The Huskies

NCAA Rule That Kept UW's Zach Durfee on Sidelines Is Rescinded

The Husky edge rusher appears to have lost a year of eligibility for nothing.
Dan Raley|
NCAA Rule That Kept UW's Zach Durfee on Sidelines Is Rescinded
NCAA Rule That Kept UW's Zach Durfee on Sidelines Is Rescinded

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Washington Huskies

The NCAA owes Zach Durfee 13 games. 

On Wednesday, the governing body announced it would no longer enforce its football players and other athletes who are double transfers — which is how it views the promising University of Washington edge rusher — to come up with a year of residency at their third school before they can play if they haven't graduated along the way. 

Oh.

This decision came just two days shy of Durfee meeting that previous requirement and becoming eligible to play in the Huskies' upcoming College Football Playoff game or games.

The  6-foot-5, 255-pound sophomore from Dawson, Minnesota, attended North Dakota State for a semester as a student only during the COVID pandemic and transferred to the University of Sioux Falls, where he redshirted during the 2021 season and played the following fall, hence he was deemed a double transfer.

The NCAA rejected his appeals throughout this season to play right away at the UW, which meant he would lose an entire season of eligibility while sitting out. 

As it stands, Durfee has two seasons left and his argument for pursuing that third and now wasted season could be moot anyway.

As UW coach Kalen DeBoer points out, "He's a big guy who can run."

If he's as impactful as advertised — and Durfee showed glimpses of the high-end stuff he's capable of during spring practice — he likely was on track to start a pair of Husky seasons and leave for the NFL draft at that time anyway.

Should he want that third UW season, Durfee probably has a good case to petition for it.

Meantime, Durfee practiced with the Huskies on Wednesday as the decision was coming down and he seemed upbeat enough — he impishly photo-bombed a video interview being conducted with UW offensive tackle Troy Fautanu. 

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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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