OK, Who's the Huskies' No. 1 Running Back?

The job was promised to Adam Mohammed who for two seasons was groomed to become the University of Washington's starting running back in 2026. It was a done deal.

They said he could have started for other schools as a freshman. They said he was going to be great when his turn came.

Mohammed instead abruptly said good bye.

He caught everyone off guard a second time when he ended up at California, a place now adjusting to a coaching change and holding up just one winning season over the past six.

The well-muscled 6-foot, 220-pound junior apparently wasn't as patience as everyone made him out to be. He might have been mulling a move all along, considering this throwaway comment he offered up in August that sort of slipped past.

"I could have cashed it in last year, but you've still got to play the game," he said of backing up Jonah Coleman as a freshman.

Well now.

Mohammed is in the wind and a long line is forming for the UW's No. 1 running back job, made even longer with Monday's signing of Oregon transfer Jayden Limar, who played his high school football in Lake Stevens, 35 miles north of Husky Stadium.

IM COMING HOME. ☔️ pic.twitter.com/cr8UdETKGi
— Jayden Limar (@jayden_limar) January 13, 2026

Yet until somebody says different, Jordan Washington has the right last name, more speed than anyone on the roster and two years of servitude logged in Montlake that would seem to indicate it's his job to lose.

Granted, the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Limar was a local hero who piled up 4,246 rushing yards and 78 touchdowns overall while running all over Western Washington in four years as a schoolboy.

Jayden Limar breaks away for a touchdown against Oregon State Beavers in 2024. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Yet he drew just 95 carries for 442 yards and 4 touchdowns over 32 games in Eugene, which would seem to indicate the Ducks weren't totally sold on him as their workhorse.

He drew just three starts. More often than not, he was Oregon's No. 3 back. So Limar can't expect to just walk in and be the guy.

As for the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Washington, he still needs to show he's worthy of being the No. 1 back, as well, rather than someone who will have to share the job.

He has that 4.3-second 40 speed that brought him a 68-yard touchdown run against Purdue and enabled him to track down Alex McLaughlin in the Husky Spring Game on a 70-yard interception return and prevent a pick six.

Most of all, this Washington needs to bulk up to show he can take a pounding or he's destined to be a niche back, one in which the Huskies bring in only to try and pop a long one on a misdirection run or with a screen pass.

Brian Bonner and UW running-backs coach Scottie Graham share a recruiting moment. | UW

The other candidate who can't be overlooked is freshman Brian Bonner. He brings the most impressive high school running back credentials to the UW since Napoleon Kaufman showed up more than three decades ago.

In three high school seasons in Valencia, California, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Bonner got loose for 3,043 yards rushing and scored 55 touchdowns overall, all of which made him a 4-star recruit pursued by big-name schools.

In the new guy's favor, Jedd Fisch's staff doesn't hesitate whatsoever to send freshmen onto the field in important roles and everybody knows it -- see John Mills and Zaydrius Rainey-Sale.

So entering spring ball, the Huskies likely will line up Washington, Limar and Bonner, in that order, with redshirt freshmen Quaid Carr and Julian McMahan, plus incoming freshman Ansu Sanoe, given every opportunity to audition for the job, as well.

Gentlemen, start your engines.

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