Inside The Huskies

Pair of Husky Football Freshmen Singled Out Among Nation's Best

Offensive lineman Paki Finau and running back Jordan Washington make CFB Focus listing.
Dan Raley|
Paki Finau shows off his offensive-line mobility.
Paki Finau shows off his offensive-line mobility. | Skylar Lin Visuals

It's college football's silly season, which sits between spring football and everyone's openers, and the lists keep coming. Anything you want, somebody's got it.

FOX Sports analyst and popular podcaster Joel Klatt just named his five best Big Ten football atmospheres, and he rated the University of Washington fifth in its new surroundings.

CBSSports ranked all Power 4 football coaches and the Huskies' Jedd Fisch turned up 31st.

Those were no-brainers. Everyone includes lakeside Husky Stadium when it comes to game-day experience and Fisch, similar to his UW predecessor Kalen DeBoer, has a bigger reputation now after so much success in a short amount of time.

However, the list that caught our eye, one hardly automatic and requiring some research, was CFB Focus ' Top 50 impact freshmen, which included a pair of Huskies actually among the first 30 players -- offensive lineman Paki Finau and running back Jordan Washington.

What this means is while the Fisch coaching staff is scrambling to reload the UW for the present, he and his guys also appear to have a sharp eye on the future.

Finau and Washington -- listed No. 15 and 29 by CFB Focus -- represent building blocks not only for a future physical rushing attack but an effective screen game.

The 6-foot-5, 285-pound Finau from Hesperia, California, spent nearly all of spring ball as the Huskies' starting left guard. For one, it was a necessity because the UW was real short of scholarship players up front on offense.

Yet what if Finau doesn't relinquish this No. 1 job after the Huskies bring in all of their O-line reinforcements from the transfer portal and sort through it? His reputation would really take off.

Jordan Washington is shown on his UW visit this spring.
Jordan Washington is shown on his UW visit this spring. | UW

Washington the tailback was erroneously listed as playing for Arizona -- an easy mistake to make because he was a late flip to the UW following Wildcats spring practice -- but that doesn't diminish his football talent one bit.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder from Long Beach, California, brings elite speed to Montlake, timed in 4.4 seconds over 40 yards.

Washington piled up career totals at Jordan High School of 3,024 yards rushing, 71 catches for 1,026 yards receiving and 50 touchdowns scored. Even with running back a fairly deep UW position, the Fisch staff likely will be tempted to find a way to get this speedster onto the field early and just cut him loose.

In the CFB Focus listing, the UW ended up as one of seven schools with two selections among those first 30 players named, joined by Auburn, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska, Texas and Texas A&M. It seems to be further indication that Fisch and his coaches are doing things right in finding or keeping young talent.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

Published
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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