Skip to main content
Inside The Huskies

Transfers Taulapapa and Nixon Officially Join UW Roster

The two will bolster a Husky running-back position thinned down by injury and illness.
Dan Raley|
Transfers Taulapapa and Nixon Officially Join UW Roster
Transfers Taulapapa and Nixon Officially Join UW Roster

In this story:

Washington Huskies

While the University of Washington football team was conducting its first spring scrimmage notably shy of running backs, the school on Friday officially announced the addition of transfers Wayne Taulapapa and Will Nixon to the program.

They're backs from Virginia and Nebraska, respectively, with Nixon doubling as a wide receiver. 

Considering the health of the Husky runners — with five of the seven scholarship runners dealing with an injury or a long-term illness — they can't get to Seattle soon enough.

New coach Kalen DeBoer mentioned how the Huskies couldn't put on a conventional spring game this month because of the player shortages at running back and linebacker. 

The earliest the UW will see Taulapapa and Nixon in a Husky uniform is at fall camp, getting a spread offense tutorial on the fly from DeBoer and his staff. 

They'll report in June with the incoming freshmen players. For now, they've got their paperwork in, signed to national letters of intent. 

Taulapapa, a 5-foot-9, 200-pound grad transfer and a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, played four seasons for Virginia and started 27 of the 40 games in which he was used. He finished with career totals of 266 carries for 1,192 yards rushing and 19 touchdowns, and 28 receptions for 150 yards and a score. 

A team captain for the ACC team, he has just a single season of eligibility remaining. 

Nixon, a 5-foot-11, 185-pounder from Waco, Texas, spent the past two seasons at Nebraska, sitting out one with an injury and appearing in three games this past fall. He caught a solitary pass for the Big Ten entry. He has four seasons of eligibility remaining. 

At Midway High, Nixon doubled up as a runner and a pass-catcher and in 2019 he generated 2,087 yards of total offense, 1,837 by rushing, and finished with 29 touchdowns.

He is the son of Jeff Nixon, the Carolina Panthers running-backs coach and a former rusher for West Virginia and Penn State.

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Husky FanNation stories as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Husky FanNation on Facebook by searching: Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated

Follow Dan Raley of Husky FanNation on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

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.

Home/Football