Inside The Huskies

UW's Jonah Coleman Ranks No. 1 in Touchdowns Nationally

The Huskies running back has 10 scores in three games, which is one fewer outing than all of the other big point-producers.
Dan Raley|
Jonah Coleman leaves a WSU player face down on the turf in Pullman.
Jonah Coleman leaves a WSU player face down on the turf in Pullman. | Dave Sizer photo

As good as he is, University of Washington running back Jonah Coleman is not going to lead the nation in rushing. Not when he shares the same backfield with elusive quarterback Demond Williams Jr. There's just one football to go around and he has to share.

For instance in Saturday's Apple Cup, Williams finished with more carries than Coleman, 13 to 12, and more yards, 88 to 59, than his teammate in their 59-24 victory over Washington State in Pullman.

Now scoring is a totally different matter.

Coming out of the weekend, the 5-foot-9, 220-pound Coleman has been able to be a little greedy when it comes to reaching the end zone -- he ranks No. 1 across the FBS landscape with 10 touchdowns, 9 coming on rushes and the other on a scoring catch, in three outings.

Jonah Coleman bounces off a tackle and keeps going in the Apple Cup.
Jonah Coleman bounces off a tackle and keeps going in the Apple Cup. | Dave Sizer photo

That's one better than UTSA's sensational Robert Henry, who has 9 TDs in four games after picking up a 76-yard scoring run and a 74-yard TD catch in a 17-16 win over Colorado State on Saturday in Fort Collins. He rushed 21 times for 144 yards in the road outing.

The Mountain West team represents a mutual opponent for the 5-foot-9, 205-pound Henry and Coleman, with the latter scoring on 26- and 3-yard runs and rushing 24 times for 177 yards against the Rams three weeks ago in Seattle.

Trailing those two with 7 touchdowns are Rutgers' Antwan Raymond, Mississippi's Kewan Lacy and Vanderbilt's Sedrick Alexander. Each has played in four games, one more than Coleman.

Raymond get a chance to compare scorin g skills against Coleman next month, when his team travels to Montlake to play the UW on October 10.

Against WSU, Coleman scored on runs of 12 and 2 yards, and took a flat pass 34 yards for another score.

"Jonah is a great player, a great receiver," UW coach Jedd Fisch said.

It was Coleman's second 3-TD performance in Pullman, with the other hat trick coming in 2023 when he played for Arizona and scored on runs of 1, 1 and 23 yards in a 44-6 victory over the Cougars.

Coleman, in his college career, has 29 touchdowns at the UW and Arizona combined, while Henry, a Mississippi native and one-time junior-college player, has 28 TDs in his final season for his San Antonio-based football team.

The bruising UW back will really have to earn his points next weekend when he goes up against No. 1-ranked and defending national champion Ohio State at Husky Stadium.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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