Inside The Huskies

UW Still Looking for Linemen, But 2 Portal Pick-ups Have Created a Buzz

Jayden Wayne and Jordan Washington are considered among the Big Ten's top10 spring adds.

Dan Raley

Jordan Washington on a UW visit before committing.
Jordan Washington on a UW visit before committing. / UW

Combing through the transfer portal this spring, the University of Washington football team might not have totally resolved its lingering offensive-line issues. Yet the Huskies still added two players at other positions who are as touted as any newcomers entering the Big Ten this season, according to one attentive recruiting service.

Edge rusher Jayden Wayne and running back Jordan Washington rank fifth and ninth, respectively, in a top 10 listing of spring portal transfers for the UW's new conference, as compiled by On3sports.

The 6-foot-6, 245-pound Wayne, a one-time 5-star recruit from Tacoma, Washington, returns to the Northwest after playing his freshman season at Miami, appearing in eight outings and starting the bowl game for the Hurricanes.

Washington, an ultra-fast 5-foot-11, 180-pound running back from Long Beach, California, signed with Jedd Fisch at Arizona before the coach took the UW job, went through spring football practice with the Wildcats and diverted to the Huskies through the portal.

The Huskies also lost one of On3sports' 10 highlighted portal movers in 6-foot-5, 187-pound quarterback Dermaricus Davis, who left before UW spring football concluded and will transfer to UCLA and play in his Southern California backyard.

In Wayne, the UW is hoping it has upgraded its defensive physicality entering the Big Ten with a good-sized player who can move. He presents an interesting piece to an edge-rusher position group filled with several seemingly capable players for the coming season.

Jayden Wayne played as a freshman at Miami.
Jayden Wayne played as a freshman at Miami. / Twitter

Washington, as in Jordan, presents a commodity only the better college football teams have -- blazing speed. A track man, he's run the 100-meter dash in 10.31 seconds and, as a footballer, he has a 4.4 40-yard dash.

He and Wayne will join the UW next month as the portal transfers sign their national letters of intent when summer quarter begins. Spring football opens around July 31, though the date hasn't been set just yet.

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

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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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