Jonah Coleman and Donnie Moore Could Be Quad Mates

The running backs have unmatched leg size in Husky annals.

Jonah Coleman walks into Husky Stadium for practice, wearing No. 1 for the University of Washington football team, turning heads with every step.

Yet comparisons to Rome Odunze, the previous bearer of this gilded Husky jersey, don't resonate at all because the new owner is a compact running back with fire hydrant quadriceps and the other guy is a sleek, stretched-out wide receiver.

No, the attraction to Coleman are those massive legs, that very well could make him the second coming of Donnie Moore.

Don't know Donnie?

Nearly six decades ago, for a season and a half, the 5-foot -81/2, 210-pound Moore was one of the greatest running backs who ever carried the ball in Montlake and then he was gone, tossed off the 1966 UW team for breaking training rules, for supposedly drinking beer while wearing his letterman's jacket in a north Seattle tavern.

Donnie Moore played a season and a half for the Huskies in a somewhat tragic career.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Moore's 221-yard, 2-touchdown rushing output without losing a yard in the Huskies' 38-22 victory over Ohio State in Columbus in 1966 is widely considered the most dominant showing ever by a UW running back.

Granted, Hugh McElhenny holds the school record with 296 yards against Washington State and Corey Dillon ran for an astronomical 222 against San Jose State in one quarter alone. Yet the difference in these performance levels is Moore went into Big Ten country against elite players and simply had his way.

Coleman, who as a 5-foot-9, 225-pound junior could spend a couple of seasons in Seattle after transferring from Arizona, appears to match Moore in quadricep size, with each man sporting upper legs resembling close to 30 inches in circumference.

Jonah Coleman takes a spring handoff from Will Rogers.

Skylar Lin Visuals

Earlier this week, as Coleman walked past Jedd Fisch, his coach in Tucson and now at the UW, Fisch wisecracked, "He's hard to tackle. I don't know know if you've seen that."

Next asked if Coleman had ever been bigger, the coach quipped, "You mean that tall?"

Coleman comes to the Huskies with ample credentials, after leading Arizona in rushing last season with 892 yards on 128 carries. He piled up 179 yards at Colorado, 143 at USC.

He's just the kind of guy, as Donnie Moore showed 57 years ago, that you need to lead a team into the Big Ten, not for a vist this time, but for good.

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