Back in 1986 while I was serving as a young receiver coach at Central Washington University. Then head coach Tom Parry pulled an old picture out of his desk, looked at it and chuckled a little. “You know, football hasn’t changed much.”
I fully understand the philosophy that Coach Fisch is using to build the roster. Pay the guys that are on your team. You have to take care of your own or somebody else will. If you want to be a front runner, you have to build from within the program, recruiting the high school athlete and developing them for two years, especially the offensive line, to be front line contributors. However, in order to win at the highest level, you still have to have playmakers.
As the Transfer Portal begins to slow to a crawl and the Rosters for the 2026 season begins to solidify with contractual ink beginning to dry, we will take some time and look at each of the position rooms. No one other than the Washington staff knows exactly what went on over the past four weeks. But, one is left with a few observations.
First, the portal did not make the team better than the Huskies were last year. Any improvement on the 2025 season will have to come from the development of players already on the roster. In many ways, I was left with what I call Post-Portal Depression. Less than impressed with what the Dawgs brought in. It is obvious, most of the Husky NIL soft-funds (outside money) was spent on the current roster.
Washington dipped back into the transfer portal Sunday with a key addition at wide receiver, landing veteran target Christian Moss from Kennesaw State—a bigger-bodied outside option who brings both proven production and a fresh eligibility boost that strengthens the Huskies’ roster math moving forward.
Moss arrives in Seattle after a productive 2025 season for the Owls. Listed around 6-foot-3 and roughly 200 pounds, he posted 45 receptions for 689 yards and two touchdowns last fall, giving Washington an experienced pass-catcher with downfield juice (over 15 yards per catch) and the kind of frame that typically profiles well on the boundary.
“The University of Washington is proud to have two inductees in the 2026 NFF College Football Hall of Fame class,” said Pat Chun, UW Director of Athletics. “On behalf of all Huskies, we congratulate Olin Kreutz and Coach Chris Petersen, who represent excellence at every level of the game. From dominant performance and longevity to leadership, integrity, and lasting impact, their careers helped set the standard of excellence with Washington Football. We look forward to celebrating their inductions this year.”
College football is no longer arguing about whether players should be paid or whether movement should be allowed. Those debates are effectively over. The sport has crossed the threshold into a new economic era—one where money, roster churn, and competitive balance are now inseparable from Saturday afternoons.
Williams’ short-lived transfer flirtation lit up the sport because it wasn’t just about a player testing the market — it was about what happens when a star tries to move after signing a major agreement. The situation escalated quickly, with talk of legal action, conference-level concern about precedent, and a flood of speculation around which programs might be willing to step into a potential mess.
If there is one trait that youth possess that seems to evade the rest of us, it’s the ability to move on. The players at Washington will have to call upon that ability to forgive and move on as they begin winter workouts in preparation for the 2026 season.
Quarterback is the one position you can’t fake. If UW doesn’t land a viable starter-level option quickly, everything downstream suffers: portal receivers hesitate, linemen think twice, and spring becomes a holding pattern instead of a launchpad.
Washington didn’t just lose a quarterback. Washington lost the plan. When your presumed future at QB hits the transfer portal with a “do not contact” tag, it’s not a normal roster update — it’s an emergency siren. The Huskies are now forced into the most modern of modern college football realities:
Find a starting quarterback immediately… or watch the entire season’s ceiling collapse in January. And that’s the part that should irritate every fan — even the ones who support player empowerment. Because what we’re watching isn’t “kids getting paid.” What we’re watching is free agency without rules, and it’s eating the sport alive. So let’s talk about the only thing that matters now:
The portal has become college football’s fastest roster-reset button, and Washington is pressing it with intention. The working expectation around the program is that UW could add around 10 transfers this cycle, give or take, depending on how the outgoing numbers settle.
That’s not “panic.” That’s modern roster math — especially when you’re trying to stay Big Ten-ready week after week.
Portal trackers have Mohammed listed among Washington players who have entered the portal this week. From there, reporting shifted immediately to potential destinations — with multiple reports indicating Mohammed is visiting California (Cal) and that additional official visits are being planned.
