Huskies Are Limping Along Without Six Starters Now

Left offensive tackle Carver Willis traveled with the team to East Coast game, but he was in street clothes dealing with a knee injury.

Sophomore wide receiver Rashid Williams was left at home, recovering from a broken collarbone and surgery.

Defensively, the Huskies played without senior edge rusher Zach Durfee, junior linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah and senior cornerback Tacario Davis, who were sidelined by elbow, knee and rib issues, respectively. Al-Uqdah is out for the season.

"You have to plan for injuries," UW coach Jedd Fisch said at Maryland. "It's a violent game."

Still, six starters seems like a lot of players to suddenly go without, especially in losing two of five first-team offensive linemen.

"Obviously, it's always challenging when you lose guys up front," Fisch said. "What I've been saying this year, very different than a year ago, is we have a lot more depth."

Redshirt freshman offensive guard Paki Finau finished up for Mills while senior Max McCree, a former Maryland player and a five-game UW tackle starter in 2024, stepped in for Willis against the Terrapins. Finau and McCree had played in each of the first four games largely as reserves or pulling special-teams duty.

Freshman Dezmen Roebuck started for a third consecutive game as a replacement for Williams at wide receiver and caught a 34-yard touchdown pass against Maryland.

Defensively, junior edge rusher Isaiah Ward took over Durfee, senior linebacker Jacob Manu started his second game in place of Al-Uqdah and freshman cornerback Dylan Robinson kept the position warm for Davis as a second-game starter.

Ward was a six-game UW starter in 2024, either playing side by side with Durfee or replacing him when the latter went down with multiple injuries last season.

Manu started in his second UW game after recovering from a knee injury suffered while playing for Arizona last season.

It's unclear how long many of the hobbled Huskiess will be sidelined, though Davis did pull on a uniform and warm up in College Park, Maryland.

"The more depth you can build as a program, the better team you can have," Fisch said. "We needed depth today and depth showed up."