Huskies face unique redshirt decisions with fluid eligibility rules

 By Andy YamashitaSeattle Times staff reporter

Jedd Fisch has some decisions to make entering Washington’s fifth game. 

Since 2018, college football players have been allowed to participate in four games while preserving their redshirts, saving a future season of eligibility. Just one season ago, former UW linebacker Bryun Parham opted to use his remaining redshirt and announced his intention to enter the transfer portal after falling down the depth chart hours before Washington’s fifth game of 2024.

The Huskies have a host of true freshmen who will burn their redshirts, assuming they play against Maryland: safety Rylon Dillard-Allen, wide receivers Dezmen Roebuck and Raiden Vines-Bright, cornerback Dylan Robinson, left guard John Mills and edge rusher Devin Hyde. Fisch has previously said he doesn’t expect any of them to redshirt this season. 

So Fisch has some choices about who will redshirt and who won’t this season. But the UW coach won’t have to make his biggest redshirt decisions — yet. And Fisch said he’s still waiting on more clarification about the NCAA’s ever-changing eligibility rules as he begins to balance his options. 

“It’s so important that we get an answer,” Fisch said Monday. “We’re five weeks in. You’ve got to make decisions on redshirts, not redshirts. You’ve got to make all those types of decisions that go into this. You’d love to know. Are we going to let these kids play for five years?” 

Washington travels to Maryland for a 12:30 p.m. PT kickoff at SECU Stadium in College Park, Md. But while the Huskies’ (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) full focus will be on the undefeated Terrapins (4-0, 1-0), Fisch is also keeping an eye on developments surrounding the NCAA’s eligibility rules.

The NCAA’s current eligibility rules dictate student-athletes are allowed to play four seasons of competition within a five-year span. But recent lawsuits have put the strength of those eligibility rules into question. 

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia received a preliminary injunction to play the 2025 college football season after arguing his time spent at New Mexico Military Institute, a junior-college program, shouldn’t count against his NCAA eligibility, especially in the wake of student-athletes being able to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL). A federal panel dismissed the NCAA’s appeal of the Pavia injunction Wednesday. 

Pavia’s injunction led the NCAA to issue a blanket waiver for any student-athlete who’d spent seasons of competition at the junior-college level and whose eligibility was expiring during the 2024-25 season, allowing them to play one more season. It’s how former UW cornerback Thaddeus Dixon, for example, was able to gain an extra year of eligibility before transferring to North Carolina. 

But Pavia’s lawsuit was just the first challenger of the NCAA’s eligibility rules. On Sept. 2, a group of 10 former student-athletes, including Vanderbilt defensive standouts Langston Patterson and Issa Ouattara, filed a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA, arguing that the current five-years-to-play-four eligibility rules violate antitrust laws, the same approach taken by Pavia’s lawsuit. 

They argue student-athletes should be allowed to participate in all five seasons of competition they’re allowed to be on the team, and that forcing players to choose between playing as a freshman and a potential fifth season has become a financial penalty because of the possibility to generate revenue from their NIL.

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Their argument has precedent. The Division II Management Council on July 23 recommended a proposal to allow student-athletes to compete in five athletic seasons during their first 10 semesters or 15 quarters of full-time enrollment.

So why is this such an important issue for Fisch and Washington? 

The Huskies have eight fourth-year seniors who will exhaust their eligibility in 2025 without redshirting: running back Jonah Coleman, defensive lineman Ta’ita’i Uiagalelei, wide receiver Omari Evans, kicker Grady Gross, linebacker Jacob Manu and cornerbacks Ephesians Prysock and Tacario Davis. All are major contributors who weren’t expected to redshirt this season. 

But injuries have put Manu and Evans, in particular, in an interesting situation. 

Manu suffered a season-ending ACL injury after playing seven games during his junior season at Arizona. He transferred to Washington during the offseason and missed UW’s first three games of 2025 as he continued his rehabilitation. 

The 5-foot-11, 225-pound linebacker made his return against No. 1 Ohio State, making three tackles. Manu looks set to be a massive part of the UW linebacker rotation after starter Taariq “Buddah” Al-Uqdah was ruled out for the season because of the apparent knee injury he suffered during the 117th Apple Cup. 

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Evans was expected to be an important part of Washington’s wide receiver corps after transferring from No. 7 Penn State. However, a soft-tissue injury prevented him from making his debut until the Apple Cup, and Fisch said the Huskies have been cautious about ramping up his snap count because of how easily soft-tissue injuries can be aggravated. Evans has three catches for 83 yards and a touchdown during two games. 

For Evans, who made just 30 catches for 564 yards during three seasons at Penn State, another fully healthy season of college football might make more sense than trying to jump to the professional level. If he’s still limited by this soft-tissue injury after playing four games, perhaps a redshirt this season makes sense.

But if student-athletes get a fifth season, then Evans can continue to play out this year knowing he can return again in 2025 as a fifth-year player to further raise his professional draft stock. The same might also be said for Uiagalelei or even potentially Prysock, both of whom may be able to command more money in revenue-sharing dollars and NIL opportunities as fifth-year college players than pursuing a professional career after this season. 

And the Huskies have a host of players coming up who didn’t redshirt and might benefit from another season of college football, too, like junior center Landen Hatchett, junior edge rusher Jacob Lane, junior safety Alex McLaughlin, junior linebacker Xe’ree Alexander, sophomore wide receiver Audric Harris and sophomore running back Adam Mohammed. All in addition to the six true freshmen who won’t redshirt this season.

Manu, Fisch said, is in a slightly different situation. The UW coach said he’s talked with Manu at length about his options and the factors they have to consider. Al-Uqdah’s injury makes Manu’s position even more difficult. 

“To say this is the only year he can play isn’t right,” Fisch said. “It’s not right to do to the team. And then you have an injury at his position, so now you’re kind of forcing him to make a decision that could directly, financially impact his career. Because if he does go play these nine games, then this is it. If he doesn’t, and he plays four games, then he has a whole another year. 

“He’ll be — probably — a team captain for us. He’ll probably be able to have an incredible amount of outside NIL opportunities because of his personality and because of what he means for the team. He’ll be able to receive revenue-share dollars, and none of those things will be available to him if his time is expired. It just doesn’t feel right to me when we’re letting guys who went to junior college come back and be able to play five or six years.”

Andy Yamashita: ayamashita@seattletimes .com. Andy Yamashita is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times, primarily covering Washington Huskies football.