Adam Mohammed, UW Huskies put a poundin' to Purdue's Roundin

1 of 21 | Adam Mohammed cuts upfield and gets the ball to the two yard line setting up a Washington score in the second quarter. Mohammed had 59-yards rushing on 17 carries, and three touchdowns against Purdue. The Purdue Boilermakers played the Washington Huskies in Big-Ten Football Saturday at Husky Stadium, in Seattle. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)

By Andy Yamashita Seattle Times staff reporter

Entering Saturday, Adam Mohamed had reached the end zone only two times in his entire career. 

Mohammed — the 6-foot, 220-pound sophomore tailback from Glendale, Ariz. — never scored as a true freshman in 2024, even though he played in 13 games and took 42 carries. He’d been limited to two touchdowns through nine games in 2025. His most recent end zone jaunt came Sept. 6, when he bulldozed in from 4 yards against UC Davis. 

But against Purdue, Mohammed scored three touchdowns. Before halftime. 

“Feels great,” Mohammed said. “Really just helping the team and just as long as we got the win, I was fine with everything.”

Mohammed, making his first career start in place of injured senior running back Jonah Coleman, enjoyed a breakout performance, propelling Washington to a 49-13 rout against Purdue in front of an announced crowd of 67,229 at Husky Stadium on a misty Saturday evening. It’s the Huskies’ seventh victory of the season, guaranteeing UW will have an improved record during coach Jedd Fisch’s second season on Montlake.

“Proud of our guys,” Fisch said. “Thought our guys played exceptionally well today. A lot of our young guys were playing, guys that had to step up. Just fun to watch. That’s how you build it.”

Mohammed finished the game with a career-high 17 carries for 59 yards rushing. It’s the second time in the past two games he’s surpassed 50 yards rushing in a game after tallying 54 yards on 12 carries during Washington’s 13-10 defeat against Wisconsin on Nov. 8. Mohammed also had one catch for 27 yards, and totaled 106 all-purpose yards — second-most on the team.

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“He has elite contact balance,” said sophomore quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who was 16-for-19 passing for 257 yards and two touchdowns against Purdue. “He has elite speed and he’s really good at finding gaps. For him to be playing as well as he is, as young as he is, you don’t really find it. He’s been playing super well, so I’m really proud of him.”  

Mohammed, lined up as a fullback, opened the scoring against Purdue with a 1-yard touchdown with 3:30 remaining in the first quarter. He repeated the feat with 9:07 on the clock in the second quarter, waltzing into the end zone untouched from the 1-yard line to give UW a 14-0 lead and match his career touchdown total.

With 55 seconds remaining in the first half, Mohammed scored his third touchdown, cutting to his right and pinballing through Purdue defenders for 5 yards to give the Huskies (7-3, 4-3 Big Ten) a 28-0 lead entering the break.

He finished the half with 50 yards rushing, despite running behind a new-look offensive line that was missing starting right tackle Drew Azzopardi (lower leg) and starting center Landen Hatchett (hand). Sophomore Zachary Henning got the start at center, true freshman John Mills shifted to right tackle and redshirt freshman Paki Finau was inserted at left guard. Fisch compared Mohamed’s development to the way Coleman grew as an underclassman at Arizona. 

“We’re counting on Adam to be a great back and go through this progression,” Fisch said. “This was an opportunity, and he had 17 carries today, which was pretty awesome. And obviously, finding the end zone three times was pretty cool.”

Mohammed wasn’t the only running back, however, who had a strong performance. Redshirt freshman Jordan Washington carried the ball five times for 108 yards rushing. 

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The 5-11, 185-pound tailback scored his first career touchdown with 7:05 remaining in the first half, bursting through a hole created by Mills and sixth-year right guard Geirean Hatchett and forcing Purdue safety Myles Slusher to miss a tackle before bursting down the right sideline for a 68-yard touchdown. It’s the longest carry by any Husky player this season, and the longest run by any UW player since Salvon Ahmed’s 89-yard touchdown against USC in 2019. 

Fisch credited his offensive line for a strong performance against Purdue. The Huskies rushed for 212 yards against the Boilermakers (2-9, 0-8), their best performance since putting up 324 yards rushing against UC Davis. 

They surrendered just one sack, which occurred late in the fourth quarter with the game long over, and gave Williams enough time to complete a career-long 61-yard touchdown strike to sophomore receiver Audric Harris and a 43-yard pass to senior wideout Omari Evans, who made an acrobatic one-handed catch while falling to the ground. 

Outside of two sailed snaps by Henning — one that became a turnover and another that Williams improbably turned into a 6-yard pass to sophomore tight end Decker DeGraaf to convert a third down in the red zone — Fisch said the group played well given the circumstances. 

“We had no false starts,” the UW coach said. “We had no issues with alignment. So I think the whole offensive line did a good job.” 

While Washington’s offensive barrage poured on the points, defensive coordinator Ryan Walters’ unit also enjoyed one of its most dominant performances of the season. Junior linebacker Xe’ree Alexander, who’s led UW in tackles during three of its past four games, had a team-best eight tackles including 1.5 for a loss. The Auburn product and former Kennedy Catholic standout made two big fourth-down stops during the first quarter, too, when the game was still within one score.

His fellow linebacker, true freshman Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, added six tackles and registered his first career interception, picking off Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne with 7:15 remaining in the second half to set up Washington’s touchdown. Rainey-Sale said the defense was particularly motivated to play well for linebackers coach Brian Odom, whose brother Barry Odom is the current Purdue coach, and for Walters, who was fired by the Boilermakers less than a year ago. 

“I remember when he first got here,” Rainey-Sale said, “we were going through our schedule and he was like, ‘We’re for sure going to beat these boys.’”

BOX SCORE

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