Photo by Jennifer Buchanan
This last week was a big one for the Washington Huskies, and not necessarily in a good way. Not only did they lose their athletic director, but also lost a great offensive asset during practice.
Photo by Scott Eklund
The news broke last Monday that Jennifer Cohen, so far Pac-12’s only full-time female athletic director, is leaving Washington and heading to be the athletic director for USC. Cohen has been the athletic director for the Huskies since 2016 and said the only school she would ever leave Washington for was USC. While this won’t affect the team a lot this season, it will affect them going forward in future seasons. While we on the outside won’t see much of that change it will change how a lot of things that are more behind the scenes, like recruiting and policies, work. Currently, Erin O’Connell, former deputy director of athletics, is standing in as athletic director and taking over Choen’s duties while Washington starts looking for a permanent replacement.
Photo by Ted S. Warren
Running back Cameron Davis will be missing his sophomore season due to a lower-body injury that happened last week during practice. Davis is a huge part of the offense, and his absence will affect them greatly. Even though this would be just his second year, he has already been noticed for being a disciplined player who works hard to play the best he can. Davis is known for knowing the ins and outs of pass protection and has of course shown out when the ball is in his hands. During last season Davis ranked second on the team with 522 rushing yards on 107 carries and scored 13 touchdowns. Keep in mind that was just his freshman season. Before his season-ending injury last week, he was expected to be the feature running back for this season.
Due to Davis being out this season, they will most likely turn to Dillion Johnson, a senior who transferred to the Huskies this off-season. He was with the Mississippi State Bulldogs for the prior three seasons. During his time with the Bulldogs Johson had 149 receptions for 846 yards and rushed for 1,198 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Photo by Joe Nicholson
Unfortunately for the Huskies, Davis is not the only one out. Both offensive lineman Gaard Memmelaar and safety Sean Toomey-Stout are out as well. During the 2022 season, Memmelaar played in four games as a reserve for the Huskies. He was supposed to be in a more significant role this season. Toomey-Stout played in six games and had 7 tackles in the previous season. Memmelaar is only out for the season, but Toomey-Stout is medically retiring from football.
Photo by Abbie Parr
This will be the Huskies’ second season with Kalen Deboer as their head coach. This season the Huskies start as the number eleven team for the USA Today Sports Coaches poll and the number ten for the Associated Press’ Top 25. Now it is just a matter of seeing if they can live up to those expectations for the season.
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