Spring practice brought plenty of challenges for the Washington Huskies' running back room, but head coach Jedd Fisch sees it as a period of invaluable growth. Despite dealing with a series of injuries and a roster heavy on inexperience, the young backs stepped up and made the most of every rep.

The trouble started early when sophomore Jordan Washington suffered a scary-looking injury that cut his spring short. That was compounded by an ankle injury to Oregon transfer Jayden Limar, which required offseason surgery, and Troy transfer Trey Cooley continuing to rehab a knee injury that ended his 2025 campaign back in summer camp. Suddenly, a unit expected to be a strength was leaning on its youngest members.

Enter redshirt freshman Quaid Carr and true freshmen Brian Bonner and Ansu Sanoe. Under the guidance of position coach Scottie Graham, this trio absorbed a heavy workload and showed steady improvement throughout the spring. After the Dawgs After Dark spring game, Fisch couldn't hide his optimism.

"No Jordan Washington, no Trey Cooley, no Jayden Limar—for two of them for all of spring and one of them for nine practices," Fisch said. "So it's been a great learning curve for the young guys, and the guys got more reps than they ever normally would have gotten if this was just traditional spring football, especially with a 90-person roster. You can't go two fields like you used to."

Despite the question marks, Fisch remains encouraged by the room's trajectory, especially with several months to heal before fall camp resumes in early August.

"I think it's gonna be a really big summer for Jayden to get back, for Trey to compete and get back, for us to evaluate where Jordan is and make a decision there, for Quaid to continue to improve, for Ansu and Brian to see what their role could be," Fisch said. "But I'm really looking forward to what it looks like when Jayden and Trey get going. I think Quaid had the best spring by far in that room."

For a team that prides itself on depth and resilience, this spring may have been exactly what the running back room needed to build a foundation for the season ahead.