Caple’s UW Huskies Notebook: Key player lost for season

Sep 30, 2024, 4:06 PM | Updated: 9:19 pm

Jayvon Parker celebrates the UW Huskies' Sugar Bowl win over Texas. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

(Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

UW Huskies Insider

UW Huskies coach Jedd Fisch met with reporters on Monday to look back at his team’s 21-18 defeat at Rutgers, and ahead to the Huskies’ Saturday game against No. 10 Michigan.

Parker lost for season

Junior defensive lineman Jayvon Parker, one of UW’s most important defensive players, will miss the rest of the season after tearing his Achilles in the fourth quarter of Friday’s loss to Rutgers, Fisch confirmed.

It didn’t look good when it happened. Parker needed to be helped off the field, and was seen on crutches after the game ended. He had played perhaps his best game as a Husky, tallying five tackles against the run-heavy Scarlet Knights while garnering a team-best grade from Pro Football Focus. For the season, Parker also has the highest run-defense grade of any player on UW’s roster.

Without him, the Huskies likely will rely more on sixth-year senior Jacob Bandes alongside starter Sebastian Valdez, plus reserves like redshirt freshman Elinneus Davis, junior-college transfer Bryce Butler, Miami transfer Logan Sagapolu and the versatile Voi Tunuufi, who has experience on both the edge and interior.

The Huskies might also be without starting edge rusher Zach Durfee, who played 16 snaps against Rutgers before spending the rest of the game on the sideline due to a toe injury. Fisch did say he is “optimistic” that Durfee might play against Michigan, but that it likely will be a game-time decision.

Former UW Huskies standout Shaq Thompson out for season

“It’s going to take a big commitment of treatment, and a big commitment of the training room. Medically, he’s got to get his toe right. If we can do that and he can get to a place where he can plant and run and chase the ballcarrier, then we’ll play him.”

UW stil willl be without tight end Quentin Moore, Fisch said.

Parham left for playing time

The Huskies also lost a player prior to the Rutgers game, though not due to injury.

Senior linebacker Bryun Parham, a transfer from San Jose State, decided to end his season after four games in order to preserve his redshirt and seek a transfer at season’s end. Parham, who made 210 tackles in three seasons at SJSU, was a backup to starting linebackers Alphonzo Tuputala and Carson Bruener, and had played the 11th-most snaps on defense this season, per PFF. Freshman linebacker Khmori House also was becoming a bigger factor in the rotation.

“He just felt like the situation for him here — he wanted to try to maintain one more year of eligibility, and I think maybe have a place to go start,” Fisch said of Parham. “But we wish him the best, and he’ll have the opportunity to go into the transfer portal when the year ends.”

Parham is no longer part of UW’s program and does not appear on the roster, but will remain on scholarship and will still have access to academic and medical support, Fisch said.

Early kick for UW Huskies in Iowa City

Washington’s Oct. 12 game at Iowa will kickoff at 9 a.m. PT — that’s 11 a.m. local time in Iowa City — and air on either FOX (as the network’s Big Noon Kickoff game) or Big Ten Network, depending on the outcome of this weekend’s games.

The other Big Ten game in that time slot is Wisconsin at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights (4-0, 1-0) visit Nebraska on Saturday, and the Badgers (2-2, 0-1) host Purdue (also in the 9 a.m. PT window).

This column from UW Huskies football insider Christian Caple is exclusive to Seattle Sports. Subscribe to OnMontlake.com for full access to Caple’s in-depth Husky coverage.