Jonah Coleman
For the first two weeks of the season, Coleman was the best running back in college football. It wasn’t even particularly close. He took a combined 39 carries for 288 yards and seven touchdowns, both of which led the FBS at the time.
He tied two program records in a five-touchdown domination of UC Davis in Week 2 and seemed poised to similarly terrorize the Big Ten, which had already named him Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week twice in two weeks.
However, in the six games since, Coleman has carried the ball 87 times for just 355 yards. His average has dropped from 7.4 yards per carry to just below 4.1, and he’s surpassed 70 rushing yards just once.
Fortunately, he’s remained a scoring threat. The senior has scored six rushing touchdowns and two receiving touchdowns in his last six games. Though Coleman was shut out of the endzone against No. 1 Ohio State, he has scored in every other game this season, and he leads the nation with 13 rushing touchdowns.
It’s crucial to remember that he’s done so with an offensive line that has struggled with injuries. Left tackle Carver Willis missed three weeks after injuring his knee against Ohio State, while freshman left guard John Mills missed two weeks after suffering a foot injury against Maryland.
Coleman had his most productive outing since September when Willis and Mills returned to action against No. 23 Illinois on Saturday. The former Arizona transfer took 14 carries for 75 yards and a touchdown while turning four receptions into 32 yards and another score.
That performance was encouraging, but Coleman will need to average 89.5 rushing yards across the Huskies’ final four regular-season games if he wants to reach 1,000 yards for the second-straight year.
He may need to do even better if he wants to earn All-American honors as a running back. Though he leads the nation in scoring, his 643 rushing yards are the nation’s 32nd-most, and his yards-per-carry average of 5.1 ranks T-26th among backs with 100+ carries. While these are certainly numbers to be proud of, they may not be enough to warrant the kind of All-American honors that 15 or more touchdowns can often result in.
Though Coleman wasn’t named to the Associated Press’ midseason All-American team as a running back, his consistent scoring earned him First Team All-Purpose Midseason All-American honors from the Associated Press, CBS Sports, The Athletic, and Athlon.
Coleman is more likely to earn all-conference honors as a running back in the Big Ten, where he currently ranks fourth in yards and holds a three-touchdown lead over the nearest backs.
Coleman is also one of 16 finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy, also known as the ‘Academic Heisman.’ He’s the first Washington player since cornerback Elijah Molden in 2020 to be named a finalist, and he would be the Husky first ever to take home the award. The winner will be revealed in Las Vegas on Dec. 9 during the National Football Foundation’s Annual Awards Dinner.
The Campbell Trophy wouldn’t even be Coleman’s first academic award. Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch announced in September that Coleman was the team’s ‘Academic Athlete of the Year.’ Despite transferring from Arizona in January 2024, Coleman is already a three-time UW Dean’s List honoree and will earn his degree in Education Studies: Sports and Education in December.
“He had the highest cumulative GPA of our entire football team with a 3.91 over the year that he's been here,” Fisch said during the announcement.