Retaining Washington football's roster in 2027 won't come cheap

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“It’s going to be expensive,” Jedd Fisch said on Say Who, Say Pod about the offseason following the Washington Huskies‘ 2026 campaign.

Over his three years on Montlake, the head coach has done an impressive job adding young talent from the high school level, headlined by the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history in 2026 and five Freshman All-Americans across the first two seasons. As long as he’s around, that trend will continue.

“We are young, and we’re going to just keep adding youth,” Fisch said. “All of a sudden, next year, our freshmen of last year will be juniors. Our freshmen of this year will be sophomores, and this recruiting class will be freshmen, and now you’re talking about three years of building this thing the way we want it.”

But in the modern world of college football, that doesn’t come cheap.

Although College Front Office projected that the Huskies will be spending close to $30 million on their roster this fall, $28.45 million to be exact, that number is an overestimation. With several established stars like quarterback Demond Williams Jr. and offensive lineman John Mills, who will certainly command top-of-market NIL deals, that won’t be cheap.

That’s without mentioning players like linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, cornerback Dylan Robinson, safety Rylon Dillard-Allen, and a host of players from the 2026 class expected to play key roles like left tackle Kodi Greene, defensive lineman Derek Colman-Brusa, and wide receivers Jordan Clay and Trez Davis.

“Come January 2, when the portal opens, we have a lot of guys that are going to be highly sought-after; we need to retain that group,” Fisch said. “Our roster right now is probably half of what the (College Football Playoff) programs from last year paid. For us to be able to be a CFP program annually, we’re going to have to find a way to create more dollars, generate more dollars, donate more dollars and keep our coaches and our players.”

This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Retaining Washington football’s roster in 2027 won’t come cheap

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