UW’s Team Talent Ranking

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247Sports has updated their ‘Team Talent Ranking’ for the 2026 season.
https://247sports.com/season/2026-football/collegeteamtalentrating/

Where does UW rank nationally? Where does UW rank compared to the rest of the Big Ten? But also, how does UW’s ranking compare with recent years?

Washington’s Ranking

First we’ll look at just UW. They are ranked #21 in this ranking. That is up from #37 in 2025 and #35 in 2024. Also note that UW was #26 in 2023, the year they went to the CFP finals, so they are now ranked higher than that year. But they were ranked even higher prior to that CFP appearance, based a lot on the recruiting that Chris Petersen had done toward the end of his tenure.

Here are the Team Talent points and ranks.

If you look at just the points, you can see a steady decline after the Chris Petersen era, through the Kalen DeBoer era. Not surprisingly the talent continued to drop during the first two years under Jedd Fisch since he had to rebuild so much after DeBoer left.

Now look at the average rating for the players. There has been very little change over the last 5 classes; they are between 87.5 and 88. The two years prior they were over 88. You might have expected, especially with UW’s 2026 class, UW’s average should have gone up more. After looking at this, the issue is not with the number of specialists that UW has, which is what I first thought. Instead, it appears that some of the transfers that UW has gotten in the last couple of years are dragging the average down a little because the average is based on each player’s high school recruiting rating. Yet, some of these transfers are playing much better than their high school recruiting rating would indicate. A good example is Alex McLaughlin whose high school recruiting rating was 83. Here is a list of some transfers and what their recruiting rating was:

• Drew Azopardi: 84
• Darin Conley: 82
• Charlie Crowell: 85
• Russell Davis: 85
• Kolt Dietrich: 82
• Logan George: 78
• Jacob Manu: 84
• Kai McClendon: 85
• Alex McLaughlin: 83
• Christian Moss: 86
• Ta’ita’I Uiagalelei: 84 (yes, he and Grady Gross are included)

Of course, there are some transfers that help offset those like Tray Cooley (94), Jayden Limar (90), and Bodpegn Miller (91). But we’ve already seen that some of these players are playing much better than their high school recruiting rating would indicate. And based on practice reports, others like Christian Moss and Kolt Dietrich will likely play much better as well. Note that this is true for other schools as well.

If Coach Fisch keeps to what he says and relies more on high school recruiting and less on transfers in the future, as long as his high school recruiting stays as high as it has been, that average rating for the team should continue to improve.

The other note about UW’s ranking is that it improved a lot despite the average rating not changing significantly. Part of that is due to the increase in number of players being rated (for example 79 in 2025 to 91 in 2026).

But the majority of the improvement has to do with “top end talent”.  In 2025, UW had only 5 players with an rating over 90 (Rylon Dillard-Allen, Geirean Hatchett, Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, Dylan Robinson, and Jordan Washington). This year that goes up to 18, including 3 players who are rated higher than anyone on the roster last year (Kodi Greene, Gavin Day, and JD Hill). The way 247Sports calculates their points per team, they weight the players that have higher ratings more, so the overall points goes up even if the average rating stays the same. That means that UW gets more points by having a 98 (Kodi Greene) and a 78 (Hunter Green) than from Dominic Harris and John Mills (both 88) even though both pairs average out to 88.

Big Ten Rankings

UW is #21 nationally, behind teams that you would expect like Georgia (#1), Alabama (#3), and Texas (#4). They are also behind some teams that you might not expect like South Carolina (#15), Missouri (#18), and Mississippi State (#20). But those are all teams in the SEC that UW does not have to play. Where does UW rank among Big Ten schools? Here are the rankings for Big Ten schools.

1. Oregon: (947.40)
2. Ohio State (923.22)
3. USC (881.89)
4. Michigan (874.25)
5. Washington (784.68)
6. Penn State (776.44)
7. Nebraska (772.31)
8. UCLA (768.99)
9. Wisconsin (765.81)
10. Minnesota (745.76)
11. Iowa (735.91)
12. Indiana (732.35)
13. Rutgers (707.14)
14. Purdue (705.17)
15. Maryland (703.78)
16. Illinois (697.14)
17. Northwestern (694.92)
18. Michigan State (687.73)

While UW is ranked #5 in the Big Ten, there is a wide gap in points between the Huskies and the #4 team, Michigan-almost 90 points. That gap is about the same as between UW and the #17 team, Northwestern. So there is definitely an upper-tier in the Big Ten, then everyone else. Right now UW is at the top of the rest of the teams. And UW plays just 2 of the Big Ten teams above them in the ranking and 7 of the teams below, including the bottom team, Michigan State.

Max’s Rankings

Max Vrooman just completed his team talent ranking of the teams in the Big Ten. (Part I, Part II, Part III) Here is a comparison of the two sets of team talent rankings.

Despite using different methodologies, most of the rankings are very similar (12 are within 1 place). The biggest difference is obviously Indiana. Given what Indiana did last year despite being ranked by 247Sports dead last in the Big Ten, I think it is safe to assume that Max’s ranking is a better indication of where Indiana is, talent-wise, compared to the rest of the Big Ten. On the other hand, this year Iowa is probably ranked closer in the 247Sports ranking than in Max’s.

Final Thoughts

Anyway you look at it, Husky fans should be encouraged by where UW currently sits in the rankings, both nationally and compared to the rest of the Big Ten. Obviously fans would like to see them higher, but compared to where they have been over the last 5 years, Jedd Fisch should be given a lot of credit for the talent that he has been able to accumulate in just a few years.

Of course, having the talent is one thing; performing on the field (e.g. wins and losses) is something else. There is some degree of correlation between them, but as we saw with Indiana, not having the talent (using the ‘Team Talent’ rankings) does not guarantee losses, and having the talent does not guarantee wins (looking at you, USC). Coaching has a lot to do with the on-field performance as well.

It turns out that last year, all 4 of UW’s losses were to teams that were above UW in the 247Sports Team Talent rankings (yes, that includes Wisconsin). If the Huskies can match that kind of performance this year, that would mean just 2 losses (USC and Oregon). Is Fisch enough of a better coach than Riley to make up the difference? Is Cignetti still a good enough coach to make up the difference?

In just over a week we’ll start to see if UW can, indeed, meet the expectations of the Team Talent rankings. WSU is currently ranked #78, so this is a game where UW should have a clear talent advantage. The next week UW plays Utah State which is #122 in the Team Talent ranking. (Eastern Washington currently isn’t ranked.) It may not be until October when UW plays USC and then Iowa when we see how well these Team Talent rankings are able to predict the outcome of UW’s games.

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