Why Jonah Coleman and Denzel Boston are choosing Washington over the portal

UW's star tailback and receiver have heard from plenty of other schools.

SEATTLE — Two of the offensive players most critical to Washington’s success next season sat next to each other at a table, inside a meeting room within the UW football facility, and spoke plainly about their sport’s new reality.

Jonah Coleman is committed to playing for the Huskies as a senior next season. So, too, is star receiver Denzel Boston.

But each had options.

“There’s always other teams trying to come in and offer you more money, but you’ve got to understand where the value is at,” Boston said Thursday. “Is that real over there? You still have to take the risk to go over there, and you might not like your new life over there. But there’s for sure been a couple other schools that have reached out.”

A couple?

“I’ve heard from about eight teams,” Boston said, including “about three or four of them that really wanted me to come.”

And Coleman?

“More than 10,” the junior tailback said. “I just keep the main thing the main thing. I’m committed to the University of Washington and the people that believed in me when no one else did.”

Coleman announced as much on Thanksgiving, two days before UW’s regular-season finale at Washington. He rushed for 1,011 yards in 12 games, good for fifth in the Big Ten. A native of Stockton, Calif., Coleman committed to coach Jedd Fisch at Arizona in March 2021, before Fisch had coached a game with the Wildcats. Running backs coach Scottie Graham, who came with Fisch to UW from Tucson, made a big impression on him.

It was an easy decision for Coleman to follow Fisch and Graham to Seattle, and apparently an easy decision to stay at UW for his senior year.

“I want to get my degree,” said Coleman, who is studying education with an option for sports management. “That’s something that I want to be the first to do in my family, is get a college degree. That’s something I was committed to, before even football. Obviously, being able to have a full offseason, things like that — the way we came in (in January), it was all late and scrambling around. You want to leave a place better than you found it. I feel like there’s still more for us to do and go get.”

Also: “I came to the University of Washington because I was committed to the university and obviously the coaches and things like that. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, my decision coming here. If I say I’m all in, I’m all in. There’s no 95 percent, 99 percent. It’s 100 percent.

“... I’m here to stay at Washington, and that’s what it’s always been.”

That apparently goes for Boston, too, after the Puyallup Emerald Ridge product caught 60 passes for 807 yards and nine touchdowns in 12 games this season. There will be more NFL buzz around the 6-foot-4, 209-pound wideout next season, when he’ll be a fourth-year junior, but some wondered if another program might convince Boston to leave Washington this offseason for a larger NIL payment.

“For me, it’s been pretty cut in stone,” Boston said. “I love this program. I grew up here. I grew up watching UW play on the biggest stages. Obviously, there’s all types of politics that go through it, but I just went about it — I’m valued here, you know what I mean? Why would I throw all that away for just a little bit of money?”

(Freshman quarterback Demond Williams Jr., another key piece of UW’s offensive future, also met with reporters on Thursday. I asked him if other programs had tried to entice him into the portal. “Nah,” he replied.)

To be clear, nobody should cry any tears for Washington having to protect against poachers. That’s the game now, and if your favorite program isn’t putting out feelers for potential transfer acquisitions, they’re probably doing it wrong (or they’re Clemson). More than anything, you should just be happy that players as talented as Coleman and Boston have chosen to stay at Washington, and that UW has allocated the resources necessary to lead such players to that decision.

So far, linebacker Khmori House is UW’s most high-profile portal entrant, and Gaard Memmelaar is in the portal (but playing in the Sun Bowl) after starting 11 games this season. Otherwise, I’m not sure the Huskies have lost any potential 2025 starters. Kahlee Tafai started the last four games at left tackle before entering the portal and has received legitimate interest from Power 4 schools, but was unlikely to start at UW next season. Fifth-year junior cornerback Elijah Jackson has plenty of starting experience but was a backup this year. Walk-on punter Jack McCallister already has committed to Nebraska, but the Huskies also added Australian punter Dusty Zimmer on scholarship. Every other portal entry is either a deep reserve unlikely to rise up the depth chart, or someone the coaches might have encouraged to look elsewhere. (One potential exception: redshirt freshman receiver Keith Reynolds, who announced Thursday that he’s entering the portal. I thought he showed some ability this season and had a chance to earn more playing time as a sophomore.)

The vibe can change in a blink, but right now, the Huskies are on the right side of the portal scales.

Regardless, all of this — programs forcing players out to make room for new ones, players jumping in the portal in search of more playing time or a bigger payday — is just business anymore, for better or worse. As Fisch put it on Tuesday: “The goal here is to win a championship, and everyone would be very disappointed with me and our staff if we don’t take that approach. … Everything we’re going to do, and every decision we make, is going to be based upon winning.”

Which is easier to do when your best players can’t be wooed, something no fan should take for granted.

— Christian Caple, On Montlake