Washington Huskies Running Back Brian Bonner Player to Watch Saturday

· Yahoo Sports

The No. 19 Washington Huskies football team had multiple first-year players either start or receive significant snaps in the team's 24-10, Week 1 win against the Washington State Cougars on Sept. 6. And the team will have even more true freshmen take the field for its Week 2 game against the Utah State Aggies at 12:30 p.m. PT on Saturday at Husky Stadium.

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The Huskies lost the top two running backs on their depth chart, second-year Quaid Carr and fourth-year Jayden Limar, to respective injuries with the former expected to be out for most, if not the entire season.

In their stead, first-year running backs Brian Bonner and Ansu Sanoe and sixth-year Trey Cooley will be the top three running backs for Washington and the team will operate a by-committee approach with the trio's snap count.

For Bonner, this opportunity could be the chance for him to meet lofty expectations placed on him earlier than most thought he would.

Bonner was a part of Washington's lauded Class of 2026, which ranked 12th in the country, the highest ranking in program history.

The Valenica High School (Calif.) graduate was one of the highest-rated running backs in his class. He ranked as the 94th-best overall player, sixth-best running back and 12th-best player in California, per the 247Sports composite.

The Huskies won out on landing Bonner over several other notable programs, including the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Penn State Nittany Lions and UCLA Bruins.

In his senior year at Valencia, Bonner ran the ball 113 times for 1,051 yards and 13 touchdowns in 10 games and caught another 18 passes for 525 yards and five scores.

When Bonner graduated, he was listed at 6-foot 1/2 and weighed 185 pounds. He enrolled early at UW in the spring semester and has added 20 pounds of muscle and is now up to 205.

Due to Limar and Cooley both being out of action in spring training due to injuries from last year, and presumptive starter Jordan Washington being out of action after suffering a neck injury.

Bonner in the spring got a decent amount of reps with the starters on the tail end of spring practice. During training camp, he ran primarily with the backups but looked more comfortable and had bigger chunk runs as practices progressed.

Against the Aggies, who are coming off a 29-17 loss against Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) team Idaho State on Sept. 5, Bonner could make a decent first impression.

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