Four Washington Huskies were among the 94 college football players named by The Associated Press, College Sports Communicators, and Fiesta Sports Foundation to the 2026 Comeback Player of the Year Award watch list over the weekend.
Wide receiver Rashid Williams, tight ends Kade Eldridge and Charlie Crowell, and running back Trey Cooley made the cut after each missed at least six games last season. Both Crowell, a third-year tight end who is coming off back-to-back missed seasons due to knee injuries, and sixth-year running back Cooley each missed the entirety of 2025, having suffered their respective injuries in fall camp.
Williams, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound fourth-year wide receiver, started the Huskies' first two games of the season at home against
Colorado State and UC Davis before he suffered a collarbone injury in UW's 70-10 win over the Aggies that forced him to miss the next two months.
It’s in the game. Mock Game 2026. pic.twitter.com/7P0HLGjkN8
— Washington Football (@UW_Football) August 23, 2026
The former four-star recruit in the 2022 class was expected to return for a November 8 road game at Wisconsin, but a freak hand injury that resulted from Williams getting his hand stuck in a teammate's face mask in practice ended a return to the field in Jedd Fisch's second season as the Huskies' coach.
Eldridge, a Lynden, Washington native who returned home last year after spending two seasons at USC in 2023-24, played in the first seven games of the season before he suffered a season-ending foot injury in UW's 24-7 loss at Michigan in mid-October.
In 2023, star quarterback Michael Penix Jr. won Comeback Player of the Year, helping lead the program to a Pac-12 championship and Sugar Bowl victory over the Texas Longhorns to reach the national championship game against then-coach Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington Football Has 4 Named to 2026 Comeback POY Award Watch List
