The competition at the Washington Huskies' first fully padded practice showed up in a big way between the cornerbacks and wide receivers.
With Freshman All-American Dezmen Roebuck not present with the team for personal reasons, sophomore Chris Lawson stepped into a big role, while Kennesaw State transfer Christian Moss continued to thrive. The former made multiple plays of 30-plus yards on the day, one on a jet sweep and another on a deep crossing route where he hauled in a perfectly placed pass from a scrambling Demond Williams Jr.
The latter continued his dominance in the red zone, pulling in a pair of 13-yard touchdowns from Williams, which caught the eye of safeties coach Taylor Mays.
"Those guys have been making awesome plays the last five,
six practices," Mays said on Thursday. "So our guys have competitively been trying to shut those guys down at the same time. And so, it's helped us because it's almost just an iron sharpens iron thing."
"They've won some, we've won some, but I've been happy that the receivers have been playing so hard, because it just elevates our style of play and it's insane."
But that isn't to say that Washington's defensive backs didn't make some big plays of their own.
Kayden Greene and Washington’s trio of freshmen CBs pic.twitter.com/7vslwRANtD
— Roman Tomashoff (@rtomashoff34) August 13, 2026
True freshmen forced a pair of turnovers in the secondary, first with cornerback Elijah Durr laying a big hit on his classmate, tight end Sam Vyhlidal, over the middle of the field for a forced fumble. Later on, during a goal line drill, safety Gavin Day stepped in front of a Kini McMillan pass for his first interception of fall camp.
"Gavin Day is improving," Mays said. "I would say he's definitely improving from where he was in the spring to now; he's doing the things that we need him to do, that he wants to do for himself to become a player that can contribute this year. So, he's getting there. He still has a little bit of a ways to go, but he's definitely on pace for what we expect out of him going into his freshman year."
Here are some other notes from Montlake.
Fall camp notebook
- Cornerback Jeron Jones, outside linebacker Ramzak Fruean, and running back Brian Bonner were among the true freshmen who got reps with the first team on Thursday.
- Freshman cornerback Rahsjon Duncan and sophomore outside linebacker Devin Hyde both worked with the second team, while transfer running backs Jayden Limar and Trey Cooley took their first snaps of 11-on-11 team periods. Cooley pulled off an impressive spin move in the middle of the field on one of his limited reps as he works his way back from a knee injury he suffered at Troy in the summer of 2025.
- Sophomore linebacker Donovan Robinson had his best practice since arriving on Montlake, while mainly working with the second team, flying all over the field and getting himself involved in several stops around the line of scrimmage.
- Freshman defensive lineman Derek Colman-Brusa also had a nice day as he continues to look more comfortable along the interior. While working on a stunt drill with the offensive line, he put together an impressive bull rush rep, running straight through center Kolt Dieterich.
- After a few clean days as he learns the new position, Dieterich had a botched snap on the goal line that bounced directly into the arms of freshman defensive tackle TI Umu-Cais for a turnover.
- That was part of a dominant period for the run defense, where it turned away every rushing attempt from the offense inside the 5-yard line, not allowing a single touchdown.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: WRs, DBs have fierce competition at Washington Huskies' fall practice
