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Washington Huskies 5th-Year Players Denied Eligibility Requests
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- Washington Huskies 5th-Year Players Denied Eligibility Requests
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images)
SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies football team will be looking for its first Big Ten win of the season when it takes on the Purdue Boilermakers at 5 p.m. PT on Friday at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind.
The Huskies will be entering the game coming off their worst loss of the season, a 41-24 defeat at the hands of the Iowa Hawkeyes on Oct. 9.
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There was nothing that went right for Washington in its loss against Iowa. The offense is still yet to score more than 24 points against a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponent, the defense surrendered 27 points in the first half against the Hawkeyes and the kickoff unit sent multiple kicks out of bounds.
The Huskies had the potential to get a pair of fifth-year players back on defense and special teams, but it looks like those options are no longer on the table.
Fifth-year defensive tackle Ta'ita'i Uiagalelei and kicker Grady Gross both rejoined the team during fall training camp on the heels of a series of Class of 2022 players attempting to return to various programs across the nation.
During the offseason, the NCAA passed its new "5-for-5" eligibility rules, doing away with the previous four-year eligibility standards. With the new policies, redshirts and medical waivers were also done away with. Players form the Class of 2023 forward were able to be grandfathered into the new eligibility rules, with players from the Class of 2022 not brought into the new rules.
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Many players from the '22 class sued the NCAA as a result. There was briefly a class-wide injunction filed against the NCAA that allowed Gross and Uiagalelei to return to practice. A ruling in 10th District Court ordered a stay on the aforementioned injunction, which meant that Gross and Uiagalelei were unable to play or practice with the team.
For either Uiagalelei or Gross to return to the team, they would have had to successfully sue for their eligibility in their respective home-state courts.
Gross was briefly successful in his filing and handled kickoff duties against the Eastern Washington Eagles and Minnesota Golden Gophers, but has been absent the last two games. Uiagalelei hasn't suited up at all for UW this season.
According to head coach Jedd Fisch in a weekly news conference , it's likely that neither will be in uniform for the rest of the season.
"Their appeals, their (cases) were overturned by the courts," Fisch said. "So they're out."
