Reality check: The 2024 Huskies bear no resemblance to the team that played for the national championship in ’23, on the field or the sideline: Offseason attrition included the entire coaching staff and 20 of 22 starters from the CFP title game, 10 of whom were drafted.

Most of those vacancies will be filled by incoming transfers, including the quarterback (Will Rogers, from Mississippi State) and receiver (Jeremiah Hunter, Cal) tasked with replacing first-rounders Michael Penix Jr. and Rome Odunze, respectively, as well as a small platoon of reinforcements who followed new head coach Jedd Fisch from Arizona.

Never say never, etc., but caveats aside, it’s safe to go ahead and say this outfit is not going to be back on the sport’s biggest stage in its first season in the Big Ten. Beyond that, just how severe the hangover will be is one of the season’s most intriguing subplots.

Huskies at a Glance …

2023 Recap: 14-1 (10-0 Pac-12; Won Sugar Bowl; Lost CFP Championship; 2nd AP)
Best Player: RB Jonah Coleman
Best Pro Prospect: CB Ephesians Prysock
Best Addition: Coleman (Arizona)
Best Names: CB Ephesians Prysock … OL Maximus McCree
Tenured Vet: QB Will Rogers (5th year; 40 career starts at Miss. State)
Emerging Dude: Junior DB Dyson McCutcheon

Biggest strength: Familiar linebackers. Seniors Carson Bruener and Alphonzo Tuputala are rank-and-file vets, not headliners. But with 10 years, 33 starts and more than 2,200 career snaps between them, they are 2 of the few holdovers with significant playing time to their credit in a Washington jersey, and the only 2 who share the same position. Their dual presence in the middle of an otherwise barely recognizable defense is one of the few remaining links to last year’s run.

Nagging concern: An inexperienced and unsettled offensive line. All 5 of last year’s o-line starters moved on, including pair of high draft picks, Troy Fautanu (first round) and Roger Rosengarten (second round). The candidates to replace them are all transfers or recovering injury casualties, none of whom has logged significant playing time at the FBS level.

Looming question: How does Will Rogers’ game translate to a new offense? Rogers smashed volume records at Mississippi State, attempting and completing more passes over the course of his MSU career than any other quarterback in SEC history by wide margins. But he never rose above the dreaded “system quarterback” label that attached to every quarterback who ever played for the late Mike Leach, and never struck fear into blue-chip SEC defenses with his arm or mobility. Rogers seriously regressed in 2023 following Leach’s sudden death the previous December, ranking near the bottom of the conference in both efficiency and Total QBR while missing more than a month to a shoulder injury.

He badly needed a fresh start in his final year of eligibility, and found one in a system that will continue to ask him to put it in the air early and often under coordinator Brennan Carroll. (Yes, Pete’s son.) Rogers has seen it all at the college level and has the muscle memory to show for it; Michael Penix Jr. he is not. If he’s being counted on to elevate the offense beyond hitting his notes from a clean pocket, that might be stretching his talent beyond its limits.

The schedule: It’s tempting to say Washington should cruise through the first 5 games ahead of an Oct. 5 visit from Michigan, but that’s taking too much for granted. How easily the Huskies manage to dispatch Washington State, Northwestern and Rutgers (or don’t) will tell us a lot about what to expect over the second half of the season. Regardless, the November gauntlet of USC, Penn State (in State College), UCLA and Oregon (in Eugene) will define the season, one way or the other.

RELATED: Predicting every Washington game in 2024

The upshot

“Rebuilding” doesn’t begin to describe how much has changed since we last saw the Huskies on the wrong side of the confetti drop. The uniforms are the same; otherwise, this is a completely different operation from soup to nuts. That doesn’t mean the Huskies are doomed to fall off the map. It’s more like they’re redrawing the map from scratch as they go.