In a deep and talented cornerback room at Washington, there’s not a significant amount of experience outside of transfer Emmanuel Karnley and true sophomore Dylan Robinson. That leaves a lot of room for competition, and Elias Johnson is a player who’s certainly in the mix to earn a spot on the two-deep come Fall camp. In 2024, he was listed at just shy of 160 pounds on the roster. Now, entering his third year, as a sophomore, Johnson is up to 180 pounds and stands at 6’-2” at cornerback. During Tuesday’s Spring practice session, Johnson found the stats column in a couple of different ways in the back end of this Husky defense.
Day Four UW Spring Practice Notes
CB Elias Johnson
For the second half of practice, the team moved from the East practice field to Husky Stadium, where there’s a little more room on the turf. And on one side of the field, the skill position players took part in a seven-on-seven scrimmage. That’s where Johnson turned heads. In isolated man coverage, Johnson defended a receiver on an outside release down the near sideline. He tracked the receiver stride for stride and timed his coverage as the football descended on its path. Johnson broke up the pass right in front of the defensive sideline, which swarmed him in celebration.
A few plays later, Johnson forced another pass breakup. This time, it was on a low-thrown pass to a receiver on a comeback route. Johnson broke on his coverage and made contact with the receiver as the football arrived, knocking it loose. It again got a roar from the defensive side of the ball. The redshirt sophomore capped the session off with great anticipation on a short receiver screen route, delivering a hard hit resulting in a tackle for loss.
A year ago at this time, Johnson lined up against Omari Evans in man coverage during the first Spring practice of the 2025 season. He got beaten by Evans for touchdowns on back-to-back throws. But these handful of plays made on Tuesday indicate Johnson’s growth and confidence at the cornerback position. It’s his third year of college and second year in the Ryan Walters system. His knowledge is allowing him to play faster, think less, and trust his reactionary instincts in coverage. Outside of Robinson at 6’-3”, Johnson’s 6’-2” listing is the tallest in the cornerback room. Just four days into UW Spring practice, he’s beginning to make an impact on this defense.
Early Impressions of Trez Davis
Out of West Monroe, Louisiana, 6’-0” wide receiver Trez Davis has made an early impression on the Washington coaching staff. “If you watch what’s going on so far, Trez Davis has been amazing,” wide receivers coach Kevin Cummings said after practice on Tuesday. “Trez has been awesome. Trez has done a heck of a job of learning the plays and applying them on the field.”
He was a four-star in the 2026 recruiting class and the sixth-ranked player out of the state of Louisiana. Davis originally committed to Tulane during the summer of 2025 after averaging 23 yards per reception as a senior at West Monroe High School. Davis caught 91 passes for 1,869 yards and 17 touchdowns during his junior and senior seasons combined. But Washington offered the pass-catcher in November, he officially visited a few weeks later, and ultimately decommitted from the Green Wave in late November. On signing day, the blue-chip recruit inked with the Huskies.
As a whole, Cummings believes the receiver room is progressing really well through the first four practices. “I think they’re doing a great job learning,” Cummings said. “The young guys, the freshmen that we got in, the transfers that we got in, those guys are coming along real well.” But among that group, Cummings highlighted Davis and his quick understanding of the playbook and what the offense has asked of him. Said Cummings of Davis, “He’s the one that’s been, I would say, the furthest along so far.”
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