{"id":84575,"date":"2025-12-31T15:43:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T20:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=84575"},"modified":"2025-12-31T15:43:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T20:43:36","slug":"d-line-transfer-portal-targets-for-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/12\/31\/d-line-transfer-portal-targets-for-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"Possible D-Line Transfer Portal Targets for Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along the interior defensive line, Washington is set to lose two of its primary starters from the 2025 season. Anterio Thompson<\/a> and Ta\u2019ita\u2019i Uiagalelei<\/a> are both out of eligibility. Bryce Butler, who started one game last season but played in 12 with over 300 snaps, plans to enter the transfer portal when it opens on January 2nd. Rotational nose tackles Simote Pepa and Logan Sagapolu are also out of eligibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lone returning starter will be Elinneus Davis<\/a>. He will return 424 snaps and 10 starts from the 2025 season. But no other returning interior defensive lineman played more than 130 snaps last season. There\u2019s going to be room for younger players like Omar Khan and Dominic Macon to step up in the depth chart. But Washington needs to fill that experience gap on the interior with the transfer portal. These are a few players who can do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

Possible DL Portal Targets for Washington<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Devan Thompkins – USC<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Washington will be challenged to replace the size and versatility of Uiagalelei on the interior of its defensive line. But USC transfer Devan Thompkins<\/a> can fit that mold. As a 12-game starter in 2025, Thompkins played nearly 500 snaps for USC. He stands at 6\u2019-5\u201d and 285 pounds, one inch taller than Uiagalelei, and was used in a similar capacity for the Trojans this year. Thompkins lined up as an interior defensive tackle on 51% of his snaps, and over an offensive tackle on another 28%. Doing so, he totaled 31 tackles on the season with 6.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, and 22 quarterback pressures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Uiagalelei lined up as a true defensive tackle on close to 79% of his defensive snaps for the Huskies last year. But he transferred to Washington with a similar versatility, having lined up at EDGE over one-third of the time in 2024 at Arizona. Thompkins has reportedly received interest from Oregon, Alabama, and Georgia, according to On3<\/em>. But the Stockton, California native earned his first collegiate offer from Arizona in 2021 when Jedd Fisch was the head coach in Tucson. Thompkins also held an offer from Washington prior to enrolling at USC.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Huskies have an opening for a player of his versatility at the interior defensive line, and there are some past connections with the Washington staff. Thompkins is the number two available defensive lineman expected to enter the transfer portal, according to On3<\/em>, and is expected to be heavily recruited. He will have one year of eligibility remaining.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jamarrion Harkless – Purdue<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Staying in the Big Ten, another intriguing transfer portal target is Purdue defensive lineman Jamarrion Harkless<\/a>. The 6\u2019-3\u201d and 345-pound interior defensive tackle started all 12 games for the Boilermakers in 2025. On 423 snaps, Harkless lined up 237 times at defensive tackle and 185 times at nose tackle. His versatility on the inside could serve as a potential replacement for the departures of Pepa and Sagapolu at zero technique. Five of Harkless\u2019 12 starts this past season were at nose tackle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harkless recorded 2.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, and 13 total tackles on the year while also logging 11 quarterback pressures according to Pro Football Focus. The Purdue transfer does not, however, have the regional ties or recruiting relationships to Washington that Thompkins does. Harkless was the third-ranked player out of Kentucky in the class of 2023 and didn\u2019t have any West Coast traction during his recruitment. It would likely be a regional hurdle to bring Harkless up to the Pacific Northwest. But his frame and field production would make for a seamless fit into Washington\u2019s interior defensive front next season. Harkless has two years of eligibility remaining.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DeSean Watts – Sacramento State<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Former Husky EDGE rusher Deshawn Lynch<\/a> made the jump from FCS to FBS, transferring from Sacramento State to Washington prior to the 2024 season. It paid off for Lynch, who had an outstanding senior season<\/a> with seven pass breakups and an interception this year. Another former Hornet who could take that step up to the Power Four is DeSean Watts. At Sacramento State, Watts earned First-Team All-Big Sky honors after his 2025 performance. He played in 12 games for the Hornets, starting 11 at interior defensive line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Pro Football Focus, Watts was tied for first among all FCS defensive linemen in run defense grade with a 91.6 in 2025. He recorded 24 stops according to that site, with a season-high six against Nevada of the FBS in week two. Watts had 36 tackles for the Hornets last season (four for loss) with 16 quarterback pressures on 347 snaps played along the interior.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to his lone season at Sacramento State, Watts was a junior college transfer. He quickly became one of the most impactful run defenders at the FCS level and will now try to make the move to the next level. Watts will be a rising junior and has two years of eligibility remaining. He stands at 6\u2019-2\u201d and 318 pounds and would bring projectable production and quality experience to the Husky defensive line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Image: Alex Martin\/Journal and Courier \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Along the interior defensive line, Washington is set to lose two of its primary starters from the 2025 season. Anterio Thompson and Ta\u2019ita\u2019i Uiagalelei are both out of eligibility. Bryce Butler, who started one game last season but played in 12 with over 300 snaps, plans to enter the transfer portal when it opens on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":84583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,35612],"tags":[1666,4516],"class_list":["post-84575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-washington-huskies","tag-jedd-fisch","tag-transfer-portal"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84575"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84584,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84575\/revisions\/84584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}