SEATTLE – Four of the top six signees from the 2018 recruiting class have left the University of Washington football program via transfer.

On Friday, junior wide receivers Marquis Spiker and Austin Osborne made it official and entered the transfer portal, something that has been expected for months. The pair came to UW at a time when the offense was in a state of transition.

Both were recruited by Bush Hamdan, who served as the Huskies receivers’ coach for the 2016 season after being promoted from the offensive quality control position he was in during the 2015 season.

Hamdan left the program to become the Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks’ coach on Feb. 16, 2017, six days after Osborne made his commitment to UW. At the time, Osborne knew of the pending change and made the decision to come to Seattle due to his relationship with Chris Petersen, the Huskies head coach at the time.

Petersen chose long-time college football assistant Matt Lubick to replace Hamdan as the WR coach on Feb. 22, 2017, and no less than a month later two more receivers in the 2018 recruiting class had made their pledge to UW as well.

Those two, Trey Lowe and the aforementioned Spiker, along with Osborne are now gone from the program. Due in no fault to their own, the trio never made the impact most had anticipated they would when they signed.

Spiker, a 6-foot-3 and 175-pounder out of Murrieta Valley High School (Murrieta, California), was ranked No. 36 overall by Rivals in the 2018 class and the No. 8 receiver in the country.

Until Sam Huard signed this past December as part of the 2021 recruiting class, Spiker had been the highest rated offensive player to sign with the program in the Chris Petersen / Jimmy Lake era.

Osborne was also one of the top players in the class, ranked No. 125 by Rivals and the No. 22 receiver. All three were four-stars, and they totaled four career catches amongst them in three seasons at Washington.

During fall camp in 2017, it was clear that the freshmen receivers were not going to have a role in the offense.

Lowe became the only one two see playing time, and that came on special teams in the 2018 Pac-12 Championship Game and the Rose Bowl against Ohio State.

Eight games into the 2019 season Lowe entered the transfer portal.

“Like I always say, programs’ not for everybody,” Petersen said, when asked at the time about his decision to transfer.

Based on Rivals’ recruiting rankings, the highest rated signee (Spiker) and three of the next six highest signees; Osborne, Jacob Sirmon and Colson Yankoff have elected to transfer out of the program over the past 17 months.

The only two of the top six who remain are both defensive players; Julius Irvin, ranked No. 95 overall in 2018, and Tuli Letuligasenoa, who was the No. 145 overall ranked prospect.

Upon an elementary look at the trajectory of the program on both sides of the ball since the 2018 season, it makes logical sense that the pair of defensive players have stayed in the program.

It’s no surprise either that a majority of the players who signed in the class and have made a significant on-field impact have been on defense. Letulisgasenoa and Sam Taimani, the other four-star interior defensive lineman in the class, are expected to be starters in 2021 and both made strides in the shorted 2020 season.

Kyler Gordon, the other four-star defensive back signee in the class aside from Irvin, has made a significant impact early in his career and is expected to be one of the better cornerbacks in the Pac-12 this fall.

And, to cap off the class, three-star outside linebacker turned one of the top edge rushers in college football last season, Zion Tupuola-Fetui, is also still very much with the program.

Several other players from the 2018 class have also made significant contributions on the field, including running back Richard Newton, linebackers Jackson Sirmon and MJ Tafisi, and a pair of offensive linemen, Victor Curne and MJ Ale, among others.

Despite the significant attrition from the class at the top, the bulk of the class has turned out well for UW.

How did the receiver room get to this situation?

When Chris Petersen hired Matt Lubick to replace Bush Hamdan as the Huskies’ receivers coach in spring 2017, whether he knew it or not it marked the beginning of the end in many ways.

Lubick had taken two jobs in nearly as many months, at Ole Miss and then again at Baylor University, before settling back in the Pacific Northwest.

Prior to his brief exit from the region Lubick spent four seasons at the University of Oregon as passing game coordinator / WR coach from 2013-15, before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2016. He also retained his role as receivers’ coach that season.

Hamdan began resurrecting recruiting efforts at the receiver position after Brent Pease had struggled to land talent his two seasons on staff in 2014-15. He secured the first four-star receiver of the Petersen era his first year on the job; Terrell Bynum out of St. John Bosco HS in Bellflower, California.

Along with Bynum, now the only scholarship senior receiver on the UW roster with spring practices set to begin next Wednesday (April 7), Hamdan secured a pair of three-stars, Alex Cook and Ty Jones.

Jones battled through injuries in the early part of his career but made a significant impact as a sophomore in 2018 hauling down six touchdown receptions. He finished third on the team in both receiving yards (491) and receptions (31) with two more touchdowns than the next receiver.

After seeing a limited role in 2020, aside from the already shortened schedule with UW playing only four games, Jones entered the transfer portal in January and came out two days later at Fresno State as a graduate transfer.

Another scholarship receiver, Jordan Chin, chose a similar route and landed at Sacramento State.

What Jones, Chin, Lowe, Osborne and Spiker have in common is they all suffered the result of coaching mismanagement.

Petersen played a critical point role in the recruitment of all five players, specifically Jones, Lowe, Spiker, and Puka Nacua, who transferred to BYU with his older brother Samson Nacua earlier this spring.

He also became a stand-in receivers coach as the 2018 season progressed, as it became clear Lubick was not long for the program.

During the pre-Rose Bowl media day when each player and coach is available to speak to the media, Lubick declined to comment on recently signed wide receiver Taj Davis because he wasn’t sure if he was able to.

Scott Huff had just got done relishing about the four offensive linemen he was going to have enrolled for spring practices. Keith Bhonapha commented on Cameron Davis and Jimmy Lake raved about the incoming defensive signees.

Understandably, it’s hard to comment on something one knows nothing about. Lubick was a figurehead well before the Rose Bowl Game kicked off.

At Pac-12 Media Day in 2019, I presented the situation to Petersen over lunch.

“What made Bush (Hamdan) work? Junior – you can’t comment yet – seems to be working out pretty well,” I noted, before Petersen added a ‘yeah’.

“Pease and Lubick didn’t seem to...” I continued, with another ‘yeah’ from Petersen. “How do you feel about what I just said?”

After taking a few seconds, he offered a rebuttal of sorts.

“I think Junior is off to a great start. You know, we haven’t played, but he’s off to a really good start in terms of the fit.

“Bush… you know… did an awesome job in his stint there. You know, yeah. and I think anything you need a body of work. Whether it’s not really good or it’s really good, can you sustain that?

“That’s what kind of neat about our secondary. Jimmy’s done a great job back there of sustaining. That’s what it should look like. And, like I said, for whatever reason we haven’t had that consistency there. We thought we had it with Bush, and then he went to the NFL.”

When Petersen named Lubick to replace Hamdan, he did so with the knowledge that Junior Adams wanted to be an offensive coordinator, and not just a wide receiver coach. However, Lubick was named as a co-offensive coordinator with Jonathan Smith still being the main OC.

Smith left UW at the end of the 2017 season to become the head coach at his alma mater, Oregon State. Hamdan returned as offensive coordinator for the 2018 season, with Lubick still on staff, and the on-field result showed, even though the team still made it to the Rose Bowl.

Now Adams enters his second season with offensive coordinator John Donovan, and the wide receiver room has been reset. Despite UW having just six scholarship players at the position this spring, it allows for all six to be on the same page with the quarterbacks.

Dylan Morris has an entire season under his belt with the receivers, including redshirt freshmen Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan, both of which were recruited by Adams.

With Bynum, a senior, and three other underclassmen; Taj Davis, Sawyer Racanelli and Ja’Lynn Polk, a transfer from Texas Tech, the young core can grow with the quarterbacks, Morris and Sam Huard, over the next three to four seasons.

The Huskies have already expressed interest in several receivers in the transfer portal, including Michigan sophomore Giles Jackson, a former four-star recruit, and Louisville freshman Christian Fitzpatrick.

Jabez Tinae, the lone receiver signee in the 2021 class, will enroll in June.