SEATTLE, WA - MAY 01: Cornerback Dylan Robinson #6 of the Washington Huskies recovers a fumble in the end zone during the Washington Huskies spring game on May 1, 2026 at Husky Stadium in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Henry Rodenburg/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesWelcome to the 2026 edition of the 30-Day Countdown!!!Every year we get ready for the new Husky football season by coming out with a daily article that examines the approaching games through a certain lens. Sometimes theyre serious, sometimes theyre not. But we generally try to get you, the reader, involved with a poll to get a sense for where Husky nations head is at on that topic.To start us off, Im looking at some of the factors that likely arent being discussed by the national media in their early previews of Washington. Today well focus on the positives and some of the reasons why the Huskies may surprise in 2026.Hidden Returning StartersPreseason magazines love to look at returning starters as a metric for how much returning experience a team has. That shouldnt be a surprise. Most positions have somewhere between 65-90% of their snaps come from one player so having that starter come back is essential to keeping up continuity.Washingtons defense in particular though doesnt quite fit that model as cleanly. The Huskies have 7 defenders coming back that played between 150-400 snaps last season and started more than one but fewer than half of the games. Those are very important pieces that probably dont count as a returning starter in most calculations.LB Jacob Manu started every game he played in but only played in 4 games to maintain his redshirt after returning from a torn ACL. Freshman LB Zaydrius Rainey-Sale returned midseason from a torn ACL suffered in high school and played heavily thereafter. LB Buddah Al-Uqdah was a game one starter before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the non-con and will hope to come back midseason like the other two did last year.Freshman DBs Rahshawn Clark, Rylon Dillard-Allen, and Rahshawn Clark all started multiple games and showed by seasons end that all were Big Ten caliber players. Edge rusher Isaiah Ward missed time with injury last season but was a heavy rotation player when healthy. And all this doesnt take into account fellow ED Russell Davis II who has only been fully healthy for one game through two seasons but was dominant in that contest versus USC.Put it all together and the Huskies may only return 4 of their top 11 defenders in terms of snaps played but they bring back 7 of the next 10 and many of those players had either overtaken or come close to overtaking some of the ones above them on that list. That leads to a defense that is much more experienced than a simple returning starters number would suggest.Punt, Punt, BoomIll admit to being among the Husky fans that werent especially sad to see Jack McCallister depart in the transfer portal after the 2024 season. Washington hardly needed a punter during the Michael Penix Jr. era and when they suddenly did, McCallister didnt seem up for the job. His net punt yards of 34.6 were among the worst in the Big Ten and it seemed like it would be easy to find an upgrade. Nope.Washington tried to go the Aussie punter route but their chosen option chose to go back home after the first week of spring practice. They brought in Oregon transfer Luke Dunne late and he did manage to best McCallisters average net yards totalby 0.21 yards. The Huskies once again had one of the worst punt units in the conference and it particularly cost them in the Wisconsin game. The Badgers seemingly had no shot of going further than about 25 yards on any given drive on offense but the Dawgs kept getting pinned inside their own 20 and couldnt punt it any further than midfield.That should get fixed this year. Enter Hunter Green from San Diego State who averaged 6 more net yards per punt than Dunne with an extra quarter-second of hangtime. Green had nearly half of his punts pin opponents inside the 20 compared to 26% for Dunne and had a long of 68 last year compared to a long of 50. If Green has similar numbers this year then youre looking at a hidden ~25 yards per game that wont show up in traditional offense/defense analysis.The Fountain of YouthExperience is reliable in college football. If a player is good for three straight years on the field then you know what youre probably going to get in year four. But going young can yield a high ceiling, low floor approach. There are plenty of players on this Husky roster who are in either their 1st or 2nd years of college football who havent come close to reaching their potential yet and there are reasonable reasons to think they might.The defense has several of those players I brought up in the first section with breakout seasons likely coming from underclassman DBs Dylan Robinson, Rahshawn Clark, and Rylon Dillard-Allen. Linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale was the top-rated player in the state in the class of 2025 and is oozing with potential. True freshmen Ramzak Fruean and Derek Colman-Brusa are four-stars that the coaching staff has gushed about since they showed up on campus. DCB appears likely to start on the interior for Washington and become the first true freshman D-line player to play 250+ snaps in the last decade (the only two to hit 200+ were Voi Tunuufi and Laiatu Latu).Washingtons offensive line has embraced the youth movement with guards John Mills and Champ Taulealea positioned to start in their second year of college football with Mills in particular flashing all-conference potential this year. True freshman five-star Kodi Greene is likely to man the left tackle spot. Theyll all be blocking for underclassmen skill players like Dezmen Roebuck, Quaid Carr, and Jordan Clay who have earned plenty of hype from the coaching staff.Maybe several of these players fall flat. But the average pundit who isnt glued into practice reports might assume some of these freshmen and sophomores are starting because its a position of weakness, not because the Huskies have recruited guys ready to contribute at a high level from day one. I dont think thats how the coaching staff views it and if it turns out its Fisch and co that are right then this is a team that seems poised to go way over 7.5 wins.