By Mike Vorel

The Seattle Times

Chris Petersen got right to the point.

Last week, 247Sports reported that Washington redshirt freshman wide receiver Trey Lowe had entered the NCAA’s transfer portal. In a news conference Monday, Petersen was immediately asked to elaborate on Lowe’s status.

“Like I always say,” the sixth-year Husky coach responded, shaking his head, “the program is not for everybody.”

Four long seconds elapsed.

“Were you surprised?” a reporter asked.

“Like I said, I mean, this program is not for everybody,” Petersen reiterated. “I would be surprised if everybody stayed in this program. We have 110 guys. You’re not going to keep everybody here. You’re just not. If the program is not for them, they need to move on.”

That was presumably the case for Lowe — a 5-foot-8, 183-pound wideout from Portland. The redshirt freshman appeared in UW’s final two games last season but failed to record a catch. He did not participate in any of his team’s first eight games this fall while recovering from an undisclosed infection.

When he signed with Washington in 2018, Lowe was ranked as a four-star recruit and the No. 149 overall prospect in his class. UW’s two other four-star 2018 wide receivers, Marquis Spiker and Austin Osborne, have combined for two career catches for 18 yards.

Lowe, of course, will not be the last Washington Husky to leap headfirst into the transfer portal. It’s a constant in the current climate of college football. Sooner or later, someone will defect.

And Petersen, it appears, is at peace with that process.

“I think it’s the world we’re living in; I think all those things. It’s not any one thing. And you’re going to see more and more of it,” Petersen said of the transfers. “I don’t look at it necessarily like it’s a bad thing. If it’s not the right thing, it’s not the right thing. And you move forward.”

Washington will move forward without Lowe, hosting No. 9 Utah at Husky Stadium on Saturday. And the Huskies will do so with another transfer — former Georgia Bulldog Jacob Eason — operating as the starting quarterback. Today’s transfer culture, by definition, is a give-and-take proposition.

But does Petersen worry that Washington’s rigorous academic standards make it difficult to pursue attractive transfers?

“Yeah, I don’t worry about that. I really don’t,” Petersen said. “I think there’s enough good players out there in terms of our style of recruiting and how we recruit. We’ve got enough good players on our team right now. We really do, so that doesn’t factor into our whole thing.

“Now, is it another part of college football that maybe, certainly a lot of people are paying close attention to? Our quarterback (Eason), I’m not saying you aren’t going to have one that fits your situation. When it does, awesome.”

Injury updates galore

Washington was one of the few programs in the country that played eight consecutive games to begin its season without a bye week.

And, unsurprisingly, the marathon march to November yielded a number of unfortunate injuries.

Redshirt freshman linebacker M.J. Tafisi, who suffered a significant stinger during the Arizona win and did not play against Oregon, is practicing, per Petersen. The UW coach added that Tafisi is “doing well. He’s certainly on a week-to-week (path), being smart, but he’s practicing.”

Petersen said that senior Aaron Fuller, UW’s leading receiver, is also practicing after missing the vast majority of the Oregon game with an injury. Senior wide receiver Chico McClatcher, who suffered a left-foot injury late against Oregon, is “making progress. Like I told you last time, we really thought that was going to be a tough (injury). But he’s making good progress as well.”

UW’s running back corps was also relatively depleted against the Ducks, as both junior Sean McGrew and redshirt freshman Richard Newton sat out with injuries. Like with McClatcher (and just about everybody else), Petersen said that McGrew — who has rushed for 330 yards with 6.5 yards per carry and a touchdown — is “making progress as well.”

As for Newton, the ascending 210-pound redshirt freshman, the outlook is not so optimistic. Newton has not played in UW’s last two games with a foot injury and Petersen said — unsurprisingly — that “he’s making progress. The trainers are still monitoring him. He was out there making some progress yesterday. But there’s still not a hard-set timetable (for his return), even in our mind.”

Now, does that mean Newton is out for the season?

“No. I’m not saying any of that. He’s week to week,” Petersen said. “I’ll tell you guys. If he’s done (for the season), I’ll tell you.”

The wide receiver shuffle

The wide receiver who led Washington in catches against Oregon was Terrell Bynum.

The wide receiver who reached the end zone first was Jordan Chin.

Neither of those two facts could have been easily foreseen — at least, outside of the locker room.

“He was one of those guys that we keep talking about,” Petersen said of Bynum, who produced six tough catches for 43 yards after entering the game with just three career catches. “He gets a lot of reps in practice, and then (we were) just kind of waiting for him to do something when we gave him an opportunity. So he’s had a couple opportunities this last handful of games, and every time we do something he’s done a nice job.

“He made a couple really nice catches (against Oregon), even though they weren’t downfield a bunch. But they were back shoulder, on his hip. Sometimes those are hard — those little crossing routes — if they’re not (on the numbers) they can be hard to catch. So he’s done a really good job with those things. He’s another guy that we just got to keep going. Keep growing.”

That goes also for the 6-0, 174-pound Chin, who registered just one reception in his first three seasons but has added two catches for 87 yards and a touchdown in his past two games.

Unlike many of his aforementioned teammates, Chin is finally healthy. And the redshirt junior wide receiver is taking advantage of opportunities.

“He’s kind of had a tough path a little bit in terms of some injuries,” Petersen. “Every time we thought we could get him going something would happen and he’s had two (injuries) that have set him back. Sometimes when you get set back like that it can be really hard to get back in the mix. So he has stayed healthy and this has been kind of coming on here the last handful of weeks.”

Unfortunately, the opposite can be said of senior Quinten Pounds. While relatively inexperienced receivers like Bynum, Chin and freshman Puka Nacua have begun to emerge, the 6-0, 176-pound Pounds — who has recorded 24 receptions for 407 yards and three touchdowns in 33 career games — has only appeared in one game this fall and has yet to register a catch. He was also suspended for three games earlier this season and was not available for the opener while continuing to recover from a torn ACL.

But at this point, Pounds is healthy, and he’s available.

It just hasn’t translated into playing time.

“I think that’s kind of a tough situation,” Petersen said. “Here’s a senior that’s done some things for us and he really hasn’t gotten back in the mix. And he still was a little banged up a couple weeks ago. He’s kind of played through that, and he’s as healthy as he’s been. We just … it’s, ‘OK, where do we put him in, where there’s these other guys (that also need to play). That’s really all it is. But he’s working hard.”

Extra point

Petersen confirmed that he spoke with Pac-12 representatives during the bye week about the penalized trick-play kick return that began the Oregon game, in which McClatcher lay in the end zone before receiving a pass and running for a sizable gain. “We had conversations about it, and it is what it is,” Petersen said. “We had some conversations.” And what did those conversations entail? “Can’t do it,” Petersen said of the trick-play return. “Yeah, can’t do it.” He added that there was no further discussion about UW’s final offensive play, in which Nacua failed to haul in a pass on fourth down and defensive pass interference was not called.