Only days after losing to Michigan in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Washington lost its head coach, Kalen DeBoer, who jumped ship to join Alabama as Nick Saban’s successor.

However, the program is now beginning to lose players, which might only be the start of a mass exodus.

Shortly after news of DeBoer’s departure broke, several Huskies entered the transfer portal. According to Chris Hummer and Matt Zenitz of 247Sports, starting defensive backs Jabbar Muhammad and Mishael Powell.

A transfer from Oklahoma State, Muhammad made an immediate impact in his first season at Washington. The junior started all 15 games, earning second-team Pac-12 honors after finishing the year with 46 tackles, a team-high three interceptions and a conference-leading 16 pass defenses.

Powell also started every game for the Huskies this past season. Along with 38 tackles, the junior recorded the team’s third-most pass defenses (6) and tied Muhammad for the team lead in interceptions (3), including an 89-yard pick-six against Arizona State.

DoBoer’s sudden exit hasn’t only impacted the players already on the roster but also future and potential members.

Only days after agreeing to join the program, four-star linebacker and No. 1-ranked player in the state of Washington, Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, decommitted on Friday.

Meanwhile, the disarray at the top left former Stanford defensive lineman Jaxson Moi, who had just arrived for a visit, out in the cold.

What’s going down at Washington isn’t pretty, but in the business of college football, it is reality. The machine will keep rolling as the landscape evolves with the rise of the transfer portal, NIL’s and conference upheaval.

While arguments over those topics continue, perhaps the larger question that needs answering is how a program, not even a week removed from playing for a national title, can lose its coach.