Latest / Say Who, Say Pod / Say Who, Say Pod, Ep. 211

Transcript

Say Who, Say Pod, Ep. 211 · Say Who, Say Pod

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Pod.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Pod.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode of Say Who Say Pod.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: He's Danny O'Neill in a sports coat.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Christian Caple.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: The Washington Huskies are 3-0, and I don't know, maybe some people are happier about it.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: More people are happier about it than last week, I guess.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: After a 48-16,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'll say a perfunctory 48-16 win over Eastern Washington,
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: in which they looked better in certain areas than they did in the first two weeks,
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: certainly, though much of that was to be expected.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: It was a paint-by-numbers victory.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's how it was supposed to look.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: They should have gotten all of this straightened out, but we'll see.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: There's very much an uncertainty about what exactly this is going to look like
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: on Saturday when things start for real.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: They avoided having anybody conclude in week three that this team will not win another game.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's what,
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: because if they,
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: if they'd gone out and it was just as hard offensively and,
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: oh my God,
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: they can't even move the ball against Eastern Washington and they win like 21 to 13
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: or something and it's just hard and ugly and,
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: um, Folks would be probably just about ready to say the season is toast.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think that...
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: The most pessimistic of fans probably are already there and still there
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: and no result against Eastern Washington is going to push them off of that.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: But I think there was at least some,
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: even though no one should believe that doing this
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: against Eastern Washington proves anything in the big picture,
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: there was at least some exhale, I think, after their first offensive possession.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Where it was like, okay,
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: they can go down the field and easily,
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: very efficiently and methodically and pretty easily score a touchdown on
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: the first possession against Eastern Washington.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then another touchdown and it's a comfortable lead at halftime.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And by the fourth quarter,
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: it's a blowout and there's some more freshmen playing and this wound up looking on
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: the scoreboard the way it was supposed to look.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think that after the way their offense played against Washington State
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: and Utah State especially,
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: there was some concern that like,
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: OK, well, are they at least going to blow out the FCS team?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And OK,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: they did blow out the FCS team and now you can back away from the ledge at least
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: a little bit.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: You said something, I believe it was last week.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's possible it's the week before, but I believe it was last week.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: That occurred to me, it was prior to kickoff of the Eastern Washington game.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: But I think you said, nobody's any good.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody anywhere is any good.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it occurred to me while watching Rutgers play USC.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Because if there was one thing I took away from the first two weeks of the season,
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: it was that I thought USC was really good.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: I thought the speed that they had among these freshmen...
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: Anyone who's listening to this podcast knows how much I love making fun of USC
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: for being soft and underachieving.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I really felt like, okay, this year, Lincoln Riley might have something.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: And if there was another thing that I thought for sure, it was that Rutgers sucked.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: Get blown out by UMass sucked.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: And super competitive game.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Supremely competitive game between Rutgers and USC.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it occurred to me at that point, maybe nobody's any good.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe just week to week, you're not really sure what you're going to get.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah,
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Washington looked bad,
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: but that has absolutely no indication on how they're going to look for the rest of
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: the season.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've been informed by our corporate attorneys that we need to credit
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: the formal no one is good hashtag to our dear sweet friend,
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Coke greater than Pepsi, who's been banging that drum.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: The way I like to put it is there's no good teams, no good coaches, and no good quarterbacks.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: This occurred to me a couple years ago where I'm just...
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: It kind of starts with the offensive coordinator discussion.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: How many fan bases, if you polled them, would say during a season?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: The offseason is a different story.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: During a season,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: have a favorable view of the play caller,
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: the offensive play caller, the offensive coordinator.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: But then you zoom out and it's like, yeah, there's...
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: I saw a post yesterday comparing USC and Oregon and how...
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever loses this game in week four here,
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: their fan base is going to go nuclear one way or the other.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: The discourse on Dan Lanning is going to be, I think nuclear was the word.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, on Dan Lanning?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're at that point already, like a 2-2 start in year, what, 5?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: 2, 3, 4, 5?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, a 2-2 start in year 5 coming off of a CFP semifinal run?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: At Oregon.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: And we're, we're to that.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: So it's,
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: it really,
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: it does illustrate like nobody just seems like nobody's ever happy with their coach.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody's ever happy with their core,
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: like the quarterback discourse dwindles and dwindles and dwindles.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like by the end of the year,
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: people are more down on the best quarterbacks than they are high on
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: the best quarterbacks.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it all gets filtered through,
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: the lens of, oh, well,
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: if someone is indisputably good,
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: then it becomes, well, but he's not an NFL prospect.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Or like, well, but he go, let's see him do it.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, okay, well, that doesn't have anything to do with anything.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: This is college football here.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So to your point, Rutgers might still suck, but they can score, at least against USC they can.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you what, Rutgers has a menace of a wide receiver.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: That KJ Duff guy is a monster.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there were some teams hoping he wouldn't be playing for Rutgers this year.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you what, my reaction after watching that game is that dude's a top 15 pick.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see how it comes out when the NFL draft goes.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: But you're that big and make those kind of catches.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think he's 6'5", 6'6".
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: He looked like a monster.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Chuck Olson Kia and Shoreline is kind of like the KJ Duff of
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: the local vehicle sales game, locally owned and operated since 1964.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: In fact,
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: family owned and operated by a family of University of Washington graduates with
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: a friendly low pressure sales staff and a competitively priced selection
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: of vehicles.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: We hope you'll make Chuck Olson Kia and Shoreline your next vehicle buying destination.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: This episode of Say Who Say Pod also brought to you by our friends at Husky Mobile.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Husky Mobile's partnered directly with the University of Washington
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: to offer affordable phone plans for the Husky community,
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: with up to 7% of each bill going back to UW Athletics.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Subscribers can also enjoy game day perks like Fastball,
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: Fastpass lanes,
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: seed upgrades and giveaways, all while on T-Mobile's nationwide 5G network.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Use code ONMontlake at checkout to get your first month free when transferring your number.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: You can do that at GoHuskyMobile.com.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's GoHuskyMobile.com.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks again to Husky Mobile for supporting today's show.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel better,
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: worse, or the same about the Washington Huskies after the Eastern Washington game?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: Decidedly better.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Decidedly better.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was a good game.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: I thought they looked pretty good.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: In fact,
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: I would say the only real question I had during the game kind of turns out to be
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: a relatively minor one, like the Cody Green's absence for a series at left tackle.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: That was really one of the only things that jumped out to me of like,
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: oh, I'm either a concern or whatever.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: I thought Washington looked good.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of wondered if they were going to go to left tackle number two at some point
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: during this non-conference schedule,
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: and maybe they figured that they'd have an opportunity to do that in either
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: the first two games.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it just didn't work out that way.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: It does show and maybe we don't know for sure until Landon Hatchett gets back and
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: that moves potentially Colt Dietrich into more of that utility role.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like obviously they could go to him at tackle, but at least with the compliments.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: That they have on hand right now does show that John Mills probably is next up there.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if something were to happen to Cody Green,
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: kind of like we talked about before the season about,
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: man, you're asking a lot of a true freshman to play that position.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And like, what if he's just not ready?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: My thought was always,
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: well then you'd probably kick John Mills out there and then backfill the interior
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: with a little bit more experience.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what they did.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Had John Mills move over to left tackle,
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: I believe for two series,
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: one in the first half,
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: One in the second half with Garen Hatchett at left guard and Champ Talalea
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: at right guard and Jed Fish said after the game, like, hey,
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: no other,
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: we haven't asked any of our other freshmen who are playing
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: to play every single snap, right?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so let's lighten the load.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it doesn't seem like really anything to worry about there.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I didn't even,
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: because I wondered if it was, hey,
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: did something happen and they wanted to talk to him about it and give him a series
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: to kind of think about it and then go back in and try and put it.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it didn't even seem like that.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: It really just seemed like,
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: hey, like you've been doing, you've done yeoman's work here for a couple weeks.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: It actually is good for us to have at least someone else who's experienced
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: a little bit if we would ask someone to slide out there if circumstances or
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: an injury created that.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I came away from that feeling.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: No,
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have any doubts about Desmond Roebuck or questions about how he was going
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: to respond after that game or anything like that.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: But...
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: I thought the offense looked really good.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we started to see some of how Jed is adjusting to the realities
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: of his roster, and namely the unavailability of his top running back.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a good segue because I actually listened to Ian's question this time
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: before recording.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't always,
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: sometimes I,
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: you know, like it to be, like it to be a little surprised and get a raw reaction.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I know what he asked this
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: week and that is a good segue.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get to IP McFarlane right here.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Our conversation with IP McFarlane.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, gentlemen.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in the front seat of a rental car.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm in Redwood City, California.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not entirely sure.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Where I am.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've traversed quite a bit of the greater Bay Area today.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Better, obviously, against a pretty weak opponent.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it gave a little bit of a glimpse of
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: how they're going to address
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: the lack of running backs.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Frankly, it might be a glimpse of what they've wanted to do all season.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's use the short passing game,
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: certainly with Roebuck, but
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: also with a tight end.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Tight end screens are really going to play for them.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: The question is,
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Can they get that rolling enough to make that work?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you look at the schedule,
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: until Penn State in the first weekend in November,
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: the only defense that really scares you is Iowa.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, USC has guys, but
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: not just the Rutgers game.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Other games, their defense has not been great shakes.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: can that satisfy and fill the gap left by a lack of a running game?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: I wish you guys a good week.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Have some caffeine.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a late one.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Go Dawgs.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: Short answer, yes, absolutely 100%.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I would echo that, especially the way we've seen them use Baron Naone.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And there's even a term for it now, run game solutions.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: Run game solutions.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: What do you do when your conventional run game is not able to gain you the yardage you want?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: And the answer is usually short passes to the perimeter.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: So you're not trying to hammer away into either a congested box or an offensive line
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: that isn't opening you the holes you want.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Here at Run Game Solutions.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Jed Fish.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Jed Fish, your proprietor of Run Game Solutions, featuring Desmond Roebuck in the slot.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: And that's Desmond Roebuck.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: The way he runs and moves can be a Run Game Solution.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: And Naone, I've been impressed.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think Naone is really good.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I think he's a better end-line blocker.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: He's certainly built more like an end-line blocker than DeGraff is.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: I absolutely could see them doing that.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think the, the practical answer to Ian's question is like, it's going to have to be right.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is,
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's become apparent,
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: not an offense,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: particularly without Quaid Carr and Jaden Lamar,
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: that is going to be able to line up and hammer the ball between the tackles in a,
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: you know, in the more traditional sense.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that they were going to be anyway, honestly.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Even with Jonah Coleman,
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: you know, Jonah Coleman is as close to, like, being a workhorse back as can be.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he didn't have a bunch of 20 carry games, you know?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, I think...
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Jed Fish talked a little about how the game plan
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: against Eastern Washington was more based
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: the coverages they thought they were going to get
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: and like what Eastern Washington's coverage would allow, right?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like the way that they're,
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: and DeMond Williams talked about this too on Tuesday,
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: like, hey, make them wrong no matter what, right?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: If they back off, like, we'll just attack the perimeter and take easy yards that way.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: If they try to get aggressive, then maybe you start to take some shots downfield.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: They did hit the one, you know, the corner out to Baron Naone who got wide open.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: But look,
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you look at who are your best players,
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: who needs to touch the ball the most,
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: who on this roster,
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: on this offensive roster,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: is most adept at making guys miss and creating something with a ball in their hands,
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: who is most likely to do damage downfield.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, it's not the guys you have available at tailback.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's some of that.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: You saw the first glimpse of what Brian Bonner can do in the open field.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it stands to reason that he would get better the more opportunities he gets.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Fish talked about him looking a little more confident and kind of like he ran
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: a little bit more physical on some of his touches.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Still only had six carries,
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: so we're talking about a pretty small sample size against an FCS defense here.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: that list starts with some combination of Desmond Roebuck,
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Rasheed Williams, Chris Lawson.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Very interested to see how big a part of the offense Jordan Clay might be going forward.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: I thought Jordan Clay, yeah, I think he's looked really good.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought it was a little interesting,
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: like looking at the box score after, and it's like three catches for 10 yards.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh, I guess he did only have 10 yards where the catch is.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: But all 10 yards came on... Well, I thought it was like...
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: I highlighted this throw just because I think it was the kind
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: of throw like DeMond wasn't necessarily making on an automatic basis
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: in their first two games.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: That third and seven up against UW's sideline,
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: the home sideline,
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: right at the sticks to Jordan Klay, where he put it right where it needed to be.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And Klay made it...
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that it was like the tightest coverage,
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: but a defender certainly in the area made the play, moved the sticks, right?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the kind of throws that DeMond's got to make and the receivers need
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: to be reliable targets on those.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then his touchdowns.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, three yards.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: He went, Fish highlighted, hey, he won against man coverage, right?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: A one-on-one matchup at the end zone.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: He puts it up for him and Clay makes the play.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know,
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: I thought for what his stat line was,
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: he did stand out just for being a, you know, big guy down the field.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: You can put the ball up.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: You can trust that he's going to make a play.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: You saw him,
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think, make a pretty tough catch that way against the sideline in the spring game.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, really,
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: until they went to the VMAC in spring,
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think that was the first practice he missed.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: I would have put a substantial wager on him winning that job at X receiver.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: We hadn't seen Christian Moss yet.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: No one really knew what he was about.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Clay had been the one who was healthy.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: He was getting all the number one reps.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think that they were planning to put him in position to compete for that job anyway.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then he got hurt, missed most of spring.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Christian Moss gets back healthy, has an awesome summer, awesome training camp.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: So is that job up and you kind of forget about Jordan Clay a little bit.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know,
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: maybe he now he's still not in a position where he's starting because I think they,
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Chris Lawson has earned that spot as sort of the number four guy,
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: stepping in for any of the positions and it happens to be X receiver right now.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously they're going to get him involved.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think you make the list of like,
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Who on this team can make plays with the ball in their hands?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think right now you're looking mostly at receiver.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so it stands to reason that like the offense would be structured around,
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: okay, how do you get the ball in those guys' hands?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that quick perimeter passing game is one of those run game solutions.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: The other name to insert in there, and this is a weird one, I think it's Cade Eldridge.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Kate Eldridge.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so when the first thing came out of he's a tight end, he's going to move into the backfield.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: But it's really more of, I guess it's an H-back type role that I look at.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: What is most interesting about Jed Fish as a play caller is that given his history
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: of moving around and It's not like he runs someone's system.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: He doesn't have a specific template of this is the way we call offense.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: He's drawn things from all sorts of different people,
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: not just different people he's worked with,
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: but coaches that he sought out and sought insight from.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Jed has a unique background as an offensive coach because of all of the different...
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: There are not many coaches that I can think of that have pulled from as many places as he does.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that he references a lot the time he spent with the Rams and Sean McVay.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure that did make an impression.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: And certainly McVay right now, one of the things that he's doing is his ability to...
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Use three tight ends,
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: but also to run and use wide receivers as blockers,
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: like to make wide receivers part of the rush offense.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Not even in how they carry the ball, but in their blocking.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: But because Jed draws from so many places, I do think that gives him more flexibility of...
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: How do we make the most of what we have?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Not, we need someone to fill this spot in this exact offense because we need
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: to have this tailback.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it's, I do think that that creates, there's a lot of possibilities here.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I do think, I think Kate Eldridge is part of that.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: What do you say Monday?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's no rule that says you have to have a top 10 running game.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: We're not,
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: and then post game,
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was, we're not trying to lead the country in rushing by any means.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Not to put words in his mouth,
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: but I do think that the spirit of those remarks is like,
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: the objective is to move the ball and score points.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's the famous viral clip of the former Chargers coach that everybody loved
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: until they hated, talking about why you run the ball.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: And like it's not it's not
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: about maximizing efficiency like obviously we all know throwing
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: the ball is more efficient than running the ball but like every now and
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: then you have to run the ball to force the defense to deal with you right force
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: the defense to be physical force the defense to make a play on any given pass.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: But if you feel like you can move it,
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: throwing it, then running the ball has no real tangible benefit.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: In many ways,
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: the give and take of football strategy is about how do you get an opponent
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: to load up against one thing so you can take advantage of them somewhere else?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: How do you get the defense to suck up towards the line of scrimmage
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: so you can throw it over the top of them?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: How do you get the defense, if it's lying back, take advantage of what's underneath?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: You do not
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: You can't be utterly predictable.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: There is at some point,
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: because if you do one thing over and over again,
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: every defense will eventually adjust to that.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: And the idea of you don't have to be a top 10 run game.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's true.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: You don't.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: You do have to find a way to move the ball if they're sitting back in coverage
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: and saying, nobody's getting behind us.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: You have to have a way to consistently move the ball.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: Running the ball tends to be the best way to do that.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: And in the NFL right now,
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: you're seeing Teams are increasingly attacking two high safety looks,
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: kind of the cover two,
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: keeping a lid over everything by using a second running back,
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: which had drastically fallen out of favor in the NFL.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: And the idea is we're going to run them out of it.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: We are going to hammer them until they bring one of those safeties into the box.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: And once they do that, then we'll be able to throw over the top of them.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so for Washington,
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: with their quarterback,
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: certainly with the way Rasheed Williams has looked,
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: and Chris Lawson, They've got the ability to throw over the top.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: That, I believe, is the thing that Washington is most capable of doing right now at this point.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: They have to find a way to consistently move the ball in shorter distances,
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: shorter increments,
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: to keep opponents from being able to say, okay, don't let anybody get behind you.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: And Run Game Solutions by Jed Fish is the way.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think you said it right there.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: You can't, you have to be able to run the ball if they're daring you to, right?
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: You can't come up to the line of scrimmage and see a coverage
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: that looks like they're probably dropping eight and just stubbornly continue to try
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: to throw the ball downfield.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: I was generally closest with offensive,
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: like the guys that I talked to the most in the locker room were the DBs and
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: the offensive linemen.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: And offensive linemen, I think, are genuinely the funniest.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: There's one, it was just BSing, so I don't want to say it.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: But one of the things he was like, they spend all this time calling plays.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, you know what they should do?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: They should come to the line of scrimmage and count how many guys are in the box.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: And if there are six guys in the box, they should run the ball.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: And if there are seven guys in the box, they should throw the ball.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Enough with all of this, like, kill, kill, kill, kill, can, can.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, count and react.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: Football's not that more complicated.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: And it is more complicated than that.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: But it's also not.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there is a certain amount of,
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: if they've got a bunch of guys toward the line of scrimmage,
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: throw the ball over the top of them.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: And if they don't have many guys toward the line of scrimmage, run the ball with their gut.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: I remember, God,
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: was it the,
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: when I was covering Washington State and Connor Halliday was the quarterback,
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: it might have been their opener at Auburn in 2013.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: An Auburn team that wound up playing for the national championship that year.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: The Washington State, like, really should have beat at Auburn.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: They lost the game.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think they threw like three interceptions.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was a bad one in the red zone.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: One of those games where like they outgained them.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: I would guess they're,
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: you know, Wazoo probably had like a plus 50 postgame win expectancy type of game.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like they really should have won the game.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it was this game.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was a big enough deal that I remember it to this day,
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: 13 years later,
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: that Connor Halliday, they were going for it on either like a fourth.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a fourth and one.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was like fourth and two, fourth and three.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I think it was like a fourth and three.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: So not like right up there.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: And Connor Halliday came up to the line and checked into a run and they just handed
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: the ball off and ran it and got it easily.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: And
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: This was year two under Mike Leach of the air raid.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so going through that journey of quarterbacks trying
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: to figure out how do I run this system the way that he wants me to run it?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because he...
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: Won't actually fully teach it to me.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: A big part of how he wants quarterbacks to operate
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: the air raid is them learning it themselves and figuring it out.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what produces the best offense, the best version of this system.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember asking the question,
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: what gave you the confidence to check into a run on fourth and three?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: And he was like, well, I mean, they had four guys in the box.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: If we can't run it against that, That was Halliday saying that, not Lee.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: I realized that sounds like something Leach would say too,
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: but which is probably,
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: you know, why it worked, why they had some success moving the ball.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he was like, well, I mean, it might not have even been five.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: It might have been like four, four or five guys.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, yeah, they only had four guys in the box, but they only had five guys in the box.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, geez, we can't get three yards against that look.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what are we doing?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's one of the,
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: there's so many things strategically that I love about the game of football,
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: but at its core, there are some very simple principles, right?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: That you either try and overpower an opponent that knows what's coming, right?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we're doing what we're showing you we're going to do.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: We just think we'll do it better than you.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: Or deception,
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: which is we're going to make you think we're doing something because
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: that will allow us to do something else that will make you vulnerable
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: to do something else.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's the decoding of, OK, you've made this adjustment to something that we're doing.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: Here's the counterpunch to that.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I will say,
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: of all of the different problems that a Jed Fish coached team could be encountering,
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think the idea of, hey,
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: you've got to make something,
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: you've got to compensate for the lack of a run game,
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think that might be the one that is solvable.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: If you've got some other issues that can crop up,
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: if you don't have anybody that can make downfield plays,
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: it's really hard to come up with a way to compensate for that other
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: than you've just got to be so good in the short game that it just doesn't matter.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: But run game solutions,
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: I do think that is of all of the different afflictions and not to say it's
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: a good one to have or that it's not an issue.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's a huge issue.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: I do think that's on the solvable end of the spectrum.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think if you told Jed Fish, like, hey,
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: your quarterback can't throw,
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: and or you got a bunch of jags at receiver,
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: you don't have,
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: like you said,
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: you don't have, like,
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: you're going to have to really load up and probably run the ball 40 times
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: and win low-scoring games to...
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Really good running games.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you just have an average one and now you have to lean on it
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: because you can't throw the ball, that's a bad deal.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing that kind of gets taken for granted at this point,
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: and I think Fish pointed this out too,
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: on Monday is that, hey,
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: some number of your called pass plays are going to end up being running plays
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: because your quarterback can run with the ball.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so your quarterback is a threat to run every time you call a pass.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that's something that the defense has to account for.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas,
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: there are a lot of guys who are just straight drop back,
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: pure passers who aren't a threat to run with it.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so the way that you defend them in the pass game is different.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Knowing that, knowing that you don't have to, you know...
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to account for the possibility that even if you cover everybody up,
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: he's going to take off and burn you for 20 yards.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a factor, too.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: That does come with a flip side of the coin.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned it last week,
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: that in each of the first two games,
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: at some point, DeMond Williams was having something worked on.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: In this game, you had a wrist.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's...
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Of the three things that have happened, this was the most concerning for me.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, it was an interesting one,
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: because I think they put a wrap on his wrist, but they said it was his elbow.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: He got hit on his funny bone or something.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Fish said, you know, Monday, it's like literally nothing.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Everything's fine.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, totally fine.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: He's perfect, I think was the word, which, you know, we'll take him at his word.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: He finished that game and played quite well.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: That was on a straight pocket pass, though.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was...
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't...
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think the way Fish explained it on his coach's show is that it was...
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Against a look that they hadn't practiced as much as they should have.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so he kind of,
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: he kind of put it on the coaching staff that like, Hey, we,
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: we should have had them more prepared for what pre the,
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: the way that the protection needed to be flipped against the look
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: that they were showing, you know, they had a seven man protection.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: They had a tight end and, and a running back in there to protect the, all they should.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Should never get a free runner on that.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't send eight guys.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: They sent seven.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: They should have had hat on hat.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it was just like, hey,
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: he kind of took the blame for like,
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: he didn't really adequately,
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: he felt like,
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: prepare them for the way the protection needed to be changed up against that.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think he said that The protection should have been flipped so that
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: the tackle kicked out to take care of the guy coming off the edge and that
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: the running back should have stayed frontside and taken on the free rusher.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: But he didn't, you know, that wasn't the tackle's fault or the running back's fault.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was, you know, it just didn't get done right.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I say a lot to say, like,
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: that's not an issue of DeMond Williams taking off running and taking
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: a hit he shouldn't have.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Nope.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't even see the guy, you know.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's brutal.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: I always wonder when people provide the exact logistics,
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: which is important understanding,
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: like, why did a player get hit or why did a protection not work there?
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: I just always imagine the quarterback just thinking like, man, I don't care how it happened.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: Still freaking hurts to say.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: It hurt.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: We underestimate.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: It is the one thing about football that is constantly underestimated is how absurd
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: the position of quarterback is.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: And what the quarterback is asked to do.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: The quarterback is the only person in the game that is asked to do something with the football.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody else, they're like, if you get it, just hold on to it.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's all we want you to do with the football.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, the quarterback is asked.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: And...
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: Every play starts with 11 dudes on the defense, like all candidates to maim you.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like every single one of them is a threat to you that's out there.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: You're essentially like facing traffic on a freeway and asked to then do something
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: with the ball, which no one else is asked to do.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's just, it's a ridiculous position.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: All this that we've discussed about using the perimeter passing game to kind
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: of Take some pressure off the run game or create some run game.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: DeMond Williams Jr. scrambling ability, keeping defenses honest.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: The competition against all of that is about to ratchet up significantly.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Ohio State didn't give up any quarterback run game.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Wasn't a whole lot of room for him to run around against Oregon.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think that Part of this question of,
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: is he going to,
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: is DeMond Williams Jr. going to take the next step against elite Big Ten defenses?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Part of it is, like, to me, I'm looking for sack avoidance, too, right?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is he going to do a better job either getting rid of the ball,
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: not staying in the pocket when it's,
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: when he shouldn't,
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: maybe making a decision to actually take off earlier at times if he needs to?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Turning some of those sacks,
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: those plays that were sacks against Oregon the last two years,
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: those plays that were sacks against Ohio State last year,
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: into either minimal gains, scrambling, or simply incompletions.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Throws out of bounds that give you a better chance to.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that's going to be a piece of this too going forward.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I make the point that Minnesota has some different athletes defensively
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: than anything Washington has seen so far.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: And this is not considered to be even a top half Big Ten team.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I think this is a very interesting barometer for Washington in its first game.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: We know that going to USC is going to be a challenge.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: We know that when they play Penn State,
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Indiana,
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: going to Oregon,
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: no matter what kind of season they have between now and then,
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: even Iowa, to a certain extent on a Friday night, is a distinct challenge.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know what that is.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: In Minnesota,
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: you have a team that occupies this sort of Big Ten middle class where they are not
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: and have not been a conference championship contender.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: They have not been a college football playoff contender as far as even getting in the field yet.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: You can count on them to win between six and nine games a year under PJ Fleck
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: and win their bowl game.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: Go to a bowl game and win their bowl game.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: They are competitive.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: They have guys who are going to play in the NFL.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: They have a first-team all-conference edge rusher.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: They've got some impressive linebackers.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: They lost their star safety, plays at Oregon now.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: But they have a quarterback who I think most people agree is going to play in
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: the NFL, Drake Lindsey, who's 6'5 and has a cannon for an arm.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see whether Darius Taylor, their star tailback, plays in this game.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't play against Akron.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, actually, we're getting injury reports starting today, in fact.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: Later today, we get injury reports Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll see what his status is.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is a, you know, it's not the biggest test that they'll face this year.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you look up and down their schedule,
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: you'd say Minnesota is in the tier of teams that you would So in that way,
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: it's ideal, but it's also like a huge physical challenge.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think I remember...
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: Before they went to Maryland last year,
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: and I think this Minnesota team is a good bit better than Maryland was a year ago,
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: we talked about like, hey,
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: there's no such thing as a bad win against this Maryland team,
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: even though they're favored and probably no one thinks Maryland's that good.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: And even though Maryland was unbeaten at the time, they were 4-0, which Minnesota isn't.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: They're 2-1.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: They lost by 25 at home to Mississippi State in Week 2.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's no bad way for Washington to win this or any game the rest of the year.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is a Big Ten opponent that certainly has aspirations to finish above .500,
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: that has some dudes that look a little bit different than what Washington's seen
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: the first three weeks.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: I was interested to see they opened as an 8.5 point favorite.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: That felt quite steep to me.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: This might be a point, though, where the
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: spreads reflect reputation as much as anything else.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I don't know how many people understand or have watched this.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_02: Sort of the nuances of Washington football in the national scene.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: I think Washington,
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: the fact that they were ranked, they have a quarterback everybody has heard of.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think most people are assuming they are at the very worst amid table Big Ten team.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_02: For those of us who have watched and agonized through the first three weeks,
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: we recognize that there is a different possibility that's in play.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not expecting Washington to be a below average Big Ten team.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: I understand that that possibility is out there, though.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: If I would have said before the season started, what's the chance that they finish in that 500?
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: I would have said, oh, that's under 10%.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know how this offense is going to look going up against better defenses,
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: Big Ten defenses.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: Not the best Big Ten defenses.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's still very much a question as well.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_02: Against a good Big Ten defense, are they going to be functional?
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's based a lot on hope for me right now.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I do.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: I do think they will be.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: But that is heart, not head talking.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: That is heart, not head.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because the other possibility is very much in play.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: That they simply aren't...
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't realize...
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe it's just the reality of seeing a young team.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: Washington's a young team.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot of really good young talent on this team.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: But if you sit there and line up their top 20 players,
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_02: a lot of those guys are first and second year players.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: A lot.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: It is a young team.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it gets real on Saturday night.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: Minnesota was number seven nationally in Bill Connolly's returning production metric.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: So an experienced team.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: I know that there's some transfer production that does get factored into that,
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: but regardless, like...
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: Washington fared well in that metric too.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: They did have a fair bit of returning production themselves regardless of how young they were.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: But this is,
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't mean to make Minnesota out to be like world beaters or anything, right?
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like they've played one real challenging opponent and they got blasted at home.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I think...
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: People are starting to see that Camario Taylor and Mississippi State might be
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: for real this year.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: They just went to one at South Carolina,
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: they're 3-0, and there's reason to be real high on Mississippi State.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it goes back a little bit to what we talked about,
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: whether it was last week or the week before,
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: that when you only follow one team or if you're a fan of one team,
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: you're not gonna be familiar with anybody else's flaws the way that you are
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: with your own team's flaws.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like,
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think Husky fans are thinking about the way Minnesota fans feel
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: about how their season has gone.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if you're a Minnesota fan,
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: they go out and they wax Akron 41-7 in Week 3 and get right a little bit.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like, are you coming out of that game thinking like,
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: okay, everything's fixed now because we smacked Akron?
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: Or are you thinking like, oh, well, okay,
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: that's what we should have done,
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: but I'm still pissed that we weren't competitive against Mississippi State at home.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: Were they still having the fan call plays for Akron?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think he only got to do that for a week.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: Also, Mississippi State's got a hell of a quarterback.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he can play.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_02: Dude looks like he can play.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's doubly true in the contemporary environment because there's so much turnover
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: from year to year.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: There are no good teams, no good coaches, no good quarterbacks.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: And conversely, everybody's got some talent that's out there.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: It is a much more wide open.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: Scenario,
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: when this season started,
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: there were,
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: you say,
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: three games,
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: four games,
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_02: where you thought,
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: I would say three games,
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_02: where I'd figure Washington's going to be a clear underdog in that situation.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_02: That was USC, Oregon, and Indiana.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: And...
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: Another three or so games where I figured, okay, that's going to be Iowa, Nebraska.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_02: Really, really tough game.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: I know a lot of Washington fans and myself,
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: or I'm going to expect Washington to win or think they should win
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: because I think this should be a good season.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_02: But those are the really going to determine whether it's a good or not good year.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: And now as the schedule starts, I was like, I feel like it is gone.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: There are more toss-up type games.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: Or, hey, we'll see how this goes.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: Just given the way the offense looked the first two weeks.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm taking nothing for granted, Christian.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing for granted.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's probably the right way to approach it.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: But the flip side of all that is...
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: Washington will never have the kind of season it wants to have
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: if it can't beat Minnesota at home at 8 p.m. Pacific time, by the way.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe our listeners are into this or maybe you poo-poo this.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a very real thing.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think that is a huge advantage for Washington.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I'm Minnesota, I'm pissed that this game is at 10 p.m. Central time.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: A lot was made when Rutgers played at USC at 11 p.m. Eastern.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: What was that two years ago?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was the same night as a Dodgers World Series game across town in Los Angeles.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: Dodgers Yankees World Series game.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's been a couple other instances of of.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: East Coast or Central or Eastern Time teams coming out to play really late games on
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: the West Coast, and it typically does not go well for them.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think that is a major body clock challenge,
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: perhaps even more so than West Coast teams playing at
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_02: 9 a.m.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: Is it easier or harder than flying 18 hours and then playing like 36 hours later?
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: You'd have to consult the Rams on that one.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: It should be.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: You're right.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like, look,
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: if you can't beat Minnesota at home at a on a night game,
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: what are we talking about here?
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like, these are the moments that you wait for, like where you learn about your team.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think there is more there's more anxiety than I expected.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: But let's get after it.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: Blackout game, it's the first game with students back on campus.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: School starts next week.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: And you know how that goes, right?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's usually a little bit more energy, a little bit more juice for that weekend.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: A little bit surprised they fired the blackout bullet this early in the season.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was kind of expecting the Friday night Iowa game to be that or maybe save it
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: for Indiana down the road.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: They killed the Say Who chant.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's dead?
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they still play the video.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_02: But they're not trying to get people to chant it?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Lawyer Malloy and Lincoln Kennedy on the video board still doing the chant,
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_01: but the in-stadium DJ did not try to get the crowd to perform it for
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: the Eastern Washington game.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good move.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think that chant's going to work with the in-stadium DJ.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think it can work through the stadium, but it really depends on how people...
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a big fan of giving it a shot.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: If it doesn't work, bail on it.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: But the in-stadium DJ trying to coax it, I don't think that was going to work.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: I could see it eventually working from the stadium queue, though.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_02: When Lawyer and Lincoln are doing it back and forth,
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: I think that sounds like it works pretty well.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_02: But you have to see it in person.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's too many people and too many words.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: To get it coherently.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think the football team in the tunnel is about the maximum number
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: of people you could have doing it to
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: where you can actually understand what they're saying or for it to,
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: like, mean anything.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: We did neglect to talk last week about Sark's postgame.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: That was Holly Roe.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because wasn't it?
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was the UW game against the Alamo Bowl when he went nuts on the security guard, right?
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, pregame.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: So he's got some pregame and postgame highlights.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: Apparently there was drama with his pregame interview, too, or his halftime.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was halftime.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I saw a clip of it.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_02: It sounds like he was sitting there waiting, and they weren't coming to him in time.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so he's sitting there, like, not really looking at Laura Rutledge.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: And he's sweating.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you can see the beads of sweat falling off his face.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then he's just like, gotta go.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then he bolts.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's why he was mad.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: Was because I waited.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_02: You guys didn't come to me.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I wasted the minute or however long it was that I was standing there.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: So he took it out on poor Holly Rowe afterward.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm not stopping now.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: That whole thing was very much a debacle.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: The interviews immediately before the game and in between the quarters, they gotta kill those.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it seems that they,
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: correct me if I'm wrong, like, those are, the quarter interviews are new, right?
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like on the Big Ten Network and stuff.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't remember Jed Fish talking like right before the game and in between the quarters before.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_02: They've done the halftime.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: The quarter thing...
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have any sympathy for coaches for this simple reason of all of
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_02: the reorganization of college football is taking place because
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_02: the money these TV companies are giving.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so the TV companies are basically passing things into the contracts that say
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: that the coaches have to do them.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: The coaches should just say no.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: And they don't because they want the cash.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: So my feeling is,
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_02: you take the cash,
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_02: you have to do the little trained monkey tricks that they ask you to do.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: But in terms of content, they add nothing.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: And as someone who's sitting at home watching it,
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: the way the between-quarter interviews, they're doing them between quarters.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_02: They're airing them as the game is going on.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I've seen them where...
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_02: You're talking to a coach as a negative play is happening against its team.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_02: And the audio, you're not hearing the crowd because you're hearing the coach interview.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's completely jacked up.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's stupid programming.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: But what do I know?
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think most of what is put on sports channels is stupid programming.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_02: But there must be someone else out there that likes it.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_01: We should note,
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: it kind of seemed pre-season that you could expect Landon Hatchett back this week.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_01: And Jed Fish was far less than certain that that was going to happen
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: when I asked him about it on Monday.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: So they were hopeful that they could give it a try in practice this week,
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: which to me says I'm not expecting to see him.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now again,
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: we'll get an injury report the first of the season tonight,
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wednesday, another Thursday, another Friday, another Saturday.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe based on what happens at Wednesday's practice and Thursday's practice,
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_01: we get a clearer picture of what Landon Hatchett's availability might be,
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: but it sure sounded like even as of Tuesday, he hadn't been cleared for contact yet.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it does not seem nearly as likely as it did a few weeks ago that he's going
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_01: to make his debut in this game.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because the line a couple weeks ago was, will we see him this week?
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure about that, but we could see him in September.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: And now it sounds different.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_02: And Jed's also...
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_02: If you were going to try to launch a surprise attack and get your starting center,
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: this is how you would do it, right?
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_02: Of like,
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_02: not say anything outright,
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_02: he's not going to play, but make it sound like he's not going to.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_02: But there's nothing in Jed's three years.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_02: He's not coy about injuries.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_02: He won't tell you how hurt a guy is, but he's not someone...
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean...
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: He's generally fairly straightforward.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_02: He doesn't try to hide a hurt guy who might be coming back,
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_02: nor does he try to pretend a guy he's not hurt who is.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: If anything,
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_01: it goes the other way where he skews a little optimistic about whether a guy might,
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: or they probably know Takario Davis isn't going to play against Ohio State,
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_01: but you don't know 100%,
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: so let's talk about it like it's at least possible and not let them know that Yeah,
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: we're probably not expecting him to play for even a couple more weeks.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's been some instances of that where they talk about a guy having
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: a chance who, in retrospect, maybe didn't really totally have a chance to get back.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah,
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_01: I can't think of anywhere they talked about a guy,
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_01: you know, it's kind of 50-50 or it's not really looking good.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then he ends up actually playing.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_02: My God, that's Stone Cold's music.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's Emmanuel Carnley's music.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's coming out of
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_02: the tunnel.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_02: I did have one.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_02: This is a question I wanted to ask you.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_02: In person, does it look like Jacob Manu is playing at a different speed than everyone else?
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because watching on television,
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_02: he looks like when you're controlling the fastest player on defense.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you're just hammering the turbo.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and all of a sudden,
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_02: he's just moving at a different speed of everybody else where it's like all
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_02: a sudden he's in the backfield and he is faster than everyone.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_02: He's faster than I remember, man.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_02: He plays at a different speed.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_01: Are you asking me to evaluate his play speed?
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm wondering if it looks like that in person.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_02: Or if I've brainwashed myself from playing too many football video games,
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_02: and that's what it looks like when it's on my TV.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think he does play at a little different speed.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think he has to, right?
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's what sets him apart.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's what would make you look at a 5'9 linebacker and say,
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_01: this guy can not only play at Arizona, Yeah.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's something you can't teach, right?
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like that guy who is willing to just play 100% maximum speed,
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_01: maximum effort,
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: little regard for his body,
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_01: maximum violence between the whistles, usually between the whistles, play to play.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of between the whistles.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_01: Another instance of some post-whistle activity from the Washington Huskies
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: against Eastern Washington.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan Walters, I'll tell you what, Ryan Walters has had it.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I am going to be very, like,
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_01: if this doesn't,
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_01: If this continues,
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_01: I will be interested if they actually start like sitting guys,
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_01: because it's one thing to say, I mean,
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: he even even acknowledged,
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_01: you know, almost like a fan would at his Tuesday press conference.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah,
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: I talked after the first week about how like this couldn't be an aberration
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_01: and couldn't keep up and like here we are in week three
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_01: and like it's still happening.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: So like obviously this didn't get addressed properly.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_01: he talked about how like he thinks the lack of discipline is leaking
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_01: into other things.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_01: That it's not just a matter of late hits and not following the rules,
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_01: but like undisciplined eyes or getting overaggressive on pursuit angles
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_01: and not holding the edge or giving things up that they shouldn't
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_01: because they're getting undisciplined in their assignments.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_02: How much of that is youth, though?
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely some.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to...
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think that what Ryan Walters is saying is exactly what a defensive coach should say.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so what?
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_02: This game, there were three, right?
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_02: There was the punch with Jacob Lane and the targeting by X-Ray Alexander on the same play.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then was it an unnecessary roughness on Hyde?
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_02: The targeting penalty, I don't, it was a dangerous play.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's almost as much for X-Ray Alexander as anybody else that you just,
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_02: you don't want to lower your head in that sort of collision.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_02: He wasn't,
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_02: this is similar to the,
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_02: when we were talking about with Rylan Dillard-Allen, he wasn't launching at the guy.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't go up for a kill shot.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, he was bracing for contact coming across of a guy coming at full speed.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's stupid that you get ejected for punching someone in football.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_02: So, okay, I should try and take this more seriously because I think that's a dumb rule.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_02: It is like...
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_02: Not only that, but like now you have everybody punching at the ball.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_02: So can you punch someone if you're punching at the ball?
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_02: I have all of these questions.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_01: It was also like he was lunging.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_01: He was on the ground.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_02: Look, I think Eastern did some cheap stuff.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like there was a play where clearly DeMond Williams got shoved into the ground
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_02: after he was down.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't come out of that game pissed off about the extracurricular.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_02: I know I'm supposed to be, because 45 yards, a new game, then it might matter.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I kind of felt like,
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad somebody punched someone,
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_02: given the way that I thought Eastern was putting a little extra seasoning on it.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: This is not what anybody around Washington's coaching staff wants to hear me saying, though.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_01: It is kind of funny,
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_01: though, that it's like, oh, yeah, I mean, freshman had a late hit in the Apple Cup.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a sophomore had a late hit and a targeting penalty.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, younger guys who are kind of trying to get to find the line.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, Jacob Lane punched somebody?
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's not smart.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's definitely, but I don't know, man.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it's football.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_02: I will say what Ryan Walters was saying about it leaking into other sides.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_02: I don't necessarily think there's a correlation between sort of late hits,
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_02: that type of, and assignments.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_02: They're playing some young dudes up front.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_02: And on the plus side,
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think that Ramzak Fruin specifically has shown better discipline in the reads,
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: like the option place in the run game after
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_02: that first play couldn't have been more like he got caught crashing in.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_02: But I think you want your defense with a little bit of an edge.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like of all the different things that I'm worried about,
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_02: it's the extracurriculars aren't at the top of the list.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_01: The questions on offense kind of overshadow,
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_01: but I mean,
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_01: this is by far the biggest challenge for Washington's defense too, right?
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is, no,
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_01: I thought Eastern Washington and Fish kind of said like they came with
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_01: a pretty good game plan.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, right?
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_01: They tried like a lot of misdirection,
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_01: let their very mobile,
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_01: elusive quarterback,
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_01: kind of extend plays with his legs and didn't end up having like
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_01: an awesome day throwing the ball,
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_01: but did,
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_01: I thought,
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: create some time on some plays and was able to find guys downfield
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: that were probably some pretty frustrating chain movers for Washington's defense.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_01: nobody thinks about Minnesota and thinks like top-level Big Ten offense,
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_01: but they got a quarterback.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think they got some talent at receiver.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_01: They got a couple of good running backs.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see again on Darius Taylor's availability.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_01: And Ryan Walters kind of pointed out like they're throwing the ball a lot more, right?
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_01: This is a little more pass-centric offense than maybe what you would associate
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_01: with Minnesota traditionally.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that Just Washington secondary has not been tested that way through three games.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_01: So they're not coming off of a performance that they probably feel great about.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_01: They only gave up one touchdown, but it was just not the cleanest game.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, even throw out the penalties, throw out the personal foul penalties.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_01: How many pass interferences did they have?
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe one of them.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like the guy's way out of bounds.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't know.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_01: Does that need to be called?
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's not a, that's not a catchable throw, but like a lot of grabbing, right?
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of, a lot of hands.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm sure that they want to clean that up.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see if Emmanuel currently gets back or if it's,
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_01: it's Jaron Jones in his place, a corner again, um, not a quarterback.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_01: Who's really a threat to take off and run.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but he's huge and he can make a lot of throws.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_01: Again, they will face stiffer challenges.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_01: They will face more explosive offenses, but this is the best they've seen so far.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: By several orders of magnitude,
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: the passing threat that this quarterback presents is different than they've faced
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_02: so far.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like, very clearly.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go!
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm more worried about the offense than I am about the defense.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_02: I feel good about the defense.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it funny that I'm just completely glossing over the...
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: Can't beat Eastern without punching
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_01: a guy.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: Seriously,
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: as it's going through in my head,
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: I do like the Rylan Dillard Allen,
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: when he hit the guy out of bounds and Fruin, both of them on out of bounds.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_02: The Fruin, I'm like, that guy was looking to go down.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_02: Ramzak Fruin should not have gotten close to the quarterback.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_02: He should not.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_02: But he also wasn't lowering his shoulder and really trying to light him up.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_02: And with Ryland Dillard Allen,
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was like,
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: he was turning to go out of bounds, but he just barely put his foot on the sideline.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, come on.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so willing to cut them both some slack on those plays.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, credit to Ryland Dillard Allen.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_01: Two games since then, no penalties against him.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_01: I love him as a player, man.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_02: I want a big hitting safety.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_02: If you're going to tell me that's the cost of doing business, what do they call it?
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_02: Is it shrinkage?
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like the number of things that you lose?
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_02: Breakage.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's the breakage.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm absolutely willing to take that.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's the carbon offset.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_01: What Elenius Davis was talking about,
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_01: Was it Deshaun Watts?
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_01: He's talking about one of the defensive linemen during training camp and was like,
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_01: it's better to tell a horse whoa than to tell him giddy up.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_02: Dean Demopolis,
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_02: who was an assistant for the Sonics,
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_02: he worked for years under coach John Chaney at Temple.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_02: And Chaney's saying, it was like, you have to tell a kid to run as a freshman.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_02: You're going to be telling him to run as a senior.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_01: 8 p.m., you gonna stay up for it?
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_01: 11 p.m., Manhattan time?
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_02: I will absolutely be up for it.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_02: The question of whether...
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_02: This is the blessing and the curse of living in an area where you don't see a lot of coverage.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_02: I am totally able to go to sleep and get up the next morning and watch the game,
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_02: the conclusion of the game at noon, without learning who won.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_02: I don't prefer to do it that way.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_02: But depending on that, and I've had it happen both games.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes the game has frustrated me to the point where I'm like,
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_02: I can't deal with any more of this.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to have to deal with it in the morning.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: So my intention is to stay up and watch the whole thing in its entirety.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm 51 years old now.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_02: Staying up till 2.30 or 3 to watch a football game is not the easiest ask.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_01: Understandable.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_01: One last point before we wrap up.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: Offense is not played in a vacuum.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_01: Washington's defense can do its offense many favors by forcing three and outs.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_01: Special teams can do its offense many favors by punting the ball well.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'll say continuing to punt the ball well because Hunter Green got off the schneid,
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_01: had a rough week too, but hit another 60-yarder against Eastern Washington.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_01: Play good defense, play good field position.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_01: That makes it easier for the offense to score points.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_01: Limit the amount of yards they have to cover.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_01: Limit the amount of explosives they have to create in order to score points.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden you have a better offense.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_01: Just because the rest of the team Danny has played what coaches in the last 10 years
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_01: or so are now calling complimentary football.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_02: We just say stuff to say stuff sometimes.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_02: Complimentary football.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_01: I put complimentary football.
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like one of my readers left this in a comment recently.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was like,
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_01: complimentary football is the revolutionary idea that you want your offense,
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_01: defense, and special teams to all play good.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_02: It is very much this very basic concept, which is, but.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_02: I can understand.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_02: In defense of the idea of complementary football, I do think that people, it becomes disjointed.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_02: They don't understand.
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_02: Football fans don't always understand how interconnected everything is, right?
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like the main predictor of a drive success is not the amount of time left on
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_02: the clock when you get the ball.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's where you get the ball at, right?
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like that field position really, really Having timeouts really matters.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_02: That special teams is often seen as this throwaway component when like,
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_02: no, actually having good special teams is, can be a hugely important part.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_02: And also something that unlike other, like you can coach your way to a special teams advantage.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like that is, that oftentimes is a reflection of your,
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_02: The coaching ability of your guys to get the people it needs to commit to the jobs
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_02: that they hold on those.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean,
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_01: having a bend but don't break defense that gives up a 62-yard drive and a field goal
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_01: that might feel like kind of a win because the other team's offense spent
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_01: that much time on the field and only got three points.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, but like now they get to kick off.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_01: You're probably starting at your own 25.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know one of my hot takes?
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think bend but don't break defenses are statistical anomalies.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think they're actually a thing.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's bad defense.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's a bad defense that got bailed out by circumstance.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're not a good defense,
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_01: but once you get into the red zone,
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_01: you just happen to get luckier than other teams and not give up touchdowns.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_02: The flip side of that is I do...
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_02: What I will concede is that in the span of a single season,
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think that teams that are good at red zone defense,
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_02: I think that can become a skill.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_02: But the challenge is, right?
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_02: You would see it translate from year to year with personnel or coaches, right?
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like one of those two, you would be able to trace it through a team.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_02: And there's no statistical evidence that that occurs either by the number
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_02: of players returning or it doesn't follow a coach from team to team.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_02: It does seem to be...
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_02: Fairly random,
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_02: but I watched football too long to completely give up on the idea
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_02: of good red zone defense, but it's an interesting...
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, some of the stupid stuff that bounces around the cobwebs inside my head.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_01: UW-Minnesota, Saturday night.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_02: Christian brings us into the...
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_02: He lands the plane.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_01: Big Ten opener.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk to you next week.