Latest / Say Who, Say Pod / Say Who, Say Pod, Ep. 214

Transcript

Say Who, Say Pod, Ep. 214 · Say Who, Say Pod

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Pod.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Pod.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Pod.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: To another episode of Say Who Say Pod.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Danny O'Neill.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Bi-week casual.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: No sports coat this week.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Christian Caple.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'd even gotten, I had a dress shirt on.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: I had to go to the doctor.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I was coming back from it, but I forgot.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: I could go grab a sports jacket if you want me to.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's okay.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: I like that you're in shells for bye week.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're just playing the thud today.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: We're just going to play the thud.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: How you doing?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Good to see you again.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing quite well.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Our schedule has been, it's had havoc wreaked upon it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: I was sick,
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: and then you're out of town,
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: and now here we are on a Thursday talking about the 4-3 Washington Huskies
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: as they approach the backstretch of the season here.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: So when we last spoke,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: it was kind of the feeling of,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: all right,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: if they're going to save something this season,
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: it's going to need to be now on Friday night against Iowa.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I was firmly of the opinion that if Washington scored 20 points,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: they were going to win the game.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: And what followed was the single most,
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: in my opinion, decisive game, certainly biggest disappointment.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: And one that did profoundly affect the way I felt about how things were going.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Did the Purdue result change that feeling at all?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: Seeing that maybe the biggest issue with Washington's offense was the quarterback
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: who was supposed to be and anticipated to be the biggest strength.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: And kind of figuring out how to actually unpack that part of it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: Because it makes everything else a ton more complicated or, in some ways, more optimistic.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Because if it's just a matter of quarterback...
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: If that is the biggest issue with this team's offense,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: they're not in that bad of shape going forward.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: If, on the other hand,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: sort of even a really good quarterback couldn't get this offense to functionality,
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: it's a much more dire situation.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing but functionality at Chuck Olson Kia in Shoreline.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Locally owned and operated since 1964.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: That was some tremendous work.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: Family owned and operated.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Buy a family of University of Washington graduates with
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: a friendly low-pressure sales staff and a competitively priced selection
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: of vehicles.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: We hope you'll make Chuck Olson, Kia, and Shoreline your next vehicle-buying destination.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: When you do, ask for our friend Henry Olson, and when you talk to Henry, tell him at Sehu.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next time.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought going into the Purdue game that if they win this game
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: and Elijah Brown plays well,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: it's kind of case closed on what quarterback should look like for the rest of
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: the season.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a point in that game where I thought, that's not the game Elijah Brown is having.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because he threw an interception on the first play of the game.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: He threw another interception on their third possession.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: He, of course, threw a third interception later in the game.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I do think that take all four quarters together, 21 of 27.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Six incompletions.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Half of them were thrown to Purdue defenders.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Only three of them hit the ground.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think that you can shake off the interceptions.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: You can dismiss the interceptions a little more easily as like, oh, he's a first time starter.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: The slant to Lawson, I'm not really sure what the issue was.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then the first one, he just underthrows it.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Against a better opponent, against a better defense, you're going to pay for those, for sure.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: As well as the other two turnovers they committed.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And they did pay for some of it in this game.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the commandee out of the offense...
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And just sort of the juice he brought, right?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: The offense just seemed to come alive.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And to be fair to DeMond Williams Jr., Purdue's defense is really bad.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Really, really bad.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: One of the worst in the Big Ten, one of the worst in the FBS still, but...
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Minnesota only scored 13 against them the week before in the same building.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Washington's coming off of,
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: you know, really,
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: like you said, I mean,
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: the most disappointing result of the Jed Fish era so far against Iowa,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: traveling across the country,
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: playing again on a Friday night with their backup quarterback.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that was not a recipe.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if ever Purdue is going to have some success defensively,
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: it seems like that was sort of the recipe.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I do think it...
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: When all was said and done,
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Elijah Brown did play in a way that tells you he needs to be
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: the starter going forward.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_03: I completely agree.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I would even go so far as to say it's how the offense has looked in
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: the six quarters that he's played.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: Sort of the six full quarters that he's played.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: And Iowa wasn't playing the same way in the second half.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: And the question of why that is...
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: That probably gets a little more complicated or there's room for competing theories.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: But the reality is clear,
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: is that this offense,
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_03: which has struggled from the very first game, like has never really hummed.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: Has been at its best these past six quarters.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm not against DeMond Williams playing, but Elijah Brown should be the starter.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: And if you want to work a series or two with DeMond Williams in each game,
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_03: unless there's an injury or there is a game where there's too many turnovers,
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: he pretty clearly, in my mind, should be the starter going forward.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Beggars can't be choosers at this point.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Washington was not even favored against Purdue.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: It is a Big Ten road win against a team that had just throttled a team that came
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: to Seattle and beat Washington.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: But there is a little bit of a glass half full,
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: glass half empty way to look at the fact that they committed five turnovers and won
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: by 12 points.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Is it encouraging that they were able to overcome five turnovers
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: and really overcome them fairly comfortably?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: This wasn't,
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: the game wasn't over,
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: over until late, but you really never felt like Purdue was going to win this game.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: You look at, you know, down in, down out success rates.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think,
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: close personal friend of the program,
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Parker Fleming's,
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: did we really get beat that bad chart had,
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think Washington was like,
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Fifth or sixth closest to the right end of that graphic,
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: which is really in the tier where you're looking at blowouts typically,
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: like their success rate margin was large and the turnovers sort of kept it closer
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: than it probably should have been.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Do you look at it more half empty though of like, geez,
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: even against this Purdue defense that yes,
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: they had success moving the ball both through the run and the pass really kind
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: of however they wanted.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: They still managed to get in their way enough to keep this thing a lot closer
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: than it should have been.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: Not half full,
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: it's three quarters full in my view,
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: because yes,
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: the turnovers happened and I'm not going to minimize them,
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_03: but to have that volume of turnovers and still win by double digits tells you
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: that it tells you how many big plays offset it.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: And look,
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a huge believer that turnovers are critically important,
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: usually because if you commit them,
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: you can't commit enough big plays to offset them.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: There are certainly instances,
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_03: the Seahawks offense last year was one of them,
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: where if your offense produces enough big plays,
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: you can overcome having a really, really bad turnover amount.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: The problem with turnovers is completely related to the number of big plays you have
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: to offset them.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: You can overcome it.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: And they did.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: And look,
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: there was no reason to think that they were going to win that game,
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: period, let alone win that game.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: While committing five turnovers.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's pretty,
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: that tells you that they played much better than anybody had any right
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_03: to expect given what we'd seen certainly the week before.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much focus on their offense just generally for obvious reasons.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, it probably gets overlooked because Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Here you go.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: You just got them off the field,
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: and now you have a 10-yard field to defend,
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: and they score a touchdown on the next play.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Trey Cooley's fumble in the fourth quarter,
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: those are the kind of plays that let teams back in games,
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: that let a team that's down two scores in the fourth quarter back in a game late.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And Washington's defense responds.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: They get two picks in the fourth quarter,
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: one by Jaron Jones, one by Ryland Dillard Allen to finally put it away.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: They were good on fourth down,
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: thought that the physical matchup looked like what it should have looked like
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: if all you knew of Washington-Purdue was the 2025 result.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's like, before this game, I was kind of thinking, you know, this is...
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: There was plenty of reason to think Purdue might win that game,
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: but if they had,
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: it would have been the ultimate like, well, there's no excuse for this.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: There's no excuse for one year later,
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: separated by one offseason,
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: a team that didn't belong in the same field as you in Seattle.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so if they were to go there a year later,
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Against a team that, for all the talk of NIL, like, Purdue's not outspending you.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: What would the explanation have been for how in the world the gap
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: between those two programs could have closed that much in a single offseason?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so, it's...
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's so simplistic to look at their offense and say,
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: oh, look, they were playing the wrong quarterback, and that's all there is to it.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: You put Elijah Brown in it, and look how much easier things look.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: But the data right now kind of is pointing to that.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: And they've got Landon Hatchet back, and they've moved some things around in the O-line.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they feel like they got better cohesion there,
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: but it just seems they had so much more life with Elijah Brown running the offense.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: As you were talking about what a loss would have meant,
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: especially with the immediate comparison to the matchup between Purdue
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_03: and Washington last year.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: To me, this was, and this season had kind of become a question of, okay, how bad is it?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: How bad is it really?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's clear they're very far off from where I hoped they were going to be this season.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's clear that the expectations, including a preseason ranking, they're not ready to live out.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: But how bad is it?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: And then I think you would have wondered, OK,
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: like how much has this team spirit been broken or all of the different ways
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: that you say, I don't believe teams quit.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: But I do believe that doubt seeps into teams.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: And when you lose confidence and when everything feels bad, you can't.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: You can see a collective,
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: like the rising tide floats all boats,
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_03: and it can also kind of be the water leaving the harbor and everybody's left sort
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: of languishing.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: And this game showed that that wasn't the case.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: This game,
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: I do think that there's clearly some very young talent on this team and
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: that they do have fight left and getting a more,
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: having a change at quarterback has sparked them.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like that is clear.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: Then,
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: That sort of introduces the next question that really in some ways doesn't have all
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: that much to do with what will happen for the rest of the season.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: But in my mind is one of the biggest questions facing the program,
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: which is, okay, why did things go so sideways with DeMond?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: What actually does that say?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: I've got a theory that...
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: Their offense really didn't look good,
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: and it was kind of scuffling along,
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: and then he suffered a broken finger,
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: kind of right about the same point of the season.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was either Game 5 or Game 6 for the Seahawks.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: He suffered the mallet finger against the Rams.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: Geno Smith came in, and all of a sudden, the offense started firing.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: And...
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: The Seahawks played better with Geno.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_03: And it was kind of the first flashing danger sign about Russell's career.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: And it did make me wonder, because in retrospect, looking back, I think it's pretty clear.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: In Russell's case, he was a quarterback that was best built.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: His ideal situation was a really good defense.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: To have a really strong running game in a situation where he had to make
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: a few big plays each game.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: He had to be efficient and explosive in those plays he did make.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: But when he went to an offense where he was counted on to provide all
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: the horsepower,
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_03: and this became very clear once he went to Denver,
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: when they tried to make him the Drew Brees or Peyton Manning type focal point of
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: the offense, he was ill-suited for that role.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I think some of that had to do with the decision-making speed,
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: that Russ was someone who did not sort of make hair-trigger decisions in the pocket
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: and in the passing game.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I wonder if there's something similar with DeMond.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: Not so much in Russell's case.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: He wanted to be the focal point.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_03: He wanted to be it.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: In DeMond's case,
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: he became it because he was the guy,
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: because Jonah Coleman and Denzel Boston were in the NFL, right?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: There is some sort of change with Jimmy Doherty no longer being part of
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_03: the coaching staff,
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: but this has always been Jed Fish's offense,
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: so I don't think it's like the plays changed all that dramatically,
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: but maybe what he was being asked to do had changed or did grow,
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: and he kind of wasn't ready to be able to handle all of that.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he might just not be the ideal fit for Jed Fish's system and what he wants to run.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, he threw for 3,000 yards and ran for 600-some last year.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: And has not been the same player.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so he is playing at a significantly lower level this year than he did last year.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: There has been some obvious regression,
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: so I don't want to jump to the conclusion that he just can't be a certain type
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: of player.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Something happened.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Something's going on.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe part of it is not having that.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: They can move him around, right?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he started the year as,
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: they had Christian Moss in that spot,
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Lawson was going to be the backup at all three spots,
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: basically the first guy off the bench anywhere,
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: kind of be a utility player,
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: and X is kind of where it's determined that he should be playing based
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: on Moss being out.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he's been great, right?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so much of, like,
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think Elijah Brown's only pass attempt 20-plus yards downfield was
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: the interception on the first play.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of short and intermediate, but it's on time.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's on target.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: The ball's out.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's not a lot of thinking about it.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's where's my read?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Boom, ball out.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And Chris Lawson and Desmond Roebuck combined for exactly 200 yards receiving in that game.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to say, I'll look it up just because I have it.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think I have it in a story here.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think 140 plus of that was after the catch.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, get the ball out.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Get it in Desmond Roebuck's hands.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Get it in Chris Lawson's hands.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Get it in Brian Bonner's hands on a quick little swing pass on second forever.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: And let those guys go make plays.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I just wonder, like,
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: Did DeMond Williams,
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: does he just not feel that same level of trust in those guys as he felt with
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: a guy like Denzel last year?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, certainly he has a great rapport with Desmond Roebuck.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Targeted him like crazy, right?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: I had no problem trying to fit the ball into him, but...
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Is it a processing speed thing?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Is he pressing?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think you can kind of tell when a quarterback's just not playing with confidence back there.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think...
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: You've seen the January drama maybe affect things in two different ways.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: One of them is very obvious, and it's with the fan base.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: I've never, ever,
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: ever seen a fan base turn on a starting quarterback to the degree
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: that Husky fans have on DeMond Williams Jr.,
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: but And,
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: we've spent a good portion of the show talking
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: about how we think Elijah Brown should be the starter going forward.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not saying that it's unfounded,
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: but kind of like we talked about when everything happened,
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: it was like, hey,
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: the locker room's one thing,
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: but Fans are going to have a very short leash when it comes to their affinity
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: for him.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to be purely based on his performance.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: And if he'd come out and been awesome, I think people would have kind of moved on.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: But this is sort of the consequence, right?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: When you don't play well and the offense is not moving the ball and it doesn't look good.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: People are very ready to move on to the next guy.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you've seen it that way.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's obvious and indisputable.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: The second way that's a little more theoretical is I wonder if the pressure
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: from sort of knowing that that's the lens through which people were going
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: to view him this year messed with his confidence a little bit.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: I don't buy that he doesn't care, that he checked out, that he wasn't trying.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't buy that at all.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't buy that at all.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think what's more likely,
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: and I don't know that this is the case either,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: you don't know what's going on inside someone's head,
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: but I think what's more likely is that he...
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Really wanted to be great and was pressing.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if the early interception against Minnesota sort of had
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: a Sam Darnold effect on him a little bit and seeing ghosts.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: And, oh, that was really costly.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to do that again.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then it happens again with a fumble at USC.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I think all those things just sort of add up to That's the part.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: For me, the inability to deliver the ball on time in that short-timing passing game is 100%.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_03: Where is the problem centered?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's right there.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: And certainly confidence has something to do with it.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: How he felt about himself or feels about himself and what he's seeing certainly has
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: a part of it.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's...
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: The question of whether or not...
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_03: I've started to wonder, like, is there a height thing involved?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: But that doesn't make a ton of sense because he was so much better last year.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like, that wasn't...
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: But maybe in a situation where they've talked to him about staying in
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: the pocket more,
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: they've talked to him about, like,
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: running less,
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: that it's kind of stacked up on him and he's trying to do something
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: and he's just not confident in what he's seeing and it's all snowballing.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like, all those...
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: And who knows what the answer is.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, players have ups and downs.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: I've seen players who are incredibly streaky within a game even.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: Russell was.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Donovan McNabb was another player that where for one quarter, they absolutely inaccurate.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: And then all of a sudden it changes and they can't miss like that.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's one of the weird things about athletic performance.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: It's just so strange to have gotten to the point of all of the different things
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: that I expected to potentially happen, even when they were struggling.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: I did not believe that, okay, changing quarterbacks is going to be the thing that helps.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_03: Until Elijah Brown came in and it happened.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: When Elijah Brown came into the game, I did not expect it to get better.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_03: And it did.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's sort of the whole separate conversation.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: Study of how exactly and why that has happened.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: I feel bad for Daman.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like I do.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: I legitimately... Because I don't believe he's someone that doesn't care.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I also...
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: I've heard people say that, oh, you can see his teammates didn't believe in him.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think that's true either.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think his teammates busted their ass for him.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: I do.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think that what has happened on the field...
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: In terms of, it relates to his decision as the almost transfer thing.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: Except for the possibility that it's changed how he feels or the confidence he feels in himself.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think it is a reflection of how his teammates feel about him.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_03: And it stinks to watch someone struggle like that.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: It really does.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel bad for him.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's, I mean, those things are so, like, nebulous and impossible to define, right?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was interesting to hear Jed Fish sort of give a pretty firm defense of
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: the offensive line the other day and about how, hey, look,
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: they've taken a ton of criticism,
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: but this sack number is not all on them,
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: which I think anybody who's watched the games can pretty clearly tell.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: And for the first time said,
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: you know, look,
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: sometimes the quarterback's holding onto the ball for four seconds and,
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: you know, or,
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: or this or that,
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: but it was kind of the, the,
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: maybe not the very first time,
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: but I think the first time of his own volition that he had sort of brought that up
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: as a defense of the O-line and in the running game, Hey, it's,
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: you know, they,
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: they didn't think they were going to be blocking for guys who were not Part of
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: the game plan, really,
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: who are now taking the bulk of the carries, who are getting better, by the way.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Trey Cooley flu game.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: How about that?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: Career high, 113 yard, didn't practice all week.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: That was another thing.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: This was a flu game for Washington.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: They had,
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think Jed Fish said,
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: 15 guys who couldn't practice on Tuesday,
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: 18 guys who couldn't practice on Wednesday before the game.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: A few of them couldn't make the trip.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Kai McClendon couldn't make the trip.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Ansu Sano couldn't make the trip.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if Jordan Clay did or not,
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: but he was sick all week and in practice, he didn't end up playing.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: And he, like, Jed Fish said they...
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: They sort of put the Desmond Roebuck tailback package in because they didn't know
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: if they're going to have Trey Cooley.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, well, it's going to be Brian Bonner and Onsu's out.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: And was Trey Cooley going to be available?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: And like, well, you can't just play one guy.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you got to figure something out.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought that was a nice little injection of life into the offense.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: Moving Desmond Roebuck around, gave it to him on a couple of handoffs.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: Got him open out of the backfield,
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: maybe created some mismatches and gave the defense a little bit more to think about.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: You have to do that.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a certain amount of...
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: Camaraderie or sort of spirit, when you get in those backs against the wall, everybody's sick.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: We've been getting our teeth kicked in in the Big Ten.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_03: Now we're not sure if we're even going to win a Big Ten game.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: That can create a little bit of group backed into a corner,
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: and you can develop momentum out of that.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, coaches are always looking for some sort of way to get guys to rally around.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_03: You're constantly throwing things out in the hopes that it becomes something.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: It was encouraging.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: I told you before, I knew the score of the game before I saw it.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_03: I had to wait for it to get over and then watch it on YouTube TV because I was in Paris.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I knew the score.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_03: I would not have guessed how they got there.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: You win against five turnovers?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, when I saw the pick on the first play,
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: if I didn't know the final score,
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: I probably would have lost my mind at that point, right?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_03: And certainly when you had the interception follow a couple possessions later,
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: I would have absolutely gone crazy,
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_03: though it would have been somewhat mellowed by the fact that,
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_03: okay, they're moving the ball, okay?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: This is just going to be a game where they're going to...
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: have to overcome shooting themselves in the foot.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Desmond Roebuck's an incredibly exciting player.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I do like seeing him used in different situations because he is that kind
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: of player that can do a number of different things.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: You're starting to see a little more definitive outline of what Jed Fish has talked
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: about all year with the emphasis on how young they are and Oh, it's,
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: a lot of people didn't like,
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: didn't like hearing after the Iowa game, oh,
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: how do you close the gap with Iowa,
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: two or three more off seasons,
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: you know, two years removed from getting blasted in Iowa City.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: But, like,
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: to that point,
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: you are starting to see, okay,
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Desmond Roebuck and Chris Lawson are second-year players who are sort of the engine
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: of this offense right now.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Brian Bonner is getting a ton of valuable experience as a true freshman.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was a big-time recruit, big-time prospect.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of schools wanted him.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know what his track times are and everything.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: But he's becoming a better running back.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: You can see he looks more confident.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: He looks more sure of himself.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Baron Naone throughout the first half of the season has made plays.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: He's a second-year guy.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Naone, I would say, is the biggest surprise.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like, the guy that has come out of nowhere on the offense to become,
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_03: like, Baron Naone looks like a player.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, and then,
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: some of the young offensive linemen,
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: like Jed Fish said he thought Cody Green had his best game.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, they've had to bring him off the bench and tweak the starting lineup.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: It turned out that He wasn't ready to be a starting left tackle in the Big Ten,
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: and John Mills has taken over those duties.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: They've gotten Landon Hatchett back,
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: a couple young offensive linemen who are starting to play a little bit.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so you can see the outline of if they can retain and they can up their budget
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: to pay all these young guys whatever they're going to need to pay to bring them back
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: for a third, fourth, fifth year, whatever it might be.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: The development is slowly but surely starting to show up a little bit against Purdue.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: The test is going to be, okay, they got absolutely smacked by Iowa.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: The next time they play a team that has them outgunned physically,
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: that is older and bigger and more veteran and all these sort of things,
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: can they find a way to be more competitive than they were in that game?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think Iowa might make the playoff this year.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: You look at their remaining schedule, and they've only got one loss, and it's to Ohio State.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: They could be a 10-2 team out of the Big Ten that goes to the playoff, but
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: If they spend more than Washington on their roster, it's not much more.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: And
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: you'd like to think that in two years' time, the physical mismatch would not be as stark.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I still think...
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Super important for Jed Fish that they won at Purdue based on the vibes
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: that were already not good.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: But if you thought like, well, maybe they started to figure something out at USC.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: They at least had a chance to win that game on the road.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: And they should be in a better position two years removed from what happened
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: in Iowa City to compete physically with Iowa.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it was worse.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they went backwards in that regard.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, it kind of all does just come back to the quarterback, though.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, things changed in that game, even, once Elijah Brown went in.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_03: For the long-term trajectory of the program,
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: the way that they've played in the six quarters
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_03: since DeMond Williams was hurt is encouraging.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_03: There are still some questions, and I agree with you.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: You can see the shape of what they're putting together.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_03: There are a lot of freshmen and sophomores on this team,
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: first and second year players,
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_03: that are talented,
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_03: are playing, and that if you can keep them together, that is the backbone of...
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_03: Could be the backbone of a contending team, of a team that you do feel is there.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_03: There are two questions that I now have, though.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_03: One is, how much does the quarterback this year fall on Jed?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's kind of the one question.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's his guy.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: That's the person that he identified as a recruit,
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_03: played when he was a true freshman,
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_03: with the idea of getting him ready to start as a second-year player.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: And a huge amount of this season hung on him.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: And for whatever reason, he wasn't ready for it.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: So how does that affect...
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_03: How we feel about Jed's decision about and development of quarterbacks.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's the first one.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: And then the second question that I do have is on the offensive line.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: And it is Cody Green and how much...
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: The fact that, because I don't want to be, I'm not critical of how Cody Green has played.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm critical of the expectation of how he would be able to play as a true freshman.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's the uncertainty that I have.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_03: And then when you look at how Paki Finau is playing,
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_03: and you had a, On Montlake this week, and I thought it was a really good piece.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_03: The first two guys that transferred and went somewhere else,
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_03: Zach Henning and And Packy Finau,
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: specifically,
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_03: he's playing, he's starting tackle on a BYU team that's just beat Notre Dame.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_03: The development of the offensive line and the question
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: of why it isn't further along,
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_03: that to me, I still have some deeper questions about that.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the Henning and Finau thing is tough because...
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think it really is just a matter of should they have seen them as starters
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: and prioritize them as such?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know that the answer is yes.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think...
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Landon Hatchett's wrist injury is a whole saga unto itself.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously,
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: back in portal season,
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: there was no expectation that he'd be in any danger of missing games.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: Landon Hatchett was back.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: Landon Hatchett was going to be their starting center.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: If you're Zach Henning, you're in the same recruiting class as him.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: You have the same eligibility timeline as him.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you stay at Washington...
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you could compete at guard at a certain point,
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: but you're basically slotted in to be the backup center for the rest of your career.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: Arizona said he was their number one priority in the transfer portal,
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: at least from an O-line perspective.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: They went out and said, starting center, Zach Henning, that is our starter.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's our guy.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure Washington would love to have the budget to pay their backups more
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: than Big 12 teams can pay their starters.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe some programs can.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not even saying Zach Henning made a financial decision.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: He's an every-down starter for a top-25 Big 12 team as a fourth-year player.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: He would have been the backup center on this team.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now you know that would have meant starting the first five games of the season based on...
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Landon Hatchett's recovery timeline, but they could have known that at the time.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: Pocky Finau is a little more interesting one.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: Part-time starter last year, an important reserve for them.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Playing left tackle at BYU was mostly a guard at Washington.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: They took some reps at right tackle, but mostly played on the interior.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: They brought back Aaron Hatchett.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: They obviously had a ton of belief in Champ Talalea Lea.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's the question I have right there.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think at left tackle,
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: my assumption is what they paid Cody Green,
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: they felt like needed to be paid to a starter.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: Steve Sarkeesian has talked about this.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Even a school like Texas that has a huge budget where he's like,
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: it's really challenging in recruiting because
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: a five-star O-lineman wants seven figures,
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: but you're basically committing then seven figures to a guy who is not going to play
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: for at least a year.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: And is that something you want to do?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: And Washington doesn't have it like Texas has it.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: I also just think, obviously, they think he's a really good player.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think if they'd seen something in training camp to tell them that
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: the O-line will be much better if you play someone else at left tackle right now,
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: or at least start someone else at left tackle and start out rotating Cody Green,
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: they would have done it.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying it's purely a money thing,
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: but him and Derek Coleman-Brusso were kind of first-round investments, right?
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_03: Which I don't have a problem with,
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: although I will say this,
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think Jed should ever be talking like he was about saying we couldn't afford
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_03: to go into the transfer portal,
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_03: so that's why you've seen us identifying and recruiting guys out of high school.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: Even if that's 100% true, it's terrible messaging.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_03: I don't disagree with that idea of the way we can access a different caliber
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_03: of talent is by getting them earlier.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_03: So in the case of Cody Green and Derek Coleman-Brusa,
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_03: of saying this is the way that we get a player of this caliber
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: into our program is we pay them right out of the gate.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_03: And we...
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe that means we make a sacrifice in the short term in terms of the quality
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: of player that we can put on the field because it's going to take them a little bit
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: to get up to speed.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_03: Now, Derek Coleman-Bruce, I think, has been great as a true freshman.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_03: And the challenges that Cody Green has had,
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_03: again, I don't take as any reflection on him as a player or as a prospect.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_03: It does feel like Washington has and
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_03: Jed have kind of tried to have it both ways,
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_03: which is we're ready to contend and play now and year three is the leap.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then, but we're really young.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_03: And they kind of got caught because it didn't work out that way.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_03: What they were hoping to have happen,
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: they were hoping that their true freshman was ready to play to be a starter in
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: the Big Ten.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: And that wasn't the case.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_03: And because they hoped for that so much, they're kind of left short-sheeted.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_03: Now we're going to move a left guard out to left tackle where he hasn't been playing.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_03: And John Mills is a really good player.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_03: But they would be in a much better position and situation
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_03: if John Mills had been playing left tackle this whole time than they are now,
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_03: where now he's having to adjust to a new position and you're having to backfill
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_03: at left guard.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_03: And just the entire logistics,
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_03: that's the other question I have about the long-term building,
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_03: because I agree with you can see the shape of this and how it looks long-term,
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_03: and it is encouraging how they played since the change at quarterback.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_03: But there are some other questions about,
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_03: and I get it with the sort of the question of Washington's not in a position
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_03: where it's going to pay everybody.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_03: But where they're at at the offensive line, this is year three.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_03: And the growth that's happened there,
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_03: it just feels like it's been turnover year after year after year.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_03: And that's everywhere else I can see progress and understand the shape of it.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: Offensive line is where I'm struggling.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: The roster construction for 2027 is going to be really interesting as it pertains to
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: the way things flow from what you do at quarterback.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: The best case scenario for them,
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think most UW fans would agree at least,
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: is that Elijah Brown takes over and plays really well for the next five weeks,
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: leads them to two or three wins.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously,
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: best case scenario would be five for getting literal,
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: but it leads them to at least a bowl game, maybe a seven-win season.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Oregon's a bit of a, I won't say mess, but they're having some issues right now.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that game's a little more winnable.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: If that happens, like...
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_03: I can't even properly enjoy Oregon.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_03: I can't even properly enjoy this.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_03: Can't make any jokes.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_03: Can't make any references.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: I feel for you.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: If that happens, like, what's it going to cost to bring Elijah Brown back?
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: There will be a market for him if he takes over a Big Ten team that was dead in
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: the water offensively halfway through the season and suddenly sparks them and turns
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: that into a viable offense.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_01: And again, we're a ways from that.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're a ways from that.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he completed 21 to 27 for three touchdowns and three picks against Purdue.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we'll see what, but, or like early returns are very encouraging.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: I just wonder, like, they invested something.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I just wonder if like that's the same structure they'll use going forward or
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: if they,
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: you know, is Elijah Brown auditioning for the starting job in 2027 at Washington?
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't necessarily think when they brought him in to be the backup this year
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: that he was,
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: that was like a succession plan that he was going to be their guy for the future.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: But if he continues to improve and, and,
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: Move the offense efficiently,
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: get the ball out quickly, avoid sacks, cut down on the turnovers, eliminate.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: If he has another three interception game or two,
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: then I think people will pump the brakes a little bit.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: But is he someone they see as a potential starter?
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: Going into 2027, is he someone they think that they could build the 2027 offense around?
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that you're going to kind of have that question answered
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: over these next five weeks, assuming he plays, right?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: We still don't know.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: Once DeMond Williams gets healthy, Jed Fish hasn't committed either way.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_01: He said they're splitting reps this week in practice.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've been going back and doing some reading from 2023 on...
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: Jaden Delora and Noah Fafita at Arizona.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a time after Noah Fafita had started a couple games and looked pretty good.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: And, and And had excelled,
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think,
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: in some areas where Jaden Delora threw for like 4,000 yards the year before.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he put up huge numbers and like had obviously like had success at Arizona,
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: but you a bit of a wild card back there with the ball in his hand.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: He'd get a little bit loose with it.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: He'd make some decisions that you'd want back.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_01: And Noah Fafita was,
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: young player,
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: just kind of obviously like Made his first start against Washington and they had
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: a pretty conservative game plan and he executed the game plan for the most part.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: And just sort of played calm and on time and on schedule and distributed.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a time when Jed Fish said,
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: look, if Jaden Dolores fully healthy, he's going to start.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: He'll be the starter.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: And he had an ankle injury.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: And Noah Favita just kept playing better and better and better.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_01: And they kept winning and winning and winning.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: And Jaden Delora never did come back.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he may, like, come into some games, right?
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_01: But he was done as their starter and went in the portal after that.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know,
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: even in that situation, like,
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: there wasn't really a clear public commitment that, like, hey,
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: we don't usually like guys to lose their starting jobs to injuries,
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: but Noah's played too good.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: He's our guy.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what we're doing.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was still kind of slow played.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, well, like, you know, Jaden's still hurt.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: Once he's healthy, he is still our starter kind of thing.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm interested to see how Jed Fish sort of continues to handle that.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: If this is an injury for DeMond Williams that lingers, right?
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he was at least a game time decision against Purdue.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: He was not ultimately available.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: He's got a bye week to get even healthier.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_01: If it's a bruised rib versus a broken rib, does that change the timeline?
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: But there are some parallels there worth exploring, I think.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'm certainly of the position where I'm not going to take what Jed says
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_03: about quarterback literally at all.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: Probably also wise,
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_03: yeah.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: And it's not a criticism of him because I don't...
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_03: I think when coaches try, in this case, the coach should be worried about two things.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_03: One is how much information he is giving to the opponent.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: And then the other one is how his team understands the What what is going on?
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't even say that the quarterbacks themselves are the most important people in that.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's it's the team.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_03: How does the team understand what is happening?
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: How they speak about quarterback competitions or questions publicly,
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_03: I think, is one of the it gets a massive amount of attention.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_03: And I I.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_03: I just don't think it means that much.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_03: I don't care if he tries to mislead me.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_03: I don't care if he's never forthright.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_03: I'll watch what they do in games.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, we're in a position where I'm not going to try to read the tea leaves on it.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think he'd be insane if he started demanding in Nebraska,
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_03: given how the offense has looked under Elijah.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I would be shocked if that happened.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good point about How it's received with the team, like,
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: because if they do go back to Damond Williams,
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, then you'd really find out, like,
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: Were part of their struggles due to some chemistry issue?
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_01: Or is the performance of the offense due in part to guys not loving the quarterback situation?
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you go from the backup who played really well,
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: who seemed to really energize the offense,
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: who guys seemed to really rally around,
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: and then you take that guy out and put the other guy back in,
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: The energy and the spirit of things would be very interesting to monitor
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: because you can't fool the team, right?
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: They know what works and what doesn't and who should be playing and who shouldn't.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_03: I was going to bring that up when we were talking about when you pay
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_03: a significant amount of NIL for an incoming freshman that maybe isn't ready
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_03: to play right away or can't start right away,
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: but you feel obligated because how much is... That's a...
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_03: Players hate when someone is kept in a position because of how they're perceived
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: when there are objective,
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: tangible results that would point to someone else being more productive in
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_03: that spot.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_03: I would say the one thing that players,
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_03: more than anything else,
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_03: is when we've seen the difference between And then a decision is made
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_03: that reflects something other than who played best when placed in that spot.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's really hard.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_03: That's when you can get a broken locker room,
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_03: or the easiest way to break a locker room, in my opinion.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_03: I saw it happen with the Seahawks when,
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_03: like, I always bring them up, but I know that team the best.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_03: They had a receiver they drafted in the third round, Amara Darbo.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_03: And there were guys on that team that felt like he wasn't one of the best receivers in camp.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_03: He should have been cut.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_03: He wasn't cut.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_03: It was an issue for some of the veterans.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_03: And it doesn't matter if it's,
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_03: like, right or wrong or the, hey, we're taking a long-term look at it.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_03: When you have those decisions start to pile up,
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_03: it gets really hard to keep everybody rowing in the same direction.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: Do we have Ian this week?
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: We do!
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: Our conversation with IP McFarlane.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bye week.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if you're recording.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly didn't think about it until far too late, so we'll see if this gets in.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: Good win.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: Any win right now is obviously a good win.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of issues within it, but Hey, we're going to take the W right now.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: Bi-week is usually a good time to reassess and self-assess.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just ask the question, are they going to make a bowl?
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a game where you're clearly the better team against Michigan State,
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: but that's still a conference road game.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you've got a home game against Penn State
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: where
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: you're probably favored depending on intermediate results,
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: but probably a toss up.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: Nebraska, I don't like the look of that defense for this UTEP offense.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: Indiana,
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: with a loss,
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: oddly walked away from that game on Saturday as the more likely team to win
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: the national championship because Sand went down.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then Oregon, who is deeply imperfect, but still has five-star talent at 10 positions.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: So do they make a bowl?
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think FPI still has them missing it slightly, but it's fractional.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think it may come down to the quarterback.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good week.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the weekend off.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: Go Dawgs.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: So in my midseason report, I updated my season projection to 5-7.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: It feels like 6-6 is more doable after watching the offense against Purdue.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Nebraska will tell you Plenty.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_01: One, who are they playing at quarterback?
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: And two, I agree with Ian.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's going to be,
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: as Chris Peterson might say,
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: tough sledding against Nebraska's defense, regardless of who plays quarterback.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: And now, look,
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: there are going to be,
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_01: against teams that can really bring heat and bring pressure,
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: there might be some plays where, okay, yeah, like,
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_01: DeMond Williams might have escaped and turned that into a positive there,
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: whereas with Elijah Brown, it's a sack.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_01: But, As we know, mobility does not necessarily equal sack avoidance.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: Look, it comes down to a two-week stretch at home against Penn State and then at Michigan State.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_01: Those are your two best opportunities to get two more and get to six wins,
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_01: and if you can beat Nebraska, that puts you...
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_01: That puts you one ahead of pace,
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: let's say, and gives you an opportunity for a seven-win season.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: Really hard to see them beating Indiana in Seattle,
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_01: and yeah,
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_01: regardless of the situation Oregon is in,
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: really hard to see them going to Eugene and winning that game.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: So November 7th and November 14th will...
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_01: Michigan State seems to be getting better,
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: like they're a little more competitive,
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_01: they almost beat Illinois in overtime,
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_01: came down to the wire against a Northwestern team that has played pretty well,
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: so maybe not quite a pushover there either, but...
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: Certainly with the way Penn State has played,
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_01: them coming out to Seattle, you now have to think that you can win that game.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think 6-6 sort of feels like the recalibration at this point.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_03: 6-6, I think they get there.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_03: I could see them getting a 7th win.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_03: I could see them getting frisky and tipping an
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_03: One or two that we don't expect.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_03: One or two?
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah!
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I mean,
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: of the games remaining,
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_03: Indiana's by far would be the biggest surprise of their games left on the docket
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_03: to win.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_03: But, I mean, Oregon struggles.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's that time of year for Nebraska, too.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_03: Look, I've watched a number of Nebraska games this season,
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_03: and I echo that their defense has looked very good,
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_03: and I think that that's going to be very tough.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_03: You also don't know how it's going to affect them and how they're going
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_03: to feel coming off that game against Oregon and the way it ended.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll see.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_03: Washington maybe getting some excitement and getting some momentum,
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_03: but I do believe that they'll make a bowl.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_03: I think they'll get to six wins.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: I got to run to a parent-teacher conference.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_03: Christian, I hope that you represent your young lass well with the Parent Teacher Conference.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'll do my best.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: Good to talk to everybody again.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_01: Good to see you again.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_03: Back on the track.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you next week.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, indeed.