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Say Who, Say Pod, Ep. 212 · Say Who, Say Pod

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Pod.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Pod.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Say Who Say Pod.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: He's Danny O'Neill in a sports coat.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm Christian Caple.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: The Washington Huskies are 3-1.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Still just 3-1.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: It was only one loss.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Though it might not have felt that insignificant.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: One loss?
0:25
SPEAKER_00: After a 27-24 defeat to Minnesota.
0:28
SPEAKER_03: It's one loss,
0:29
SPEAKER_03: but it was one loss that confirmed every worst-case fear and wart that had been seen
0:36
SPEAKER_03: in the first three games.
0:38
SPEAKER_03: It was one loss,
0:39
SPEAKER_03: but it was like,
0:40
SPEAKER_03: yep, all of that's a real big problem, and it's going to get tougher from here.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: I considered it their most discouraging Big Ten loss,
0:50
SPEAKER_00: their most discouraging conference loss since joining the Big Ten.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Certainly, they've lost to worse teams.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the game to Wisconsin last year.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: But for what it meant, I agree with you.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: I 100% thought you're right, because this season had more expectations.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: It's year three,
1:09
SPEAKER_01: and this was a year where I certainly anticipated and hoped for
1:13
SPEAKER_01: a significant step up.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: And instead,
1:18
SPEAKER_01: it's looking that against a tougher schedule,
1:22
SPEAKER_01: Washington might be not better, perhaps worse than they were a year ago.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like Minnesota's got dudes.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Minnesota, we were talking before, like Minnesota is not Purdue.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Minnesota is not the UCLA team that Washington thrashed last year.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: They are a team that expects to win around eight games under PJ Fleck.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: They have NFL talent.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: They have a quarterback who is going to play in the NFL.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: They have an edge rusher who led the league in sacks last year.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: They have an offensive lineman who's probably a first round pick,
2:02
SPEAKER_00: some other talent on the offensive line.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Darius Taitler has been a very good running back when healthy.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: You saw like the size and the strength and the speed, right?
2:13
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about this,
2:14
SPEAKER_00: I think over the last couple of years where the challenge joining the Big Ten,
2:18
SPEAKER_00: right?
2:18
SPEAKER_00: It's not just competing with Ohio State and with Michigan and Oregon and Penn State
2:26
SPEAKER_00: and obviously now Indiana,
2:28
SPEAKER_00: but like the Iowa's of the world who Consistently win at the eight
2:34
SPEAKER_00: or nine win level,
2:36
SPEAKER_00: don't necessarily contend for playoff spots,
2:39
SPEAKER_00: but have a lot of legitimate size and strength.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: And you sort of, you know, in that sense, can sort Minnesota into that category.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: All that said, though,
2:50
SPEAKER_00: any logical ranking
2:52
SPEAKER_00: of Washington's toughest games this year would have had Minnesota in
2:57
SPEAKER_00: the bottom half.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Any ranking of their most manageable games,
3:00
SPEAKER_00: of the games that they must win if they're going to have the kind
3:03
SPEAKER_00: of season they want to have based on their remaining schedule,
3:07
SPEAKER_00: would have had Minnesota near the top, right?
3:09
SPEAKER_00: A home opener against Minnesota, especially when they kicked off at 8 p.m. Pacific time.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: We talked about how that you would think would be an advantage for Washington.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: So that's what you added all up.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: That's, to me,
3:21
SPEAKER_00: What makes it so discouraging is that the schedule gets so much harder from here.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: It's not like in a vacuum losing a game to
3:29
SPEAKER_00: that Minnesota team is just like unforgivable or oh,
3:32
SPEAKER_00: you can't believe like they got some good players.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: That's a good team.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, we'll see what they do the rest of the year.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: We also know they're not unbeatable.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: They lost by 25 points at home to Mississippi State.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: But the fact that The schedule gets so much tougher.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: The fact that they lost by three and the net success rates wound up being more
3:52
SPEAKER_00: or less a wash, which is interesting.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: But didn't it just feel watching it like Minnesota was kind of dominant
3:59
SPEAKER_00: in all phases for most of that game?
4:02
SPEAKER_03: Yes, because Washington got its butt whooped up front, specifically on...
4:10
SPEAKER_03: The offensive side of the ball, their offense did not look competent.
4:14
SPEAKER_03: And I know that they pulled it together and played
4:19
SPEAKER_01: better, but they just got handled up front.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: And even when the defense kind of got it together in the second half,
4:28
SPEAKER_01: there wasn't at any point that I felt like Washington's offense was in control
4:33
SPEAKER_01: of things.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: Quarterback did not seem comfortable.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: And took seven sacks and they couldn't run the ball at all.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: It was it was that eye opening sort of game where you're like, man,
4:47
SPEAKER_01: that this offense,
4:50
SPEAKER_01: everything that you feared is absolutely true about it,
4:53
SPEAKER_01: about how they look right now.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: They're always in control at Chuck Olson, Kia and Shoreline.
4:58
SPEAKER_03: There we go.
4:59
SPEAKER_03: There we go.
5:00
SPEAKER_03: Poison the pocket there.
5:02
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5:17
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5:23
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5:27
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5:56
SPEAKER_00: The Huskies hung in there in this game.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: They didn't go in the tank.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: They battled back.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: If you're listing positives, I suppose that's one you would start with.
6:08
SPEAKER_03: Defense got it together.
6:10
SPEAKER_03: The defense got it together.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: And to be fair, I mean,
6:13
SPEAKER_00: they give up 27 points and seven of those come after a turnover at the 15-yard line.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: That's tough.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: To me, that one play is...
6:26
SPEAKER_00: What's most disappointing,
6:28
SPEAKER_00: if you're a Washington fan,
6:30
SPEAKER_00: about this game and about the way Daman Williams Jr.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: played in this game,
6:35
SPEAKER_00: there were other mistakes as well,
6:37
SPEAKER_00: including a second interception late in the third quarter that didn't need
6:41
SPEAKER_00: to happen.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: But you cannot turn the ball over there.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: You cannot throw, you can't try to force something that deep in your own territory.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: And I understand, you know, he got hit and the hit affected the throw.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: But the play they were looking for off that boot action,
6:59
SPEAKER_00: which as they talked about is one that they'd had success with.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: And he really likes that play and being able to kind of hit the tight end leaking out.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't there.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: And you would expect a quarterback to see that, identify that right away.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh, play's over.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: Chuck it in the ground and it's second and 10.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: But like the Wisconsin game last year, right?
7:20
SPEAKER_00: A third and long where his ball security is suspect and he gets it knocked away.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: And that leads to a touchdown for an offense that could not move the ball
7:29
SPEAKER_00: and basically didn't have a quarterback.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And that ends up being the difference in the game.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: You know,
7:35
SPEAKER_00: that was seven points that resulted from that right away for Minnesota in a game
7:39
SPEAKER_00: that Washington lost by three.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: And now,
7:42
SPEAKER_00: you know,
7:42
SPEAKER_00: if that doesn't happen,
7:43
SPEAKER_00: I think the way that Minnesota controlled certain things on both sides of the ball
7:46
SPEAKER_00: for at least that first half,
7:49
SPEAKER_00: you know,
7:49
SPEAKER_00: they still might have wound up winning the football game,
7:52
SPEAKER_00: you know, butterfly effect and all that.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: But I thought right then and there to go in a 7-0 hole off of a gimme, really, and,
8:02
SPEAKER_00: you know,
8:03
SPEAKER_00: They could have defended the pass better on the touchdown pass or whatever.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: But right there,
8:09
SPEAKER_00: I thought, man,
8:10
SPEAKER_00: it is going to be really, really, really, really hard for them to win this game now.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: I felt through the first three games that DeMond had done a good job of not pressing
8:19
SPEAKER_01: when things weren't there.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: I thought that he'd been really conscientious about avoiding turnovers.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: And that can be hard when you're facing a team that you feel you should be trouncing
8:32
SPEAKER_01: or should be moving the ball on effectively and you're just not.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: And I thought he showed patience in that regard.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: I'm rethinking that.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: And because of what we saw on Saturday and wondering if his decision-making needs
8:53
SPEAKER_01: to be speeded up and that instead of sort of this, oh,
8:57
SPEAKER_01: he's not forcing things, like, man,
9:01
SPEAKER_01: something's going on with his ability to diagnose what's available and make
9:07
SPEAKER_01: a decision.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: And I guess what you mentioned there is that That play has a very clear solution
9:14
SPEAKER_01: if it's covered up,
9:15
SPEAKER_01: which is to fire the ball at the tight end's feet and just,
9:20
SPEAKER_01: okay, we're going to go on to the next play.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: And that combined with other situations, he was sacked seven times.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: The temptation everyone has is, oh, the pass protection's terrible.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to tell you the pass protection's good,
9:34
SPEAKER_01: but sacks are a reflection of the quarterback situation.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: As much or more than the offensive line.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: That's what determines the number of sacks,
9:46
SPEAKER_01: is whether or not... And it's not just, can your quarterback...
9:50
SPEAKER_01: Feel the pressure.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: Can you just diagnose, okay, it's about to get hairy.
9:54
SPEAKER_01: I need to get rid of the ball.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: I thought this quote from Jed Fish,
9:59
SPEAKER_01: and it was after he was asked about separation from the receivers.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: And he basically said, hey, our young receivers are doing a great job.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: But I thought this was the most telling quote from Jed Fish on Monday
10:12
SPEAKER_01: about how DeMond played in that game.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: And it was talking about incompletions.
10:18
SPEAKER_02: Incompletions are just fine.
10:23
SPEAKER_02: They're encouraged that we don't want to hold the ball and take a sack.
10:28
SPEAKER_02: We don't want to hold the ball and put our bodies at risk.
10:32
SPEAKER_02: And DeMond and I talked about that.
10:34
SPEAKER_02: I want DeMond to be upright at the end of every play.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: And I know that's a dream.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't happen in any game with any team.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: But if we're upright one or two times or if we're knocked to the ground just
10:45
SPEAKER_02: a few times a game, that's a win.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: Basically saying he was holding it too long.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and DeMond said that himself after the game.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: He was asked about the protection.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And there's a little bit of like, well, like the quarterback is always going to say that.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: And...
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Demond is certainly with the media a good soldier.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: He does not throw, he'll be the last guy ever to throw his teammates under the bus that way.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: But he said like, hey, I thought the O-line held up well.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: I felt a lot of times,
11:13
SPEAKER_00: and I'm paraphrasing a bit because I don't have it right in front of me,
11:16
SPEAKER_00: but I've looked at it enough.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: I felt like when I was pressured or sacked, a lot of the times I was holding the ball too long.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: And I asked Jed Fish that specifically.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: I relayed, hey, Daman said this, do you agree?
11:29
SPEAKER_00: And he said, yeah, I agree.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: We do need to find solutions to help him.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: How do we simulate that in practice,
11:37
SPEAKER_00: like emphasizing get the ball out,
11:39
SPEAKER_00: get the ball out,
11:40
SPEAKER_00: while understanding, as Jed Fish likes to say, that sacks are on all 11 players.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: To that point, I do think pro football focus is good for certain things.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: They track whose fault a sack is,
11:57
SPEAKER_00: how many pressures an O-lineman gives up,
11:59
SPEAKER_00: how many hurries an O-lineman gives up, how many QB hits an O-lineman gives up.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: They only assign two of Minnesota sacks in this game to a Washington offensive lineman.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: Implying that the rest were the fault of the quarterback.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, even that analysis ignores like a coach might watch the tape and see a sack
12:25
SPEAKER_00: and PFF might assign that to an alignment and the coach.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Actually, we had two receivers on this play who did not do their jobs.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: There should have been answers down the field.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: If anything,
12:36
SPEAKER_00: this actually might be on our guys not getting open or it's a coverage sack
12:39
SPEAKER_00: or whatever.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: It is more nuanced on any given play than this is one guy's fault.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Some of the time.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes one dude just gets beat and it's like, oh, yeah, that blew everything up.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: I think last season...
12:53
SPEAKER_00: Washington allowed 34 sacks, if I remember right off the top of my head.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: PFF assigned 12 of them to offensive linemen.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: So the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: And it also should be acknowledged, like,
13:07
SPEAKER_00: how many quarterbacks are making that touchdown pass to Barron Naone with
13:10
SPEAKER_00: a free runner up the middle?
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Pressure that he's,
13:13
SPEAKER_00: you know,
13:13
SPEAKER_00: he's got to spin away from the free runner,
13:15
SPEAKER_00: which first, you know, not a lot of guys can do that.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there's a little bit of a, like, miracle luck factor.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: So he can create plays when there are pressures as well.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: But I do think by and large...
13:46
SPEAKER_00: When he's sacked,
13:47
SPEAKER_00: it does seem to be a play where you wouldn't necessarily say the protection was
13:52
SPEAKER_00: so poor the sack was unavoidable.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: And I thought the other quote from Jed's Monday press conference that was kind
14:03
SPEAKER_01: of telling that made me wonder of how DeMond is handling the pressure.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: A quarterback's timing and the confidence they have to be able to stand in there
14:17
SPEAKER_01: and make the throw, it's...
14:21
SPEAKER_01: It's such a delicate thing.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: And quarterbacks are really asked to do that.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you've got to trust that your protection is going to be there and make the read
14:34
SPEAKER_01: as you get it while you have 11 guys around you or seven guys that are chasing
14:39
SPEAKER_01: after you, a compressing pocket.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: It's really hard.
14:42
SPEAKER_01: And I thought this from Fish might have indicated that So far,
14:49
SPEAKER_01: demand is maybe not responding to the pressure the way that you would expect for
14:56
SPEAKER_01: a guy who's now in his second full year as a starter.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: The biggest challenge for quarterbacks is in practice,
15:01
SPEAKER_02: if anybody goes near a quarterback,
15:04
SPEAKER_02: they're going to get yelled at, scolded, and told to stay away.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: And then in games,
15:08
SPEAKER_02: we're asking these guys and these kids to be able to just stand in there
15:13
SPEAKER_02: and let it rip.
15:15
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, when you're...
15:17
SPEAKER_02: 20 is different than when you're 24 or 23 or 22.
15:20
SPEAKER_02: When you're 20,
15:25
SPEAKER_02: You know,
15:26
SPEAKER_02: you're standing in there and you're letting it rip,
15:28
SPEAKER_02: but you're also thinking like,
15:30
SPEAKER_02: wait, I haven't had a ton of experience of guys falling at my feet all the time.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: So I think he probably felt that a little bit and got out of the pocket a little bit quick.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: So we have to do a better job as coaches,
15:41
SPEAKER_02: trying to help him feel that,
15:43
SPEAKER_02: navigate that, you know, maybe do more 11 on 11 rather than seven on seven.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: I think kind of the backdrop to this is you got an offense that is relying on
15:55
SPEAKER_01: the quarterback more than it was a year ago when you had...
16:00
SPEAKER_01: Denzel Boston and Jonah Coleman and Adam Muhammad.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: And everything with the injuries that the running back has meant more has come down
16:09
SPEAKER_01: on the quarterback right now.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: And he is sort of being asked to compensate for a lot of different things.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: And right now, everything is really hectic for him.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: And it's that delicate decision-making process that That sort of the ability
16:27
SPEAKER_01: to trust and find it, it's a little off right now.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: And their challenge is to find a way to get DeMond to work within the offense with
16:38
SPEAKER_01: the protection that he has right now.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: You talk about the idea of him pressing.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Obviously,
16:44
SPEAKER_00: he knows that there's not a ton of playmaking ability elsewhere on this offense
16:50
SPEAKER_00: and how limited their running game is.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: And so that probably is part of the backdrop too
16:55
SPEAKER_00: of it's not something he would ever say or that Jed Fish probably would ever say
16:59
SPEAKER_00: that like, well,
17:01
SPEAKER_00: it's all kind of on me,
17:02
SPEAKER_00: you know,
17:02
SPEAKER_00: and that to your point is not a pressure he felt last year with Jonah Coleman
17:06
SPEAKER_00: and Denzel Boston.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Not a lot of attempt at a traditional running game in this game.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: The game script also didn't really dictate much that you fall behind 14 to nothing.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: And they also just didn't have a ton of plays, right?
17:23
SPEAKER_00: It was that it was that sort of big 10 type of game.
17:27
SPEAKER_03: Um, there was nothing that we saw that led me to believe they should have tried to run it more.
17:33
SPEAKER_03: No, no.
17:37
SPEAKER_03: Hey, they really just didn't give it a chance to get going.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: And that's good.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're going to be coming back to this every week because it's just,
17:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe they get Landon Hatchett back.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't sound like that's a sure thing,
17:53
SPEAKER_00: but they sure seem more optimistic about it this week than they had previously.
17:57
SPEAKER_03: He went through the pregame warmup in his uniform.
18:00
SPEAKER_03: That was a major step forward.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Progress, progress.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that changes certain things.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there are certain opponents who they feel like they'll be able to Turn
18:11
SPEAKER_00: and hand the ball to a running back against.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: But it's just, we're going to sound like a broken record on this.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: I think the running game just, it is what it is.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: And until you see something different with their offensive line,
18:23
SPEAKER_00: their offensive line is what it is.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: I still would contend that
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Their sack numbers,
18:30
SPEAKER_00: I guess really just in this game,
18:31
SPEAKER_00: this was the first game they allowed more than two,
18:33
SPEAKER_00: but I think the sack numbers suggest the pass protection was worse than it was.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Certainly it is not flawless.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Certainly you have seen strong...
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Interior defensive linemen,
18:47
SPEAKER_00: strong edge rushers,
18:48
SPEAKER_00: challenge them in ways athletically that you're going
18:51
SPEAKER_00: to keep seeing them challenged.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Obviously,
18:55
SPEAKER_00: DeMond Williams Jr.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: has dealt with some amount of pressure that was not his fault,
19:00
SPEAKER_00: but the run blocking just is kind of non-existent.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty brutal.
19:08
SPEAKER_01: And Jed's pointed out,
19:10
SPEAKER_01: and it's fair,
19:11
SPEAKER_01: we talked about,
19:12
SPEAKER_01: hey, they got four or five starters returning on the offensive line.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: And that hasn't been what they've had.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: Because Landon Hatchett's out,
19:22
SPEAKER_01: so you have a guy who hasn't played center before playing center for them right now.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: But then the other conversation,
19:28
SPEAKER_01: and I don't know how to gauge all of this,
19:31
SPEAKER_01: is they made the decision to have a true freshman starting at left tackle.
19:35
SPEAKER_01: And I think it was two series that he was out.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: And John Mills swung out in the second half and one series in the first half and
19:44
SPEAKER_01: then one series in the game before that.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, there's.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: To have a true freshman play at left tackle is a big ask.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to make it seem like,
19:59
SPEAKER_01: hey, he's not sort of living up to the expectations because that's just a big ask.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: But it does make me wonder about the planning and sort
20:11
SPEAKER_01: of how they envisioned this working this season.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: Because so far, I'd say that question of, are they getting good enough play at left tackle?
20:21
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure they are.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jed Fish has talked about how he...
20:27
SPEAKER_00: In his answer to my question to him this week about,
20:30
SPEAKER_00: hey, do you think you'll continue rotating John Mills at left tackle?
20:33
SPEAKER_00: He did say, well, Cody's played better the last two weeks, so he thinks it's helping him.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: But the upshot is they thought he needed help, right?
20:43
SPEAKER_00: They...
20:45
SPEAKER_00: If he'd come out and was just excellent from game one,
20:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't think there'd be any discussion of,
20:50
SPEAKER_00: hey, he's been awesome, but it's a lot to ask a freshman to play that many snaps.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: So we want to rotate him and be fair and try to lighten his workload.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think it's because he struggled.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: So, you know,
21:02
SPEAKER_00: when we talked before the season,
21:05
SPEAKER_00: we kind of raised the point of, hey, are we overlooking...
21:11
SPEAKER_00: The concerns that should be inherent to starting a true freshman at left tackle and
21:16
SPEAKER_00: a true freshman at defensive tackle.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of concluded that at both positions,
21:23
SPEAKER_00: it wasn't like a major red flag because they had other guys.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: And I think what I said at the time was...
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Look, if Cody Green just isn't ready and can't do it,
21:35
SPEAKER_00: you just move John Mills out there and you play both of your guards who are battling
21:41
SPEAKER_00: at right guard, Champ Talalea and Garen Hatchett.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, they've also not gotten out of Champ Talalea what they hoped early in this season.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: He started the Apple Cup,
21:50
SPEAKER_00: rotated a little bit in the first half,
21:53
SPEAKER_00: did not play the second half, did not play against Utah State.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: They've rotated him since, but Garen Hatchett has played still the majority of the snaps.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's a factor too.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: And you really just don't quite know who your top five are yet.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: And Landon Hatchett coming back will perhaps make some of those decisions easier.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: But if, you know,
22:19
SPEAKER_00: I do think it merits an examination at least of like,
22:22
SPEAKER_00: hey, does John Mills at left tackle give you a better opportunity to run the ball?
22:27
SPEAKER_00: Or is the ceiling not, you know...
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Is the difference between the ceiling of having Cody Green at left tackle
22:36
SPEAKER_00: or John Mills at left tackle not great enough to justify shuffling it up?
22:41
SPEAKER_00: And you're better off just getting the five-star guy as many reps as you can
22:45
SPEAKER_00: because you know you're going to have to rely on him going forward.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: Here was Jed's answer when you asked him about if
22:55
SPEAKER_01: the team was getting what it wanted out of having Mills take a couple series
22:59
SPEAKER_01: at left tackle.
23:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it's helped Cody.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: And that's, you know, that's been important.
23:04
SPEAKER_02: I think Cody's played better these last two weeks.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: So we'll see.
23:06
SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure.
23:08
SPEAKER_02: We'll see.
23:08
SPEAKER_02: We'll see if Landon's back.
23:10
SPEAKER_02: That'll make it,
23:11
SPEAKER_02: you know, that will make part of my decision, probably what we're going to do there.
23:16
SPEAKER_02: And then, because that frees up Colt to do some things.
23:21
SPEAKER_02: So we'll see what it all looks like.
23:22
SPEAKER_02: But right now, I'm not sure.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: It's a challenge what they're dealing with and trying to figure it out.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: This might be a fault of expectations or looking at it from the outside,
23:35
SPEAKER_01: but what it feels like is you've got a situation in such flux on the offensive line
23:41
SPEAKER_01: with very young players and an expectation with the quarterback who...
23:51
SPEAKER_01: Looked like he was going to leave,
23:52
SPEAKER_01: then stayed of,
23:53
SPEAKER_01: okay, this guy's ready to be a star, and it feels like things are out of whack.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: When they started Trey Adams as a true freshman under Chris Peterson,
24:03
SPEAKER_01: you had a true freshman quarterback in Jake Browning and
24:06
SPEAKER_01: a true freshman running back in Miles Gaskin.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: And it was really kind of like, okay, you're going to be really young on offense.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: And this, right now, how I feel is...
24:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you're really young on the offensive line,
24:20
SPEAKER_01: and there's a lot of growing pains that are going on,
24:22
SPEAKER_01: and you've got a quarterback that,
24:26
SPEAKER_01: as my expectation was, quarterback who's ready to go right now.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: And right now, that's just, it's a formula that has looked bad so far.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: And I'm really worried about how it progresses from here.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: How concerned are you about The overall talent level offensively.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean to like totally forgive the defense.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: I still think we don't really know if this can be a great defense like we sort
24:54
SPEAKER_00: of thought it looked like in training camp.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: They did not look great against Minnesota,
24:59
SPEAKER_00: but they did bow up and at least not allow a touchdown in the second half.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: They have to tackle better.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: But obviously like the prevailing concerns are offensively.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Do you look at who they're playing offensively and think maybe this team just isn't
25:15
SPEAKER_00: as talented as we thought it was?
25:17
SPEAKER_00: It's just really young.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: I think the talent is there,
25:20
SPEAKER_01: but I think the talent is really young and it feels like one of those,
25:25
SPEAKER_01: this is the year before.
25:27
SPEAKER_03: If this is year two
25:32
SPEAKER_01: for Jed,
25:33
SPEAKER_01: and this is what it looks like,
25:34
SPEAKER_01: the young offensive talent, you feel pieces are in place.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: But I thought that was last year.
25:39
SPEAKER_01: I thought they were ready to go.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: And again,
25:41
SPEAKER_01: this might be my fault with expectations or where things are,
25:44
SPEAKER_01: but I don't think I'm alone in that regard.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: And what it feels like is that...
25:51
SPEAKER_01: The quarterback is not on the same schedule as the rest of the talent that's here in
25:58
SPEAKER_01: the pipeline.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: That you've got a quarterback that you should be expecting to win with right now,
26:04
SPEAKER_01: and the rest of the offense is a year away from being able to compete at that level
26:12
SPEAKER_01: of, hey, contend in the Big Ten, maybe make a playoff run.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: And it's looking like,
26:18
SPEAKER_00: you know,
26:18
SPEAKER_00: the quarterback might not be the right guy to bring all those guys along with him.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and this is where it starts to get tricky.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a lot of different things about how do you critique the play of demand?
26:32
SPEAKER_01: What is fair?
26:34
SPEAKER_03: Because I think the standards for what are fair have changed a little bit
26:40
SPEAKER_03: with compensation being involved.
26:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:45
SPEAKER_03: And then that other part of how long do you expect him to be at Washington?
26:53
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't assume that he's leaving at the end of the year.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: I know a lot of people will feel that way.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: I don't necessarily assume that.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: But certainly having a struggle is not going to,
27:07
SPEAKER_01: in my mind,
27:08
SPEAKER_01: having a difficult year here is not going to make him more likely to stay,
27:13
SPEAKER_01: in my opinion.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: And that's looking at it from the outside.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: So it feels like one of those things is...
27:22
SPEAKER_01: When the news came out that he was transferring,
27:25
SPEAKER_01: when the post happened,
27:27
SPEAKER_01: my reaction was really like,
27:28
SPEAKER_01: oh, God, everything was in place for this to be the year.
27:32
SPEAKER_03: And now when I look back at that,
27:34
SPEAKER_03: I'm like,
27:35
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if it would have been the worst thing in the world
27:37
SPEAKER_03: if he would have left because the offense is so young without him,
27:41
SPEAKER_03: even if he is that sort of that caliber of quarterback That you don't have
27:47
SPEAKER_03: the parts around him right now to make that payoff.
27:49
SPEAKER_03: And some of that's misfortune.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: The injuries at running back certainly is.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: You've had a wave of injuries at that position that you would not have been able to anticipate.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: Certainly Quaid Carr, but even going beyond that to Jordan Washington and then Jayden Lamar.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: That's unfortunate.
28:07
SPEAKER_03: But given the way that they've run the ball, Or what it's looked like up front.
28:12
SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure if you're healthy,
28:13
SPEAKER_03: if you've got Quade Carr and Jaden Lamar,
28:16
SPEAKER_01: that this looks all that much better on the ground.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that the slack you cut them at running back,
28:27
SPEAKER_00: it feels a little different today than it did when those injuries happened,
28:30
SPEAKER_00: just because we have more data to see how they've kind of blocked for
28:34
SPEAKER_00: the running game,
28:35
SPEAKER_00: and it You don't watch it and think they're a Quaid Carr or a Jaden Lamar away
28:40
SPEAKER_00: from really being able to run the ball.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying those guys don't make any difference.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: And to be fair, I think this is a good point, a valid point.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Jed Fish talked on Monday about, look,
28:49
SPEAKER_00: there's so much more to playing running back than run this way,
28:54
SPEAKER_00: run far outside, run inside.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: Especially in a wide zone scheme, you've got to have some feel.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: You've got to have vision.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: You've got to read the blocks right.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: And when you haven't played, That's a lot harder to do.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: And they felt like Quade Carr really fit.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know,
29:12
SPEAKER_00: on some of those plays,
29:13
SPEAKER_00: could Quade Carr or Jaden Lamar gain three yards instead of one?
29:18
SPEAKER_00: Like, sure.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: But they're not taking a bad running game and elevating it into being good, I don't think.
29:27
SPEAKER_01: And it's just the tears that we're talking about here.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: If they have better running backs, could they beat Minnesota at home?
29:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they could.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: But having better running backs isn't going to be the difference between getting you
29:41
SPEAKER_01: to the college football playoff.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: And again,
29:45
SPEAKER_01: this might be an issue with my expectations,
29:47
SPEAKER_01: but that idea of like, hey man, I think they got a shot.
29:50
SPEAKER_01: They could win nine or ten games this year.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: And I don't feel like they're healthy running backs away from winning nine
29:56
SPEAKER_01: or ten games, given what we've seen so far.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Where do you adjust your expectation to at this point?
30:08
SPEAKER_00: If you'd told me before this season,
30:11
SPEAKER_00: Washington will win only three Big Ten games,
30:14
SPEAKER_00: first of all, I'd have said, whoa, that's a bad year.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: But, well,
30:21
SPEAKER_00: I guess I'd probably start with what should be their easiest home game
30:26
SPEAKER_00: against Minnesota, and then Purdue and Michigan State.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, Minnesota's off the table.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Are you certain they're going to go win at Purdue and at Michigan State?
30:38
SPEAKER_00: No.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: I still expect them to beat Purdue,
30:43
SPEAKER_01: but that feeling of,
30:44
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how many games are they going to be favored in from here on out?
30:48
SPEAKER_00: It could well just be those two.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, Penn State just lost a home to Wisconsin.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Penn State could be something quite different than what it was expected
31:00
SPEAKER_00: to be preseason by the time they come to Husky Stadium.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: That's the other thing.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: All kinds of stuff still going to happen.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: It's a long year.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's happy, so on and so forth.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: But looking at it right now, I mean, they're not going to be favored in Lincoln, Nebraska.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: They're not going to be favored at home against Iowa.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: I would imagine they'd be favored at Purdue.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: But they got to play two games between now and then.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: So the question of expectations...
31:35
SPEAKER_01: Is not as important for me, or how do I adjust it?
31:38
SPEAKER_01: Because I definitely feel like the bottom could fall out.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty negative about what I expect to see this weekend against USC because of
31:49
SPEAKER_01: the speed of USC's defense,
31:51
SPEAKER_01: even with them missing the linebacker that hit Dante Moore.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that freshman kid that got wayful?
32:01
SPEAKER_01: It's just a terror off the edge.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: The speed that they have on that defense and...
32:08
SPEAKER_01: I really wonder how Washington's offense is going to play against that defense.
32:13
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they get it to get...
32:15
SPEAKER_01: I guess the bigger question I have is,
32:18
SPEAKER_01: is this coaching staff going to be able to get out of the hole I feel it's about
32:22
SPEAKER_01: to fall into, that the team and the program are about to fall into?
32:26
SPEAKER_01: Because so far,
32:27
SPEAKER_01: you haven't really had any sense that,
32:30
SPEAKER_01: okay, this might not work out, like long-term big picture.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: And...
32:35
SPEAKER_01: I can see that sort of potentially coming, given the way the season could go.
32:42
SPEAKER_01: And so my question, or what are my expectations?
32:47
SPEAKER_01: Can they get this offense functional?
32:50
SPEAKER_01: Can they get this offense,
32:51
SPEAKER_01: which I don't think is very functional right now,
32:54
SPEAKER_01: back to a point where it is able to move the ball even against fairly good defenses?
33:00
SPEAKER_01: Because they are going to face some fairly good defenses from here on out.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: That's a big uncertainty for me.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking,
33:10
SPEAKER_01: and if they can't,
33:12
SPEAKER_01: I think that's going to create huge trickle-down problems down the road.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: And if they can hold it together or get sort of month-over-month improvement,
33:20
SPEAKER_01: if October looks better on offense than September did,
33:24
SPEAKER_01: even though the caliber of opponent gets significantly better,
33:27
SPEAKER_01: then I think you can see a way out of it.
33:29
SPEAKER_01: But I'm just...
33:32
SPEAKER_01: Right now,
33:34
SPEAKER_01: my sort of question is,
33:36
SPEAKER_01: is this going to be a year where they're able to avoid taking a huge step back?
33:41
SPEAKER_01: Let alone,
33:42
SPEAKER_01: at this point,
33:43
SPEAKER_01: treading water and finishing about how they did last year would be a huge win.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Judd Fish has talked about having to sort of condition everybody to life in
33:55
SPEAKER_00: the Big Ten as it pertains to game pace and scoring and Yeah,
33:59
SPEAKER_00: it's going to be in the low 20s.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be who can hold their opponent to 17 or below.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: That ain't going to be how they beat the USC Trojans.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: I think back to their win there in 2023, final score was 52 to 42, I believe.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know that it's going to look like that on Saturday, but USC is not trying to
34:29
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to score a bunch of points.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: They got a really good quarterback.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: They got good receivers.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: They're banged up a little bit.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: We'll see what their availability report today says.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: And they have, obviously, They gave up 35 points to Rutgers
35:03
SPEAKER_00: You know,
35:03
SPEAKER_00: this so far has not been the defense that they're going to need to fulfill their CFP
35:11
SPEAKER_00: or bust prophecy.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think if you had told Husky fans before this season that this...
35:19
SPEAKER_00: Let me just show you USC's season.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you USC's first five games before Washington goes to the Coliseum on October 3rd.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: And the script and the stats and how they played out and the final scores
35:32
SPEAKER_00: and what their defense has allowed.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: And I think most Husky fans would look at it and say,
35:37
SPEAKER_00: 35 points to Rutgers and they lost 41-27 to Oregon
35:41
SPEAKER_00: with their backup quarterback playing most of the games.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what I was hoping USC was going to be.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: You knew they were going to have an offense and score points.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: But their defense has played the way,
35:53
SPEAKER_00: if you were a Husky fan who had October 3rd circled as their first big challenge,
35:57
SPEAKER_00: which, oops.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: This USC team has been exactly what you would hope they would be.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: Exactly what you'd hoped they would be coming into this game.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: You would think that this was a very gettable game.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: Instead,
36:09
SPEAKER_00: Washington goes in there quite justifiably as a double-digit underdog,
36:12
SPEAKER_00: and I don't know that there's any belief anywhere that they can win this game.
36:16
SPEAKER_01: When I watched the first two games that USC played,
36:19
SPEAKER_01: so was it San Jose State and Fresno State,
36:22
SPEAKER_01: my real feeling was like, okay,
36:24
SPEAKER_01: for all the times that I like making fun of USC for being underachieving,
36:30
SPEAKER_01: I think they gave up like 20 points to San Jose State,
36:32
SPEAKER_01: but almost all of that was late, like fourth quarter.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: They looked like a squad.
36:38
SPEAKER_01: And then the next couple games happened, I'm like, oh, same old USC.
36:44
SPEAKER_01: I was like, yeah, same old USC might absolutely beat the brakes off of this Washington team.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't know if they can score with them.
36:56
SPEAKER_01: I doubt they can score with them.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: I hope to be wrong.
37:00
SPEAKER_01: And I hope that all of the panic that I feel right now is going to start
37:05
SPEAKER_01: to turn around because the...
37:11
SPEAKER_01: If Washington is at the same level that it was,
37:16
SPEAKER_01: basically has the kind of season this year that it had last year,
37:20
SPEAKER_01: and maybe takes a step back in wins because of a more difficult schedule,
37:24
SPEAKER_01: what's next year going to look like?
37:26
SPEAKER_01: Okay, then this young group is going to be better,
37:30
SPEAKER_01: but you might have a question at quarterback about what you're going to do.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: What's the path out of this?
37:36
SPEAKER_01: And I'm really not sure what the long-term answer is right now.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: So I guess you focus on week-to-week and say you're hoping to see...
37:48
SPEAKER_01: And that Washington should be able to score against this defense in between Minnesota and Iowa.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you're just it feels like it could snowball.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: That's what is, I think, hard to square.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: With the youth movement thing,
38:07
SPEAKER_00: the number is what 11,
38:09
SPEAKER_00: 11 starters who were either first or second year players,
38:12
SPEAKER_00: which is, is, you know, if you follow the team, that's no surprise.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: You knew that's exactly what they were coming into the season with,
38:19
SPEAKER_00: you know,
38:22
SPEAKER_00: there was a time in college football where you could watch this particular team
38:26
SPEAKER_00: and take note of the youth and think, They'll get better.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: And I see talent and they'll be better next year.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: But the era that we're in, one bad year.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if they don't get it corrected and this really does, they are still only three and one.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: It is just one loss.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: But you could easily see how this ends up a six or seven loss season just
38:52
SPEAKER_00: with their lack of a running game and how difficult the schedule becomes from here.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Do you keep those guys together?
39:02
SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: Or can you keep them?
39:04
SPEAKER_03: It's not even...
39:06
SPEAKER_00: This is what happens when you're 6-6 or 5-7 type Big Ten team
39:11
SPEAKER_00: and other schools are scouting your roster
39:13
SPEAKER_00: and they see some individual excellence here or there.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: They're going to be all over those guys.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: Probably already are.
39:20
SPEAKER_01: Am I overdoing or overemphasizing the...
39:27
SPEAKER_01: I knew the team was young.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: I did not sort of anticipate or believe that this was in some way.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: I thought that young talent was being added to what was an established core.
39:41
SPEAKER_01: And maybe I was underestimating how much, like, no, that young core is where it's at.
39:47
SPEAKER_01: And if that's the case...
39:50
SPEAKER_01: Am I wrong to wonder why Washington has,
39:52
SPEAKER_01: why you put all of that money into a veteran,
39:55
SPEAKER_01: one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the country,
39:58
SPEAKER_01: given the inexperience elsewhere,
40:00
SPEAKER_01: that that might not be the place to devote your resources right now?
40:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's, it's an interesting, I've seen it sort of floated, right?
40:09
SPEAKER_00: And I think we probably had,
40:10
SPEAKER_00: had talked before about a realistic target for Washington's roster budget.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: I think the athletic putting it in the 20 to 25 million range is in line,
40:19
SPEAKER_00: very much in line with everything I had heard.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: I would guess it's,
40:23
SPEAKER_00: you know,
40:24
SPEAKER_00: if I had to guess,
40:25
SPEAKER_00: I would think it would be,
40:27
SPEAKER_00: let's say, below the midpoint of that range would just would be my guess.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, But it's a little bit of a moving number, too, with incentives and all, you know.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we know they're constrained that way.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: And I have seen the question posed, like, it's impossible to know this because...
40:48
SPEAKER_00: Usually circumstances do not dictate
40:50
SPEAKER_00: that you find out how much any individual player is getting paid.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: It's rare.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: It's weird that we do know exactly how much DeMond Williams Jr. is getting paid.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: But I have seen people,
40:58
SPEAKER_00: you know, posit, hey,
41:00
SPEAKER_00: is there another player in college football who is paid a higher percentage
41:04
SPEAKER_00: of his team's overall roster budget than DeMond Williams Jr.?
41:07
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know that there is.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we believe that it's,
41:11
SPEAKER_00: you know,
41:11
SPEAKER_00: just north of 20, which I think is fair to assume, that's a chunk, you know, but.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: I think it indicates a belief that they had enough talent coming back and with
41:27
SPEAKER_00: the incoming freshman class and what they were able to do in the portal
41:30
SPEAKER_00: that like they could be a decent team this year, certainly better than they've been.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: But I also just think, you know, Jed Fish believes you got to have a quarterback.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: You got to have a quarterback.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: And like what?
41:43
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing if you're not investing in that position?
41:46
SPEAKER_00: This would be my, just sort of my read on his philosophy.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: I think it's certainly fair to question,
41:52
SPEAKER_00: but I do think it's like,
41:55
SPEAKER_00: one, he believes in Daman Williams Jr. wholeheartedly, always has.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: And figured, hey,
42:03
SPEAKER_00: if that's what it takes to get him to sign it on the dotted line and make it so
42:07
SPEAKER_00: that we don't have to worry.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: Quarterback is one thing we do not have to worry about.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: That's done.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: That's taken care of.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm not surprised that they prioritize that.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: As I've said it out loud and listening to you there.
42:23
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think that that approach is right.
42:26
SPEAKER_01: Like when you identify the quarterback and you get him and he starts playing
42:29
SPEAKER_01: the way you want, that you absolutely do everything you can to keep him.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: And it's not like Washington was the only school that saw DeMond Williams as
42:39
SPEAKER_01: that kind of talent.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to say like, hey, they made the wrong decision.
42:49
SPEAKER_01: But it is jarring to then,
42:53
SPEAKER_01: after having sort of this huge panic moment of the quarterback's going to leave,
42:58
SPEAKER_01: and if he leaves,
42:59
SPEAKER_01: everything's sunk,
43:00
SPEAKER_01: and then the quarterback stays,
43:02
SPEAKER_01: and you get to the season, and you're like, oh, geez.
43:06
SPEAKER_03: This is not at all what you— Yeah.
43:35
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I haven't gotten to that part of wondering if he's going to stay or not.
43:39
SPEAKER_03: Nobody's asked.
43:40
SPEAKER_03: But we're getting pretty close of like,
43:42
SPEAKER_03: OK, what are you going to do with that position going forward?
43:46
SPEAKER_03: And do you expect him to stay given what happened last year?
43:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, any question about whether he would be back for 2026 centered on will he sign?
43:59
SPEAKER_00: Will he enter the portal?
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Will he?
44:02
SPEAKER_00: Try to, you know, pursue one of these inbound offers from other schools.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: Whereas, you know, there's a lot of season left.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: They got eight games at least to play.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: Depending on how these next eight games go, the question might be in both directions, right?
44:21
SPEAKER_00: Does Daman Williams Jr. still want to play at Washington?
44:25
SPEAKER_00: Does Washington want to invest what it's going to take to re-sign Daman Williams Jr.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: for a fourth year based on what they saw from him in 2026?
44:33
SPEAKER_00: Is that going to be the right thing for the program?
44:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm not willing to say just because he didn't play well against Minnesota that
44:41
SPEAKER_00: the answer is definitively no.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: But this is year two as a starter.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: The questions coming in were, is he going to take that next step against elite defenses?
44:52
SPEAKER_00: Do you think Minnesota has an elite defense?
44:55
SPEAKER_00: I think they have some elite defensive players.
44:58
SPEAKER_00: I think they're very solid.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: I think they're very sound.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: They've played great defense at Minnesota in the very recent past,
45:05
SPEAKER_00: so I'm not casting them off as, oh, you should score 40-plus on Minnesota.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: Minnesota's probably overall better as a program than the average,
45:16
SPEAKER_00: I call them Big Ten latecomers,
45:18
SPEAKER_00: whatever you want,
45:18
SPEAKER_00: like Washington fans,
45:20
SPEAKER_00: Oregon fans, USC fans, people who haven't followed the Big Ten lately.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: Over a long period of time.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, you just see their win-loss record.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: Probably a little bit better program than you would assume not following closely.
45:31
SPEAKER_01: But... You're going to face tougher defenses.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: When you talk about can you take the next step against elite defenses,
45:38
SPEAKER_00: you're still, you're not really talking about Minnesota.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: Even though they do have some very good players and like,
45:44
SPEAKER_00: I think, played a very impressive defensive game.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're thinking about Indiana down the road.
45:49
SPEAKER_00: You're thinking They don't play Ohio State,
45:53
SPEAKER_00: but you're thinking about an Ohio State type of defense,
45:55
SPEAKER_00: which admittedly,
45:57
SPEAKER_00: maybe there isn't a single one of those in college football this year,
46:00
SPEAKER_00: what Ohio State had last year, but it all adds up.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: I just go back to that.
46:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:23
SPEAKER_00: So you zoom in further from just the overall result and look more specifically
46:28
SPEAKER_00: at how did DeMond Williams Jr. play?
46:31
SPEAKER_00: What did this look like against a group of pretty good Big Ten athletes?
46:37
SPEAKER_00: And it's 0 for 1 in both regards.
46:40
SPEAKER_01: It looked very, very ugly.
46:42
SPEAKER_01: All right.
46:43
SPEAKER_01: You've got a choice that's being presented to you right now, Christian.
46:47
SPEAKER_01: Game management discussion or conversation
46:51
SPEAKER_03: with IP McFarland?
46:53
SPEAKER_03: Which door do you choose?
46:55
SPEAKER_03: Let's hit IP first.
46:56
SPEAKER_03: All right.
46:57
SPEAKER_01: Here is our conversation with Ian McFarland.
47:00
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, guys.
47:03
SPEAKER_02: I got to be honest with you.
47:06
SPEAKER_02: I am really confused at all the negativity about this football team.
47:12
SPEAKER_02: I mean...
47:14
SPEAKER_02: If I go off the things I'm reading online,
47:19
SPEAKER_02: even the stuff Christian wrote,
47:20
SPEAKER_02: like Danny's text during the game,
47:24
SPEAKER_02: where do you guys get off being so negative when there's so much positivity going
47:29
SPEAKER_02: on?
47:29
SPEAKER_02: You've got a coach who is so good that he doesn't need a general manager or
47:35
SPEAKER_02: an offensive coordinator, and you've got it locked up through 2030.
47:41
SPEAKER_02: You've got five more seasons.
47:44
SPEAKER_02: You got a quarterback that, need I remind you, that LSU wanted.
47:49
SPEAKER_02: And you've got at least a year and maybe two more years of him.
47:54
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're bringing in recruits.
47:58
SPEAKER_02: You're bringing in that are, you know, getting a lot of playing time.
48:04
SPEAKER_02: You're bringing in transfers.
48:06
SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, Hunter Green might be the best player in the Big Ten.
48:11
SPEAKER_02: And is putting up crazy numbers.
48:14
SPEAKER_02: And on top of that, you're playing in the greatest setting in college football.
48:20
SPEAKER_02: Like, what is there to be so negative about?
48:23
SPEAKER_02: You just got to win these last eight and you're in the playoff, baby.
48:28
SPEAKER_02: A three-point loss to a seven-time national champion?
48:32
SPEAKER_02: What are we so down about?
48:40
SPEAKER_03: I just don't get it.
48:43
SPEAKER_03: Have a great week.
48:44
SPEAKER_03: Go Dawgs.
48:46
SPEAKER_03: That's Captain Positive.
48:47
SPEAKER_03: Captain Positive was
48:48
SPEAKER_00: checking in.
48:50
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: Mr. Positivity.
48:52
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly right.
48:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 11 and 1 is still on the table.
48:58
SPEAKER_03: It is remarkable how...
49:02
SPEAKER_01: Sharply things veer from week to week during seasons.
49:07
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's the nature of following a sport closely, is that you...
49:15
SPEAKER_01: Each loss becomes sort of an exhibit, a microcosm of the fatal flaws that exist within a team.
49:25
SPEAKER_01: And each victory is a sign that maybe they're going to overcome all those things
49:30
SPEAKER_01: and put it all together still.
49:32
SPEAKER_01: And no one's perfect.
49:33
SPEAKER_01: And we overestimated just how decrepit everything is.
49:37
SPEAKER_01: That's the nature of sort of...
49:41
SPEAKER_01: Really focused sports coverage is that's how you end up feeling.
49:44
SPEAKER_01: It happens in NBA playoff series.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: It certainly happens in the NFL and it happens in college football all the time.
49:51
SPEAKER_03: That said,
49:52
SPEAKER_03: in the wake of that loss,
49:54
SPEAKER_03: I feel like it was a microcosm of all of the things that we've seen over
49:58
SPEAKER_03: the past month and try as hard as I might.
50:01
SPEAKER_03: I have not been able to talk myself off of the edge.
50:03
SPEAKER_03: I stayed up till 3 a.m. in New York.
50:06
SPEAKER_03: Uh,
50:09
SPEAKER_03: When I got the next morning, my wife was like, are you feeling okay?
50:13
SPEAKER_03: Because I'd slept into like 11.
50:14
SPEAKER_03: I was like, no, I feel freaking terrible.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: When Washington achieved the first down with 227 remaining in the game,
50:27
SPEAKER_00: what should have happened?
50:30
SPEAKER_03: At that point,
50:32
SPEAKER_03: Washington should have gone to the line of scrimmage,
50:36
SPEAKER_03: ran one play in which they threw the ball to the end zone.
50:40
SPEAKER_03: If that ball was not caught in the end zone,
50:44
SPEAKER_03: they could have then substituted, maybe ran one more play.
50:50
SPEAKER_03: My preference would have been for them to kick the field goal at that point.
50:54
SPEAKER_03: But if they were going to run another play, that ball had to be thrown in the air.
51:00
SPEAKER_03: And then they should have kicked the field goal if they had not scored.
51:03
SPEAKER_03: And instead, ball out of bounds.
51:07
SPEAKER_03: The ball was reset.
51:08
SPEAKER_03: The clock was started.
51:12
SPEAKER_03: And at 2.20, with the clock running, DeMond Williams was still looking to the sideline.
51:20
SPEAKER_03: At 2.15,
51:20
SPEAKER_03: with the clock still running,
51:22
SPEAKER_03: the official,
51:23
SPEAKER_03: who I believe is the uncle of the Charlotte Hornets, former Duke player.
51:29
SPEAKER_03: I was wondering if they were related.
51:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think it's his uncle.
51:32
SPEAKER_03: Cole Knipple.
51:37
SPEAKER_01: Signaled a substitution to Ben Maid.
51:39
SPEAKER_01: And at that point, the clock went down to the two-minute warning.
51:43
SPEAKER_01: It was a brutal mistake.
51:46
SPEAKER_03: 27 seconds.
51:47
SPEAKER_03: It was a clock-stopped situation and 27
51:51
SPEAKER_01: seconds ran.
51:52
SPEAKER_01: Ticked off without a single play being run.
51:55
SPEAKER_00: Savvy play by Minnesota to slowly, slowly, slowly make their subs.
52:00
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what you do.
52:02
SPEAKER_01: You can't sub in that situation if the
52:04
SPEAKER_00: offense... No.
52:05
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: Like, Now the defense has every right to take their sweet time and nothing you can do about it.
52:12
SPEAKER_00: Washington took advantage of that,
52:13
SPEAKER_00: I want to say against like Stanford in 2018 or something,
52:18
SPEAKER_00: where Stanford subbed late in the game and it was like, what are you doing?
52:21
SPEAKER_00: And Washington took forever to get their guy on and off.
52:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean...
52:28
SPEAKER_00: Low scoring games, one in the margins, that stuff matters.
52:32
SPEAKER_00: As for the field goal versus touchdown decision there when you're down 10,
52:37
SPEAKER_00: shout out to Northwestern coach David Braun.
52:40
SPEAKER_00: Been somewhat critical of his field goal decisions on this podcast,
52:46
SPEAKER_00: or at least one field goal decision on this podcast that we've been critical of
52:50
SPEAKER_00: on multiple occasions because it was so egregious.
52:53
SPEAKER_00: I thought he did totally the right thing.
52:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you watched their game against Indiana on Friday night.
52:57
SPEAKER_00: I thought he did the right thing in a similar situation.
53:00
SPEAKER_00: You needed a touchdown and a field goal.
53:01
SPEAKER_00: They got into field goal range, and he pulled the trigger quickly.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: It was decisive, like,
53:07
SPEAKER_00: we're kicking it here to buy as much time as possible for
53:12
SPEAKER_00: a potential second scoring drive.
53:16
SPEAKER_00: That's an easier decision to make the better you feel about your kicker.
53:20
SPEAKER_00: For Washington, where were they at the 13?
53:23
SPEAKER_00: That would have been a 30-31 yard field goal.
53:26
SPEAKER_00: He has missed from 29 this year, but I do think with Tyler Robles, you feel okay about that.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: Analytically,
53:33
SPEAKER_00: I think people are kind of split on, look,
53:37
SPEAKER_00: if you're that In a game where you have not moved the ball consistently and you're
53:42
SPEAKER_00: that close to the end zone and you know you have to have at least one touchdown,
53:47
SPEAKER_00: maybe you are better off trying to capitalize on being 13 yards away from
53:50
SPEAKER_00: the goal line.
53:51
SPEAKER_00: And so you don't want to just go straight to, hey,
53:54
SPEAKER_00: give me the three because there's no guarantee you're going to But it does give you
53:58
SPEAKER_00: the opportunity to kick the ball deep and you don't have to,
54:02
SPEAKER_00: you retain a timeout basically because of the two minute warning.
54:06
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to onside kick now.
54:09
SPEAKER_00: So I, it's,
54:11
SPEAKER_00: It's all a little granular for my liking in a game
54:15
SPEAKER_00: where I do think they were outplayed by the team that defeated them,
54:21
SPEAKER_00: even though they did lose by three points.
54:22
SPEAKER_00: And some of the advanced metrics came out relatively even.
54:26
SPEAKER_00: I think if you watch that game, it felt like Minnesota got the better of them for sure.
54:31
SPEAKER_00: So you're really talking about If this and this and this and this and this lined up,
54:37
SPEAKER_00: then maybe they would have had a better chance to win.
54:39
SPEAKER_00: To me, it's the letting the 27 seconds runoff that is the most egregious part of that process.
54:45
SPEAKER_01: This is what it underscores to me, that Jed needs someone different.
54:50
SPEAKER_01: That is exclusively in charge of those sort of game management situations.
54:56
SPEAKER_01: And it's not a criticism of him or his understanding of those things.
55:00
SPEAKER_01: It's that calling plays and balancing the things that you actually absolutely can't do.
55:05
SPEAKER_01: I think we have in four games,
55:07
SPEAKER_01: we have three examples of suboptimal decisions that have been made.
55:12
SPEAKER_01: The passing on first down against Utah State on Washington's final possession,
55:18
SPEAKER_01: and they took a needless timeout at the end of the first half,
55:21
SPEAKER_01: a timeout that could have only hurt Washington.
55:25
SPEAKER_01: You fall to the level of your systems.
55:28
SPEAKER_01: And you need a system that is to be able to say, hey, you cannot sub.
55:33
SPEAKER_01: Because it was clear from Jed's comments after the game, there was a play he wanted to run.
55:38
SPEAKER_03: And it very much appears that the play worked because he indicated that was
55:42
SPEAKER_03: the play they ran on the other side of the two-minute warning.
55:45
SPEAKER_03: And that does absolutely nothing for you because at that point, the horse is out of the barn.
55:54
SPEAKER_01: Like you absolutely need someone.
55:56
SPEAKER_01: You cannot waste those 27 seconds there.
56:00
SPEAKER_00: What's a good result for you from your perspective, for your liking at USC this week?
56:08
SPEAKER_03: Washington scores 30 points.
56:12
SPEAKER_00: I think you're setting the bar pretty high.
56:17
SPEAKER_03: That's not a good defense.
56:20
SPEAKER_03: It's not.
56:21
SPEAKER_03: It is not.
56:21
SPEAKER_03: 30 points.
56:22
SPEAKER_03: Washington scores 30 points because they get a bee in their bonnet and they decide
56:26
SPEAKER_03: to show a bunch of idiots who wonder what the hell's even been put together and why
56:30
SPEAKER_03: the coach doesn't understand he can't substitute and why the quarterback was kept
56:34
SPEAKER_03: when he's making if everybody else is so young and they go down there and they make
56:38
SPEAKER_03: a performance.
56:39
SPEAKER_03: They put their foot in the ground and they make a turn.
56:42
SPEAKER_03: 30 points.
56:44
SPEAKER_03: It's the bad vibes bowl.
56:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
56:49
SPEAKER_03: The bad vibes at Washington have nothing on the bad vibes at USC right now.
56:53
SPEAKER_03: No, no, no.
56:55
SPEAKER_03: I was,
56:56
SPEAKER_00: yeah, no.
56:58
SPEAKER_03: I would like to give a shout out to USC and their fans
57:03
SPEAKER_03: because you guys have effectively distracted Oregon fans throughout this week.
57:10
SPEAKER_03: I've gotten minimal grief from Duck fans, which unusual.
57:14
SPEAKER_03: So I'd like to like, hey, thanks, guys,
57:16
SPEAKER_03: because, yeah,
57:18
SPEAKER_03: I haven't gotten as much grief as I would have normally because they're
57:20
SPEAKER_03: so preoccupied with burning Troy to the ground.
57:25
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of burning, toasty 95 degree forecast on Saturday in Los Angeles.
57:30
SPEAKER_00: With humidity.
57:31
SPEAKER_00: With humidity.
57:33
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully people show up.
57:35
SPEAKER_01: What's a good result for Washington Saturday at USC?
57:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh, a competitive game.
57:45
SPEAKER_00: A game that is not actually decided until the fourth quarter.
57:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to say they need to go down there and win to like...
57:54
SPEAKER_00: Reclaim their season or whatever.
57:56
SPEAKER_00: I think their flaws are what they are.
57:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think you want to see progress from DeMond Williams Jr.
58:05
SPEAKER_00: I think you want to see the defense bounce back, at least tackle soundly.
58:11
SPEAKER_00: You know,
58:11
SPEAKER_00: you don't want them to go play a team that you know has a bunch of five-star
58:15
SPEAKER_00: and four-star talent and feel like they didn't belong on the same field as them.
58:18
Yeah.
58:20
SPEAKER_00: Which...
58:21
SPEAKER_00: Is a pretty low bar for a team that was ranked 17th in the preseason and
58:26
SPEAKER_00: that some folks thought maybe could contend for a CFP bid.
58:31
SPEAKER_00: I was one of those idiots.
58:35
SPEAKER_01: Sign of progress, DeMond Williams doesn't take seven sacks?
58:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, no turnovers and fewer than three sacks.
58:46
SPEAKER_00: Oh, if that happens, they're scoring 30.
58:49
SPEAKER_00: You think so?
58:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
58:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
58:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we'll see.
58:54
SPEAKER_03: No turnovers and three sacks or fewer.
58:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd sign up for that right now.
59:00
SPEAKER_00: At least no turnovers on their side of the field.
59:03
SPEAKER_01: At least no turnovers inside their own 20?
59:06
SPEAKER_00: I think that would be a good place to start, yeah.
59:10
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the game.
59:12
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk to you next week.
59:13
SPEAKER_03: Peace!