"Where's Washington?" - Jedd Fisch
Alternate title: Will Somebody Please Find Washington Twenty Million Dollars?
I once drove a total of 36 hours just to watch the Ducks get beat by Washington in the last Pac-12 Championship Game ever.
The ride back from Vegas was dark and depressing, and yet, somehow the Huskies have found their way back into the position of “Loser” just one year later.
Sure, they literally lost the national championship, but it was the first time in a long time that the future looked bright for Washington football.
They were finally beating their rival on a regular basis again, they were heading to greener pastures in the Big Ten, and they were already searching for the perfect location to erect a statue of their second-year head coach, Kalen DeBoer.
And then it all came crashing down like the upper deck of Husky Stadium.
You know the story.
Nick Saban retired and DeBoer bolted to Bama at a uniquely inconvenient moment in college sports.
Any healthy program would want a steady leader to steer the ship through playoff expansion, NIL, and The House v. NCAA Settlement, but Washington is clearly captain-less (despite all their self-proclaimed sailing prowess).
Their new head coach, Jedd Fisch, has led them to a 6-5 (4-4) record after replacing 21 of 22 starters from last year’s roster.
Under the circumstances, just getting to bowl eligibility seems like pretty good accomplishment in Year One for Fisch, but if you take a peek under his ill-fitting visor, you’ll discover a capital B, Bad™ football coach.
For starters, he consistently and nonsensically picks the most pivotal in-game moments to take the ball away from his best player—which is his running back, Jonah Coleman (#1).*
*Perhaps Husky fans can at least appreciate that him and Quittin’ Chris Petersen have that in common?
His bad decisions have cost them winnable games against lower-tier programs like Wazzu and Rutgers.
Professor Jedd is also a dud of a personality. He has a Hall of Fame-level bad vibe and he’s a serial complainer that seems less-than-prepared for the new era of the sport.
He has spent multiple weekly press conferences whining about Oregon and Ohio’s supposed $20 million rosters and whether other teams are trying to tempt his players into the transfer portal—on top of often defending his bad play calls.
There is an open scramble for power in college football and the Huskies are currently stuck with this dude:
All of that is very existential, Big Picture stuff, but it has surely translated into immediate on-the field problems for the Puppies.
They just benched their QB, Will Rogers (#7), and could very likely be stepping into Autzen Stadium with a true freshman signal-caller, Demond Williams Jr. (#2).
Williams has played in spurts all year long—usually in running and/or option situations—but he has recently played the second halves in their loss to State Penn and in their most recent win over UCLA.
He was actually pretty dynamic in that UCLA game. The Husky offense almost looked like it had been given new life under his mobile, energetic leadership.
But while Demond gives them a shot of enthusiasm and some upside on the ground, they would be sacrificing Will Rogers’ five years of college football experience and nearly 15,000 career passing yards.
Williams hasn’t yet proven that he has the arm to fully utilize their talented receivers like Denzel Boston (#12) and Giles Jackson (#5)—which they will likely need to have big days if they want to have any hope of competing with us.
So, unfortunately for Husky fans, they are once again at the mercy of Jedd Fisch’s decision-making.
Will he start the spunky, run-happy freshman and build for the future? Or should he ride the veteran pocket passer who’ll be more prepared for the hostile atmosphere?
Oregon will be ready to face either (or both), but regardless, Washington is severely under-talented on the offensive line and they’ll have a hard time protecting any quarterback for very long.
Our d-line should push them around and our linebackers will match up pretty evenly with Coleman out of the backfield. I think that’s a recipe for one of the most aggressive blitzing games in Tosh Lupoi’s coaching career.
And that’ll be true with or without Jordan Burch, because Matayo Uiagalelei currently has 8.5 sacks on the season (the UO record is 13.0) and he’s been charging up for a game just like this.
Our defense will handle its business like it has all year, but it’s our possibly-still-Tez-less offense that has been keeping me up at night.
Without Tez—whose status is still yet to be fully settled, despite his “He’s Back” Instagram post—the whole unit has struggled mightily.
Ideally the bye week has been a good time for us to come up with solutions, but the fact that we have been so adrift without him against has been a little bit of a red flag.
Maybe it won’t be as big of a problem tomorrow, but every subsequent game gets bigger and bigger from there, so if we can manage step away with an improved outlook about our offense in any way, I’ll consider that a win.*
*I’ll also consider a win to be a win.
Look, I hate the Huskies, but its hard to sit here and tell you that I’m 100% focused on this game right now.
Canzano and Softy both think Dan Lanning wants to make this a bloodbath, but I personally don’t think Dan really cares about that part of it.
Sure, I have my own feelings about him being 0-3 against the Huskies, but he has his sights set on all the Big Picture stuff. He’s the anti-Jedd.
And tomorrow’s game really feels less about tomorrow and more about the stark differences in this rivalry right now versus where it stood just a year ago.
UDub might have won the two biggest games in the history of Oregon-Washington, but will that be enough to sustain them?
Because we know all too well that even a 12-year winning streak can have a short shelf life if things go too South too quick.
And much like the power dynamic between these two teams, I think things are heading South.
38-14, Good Guys.
Go Ducks.
Oh and Fisch is a bitch!
Good article. Hope we get them early and enjoy the beatdown in the second half. Would be fine if Tez and Burch rested one more week. No rain is awesome! See you tomorrow. Huck the Fuskies!!