SEATTLE \u2014 If there\u2019s anything Jedd Fisch has learned heading into his second season as Washington coach, it\u2019s that the Huskies will often have their hands full in the Big Ten. <\/p>\n
Washington received quite the introduction in as much last year, going 4-5 in conference play as part of a 6-7 campaign under the 49-year-old Fisch. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a hard conference. We have really good teams,\u201d Fisch told reporters Tuesday morning. \u201cWe have a lot of big-name programs that have spent years and years building up rosters, coaching staffs, facilities, fan base, etc., to be able to prepare themselves to play in the Big Ten.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the Huskies weren\u2019t quite ready for conference heavyweights like Penn State and Oregon last season, as they lost to both teams by at least four touchdowns. But 18 months removed from being hired as the 31st head coach in Washington history, Fisch is confident in the direction of the program. <\/p>\n
Sophomore quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who appeared in 13 games for the Huskies as a freshman and completed more than 78% of his passes, is slated to be the starter this fall, much to Fisch\u2019s delight. <\/p>\n
Outside of on-field personnel, though, Fisch alluded to some of the changes within the program being beneficial \u2014 like Jimmie Dougherty getting promoted to offensive coordinator, and former Purdue coach Ryan Walters being hired as the new defensive coordinator. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s now nice to feel grounded, and it\u2019s nice to feel like we\u2019re going into year two,\u201d Fisch said. \u201cWe know our team really well. We know our program really well. We understand the community really well. And now, I think we\u2019re at a point where we can really take that next big step.\u201d<\/p>\n
To do so, the Huskies will still have to sort out some position battles over the next month-plus leading up to the season opener Aug. 30 against Colorado State. One position of particular interest is wide receiver, as Fisch stressed the need to figure out a four-man rotation, which he intends to utilize in 2025. <\/p>\n
Fisch said one spot can essentially be set aside for Denzel Boston, who was second on the team in receptions (63) and yards receiving (834) last year. Outside of that, it\u2019s a relatively wide-open competition, featuring the likes of Rashid Williams, Audric Harris, Kevin Greed Jr. and Penn State transfer Omari Evans, among others. <\/p>\n
Fisch also anticipates a good amount of competition in the trenches, describing a \u201cbig battle\u201d looming on the offensive line. He highlighted Paki Finau, Champ Taulealea, John Mills, Zachary Henning, Drew Azzopardi, Carver Willis, Max McCree and both Landen and Geirean Hatchett as linemen to keep tabs on. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking about 10 guys that have had experience, or we believe are at an elite level as a freshman that can go compete immediately to make an impact,\u201d Fisch said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s going to be a lot different look than it was a year ago at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should Fisch have his way, the Huskies will hold up a lot better this fall than they did in 2024. It remains to be seen whether Washington will be able to hang with the bellwether programs on its schedule like Ohio State and Michigan, but Fisch is just grateful his school is in the Big Ten. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a really, really good conference with really, really good coaches, really good administrators,\u201d Fisch said. \u201cWe have a commissioner (Tony Petitti) that understands how to take us to the next level. So, we\u2019re really positioned exceptionally well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 If there\u2019s anything Jedd Fisch has learned heading into his second season as Washington coach, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[41907,318,331,7,49,48,2309],"class_list":{"0":"post-246805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-audio_enabled","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-college-football","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114939675708402028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}