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April 1, 2025 • 18 mins
Christian Caple from On Montlake joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain at UW Spring practice to talk about the program entering the 2025 season, Demond Williams, the skill players at receiver and running back, injuries right now, their NIL situation, and his site.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we are back here inside Husky Stadium, day

(00:02):
one of Husky spring Ball. I'd like to say the
pads are popping, but that'd be a lie. There'll be
no pads popping until at least Saturday. Here at you
dub the guys are at today. Offense is in the
dempsee defenses out here inside Husky Stadium and joining us
right now on the radio show. He's back from on Montlink.
Where the hell you've been? Christian Caple with us on

(00:24):
the show.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
How are you? Man?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
I'm good. You know where I've been.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
I know where you've been. I know the shackles are off,
the binds have been released. It's good to have you
back with us here on the radio show. And I mean,
why don't we first of all, because honestly, it's been
a while since we've had you on the air, and
there's been a lot that's gone down since we last
spoke to you on the air. Man, what do you
make of just the last year and a half, two
years of Husky football?

Speaker 4 (00:48):
Man, that's hard to get your head around it. I've
been saying. I launched my site March second, twenty twenty three. Yep,
I think the next twelve months were pretty indisputably like
the busiest pretty good news worth a year in the
history of the program, good and bad. I mean, they
went one fourteenth Strake Games, made a national championship game,
then lost their head coach four days later, and lost

(01:08):
an athletic director and two athletic directors in there somewhere,
and you know, change conferences, which was I guess significant,
kind of a big deal.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
They talk about it a little bit around here.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
So yeah, it's it's an evolving landscape college sports.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
I've heard that a few times.

Speaker 5 (01:23):
Well, stability, Let's talk stability. I mean, obviously it was
at a low level for obvious reasons last year. What
is the level of stability with this coaching staff and
with this roster going into this season.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Yeah, it feels a lot more stable in some ways.
The head coach and several of the assistants are the same,
and the culture is the same. But they also still
turn over half the roster from last season, brought in
another forty new guys, fifteen transfers, big twenty twenty five
recruiting class. Most of them are already on campus and
practicing this spring right behind us. But it does you know,

(01:58):
it doesn't feel new, right, everything that they talk about,
we're listening to the same head coach at least. And
you know, they had to hire some new assistants, had
to hire a new defensive coordinator, a new safety's coach,
new linebackers coach. So nothing ever stays totally constant, but
it does feel a little more stable.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
See.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, there's there's no question about that with all the coaches,
with Carol Belichick and those guys all moving on.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
But like, I mean, what what what do we have
here in Jedfish?

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Like we just aired a conversation that I had with
him stopped in his office on the way to practice today,
and I said, look, you know, you're kind of ready
to plan a flag and stop.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
With the moving trucks and the moving vans.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
And I mean, of course he said yes, he's like
I said, no, I'll be gone after the year's over, right,
But do we have a guy who was ready to
kind of put that vagabond reputation behind him a little
bit and kind of hang.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Out here for a while.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
You think I have no idea?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:44):
I mean, I just who's to say anymore? Ye I'd
have thought, you know, Caitlin de Boor kind of struck
you like that kind of guy. At the same time,
not surprised he left for a job like Alabama. But
I think what they have is a head coach who
seems fully invested right here, right now, sure, who knows
who he is and knows how he wants to run
a program and has some proof of concept right it.

(03:05):
Took over the worst program in all of Power five,
one of the worst programs in all of FBS when
he got there, and they won ten games by his
third season, got these guys to a Bowl game last
year with a depleted roster from a program that had
made a national championship game. I think you have reason
to feel like they can take a step from there.

(03:25):
If they win eight games this year, nine whatever it
looks like, feels like they're building and just listening to
the way he talks about the program, watching the way
he's built the roster, watching the way he's built the
player personnel staff, and the way they approach recruiting in
the portal, and everything you can tell he knows how
he wants to do it well.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
The expectations would be certainly different had you scored on
the last play against Wazoo. Had you made one field
goal against Rutgers, Had you scored on the last play
in the Sun Bowl. I know there's a lot of
ifs there, but it's only three plays. Basically, what are
the expectations for this team going to twenty twenty five?
Had you gone nine and.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Four instead of six and seven?

Speaker 5 (04:06):
So I think maybe the expectations are healthy going into
this year. Maybe because you went six and seven instead
of nine and four last year.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
I think so.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
And you know, I think those losses you mentioned Washington
State Rutgers in Louisville, that's the hallmark of a team
that isn't there yet, right right, using those close games,
committing was it eighteen penalties in the Apple Cup and
all of the chances they threw away against Rutgers, Like,
that's a team that goes six and six, right, But
at the same time they find a way to get
one last pass rush on Miller Moss to pull out

(04:35):
the USC game and get a couple big turnovers in
the fourth quarter to beat Michigan here.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
And so I think.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
At the end of the day, about five hundred is
what they were and what they were gonna be. You
look at this year's schedule eight and four jumps out
to me is perfectly reasonable. And I think if you
can get to November with two or three losses, you
can feel like, hey, with a great month against some
pretty tough teams, you got a chance to at least
be in the playoff conversation if you can get there
with that record.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, I just think being the conversation, right, I mean,
it's the same thing for me as it was in
the Pac twelve, being the Rose Bowl conversation every November first.
If you're in the playoff conversation on November first, I
think for these guys, that'd be a win. But Christian
caple with us from on Montlake. So what do they
have in Demon Williams? Right? I mean, Dick has talked
about the Heisman putting him in New York City, Uh,
to be fair to him. In his defense, the head

(05:20):
coach has also said that too, And I don't know
if I've ever heard a head coach talk about a
quarterback Christian the way Jed Fish has talked about DeMont Williams.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Even when Will Rogers was here, he was talking.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
About DeMont Williams and the future and handing the job
over to him is if there's going to be no competition,
and he mentioned the h Larady mentioned New York City.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
What do you think we have? What does you do
have have in DeMont Williams.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
I think he's really good. I think he can be
that kind of player. You know, he started two games
in they're zero to two in those games, so you
want to pump the brakes a little bit. But he's
shown every skill. Right, He's not just mobile, he's legitimate,
like you hear Jimmy Doherty say yesterday, legitimately fast.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
He threw him the ball in the slot.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
As a receiver, you'd say, oh, that receiver can really run, right,
that running back can really run. But he's a true
quarterback as well. Three for three d and seventy four
yards and the Sun Bowl. Played spot duty here and
there last year and completed what's seventy eight percent of
his passes or something like that. So you know, we
saw I think a nice deep ball from him last spring,
last training camp when he was getting reps in between

(06:23):
with and behind Will Rogers. So you know you need
to develop the offensive line in front of him. That's
going to be a storyline until it's not. I think
you need to minimize the number of hits he takes.
He's did a pretty admirable job of popping up. Yeah,
all those sacks, no doubt getting popped down the field
and everything, but those are going to take their toll
if you don't mitigate that out a little bit. So

(06:43):
I think he has all the trades, he has all
the skills. Now you need to make sure that you're
stout around him and that he continues to develop in
some of those areas, like learning how to not take sacks.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Let me follow up that because this guy right here
just said last segment, Huskies have a great wide receiver corps,
A compliment him on Williams.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
They I think that's tbd whether it's great. I think
Denzel Boston can be really good. I think Omari Evans
probably is in an offense that's gonna give him more
opportunities than what he got at Penn State. Certainly they
don't really utilize their wide receivers a ton, you know
they I think they signed a freshman class with some

(07:20):
guys who have a lot of promise. If you have
of them who are here now, Raydon Vines, Bright, Chris Lawson,
who got our first look at Marcus Harris Kevin Green
junior they were excited about last year before he got hurt.
Audrick Harris Rashid Williams is a guy they mentioned. So
I think there's a handful of younger guys there with promise,
with potential. The spring is going to be important, I
think for bringing those guys along and really seeing Okay,

(07:42):
you know, do you have two, three, four guys you
feel really good about and trust a lot around him Onwell?

Speaker 5 (07:47):
Yeah, I just think you have one rock solid guys guy,
but you've got like six or seven options and you
only need like two of them to hit. Out of
six or seven, I think you got six or seven
really good options. We can debate the word great on
the wide receivers. I personally don't think we can beat
debate the word great on the running backs.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
I just think I just think those two dudes are special.

Speaker 5 (08:07):
What do you think?

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (08:08):
I think be a lot of years where a sophomore
Adam Muhammad is probably your starting tailback and you feel
good about it. You know, getting Jonah Coleman back was huge.
You saw what he was capable of last year. You know,
all anyone talked about all season was this offensive line
and gosh, what are they're going to be able to
hold up? And they are a couple of years away
from being stable there and they still managed to have

(08:28):
a thousand yard back. So I think that says a
lot about him. And you know, the way these coaches
have talked about Adam Muhammad, I'm very curious to see
him step more into that running back two role this year.
How many carries are you going to try to give
that guy per game? That's a nice asset to have.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well, there's a reason why Cam Davis quit right because
of a guy like Adam Muhammad. But Christian Cable's with
us from en Mottlake, and I mean, like everything we're
talking about here, Like if you just turned in mid
segment here, you think, man, these guys are talking about
a pretty damn good college football team. They're all happy,
they're positive, there's a lot of good stuff going on.
But yet eight and four, why can't they be ten
and two or eleven and one. I mean, what's what's

(09:03):
gonna keep this team from doing something like that?

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Well, Ohio State and Oregon are on the schedule. They
got to come here, which they have lost here as
a long time. We'll see, we'll see.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
I read Motley, Yeah you did double check your mask.
I saw an.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Article there got to go to Wisconsin. That's gonna be tough.
And you know everyone's looking at the trenches, right. You
saw the offensive line last year. I think it maybe
it was overshadowed. I think just how many more bigger
bodies they needed on the defensive line, and they accomplished
some of that in the portal, at least going out
and getting personnel, bringing in guys who have played like

(09:39):
Ontario Thompson and Samote Pepa. And if you can get
Javon Parker healthy by the opener, that's somebody who looked
like he was really coming on last year when he
got hurt. So I think until they answer some question
marks in the trenches, I'm I'm gonna be a little
wait and see. In terms of talking about could just
be a nine or ten win.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
I'm with you. How about injuries?

Speaker 5 (09:58):
You wrote about it yesterday Ephesians Denzel ZRs.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Can we call him ZRs?

Speaker 5 (10:05):
I think that is except for rainy cell, we had
a z we had AZTF.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
How about a ZRs? Right?

Speaker 5 (10:09):
So how about some of those pivotal guys are do
we anticipate all of them being ready for for fall ball.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
It definitely doesn't sound like there's much concern around Boston
or Price Sock. That was residual from last season clean
up stuff where you know there's just no reason to
press it this spring. And the fact that Fish said
they could maybe even get him back by the end
of April. I don't know if that's actually gonna happen,
but that he's even mentioning it makes me feel like
fall camp's probably fine.

Speaker 5 (10:33):
Well, he's right out there right now, so he's doing something.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Well. Price SoC we're talking about, Yeah, Price Sock.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
Rainy Sally might be a little tougher. I believe that
that ACL was November first, so five months behind him now.
I saw him walking out of the demp seat to
go do some workout stuff with some of the other
injured guys. He's he's up walking around, he's he's participating
in some type of physical activity, which is good. I
think maybe they get him back late fall camp and

(11:02):
you can look at him playing this season. Always tough
to know exactly with an ACL recovery, but sounded like
the optimistic timeline on Javon Parker was maybe the start
of fall camp. You know, that was the very end
of September when he tore his achilles at Rutgers. So
I think if you can get him back at the

(11:23):
start of camp, you feel good about him playing the season.
I think Raindy Salim might be a little bit more
of a wait and see, just because you probably are
talking about getting right up to the start of the
season now.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
So this is a Husky football team Christian Christian cable
with us from mom mattle like, let's just toss out
twenty just get rid of it.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
That in the last one, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight years has had five double digit win seasons and
made the Final four of college football twice and played
for a national championship. That would I say, eight year run?
Can they repeat that in the next eight years in
the Big Ten?

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Just like that?

Speaker 4 (12:00):
I don't see any particular reason why they couldn't. I
think if you recruit the offensive and defensive lines really
well and build it, which I think they're off to
a pretty good start with at least on the offensive side,
with who they brought it in twenty twenty five, Sure.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yeah, why not?

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (12:17):
You know, I think the biggest differenceship.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
The biggest difference would be now you're paying for players
right now, you're now you're looking for a bag of money.
They weren't doing that up until a couple of years ago.
So what's your take on the nil space and where
you dub fits on that hierarchy of nil when it
comes to the Big Ten and the rest of college football.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
I think we need to see how impactful the donor
collectives are still going to be in the house settlement
era when every athletic department can spend twenty point five
million and every football team can spend it'll be thirteen
to sixteen million, fifteen million or so out of their
own athletic department funds, And then how much more above
that is Ohio State going to go? Is Oregon going

(12:55):
to go? Is Alabama going to go? On third party deals?
There's going to be subject to approval by this clearing house,
but we'll see if that holds up in court. There's
a lot of question marks around that. But I I mean,
in theory they're gonna spend the same amount everyone else
is going to spend out of their house settlements.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Sure, sure, but how much more can they raise external
of that.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
I don't think we know yet because I think a
lot of those same people are going to be asked
to be given that money to the athletic department to
fund it, you know, quote unquote legally.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
So what type.

Speaker 5 (13:23):
Offense do you think we're going to see? Because I mean, yeah,
he can chuck it all around, but guy, I love
some read zone with their zone read with him and
Jonah Coleman Man, that seems like unstoppability.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
I think Jeded Fish made pretty clear last year that,
you know, kind of like a lot of their Big
ten opponents, do they really want to be able to
run the ball. And they might not run it as
often as Iowa does, and they have a great quarterback,
so why would you, right, But I think they want
to set the tone physically up front with the running game,
especially when you have two, you know, big kind of

(13:56):
bruiser types. Maybe it's strange to say JOHNA. Coleman's big
because he's five to nine. You've seen him, he's qreat. Sure,
he's a big five nine dude. You want to establish
the tone that way, build play action off of it,
and take deep shots downfield. That's kind of what Jeed
Fish's offense is it's modeled after the forty nine ers,
after the Rams. It's it's an NFL approach. I think
they want to be a team that plays good defense

(14:17):
and runs the ball though.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, yeah, no doubt well, Christian capable with us.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
And before you go, I mean, I've noticed that the
Unmontle like thing is doing pretty well for you, because
you haven't launched like an in Pullman or a near
Eugene or a close to Corvallis yet, so hal of
Husky fans responded honestly to your to your new venture.
Remember you and I were talking after the athletic thing
came to an end, and there was obviously some nerves
there for clear reasons.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
But it looks like you're back on your feet, pal.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, outstandingly.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
Well good good for you. It's been almost overwhelming. I
mean right away the response was amazing. I got lucky.
The timing was incredible. I mean they went to a
national championship game the first season I was in business.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
That's yeh. Can't can't draw it up a whole lot over.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
What's the what's the monthly fee to join?

Speaker 5 (14:59):
Now?

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Again?

Speaker 1 (15:00):
How much there's it's still eight bucks a day eight bucks.
So that's coming from me and Dick. By the way,
just so you know we split it. He can ben
most be four hours every month. Don't be putting food
on your table, don't be humble soft. He's a front
of the program. Ah, I got all that data. I
can't wait for that zoom call right, make an appearance. Man,
All right, good stuff, dude, great to see you. Let's
do it again sooner, right, man? All right, Christian Campbell

(15:22):
with us here on the radio show. And yeah, I
mean look, I think you're you're painting a picture of
a team that obviously has a pretty decent delta of
what's possible.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
I mean eight and four to maybe ten and two.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
If you drop a game you're not supposed to, maybe
you're a seven and five football team. If you win
a game, you shock the ducks here in Seattle, and
all of a sudden you're an eleven and one football
team or something like that.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
But I just think, again, it's not.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
A really unbelievably you know, I'm stinnying, if you will,
opinion on this thing. But if Demon Williams is the
star that everybody thinks he's gonna be, I mean he's
a cheat code, and he's gonna make everybody around him better,
and he's gonna rise this entire thing up and just
make this a championship.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Our football team. Well, I just think part of his schedule.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
I mean, you were the only team in college football
that played three playoff teams on the road last right,
I mean that is as ridiculous as it gets. Right,
And now I know you weren't competitive any of in
any of those games.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
You might get two of them here by the way,
and but yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:15):
But would you take two at home or three on
the road?

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Let me think.

Speaker 5 (16:18):
I mean, so this is I'm gonna be bag dad
Bob for this team until there's a reason for me
not to be back Dad Bob by this team. I
think that there is a real possibility you are playing
Oregon November twenty ninth for a right to go to
the play Wow, I think you are playing.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Now.

Speaker 5 (16:35):
I'm not saying they're gonna win that game, but I'm
saying that they are going to be playing Oregon for
a right to go to the playoffs, which means they're
probably a two lost team right going into that football game,
and a ten and two team in the Big ten
absolutely is in the well.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
It's just all about the trenches for me, man. And
nothing's changed, right, I mean.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Things have changed. They're better. You would think I would,
would they better be? Yeah? If they're not, then they
got a problem. Yeah, I mean what are we doing? Right?

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Went out and brought this guy, you know, he brought
Hatchett back, and they got guys that are coming back
from last season. If as a party doesn't take a step,
and mccred doesn't take a step, and all these guys,
you know, Swanny don't take a step, then yeah, if
they're not better than we got a.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Major issue with the coaching staff, right.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
There's been a lot of talk about the new offensive
line coach as a guy that Jed you know, bumped
up from his own staff, and a lot of people
were barking, including me, about going out and getting Scotty
Huff to come back, which he would have done, by
the way.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
He didn't want to move. He had no desire to move.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
I mean, Scott Huff has been in the Northwest and
his entire coaching playing career, going back to Boise State
and wanted to stay at Washington and didn't get an offer,
and Insteady's with the Rams now coaching tight ends. I
was talking to him the air to day, like, what
do you know about coaching tight ends? I mean, what
the hell you're You're a meat heead, for God's sakes.
But they ignored it and they promoted their own guys.

(17:46):
So I would hope that they're better landing Hatchet being
healthy the entire year. I don't know what gear In
status is going to be. Hopefully he's raided Rock and
be good to go one hundred percent by the first
game of the year.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
But that's just it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Like we talked to with Jed how the question about
the Seahawks or the same questions the Huskies have.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Every fricking year.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
It's unbelievable and now we have, Look, the Huskies quarterback
situation looks to be more stable than the Seahawks quarterback situation.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Guys right now absolutely comparing Demand to Sam Darnals, I
don't think we I mean, I think we like Sam Darnald.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Anybody's confusing him with.

Speaker 5 (18:19):
Patrick Mahomes or jossh Allen And we're talking about Demand
Williams over the next two years to being a household
name in college.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Football, protect them. Then protect them because I agree with
what Christian said. I loved how much he was getting
hit and then popping up.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
On that Oregon game. I don't like the amount of
time she was getting hit. I mean that was ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
You keep doing that and you're gonna get him hurt,
He's gonna get killed. I mean, it's just I'm sorry.
I don't care how good a guy is. We're gonna
break textimonials for forty five, Willner at five. We're at
UW for Day one and spring ball right here on
ninety three three kJ arfm.
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