January 9, 2026 • 33 mins
Washington Huskies football Head Coach Jedd Fisch joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the entire Demond Williams situation this week from beginning to end including why he left, why he came back, the learning elements involved, and his team.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now back to football Friday, sponsored by Tito's headmate Vodka
on your home for the UNFL Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Radio ninety three point three kjr FL.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Alright, boys and girls, back here on a Friday afternoon,
right here on ninety three to three kJ ARFM Safty,
Dick Jackson with you until seven o'clock tonight.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
What do you say we head over to Mott Lake?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Joining us right now on the radio show the head
coach of the Dogs, Jed Fish Jed Good, afternoon, how.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
Are you hell? Let's offee? How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I'm good. I apologize for the phone call here. I
know it's been a quiet, relaxing couple of days for
you guys over there at you dub so. I apologize
for the for the interruption, but why don't we you
just start there? Coach, it's been a crazy few days,
I know for everybody there, crazy for us as fans
here on the air obviously, How would you characterize the
(00:56):
last forty eight seventy two hours that you've been through?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Yeah, you know, it's been a it's been a really
interesting learning experience the last really, I guess since January second,
and probably before that when the portal opened. But even
really since our season ended, trying to retain a team,
(01:22):
dealing with a lot of contract stuff that I've never
dealt with before at this level. There's been a ton
of communication with agents recently, and it's been a wild
month or whatever it's been, I guess from December thirteenth on,
and then it kind of culminated this week with a
very interesting week of learning.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
Well, a week ago, we were all excited. We saw
that Demon Williams signed his deal to come back. Husky
Nation was fired up, and then you know, kind of
all hell broke lose. Can you shed some light, coach
on what happened between that day that Demand signed as
an I'll deal with you guys in the day.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
He was saying he was leaving less than a week later.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Yeah, I you know, I think I can. I'd say, well,
the good part is the you know, the excitement and
the energy of a week ago. You know, we're a
week later and I'm really all we've done is improved
the team since then, and with Demand's return back, the
quality of the team and the quality of the players
(02:29):
is just continuing to improve. You know, they're obviously what
was the situation where you know, a few days back
that we were dealing with a discussion whether or not
the mom was going to return here or choose to
to try to go elsewhere. Uh. Initially, obviously he chose
(02:50):
to return here. It was very excited about it. And
then you know posted that he was, you know, potentially
going to try to leave. And then over the last
forty eight to seventy two hours after that, after a
lot of conversations and a lot of communication and education
and understanding the new wave of college football, we all
(03:13):
came to a really good agreement where the best thing
for Demand, the best thing for Washington, and the best
thing for all of college football was for Demand to
be the quarterback here for his third season in a row. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Well, Jed Fisher is with So, Jed, were you aware
going into Tuesday night that he was going to announce
that he planned to enter the transfer portal?
Speaker 5 (03:42):
No, No, that was no, There was no part of
that that I was expecting. We had some great conversations
when the season came to an end. In the new
age of college football, and a third of the team,
a third of teams, not all our team, but a
third of teams have been entering into the portal. I
(04:03):
think there's thousands and thousands of guys that have gone on.
You have conversations with every member of your team and
you talk to them about the future, and you talked
about why being here is so important and why we
believe we built such an incredible foundation. So you have
those conversations up through that final day where they click
on you know, their their DOCU sign or their agent
(04:25):
approves their final deal, and when that happened, the traditionally,
you've now gotten to a point where you move on
to the next player or you bring in the next
member of the portal. You know, we brought in about
ten players since the season ended to join the team.
So yeah, I was surprised about what occurred on I
(04:45):
believe it was Tuesday, but also encouraged with all of
the conversations that we had between Tuesday and last night
to put everybody you know, at ease and to really
talk about the future and how we were going to
really set Washington up for what hopefully will be a
(05:06):
great run this season.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, Jed fish with us, and Jed surprising for me,
not from your perspective, but from Demand's perspective that he
would not have even made you aware that that post
was going out on Tuesday night? Do you do you
believe do you have reason to believe there was tampering
with demand from another university between Friday and Tuesday.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Oh, I don't know, and I really don't want to,
you know, get into that, the tampering or the discussions
of the communication. I know there's everybody wants to be
involved in those, and I kind of tend not to
want to be involved in those. I'd prefer much more
to be involved in talking about, you know, what a
(05:50):
what a good football team I think we're going to have.
I think I want to get involved in being able
to help and educate our kids on you know, the
decisions they make, the consequence is that we have and
then you know how to be able to overcome some
consequences and also continue to become great communicators. And really,
(06:10):
my job as a college football coach is to educate
eighteen to twenty two year olds and twenty three year olds.
And I've learned a ton over the last seventy two
ninety six hours. I've also learned a ton over the month,
and to be honest with you, I've learned a ton
over the year. And I'm looking forward to sharing and
being able to help our kids grow and be a
(06:32):
better football team, have a more trusting relationships with all
of us, have an incredible bond as a program, and
see what type of team we can put out there
in August. But we got eight months of work to
be able to get to where we want to be.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
Coach, I'm sure you reached out to him right away
after being stunned by that announcement. What was his reasoning
that he gave you on that Tuesday that he wanted
to leave.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Think the conversations that we had, I feel like those
are really important that we say, uh, that's staves between us.
I think as most kids in this new era of football,
you know, they're learning, they're they're trying to understand, They're
trying to figure out what does this all look like?
(07:23):
What is what is it that I signed up for?
What is it that we're living in right now? You
start hearing about the craziness of so many different places,
so many different kids, and you know, I think for us,
he and I had a conversation about what we both
(07:43):
thought was best, and then it took the forty eight
you know, hours or so to really land where we
felt the plane should be landed. And I think over
those forty hours, we both agreed that the plane should
be landed at Skak and we should be able to
(08:04):
really learn, be able to educate the rest of our
team about what happened, be able to understand the value
of time and timing, and then also be able to
talk through how we can really make this a stronger
team because of what occurred.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, well, Jeed Fish is with us on the radio show,
and Jed, look, you're I know, keenly aware of the
reaction to this by the Husky fan base.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
And I've been.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Covering this thing for over thirty years and I've never
seen the fan base fractured like this.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
We ran a poll on social media.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Seven thousand people voted seventy percent to thirty percent against
wanting him to come back. For the fans out there
that don't trust him on Williams and don't want him
representing you up anymore, what do you say to those fans?
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Yeah, you know, I saw you saw your posts when
you said in thirty two years, you've never seen this,
I think it's because in thirty two years, we've never
had this. In college football. This is a completely new world.
This is the very first year in all of college
football that there's been revenue share agreements between university and
(09:18):
between student athletes. This is the very first year that,
after all of these years where the kids really got
a scholarship, are now talking about sharing in twenty plus
million dollars through the television and multimedia rights marketing deals
that have been going on. So it is brand new,
(09:40):
and I think our fans, our coaches, our families are
all learning about the newness of college football. And I
think we really are working to learn about how close
it's becoming to pro football. And I'm not going to
compare it to you know, when there's a player that
missed as a mini camp, or a player that then
(10:01):
shows up for their first veteran you know camp and
then everything is all well and good, or a player
that wants to hold out and then comes back, or
whatever it might be. I think we're just learning college
football is unique. It's new in twenty twenty six, and
all of us are learning how to navigate it the
best way possible.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Do you have any though, Jed specific message to the
fans that are turned off by this?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Yeah, I mean my specific message would be this, give
us eight months. The first game is not until September.
We are going to work extremely hard as a football
team to continue to be a part of this community
and to reach out and to be in the forefront
(10:53):
and to show the type of guys that we have
brought in here and that we will continue to bring
in here. We have nine months. We're not playing our
first game next Saturday. As a matter of fact, you know,
we're going to be at the team rooting for the
Seahawks next weekend. And as that continues on, I think
our fans will beginning to see what went on in
(11:14):
all of college football this year. This was certainly the
first time we saw a head coach leave a CFT
team and go to another team during the season. This
is the first time that we've seen many many things
that have occurred in college football. These are a lot
of firsts, and I hope that our fans understand their
fans of the University of Washington. They're fans of, you know,
(11:37):
this institution, the greatest setting in college football, the greatest
you know what I believe is one of the greatest
programs in college football. It's why I'm here It's why
I wanted to stay here, regardless of rumor, regardless of
what people thought. I love the fact that I get
to coach at the University of Washington, and I hope
that our fans recognize them believe in what we're trying
(11:59):
to get done here.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
Coach, can you shed some light on the emotions that
the team has gone through the last week and how
worried are you about team chemistry. How much of a
struggle do you think it will be for Demand to
assimilate back with his teammates.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
I think that's really important for the team to to
figure out that themselves. This isn't something that has gone
on for weeks or months. This isn't something that has
you know, been a you know, a contractual holdout that
we're you know concerned in this period of time where,
(12:38):
oh my god, we've been away from the team for
so long. I mean, this has been a couple of
days and now when he returns, the teammate and Demand,
I'm sure we'll have numerous conversations. It's important that we
all recognize how we can learn from this. Our team
is really full of character and integrity. We really believe
(13:00):
in doing the right thing. We're also as me as
the head coach, our assistant coaches are players. We're all learning,
and we're all trying to get better and better and better.
And it's my hope that I can be better in
twenty six than I was in twenty five. It's my
hope that our whole team feels the same.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Way Jetfish is with us on the radio show and Jed.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
There's a thought I think that some people in the media,
some fans have that Demand came back because he had
to that the temperature, the financials on a team that
would have taken him were just too much to handle
and he really had no choice but to return to Washington.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
What do you say to people that have that belief?
Speaker 5 (13:38):
What I would say is every conversation that I had
with Demand regarding his return was one in which that
he was excited to lead this team. It was one
in which that he was excited to be able to compete,
to be in the CFP. As he was seeing the
additions of our team and the amount of players that
(14:00):
were returning, which we're really proud of. I think he
was really exciting about and is really excited about surrounding
himself with such talent and the you know, whatever perception
is out there, I believe the most important thing is
what they believe in the locker room. And I think
I'm going to leave it up to the players to
(14:21):
really work together to what would be building a championship
culture and a championship season.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
Well, DeMont speak to the fan base through the media
and if so, Whin.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
I'm sure at some point in time, Demand is the
starting quarterback. And you know, your starting quarterback has always
been put in front of the media and has always
been somebody that has represented our program. And he has
done that with class over the twenty four months he's
(14:58):
been here. We're right now currently dealing with a situation
where he's nineteen and I want Demand to continue to learn. Obviously,
you saw on his post how apologetic he was in
terms of the timing of the post. I spoke with
coach Vandyke myself today. I apologized on behalf of Washington football.
(15:25):
In the end, I'm the forty nine year old, I'm
the head coach. I'm responsible for our program. I have
reached out to both me as mom and dad, and
I want to make sure that they understand that one
had nothing to do with the other and while the
timing we all wish was different, I can promise you
(15:49):
from my conversations a Demand, there was zero intent at
all to take anything away from that service.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, Jeed fishes with us, and Jed you mentioned a
couple of times now that your conversations with Demand. I
think it's like a forty eight hour period right from
from Tuesday night until yesterday, led you.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
To believe that he was bought in, that he wants
to be here.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And I mean, look, we're not privy to those conversations obviously,
so we're almost like relying on you to trust that
you're hearing what you need to hear, that this guy
is loyal now to this program, that this is not
going to be a problem, either on the field or
off the field.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Can you, maybe if you can, in detail.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Share a thought or two on what you heard from
Demand Williams that makes you feel comfortable bringing him back.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
One of the most important thing that I had to
hear is that I want to come back and at
you know, at nineteen years old. I think that he
and I had a great conversation about speaking regards of
like how do we learn from this, how do we
get better, you know, one of the and I don't
want to get into the details of all of our conversations,
(16:58):
but one of the biggest parts of it was a
learning experience. And I think that as we saw that
Demon really believes that he wants to be He's an
outstanding academic student and wants to be a part of
the University of Washington that on that level. And on
the same token, he's coming off of a nine win
season and wants to be a part of the twelve
(17:20):
win season plus next year. So when he told me
he wants to come back, and he wants to lead
this football program, and he wants to do everything he
possitbly can to help us win every game we're going
to compete in. I have to believe that I've known
demand for four and a half years.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Well, you said, Jed a couple of times that you've
learned a couple things in just the last couple of days.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
What have you learned?
Speaker 5 (17:46):
I learned that it's my responsibility as the head coach
of you know, close to one hundred and five eighteen
to twenty three year olds, that the communication of you know,
the decision to commit, the decision to be a part
(18:06):
of the program, the communication factor of explaining to these
kids that what they're going to hear and what they're
going to see might not always be true, helping these
guys understand that it's really important to you know, to
make sure that you do what you say. I've talked
(18:30):
to these guys, and I've learned that I need to
do a better job and will continue to do a
better job of continuing to educate the team on twenty
twenty six college football in comparison to what twenty twenty
four to five was, and really what I want to
do is I want to make sure that these kids
all know that I love them, that I believe in
(18:51):
our team, and that what has gone on over the
course of a week or a month or two months,
these kids have been you know, punctioned them mouth a
few times with a lot of rumors of a lot
of different things that have you know, and I want
to make sure that our guys know that we're all
committed for two thousand.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
Coach, you used the term that you got to the
point where you agreed to land the plane back at
SeaTac tell us a little bit more about the tenor
of that conversation was it more of you convincing him
that that was the best place for him, or demand
kind of realizing that, oh man, I screwed up here.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
I think that once again, guys, you know, I want
to make sure that I that I respect the confidentiality
and the privacy of the relationship. But I would just
tell you that we had a lot of conversations for weeks.
I've had conversations with numerous players on our football team
(19:48):
for weeks about the program and where they want to
be and what do they want to be a part of.
And as we continue to talk about everything that we
have going on here and how special so of a
program we believe, and how we believe so much in
our fan base and in our alumni support, how we
believe that we can be one of the top programs
(20:09):
in many areas, not just football, but we can also
you know, lead the country at some point in time
here in an I l and lead the country sometime
here and getting our community back behind us and lead
the country and academics, and we believe in what we're doing.
So our conversations were what can we do together to
help both of us and our entire football team achieve
(20:32):
our dreams, and I think we felt at the end
that the same thing we felt the week before, which
was when he signed when he signed his contract, which was,
you know, let's go do this thing.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Yeah, well, Jed, before you go, I mean, I'm just
assuming this is gonna be a pretty busy offseason for you,
my friend. I mean, you've got a lot of stuff
going on internally now that you never maybe thought you
would have had to have dealt with with some fence
mending with the guys potentially of the soccer team, the fans,
the media, and you got to figure out how to
knock off some of these premier clubs, right, I mean,
just go back to what you saw from Demand Williams
(21:08):
a year ago against Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon teams like that.
Winning cures a lot of this man. You know that
as well as anybody. You're not naive. You know that
that this team starts getting some big wins and people
will forgive and forget very fast. So tell us about
what you think you can get done this offseason to
(21:28):
see some better numbers and some victories against the top
teams on your schedule.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Yeah, I appreciate the football place, man, you want to
get at your segment.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Second, you're ball, Let's go man.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
You know, I feel like wetaspot. You know, we made
a six game jump to six wins to nine wins.
You know, as I mentioned before, we were at Arizona,
we went from one win to five win to ten wins.
You know, we're going into our year three. We've got
the same offensive system, We've got the same defensive system.
We finished in the top twenty in scoring offense and
(22:02):
top twenty in scoring defense. We did a lot of
great things in a lot of games, and then we
had a you know, some games where we've noticed that
you look at this, you know, the Michigan game, the
Ohio State game, the Oregon game, and even the Wisconsin game.
You could see there's certain games in this conference that
are going to be you know, low scoring games. I
(22:24):
think we saw the Big Ten championship game was thirteen
to ten. We saw that. You know, there's been games
that the the Miami Ohio State game or whatever it was,
I forget what it was a week ago or so
when Ohio State lost you know whoever. It's like these
games that are being played are a little bit more
low scoring in this conference. And what we've got to
(22:46):
do is we've got to win that low scoring game.
We can't just win the high scoring game. So we're
gonna spend a lot of time talking about that fourth
quarter of football. We're going to really invest in the
physicality and the toughness of our program. Our offseason training
is going to be one in which we're gonna ratchet
it up one more notch. We believe that the fourth
quarter of games. We've had some great fourth quarters, but
(23:09):
in the in our four losses, we lost the fourth
quarter all though those were one score games in the
fourth nineteen to fourteen, fourteen to six, seven all fourteen
to seven, and then ten all And those four games,
we got to find a way to win the final
ten minutes, and that will be our focus the whole offseason.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
I got a football question to wrap things up to coach.
When you see these teams playing last night and tonight,
what's the main difference you see between your roster and
what those look like right now?
Speaker 5 (23:39):
I think the most important thing I see is that
we're very close. The second thing that I see is
that you gotta be You got to win in the
trenches and when you come out to our first print practice.
You'll see how much bigger we even got from last
year to this year, and the jump that we made
from year two to year three. All of these teams
that are playing right now, you could see the violence
(24:03):
and the physicality that they play with the offensive line,
the defensive line, the linebackers, and that's what I'm most
proud of.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, Jed, before you go, I got one more for him,
all right? And I know that you're like, you gotta
be kidding me, man, I thought we were done. I
thought I was off the hook here we're talking football.
But let me wrap it up where we started with
Demon Williams because you, yeah, exactly. You mentioned that he
will talk eventually. We all hope that happens sooner than later.
(24:30):
I mean, I'd like him to be prepared for that obviously,
So I'm certain that's what's happening behind the scenes. But
do you feel like there's a little something extra that
he needs to do to earn the trust back of
not just this fan base but also the university. There's
been some ideas kicked around donating money to the hospital
and honor AMA, doing some maybe longer form, in person
(24:52):
interviews with people. Roy Firestone style, if you will, to
get all these questions that need to be asked asked
so we can all move. Do you think he's got
to maybe do a little bit of extra work here
over this offseason to earn that trust back.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Here that I would say to that it's a situation
where somebody is telling him to do those things, then
I don't I don't think that anybody would be happy.
I think this is whatever Demand really believes that he
can do, whether it be I mean you mentioned a
donation or whatever it might be. I don't want to
(25:29):
tell somebody what to do. What I want Demand to
do is I want to Mond to continue to grow,
to mature and to be comfortable. He is, you know,
he is someone that is learning how to be a pro.
And I think that over time he's going to continue
to learn and get better and appreciate so many things.
(25:49):
And I really hope that over these six months that
ourn't fan base and you and the media and everybody
involved understand that really what we're talking about is for
a two day spam, we had a player that decided to,
you know, make a decision to kind of learn about
the college landscape in a manner that. I don't think
(26:11):
he ever felt he would have had to learn. And
now we all have learned a ton about college football,
and I hope we're all better because of what we learned.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah, all right, listen, thanks for doing this. Let's do
it again very soon, and next time you come on.
I promise it'll be ninety eight percent football talk.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
How's that?
Speaker 5 (26:29):
I will accept ninety eight percent football talk anytime?
Speaker 3 (26:34):
All right, Jed, thanks for jaying though, I appreciate it.
All right, jet fish with us. We're gonna break come back,
respond to that. Millan's got to take on that. I
know as well. Here he's going to hop on at
four o'clock.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I don't know. I think we might just need to
keep the segment open.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Guys, next segment, I we'll figure something else out with
that other guest we had planned next on ninety three
three KJRFM.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Now back to football frond Age sponsored by Tito's hand
Made Vodka on your Home for the Sports Radio ninety
three point three.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
We're right now currently dealing with a situation where he's
nineteen and I want demon to continue to learn. Obviously,
you saw on his post how apologetic he was in
terms of the timing of the post.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, it was interesting to hear Jetfish say he apologized
directly to Nicole Vandyke women's soccer coach over there. That
was obviously a major thing on Tuesday night when the
story came out. And if you missed Jetfish, by the way,
we're going to see you again coming up at six
pm tonight. By the way, you're gonna want to hear
the entire interview with the head coach of the Dogs.
But Sofia Dick Jackson with the Humil will join us
(27:44):
at four. Kevin Harlan's coming up at five today. But
he mentioned the word to educate the team a couple
of times on a lot of stuff, And I think
what he meant by that, if I'm just reading the
tea leaves, is educating them on not only what went
down with Demon and how this whole thing happened. For example,
I'll just kind of throw this out there, if Demon
(28:05):
was influenced by outside sources, not talking about his agent,
Doug Hendrickson, because his agent's already dropped him, by the way,
if he was influenced by his father, if he was
influenced by somebody else. This landers character that Petedamil's been
kicking around. I want Jetfish to let the guys know
that this is what happened. We got a nineteen year
(28:25):
old quarterback and nineteen year old kid. I would go
directly to some of the older guys on the team,
including the Hatchet brothers by the way, and talk to
them as twenty two to twenty three year olds and say, hey,
this kid was influenced by these guys and he made
a stupid decision and he made the wrong call. And
then I think he's also educating the guys on hey,
when you sign an NIL deal and a revenue shared deal,
(28:45):
this is what happens, right. I mean, you saw Dellinger's
report that came out the other day that whoever signed
Demon Williams would have had to have paid Washington the
value of the contract, which we've heard is anywhere between
four and five million dollars, and they would have had
that amount of money deducted from their revenue share pool,
and then they would have had to have gone out
(29:06):
and spent more money on nil what they're collective to
get him. So I'm wondering, Dick, if Washington just showed
the country you signed he got to an NIO deal.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
He's done.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
He's done because the price that you pay financially on
the other side is not going to be worth it.
So I think he wants his kids to know that.
I think he wants his kids to know why Deman
did what he did and why he was influenced to
do it.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
Yeah, it's interesting because we felt like this was going
to be an earth shattering story when we thought that
Demon was going to leave and that it would change
the rules in college football. Well, now that he's coming back,
it might just enforce the rules in college football, and it.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
May be an earth shattering situation.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
But I mean, as much as we would all love
for Jed to just talk about everything in detail of
what he said with Demon Williams, he can't do that.
I mean, he's got to be protective of his kid.
I I thought he was protective him and thought he
was fatherly of him. And honestly, wouldn't you like to
be a player that plays for a coach like that
(30:09):
that knows when you screw up this badly?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, he's still gonna have your back.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Right Well, you know, look, I mean, I I'll be
honest with you. When we asked Jed about does Demand
need to do anything extra behind the scenes we talked
about I think it was your idea, Jackson, or somebody's
idea to make a donation to UDB Hospital and honor
a Mia Hammont, do some long form interviews and things
like that.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
I would have loved personally to have heard.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Jed say, yes, I've got things that we're going to
talk about.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
We're going to work together. We're going to do some
things here.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
We're going to get Demand's ideas, We're going to get
Demond's parents' ideas.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Heck, we might even get the team's ideas and do some.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Stuff to get him back in the good graces of
the community and in the good graces of the program.
I mean, I'm telling you right now, I know absolutely
that he's got some fence mending to do on campus
behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
There's no question about that.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
So from a personal perspective, Jackson, I would have loved
to have heard Jedfish say, yes, there are things that
we're going to do to try as much as we can.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
We're gonna make it genuine right.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
We don't want to just say do this, do this,
do this, but there are things we're gonna do to
try to get to that point.
Speaker 7 (31:18):
You're absolutely right. I couldn't agree with more with anything
you guys have said so far. The thing that I
took is that answer where he says, I don't want
it to be me telling him what to do. I
want to be his idea, right, And you connect that
with the earlier answer that we played kind of coming
in where he talked about how, Yeah, I spoke with Vandyke,
I spoke with you know people I spoke with me
as parents like I I.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I how about demand?
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Right?
Speaker 7 (31:41):
Like you know what like demand? You better be in
touch with that team. You better have these ideas because
that's how you got to you make this ground.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Those are what I would recommend to Demand. Not that
he's listening right now, maybe he is. I will just
tell you this that in this day and age of
college football, the idea of media training, PR training things, fat,
preparing players for interviews and all that. Don't kid yourself,
this is not all on Washington, like they've got a
sports information staff over there.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Players now have their own people.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
They have their own marketing people, they have their own
promotions people, they have their own lawyers, demon's camp and
he's got a camp.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Trust me better, Dan Well, get him prepared.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
If he works with Darren Heidner, who's a lawyer he
signed the other day, same guy that represent Lucas when
he went from Wisconsin to Michigan. I really hope that
his people, whoever they are. I'm not even talking about you,
Dubbs people. I'm talking about his people, get him prepared
to answer those types of questions. And that's gonna be
one of the first questions Jackson Jed Fish himself said
(32:41):
he spoke to me as parents. He said, he spoke
to the cole v and Black Did you talk to them?
Did you reach out? And if he's not prepared for
those questions, that's going to be on him, and that's
going to be on his people that are supposed to
be protecting him and preparing him for whenever that moment comes.
So I hope it happens fast. I hope it happens quick, Dick,
and I really hope he's ready for it. Man, we're
(33:03):
going to break. Hugh Millen is going to join us
next on ninety three three kJ RFM
Now back to football Friday, sponsored by Tito's headmate Vodka
on your home for the UNFL Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Radio ninety three point three kjr FL.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Alright, boys and girls, back here on a Friday afternoon,
right here on ninety three to three kJ ARFM Safty,
Dick Jackson with you until seven o'clock tonight.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
What do you say we head over to Mott Lake?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Joining us right now on the radio show the head
coach of the Dogs, Jed Fish Jed Good, afternoon, how.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
Are you hell? Let's offee? How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I'm good. I apologize for the phone call here. I
know it's been a quiet, relaxing couple of days for
you guys over there at you dub so. I apologize
for the for the interruption, but why don't we you
just start there? Coach, it's been a crazy few days,
I know for everybody there, crazy for us as fans
here on the air obviously, How would you characterize the
(00:56):
last forty eight seventy two hours that you've been through?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Yeah, you know, it's been a it's been a really
interesting learning experience the last really, I guess since January second,
and probably before that when the portal opened. But even
really since our season ended, trying to retain a team,
(01:22):
dealing with a lot of contract stuff that I've never
dealt with before at this level. There's been a ton
of communication with agents recently, and it's been a wild
month or whatever it's been, I guess from December thirteenth on,
and then it kind of culminated this week with a
very interesting week of learning.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
Well, a week ago, we were all excited. We saw
that Demon Williams signed his deal to come back. Husky
Nation was fired up, and then you know, kind of
all hell broke lose. Can you shed some light, coach
on what happened between that day that Demand signed as
an I'll deal with you guys in the day.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
He was saying he was leaving less than a week later.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Yeah, I you know, I think I can. I'd say, well,
the good part is the you know, the excitement and
the energy of a week ago. You know, we're a
week later and I'm really all we've done is improved
the team since then, and with Demand's return back, the
quality of the team and the quality of the players
(02:29):
is just continuing to improve. You know, they're obviously what
was the situation where you know, a few days back
that we were dealing with a discussion whether or not
the mom was going to return here or choose to
to try to go elsewhere. Uh. Initially, obviously he chose
(02:50):
to return here. It was very excited about it. And
then you know posted that he was, you know, potentially
going to try to leave. And then over the last
forty eight to seventy two hours after that, after a
lot of conversations and a lot of communication and education
and understanding the new wave of college football, we all
(03:13):
came to a really good agreement where the best thing
for Demand, the best thing for Washington, and the best
thing for all of college football was for Demand to
be the quarterback here for his third season in a row. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Well, Jed Fisher is with So, Jed, were you aware
going into Tuesday night that he was going to announce
that he planned to enter the transfer portal?
Speaker 5 (03:42):
No, No, that was no, There was no part of
that that I was expecting. We had some great conversations
when the season came to an end. In the new
age of college football, and a third of the team,
a third of teams, not all our team, but a
third of teams have been entering into the portal. I
(04:03):
think there's thousands and thousands of guys that have gone on.
You have conversations with every member of your team and
you talk to them about the future, and you talked
about why being here is so important and why we
believe we built such an incredible foundation. So you have
those conversations up through that final day where they click
on you know, their their DOCU sign or their agent
(04:25):
approves their final deal, and when that happened, the traditionally,
you've now gotten to a point where you move on
to the next player or you bring in the next
member of the portal. You know, we brought in about
ten players since the season ended to join the team.
So yeah, I was surprised about what occurred on I
(04:45):
believe it was Tuesday, but also encouraged with all of
the conversations that we had between Tuesday and last night
to put everybody you know, at ease and to really
talk about the future and how we were going to
really set Washington up for what hopefully will be a
(05:06):
great run this season.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, Jed fish with us, and Jed surprising for me,
not from your perspective, but from Demand's perspective that he
would not have even made you aware that that post
was going out on Tuesday night? Do you do you
believe do you have reason to believe there was tampering
with demand from another university between Friday and Tuesday.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Oh, I don't know, and I really don't want to,
you know, get into that, the tampering or the discussions
of the communication. I know there's everybody wants to be
involved in those, and I kind of tend not to
want to be involved in those. I'd prefer much more
to be involved in talking about, you know, what a
(05:50):
what a good football team I think we're going to have.
I think I want to get involved in being able
to help and educate our kids on you know, the
decisions they make, the consequence is that we have and
then you know how to be able to overcome some
consequences and also continue to become great communicators. And really,
(06:10):
my job as a college football coach is to educate
eighteen to twenty two year olds and twenty three year olds.
And I've learned a ton over the last seventy two
ninety six hours. I've also learned a ton over the month,
and to be honest with you, I've learned a ton
over the year. And I'm looking forward to sharing and
being able to help our kids grow and be a
(06:32):
better football team, have a more trusting relationships with all
of us, have an incredible bond as a program, and
see what type of team we can put out there
in August. But we got eight months of work to
be able to get to where we want to be.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
Coach, I'm sure you reached out to him right away
after being stunned by that announcement. What was his reasoning
that he gave you on that Tuesday that he wanted
to leave.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Think the conversations that we had, I feel like those
are really important that we say, uh, that's staves between us.
I think as most kids in this new era of football,
you know, they're learning, they're they're trying to understand, They're
trying to figure out what does this all look like?
(07:23):
What is what is it that I signed up for?
What is it that we're living in right now? You
start hearing about the craziness of so many different places,
so many different kids, and you know, I think for us,
he and I had a conversation about what we both
(07:43):
thought was best, and then it took the forty eight
you know, hours or so to really land where we
felt the plane should be landed. And I think over
those forty hours, we both agreed that the plane should
be landed at Skak and we should be able to
(08:04):
really learn, be able to educate the rest of our
team about what happened, be able to understand the value
of time and timing, and then also be able to
talk through how we can really make this a stronger
team because of what occurred.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, well, Jeed Fish is with us on the radio show,
and Jed, look, you're I know, keenly aware of the
reaction to this by the Husky fan base.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
And I've been.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Covering this thing for over thirty years and I've never
seen the fan base fractured like this.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
We ran a poll on social media.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Seven thousand people voted seventy percent to thirty percent against
wanting him to come back. For the fans out there
that don't trust him on Williams and don't want him
representing you up anymore, what do you say to those fans?
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Yeah, you know, I saw you saw your posts when
you said in thirty two years, you've never seen this,
I think it's because in thirty two years, we've never
had this. In college football. This is a completely new world.
This is the very first year in all of college
football that there's been revenue share agreements between university and
(09:18):
between student athletes. This is the very first year that,
after all of these years where the kids really got
a scholarship, are now talking about sharing in twenty plus
million dollars through the television and multimedia rights marketing deals
that have been going on. So it is brand new,
(09:40):
and I think our fans, our coaches, our families are
all learning about the newness of college football. And I
think we really are working to learn about how close
it's becoming to pro football. And I'm not going to
compare it to you know, when there's a player that
missed as a mini camp, or a player that then
(10:01):
shows up for their first veteran you know camp and
then everything is all well and good, or a player
that wants to hold out and then comes back, or
whatever it might be. I think we're just learning college
football is unique. It's new in twenty twenty six, and
all of us are learning how to navigate it the
best way possible.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Do you have any though, Jed specific message to the
fans that are turned off by this?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Yeah, I mean my specific message would be this, give
us eight months. The first game is not until September.
We are going to work extremely hard as a football
team to continue to be a part of this community
and to reach out and to be in the forefront
(10:53):
and to show the type of guys that we have
brought in here and that we will continue to bring
in here. We have nine months. We're not playing our
first game next Saturday. As a matter of fact, you know,
we're going to be at the team rooting for the
Seahawks next weekend. And as that continues on, I think
our fans will beginning to see what went on in
(11:14):
all of college football this year. This was certainly the
first time we saw a head coach leave a CFT
team and go to another team during the season. This
is the first time that we've seen many many things
that have occurred in college football. These are a lot
of firsts, and I hope that our fans understand their
fans of the University of Washington. They're fans of, you know,
(11:37):
this institution, the greatest setting in college football, the greatest
you know what I believe is one of the greatest
programs in college football. It's why I'm here It's why
I wanted to stay here, regardless of rumor, regardless of
what people thought. I love the fact that I get
to coach at the University of Washington, and I hope
that our fans recognize them believe in what we're trying
(11:59):
to get done here.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
Coach, can you shed some light on the emotions that
the team has gone through the last week and how
worried are you about team chemistry. How much of a
struggle do you think it will be for Demand to
assimilate back with his teammates.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
I think that's really important for the team to to
figure out that themselves. This isn't something that has gone
on for weeks or months. This isn't something that has
you know, been a you know, a contractual holdout that
we're you know concerned in this period of time where,
(12:38):
oh my god, we've been away from the team for
so long. I mean, this has been a couple of
days and now when he returns, the teammate and Demand,
I'm sure we'll have numerous conversations. It's important that we
all recognize how we can learn from this. Our team
is really full of character and integrity. We really believe
(13:00):
in doing the right thing. We're also as me as
the head coach, our assistant coaches are players. We're all learning,
and we're all trying to get better and better and better.
And it's my hope that I can be better in
twenty six than I was in twenty five. It's my
hope that our whole team feels the same.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Way Jetfish is with us on the radio show and Jed.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
There's a thought I think that some people in the media,
some fans have that Demand came back because he had
to that the temperature, the financials on a team that
would have taken him were just too much to handle
and he really had no choice but to return to Washington.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
What do you say to people that have that belief?
Speaker 5 (13:38):
What I would say is every conversation that I had
with Demand regarding his return was one in which that
he was excited to lead this team. It was one
in which that he was excited to be able to compete,
to be in the CFP. As he was seeing the
additions of our team and the amount of players that
(14:00):
were returning, which we're really proud of. I think he
was really exciting about and is really excited about surrounding
himself with such talent and the you know, whatever perception
is out there, I believe the most important thing is
what they believe in the locker room. And I think
I'm going to leave it up to the players to
(14:21):
really work together to what would be building a championship
culture and a championship season.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
Well, DeMont speak to the fan base through the media
and if so, Whin.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
I'm sure at some point in time, Demand is the
starting quarterback. And you know, your starting quarterback has always
been put in front of the media and has always
been somebody that has represented our program. And he has
done that with class over the twenty four months he's
(14:58):
been here. We're right now currently dealing with a situation
where he's nineteen and I want Demand to continue to learn. Obviously,
you saw on his post how apologetic he was in
terms of the timing of the post. I spoke with
coach Vandyke myself today. I apologized on behalf of Washington football.
(15:25):
In the end, I'm the forty nine year old, I'm
the head coach. I'm responsible for our program. I have
reached out to both me as mom and dad, and
I want to make sure that they understand that one
had nothing to do with the other and while the
timing we all wish was different, I can promise you
(15:49):
from my conversations a Demand, there was zero intent at
all to take anything away from that service.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, Jeed fishes with us, and Jed you mentioned a
couple of times now that your conversations with Demand. I
think it's like a forty eight hour period right from
from Tuesday night until yesterday, led you.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
To believe that he was bought in, that he wants
to be here.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And I mean, look, we're not privy to those conversations obviously,
so we're almost like relying on you to trust that
you're hearing what you need to hear, that this guy
is loyal now to this program, that this is not
going to be a problem, either on the field or
off the field.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Can you, maybe if you can, in detail.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Share a thought or two on what you heard from
Demand Williams that makes you feel comfortable bringing him back.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
One of the most important thing that I had to
hear is that I want to come back and at
you know, at nineteen years old. I think that he
and I had a great conversation about speaking regards of
like how do we learn from this, how do we
get better, you know, one of the and I don't
want to get into the details of all of our conversations,
(16:58):
but one of the biggest parts of it was a
learning experience. And I think that as we saw that
Demon really believes that he wants to be He's an
outstanding academic student and wants to be a part of
the University of Washington that on that level. And on
the same token, he's coming off of a nine win
season and wants to be a part of the twelve
(17:20):
win season plus next year. So when he told me
he wants to come back, and he wants to lead
this football program, and he wants to do everything he
possitbly can to help us win every game we're going
to compete in. I have to believe that I've known
demand for four and a half years.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Well, you said, Jed a couple of times that you've
learned a couple things in just the last couple of days.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
What have you learned?
Speaker 5 (17:46):
I learned that it's my responsibility as the head coach
of you know, close to one hundred and five eighteen
to twenty three year olds, that the communication of you know,
the decision to commit, the decision to be a part
(18:06):
of the program, the communication factor of explaining to these
kids that what they're going to hear and what they're
going to see might not always be true, helping these
guys understand that it's really important to you know, to
make sure that you do what you say. I've talked
(18:30):
to these guys, and I've learned that I need to
do a better job and will continue to do a
better job of continuing to educate the team on twenty
twenty six college football in comparison to what twenty twenty
four to five was, and really what I want to
do is I want to make sure that these kids
all know that I love them, that I believe in
(18:51):
our team, and that what has gone on over the
course of a week or a month or two months,
these kids have been you know, punctioned them mouth a
few times with a lot of rumors of a lot
of different things that have you know, and I want
to make sure that our guys know that we're all
committed for two thousand.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
Coach, you used the term that you got to the
point where you agreed to land the plane back at
SeaTac tell us a little bit more about the tenor
of that conversation was it more of you convincing him
that that was the best place for him, or demand
kind of realizing that, oh man, I screwed up here.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
I think that once again, guys, you know, I want
to make sure that I that I respect the confidentiality
and the privacy of the relationship. But I would just
tell you that we had a lot of conversations for weeks.
I've had conversations with numerous players on our football team
(19:48):
for weeks about the program and where they want to
be and what do they want to be a part of.
And as we continue to talk about everything that we
have going on here and how special so of a
program we believe, and how we believe so much in
our fan base and in our alumni support, how we
believe that we can be one of the top programs
(20:09):
in many areas, not just football, but we can also
you know, lead the country at some point in time
here in an I l and lead the country sometime
here and getting our community back behind us and lead
the country and academics, and we believe in what we're doing.
So our conversations were what can we do together to
help both of us and our entire football team achieve
(20:32):
our dreams, and I think we felt at the end
that the same thing we felt the week before, which
was when he signed when he signed his contract, which was,
you know, let's go do this thing.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Yeah, well, Jed, before you go, I mean, I'm just
assuming this is gonna be a pretty busy offseason for you,
my friend. I mean, you've got a lot of stuff
going on internally now that you never maybe thought you
would have had to have dealt with with some fence
mending with the guys potentially of the soccer team, the fans,
the media, and you got to figure out how to
knock off some of these premier clubs, right, I mean,
just go back to what you saw from Demand Williams
(21:08):
a year ago against Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon teams like that.
Winning cures a lot of this man. You know that
as well as anybody. You're not naive. You know that
that this team starts getting some big wins and people
will forgive and forget very fast. So tell us about
what you think you can get done this offseason to
(21:28):
see some better numbers and some victories against the top
teams on your schedule.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Yeah, I appreciate the football place, man, you want to
get at your segment.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Second, you're ball, Let's go man.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
You know, I feel like wetaspot. You know, we made
a six game jump to six wins to nine wins.
You know, as I mentioned before, we were at Arizona,
we went from one win to five win to ten wins.
You know, we're going into our year three. We've got
the same offensive system, We've got the same defensive system.
We finished in the top twenty in scoring offense and
(22:02):
top twenty in scoring defense. We did a lot of
great things in a lot of games, and then we
had a you know, some games where we've noticed that
you look at this, you know, the Michigan game, the
Ohio State game, the Oregon game, and even the Wisconsin game.
You could see there's certain games in this conference that
are going to be you know, low scoring games. I
(22:24):
think we saw the Big Ten championship game was thirteen
to ten. We saw that. You know, there's been games
that the the Miami Ohio State game or whatever it was,
I forget what it was a week ago or so
when Ohio State lost you know whoever. It's like these
games that are being played are a little bit more
low scoring in this conference. And what we've got to
(22:46):
do is we've got to win that low scoring game.
We can't just win the high scoring game. So we're
gonna spend a lot of time talking about that fourth
quarter of football. We're going to really invest in the
physicality and the toughness of our program. Our offseason training
is going to be one in which we're gonna ratchet
it up one more notch. We believe that the fourth
quarter of games. We've had some great fourth quarters, but
(23:09):
in the in our four losses, we lost the fourth
quarter all though those were one score games in the
fourth nineteen to fourteen, fourteen to six, seven all fourteen
to seven, and then ten all And those four games,
we got to find a way to win the final
ten minutes, and that will be our focus the whole offseason.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
I got a football question to wrap things up to coach.
When you see these teams playing last night and tonight,
what's the main difference you see between your roster and
what those look like right now?
Speaker 5 (23:39):
I think the most important thing I see is that
we're very close. The second thing that I see is
that you gotta be You got to win in the
trenches and when you come out to our first print practice.
You'll see how much bigger we even got from last
year to this year, and the jump that we made
from year two to year three. All of these teams
that are playing right now, you could see the violence
(24:03):
and the physicality that they play with the offensive line,
the defensive line, the linebackers, and that's what I'm most
proud of.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, Jed, before you go, I got one more for him,
all right? And I know that you're like, you gotta
be kidding me, man, I thought we were done. I
thought I was off the hook here we're talking football.
But let me wrap it up where we started with
Demon Williams because you, yeah, exactly. You mentioned that he
will talk eventually. We all hope that happens sooner than later.
(24:30):
I mean, I'd like him to be prepared for that obviously,
So I'm certain that's what's happening behind the scenes. But
do you feel like there's a little something extra that
he needs to do to earn the trust back of
not just this fan base but also the university. There's
been some ideas kicked around donating money to the hospital
and honor AMA, doing some maybe longer form, in person
(24:52):
interviews with people. Roy Firestone style, if you will, to
get all these questions that need to be asked asked
so we can all move. Do you think he's got
to maybe do a little bit of extra work here
over this offseason to earn that trust back.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Here that I would say to that it's a situation
where somebody is telling him to do those things, then
I don't I don't think that anybody would be happy.
I think this is whatever Demand really believes that he
can do, whether it be I mean you mentioned a
donation or whatever it might be. I don't want to
(25:29):
tell somebody what to do. What I want Demand to
do is I want to Mond to continue to grow,
to mature and to be comfortable. He is, you know,
he is someone that is learning how to be a pro.
And I think that over time he's going to continue
to learn and get better and appreciate so many things.
(25:49):
And I really hope that over these six months that
ourn't fan base and you and the media and everybody
involved understand that really what we're talking about is for
a two day spam, we had a player that decided to,
you know, make a decision to kind of learn about
the college landscape in a manner that. I don't think
(26:11):
he ever felt he would have had to learn. And
now we all have learned a ton about college football,
and I hope we're all better because of what we learned.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah, all right, listen, thanks for doing this. Let's do
it again very soon, and next time you come on.
I promise it'll be ninety eight percent football talk.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
How's that?
Speaker 5 (26:29):
I will accept ninety eight percent football talk anytime?
Speaker 3 (26:34):
All right, Jed, thanks for jaying though, I appreciate it.
All right, jet fish with us. We're gonna break come back,
respond to that. Millan's got to take on that. I
know as well. Here he's going to hop on at
four o'clock.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I don't know. I think we might just need to
keep the segment open.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Guys, next segment, I we'll figure something else out with
that other guest we had planned next on ninety three
three KJRFM.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Now back to football frond Age sponsored by Tito's hand
Made Vodka on your Home for the Sports Radio ninety
three point three.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
We're right now currently dealing with a situation where he's
nineteen and I want demon to continue to learn. Obviously,
you saw on his post how apologetic he was in
terms of the timing of the post.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, it was interesting to hear Jetfish say he apologized
directly to Nicole Vandyke women's soccer coach over there. That
was obviously a major thing on Tuesday night when the
story came out. And if you missed Jetfish, by the way,
we're going to see you again coming up at six
pm tonight. By the way, you're gonna want to hear
the entire interview with the head coach of the Dogs.
But Sofia Dick Jackson with the Humil will join us
(27:44):
at four. Kevin Harlan's coming up at five today. But
he mentioned the word to educate the team a couple
of times on a lot of stuff, And I think
what he meant by that, if I'm just reading the
tea leaves, is educating them on not only what went
down with Demon and how this whole thing happened. For example,
I'll just kind of throw this out there, if Demon
(28:05):
was influenced by outside sources, not talking about his agent,
Doug Hendrickson, because his agent's already dropped him, by the way,
if he was influenced by his father, if he was
influenced by somebody else. This landers character that Petedamil's been
kicking around. I want Jetfish to let the guys know
that this is what happened. We got a nineteen year
(28:25):
old quarterback and nineteen year old kid. I would go
directly to some of the older guys on the team,
including the Hatchet brothers by the way, and talk to
them as twenty two to twenty three year olds and say, hey,
this kid was influenced by these guys and he made
a stupid decision and he made the wrong call. And
then I think he's also educating the guys on hey,
when you sign an NIL deal and a revenue shared deal,
(28:45):
this is what happens, right. I mean, you saw Dellinger's
report that came out the other day that whoever signed
Demon Williams would have had to have paid Washington the
value of the contract, which we've heard is anywhere between
four and five million dollars, and they would have had
that amount of money deducted from their revenue share pool,
and then they would have had to have gone out
(29:06):
and spent more money on nil what they're collective to
get him. So I'm wondering, Dick, if Washington just showed
the country you signed he got to an NIO deal.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
He's done.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
He's done because the price that you pay financially on
the other side is not going to be worth it.
So I think he wants his kids to know that.
I think he wants his kids to know why Deman
did what he did and why he was influenced to
do it.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
Yeah, it's interesting because we felt like this was going
to be an earth shattering story when we thought that
Demon was going to leave and that it would change
the rules in college football. Well, now that he's coming back,
it might just enforce the rules in college football, and it.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
May be an earth shattering situation.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
But I mean, as much as we would all love
for Jed to just talk about everything in detail of
what he said with Demon Williams, he can't do that.
I mean, he's got to be protective of his kid.
I I thought he was protective him and thought he
was fatherly of him. And honestly, wouldn't you like to
be a player that plays for a coach like that
(30:09):
that knows when you screw up this badly?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, he's still gonna have your back.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Right Well, you know, look, I mean, I I'll be
honest with you. When we asked Jed about does Demand
need to do anything extra behind the scenes we talked
about I think it was your idea, Jackson, or somebody's
idea to make a donation to UDB Hospital and honor
a Mia Hammont, do some long form interviews and things
like that.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
I would have loved personally to have heard.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Jed say, yes, I've got things that we're going to
talk about.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
We're going to work together. We're going to do some
things here.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
We're going to get Demand's ideas, We're going to get
Demond's parents' ideas.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Heck, we might even get the team's ideas and do some.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Stuff to get him back in the good graces of
the community and in the good graces of the program.
I mean, I'm telling you right now, I know absolutely
that he's got some fence mending to do on campus
behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
There's no question about that.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
So from a personal perspective, Jackson, I would have loved
to have heard Jedfish say, yes, there are things that
we're going to do to try as much as we can.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
We're gonna make it genuine right.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
We don't want to just say do this, do this,
do this, but there are things we're gonna do to
try to get to that point.
Speaker 7 (31:18):
You're absolutely right. I couldn't agree with more with anything
you guys have said so far. The thing that I
took is that answer where he says, I don't want
it to be me telling him what to do. I
want to be his idea, right, And you connect that
with the earlier answer that we played kind of coming
in where he talked about how, Yeah, I spoke with Vandyke,
I spoke with you know people I spoke with me
as parents like I I.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I how about demand?
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Right?
Speaker 7 (31:41):
Like you know what like demand? You better be in
touch with that team. You better have these ideas because
that's how you got to you make this ground.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Those are what I would recommend to Demand. Not that
he's listening right now, maybe he is. I will just
tell you this that in this day and age of
college football, the idea of media training, PR training things, fat,
preparing players for interviews and all that. Don't kid yourself,
this is not all on Washington, like they've got a
sports information staff over there.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Players now have their own people.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
They have their own marketing people, they have their own
promotions people, they have their own lawyers, demon's camp and
he's got a camp.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Trust me better, Dan Well, get him prepared.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
If he works with Darren Heidner, who's a lawyer he
signed the other day, same guy that represent Lucas when
he went from Wisconsin to Michigan. I really hope that
his people, whoever they are. I'm not even talking about you,
Dubbs people. I'm talking about his people, get him prepared
to answer those types of questions. And that's gonna be
one of the first questions Jackson Jed Fish himself said
(32:41):
he spoke to me as parents. He said, he spoke
to the cole v and Black Did you talk to them?
Did you reach out? And if he's not prepared for
those questions, that's going to be on him, and that's
going to be on his people that are supposed to
be protecting him and preparing him for whenever that moment comes.
So I hope it happens fast. I hope it happens quick, Dick,
and I really hope he's ready for it. Man, we're
(33:03):
going to break. Hugh Millen is going to join us
next on ninety three three kJ RFM
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