December 23, 2025 • 21 mins
Washington Huskies football legends Mario Bailey and Greg Lewis join Dave Softy Mahler for The Husky Honks as the guys look back at the 2025 season, who on the roster is returning for 2026, Demond Williams, coaching him, and Jedd Fisch’s future.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Husky Football, Football Football.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Your Home for the Huskies proudly presents the Coors Light
Husky Honks on Tuesday and brought to you by Mitsubishi
Electric Heating and air Conditioning by Valentine Roofing EA Local
thirty two A two Vision, by Hyder Construction, R and
R Foundation Specialists, by Bowen scar four your Northwest Shevutyzeries
(00:25):
Delta Airline and by King County Metro porta Card. Now
the Husky Honks, Great Lewis, Mario Bailey and your host
Dave Sucky Muller.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hey, you didn't expect this, Dad, Yeah, one more time,
one more run around with the Husky Hanks before we
call it a year for twenty twenty five. My wife
was asking me the other day, you know what do
you want for Christmas?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Dave?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
What do you want for Honika?
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Dave?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
And I said, you know what, Honey, I just want
a chance to do it one more time with my
friends Greg Lewis and Mario Bailey. So here they are
brought to you by our friends at Frost Fruit Corps.
Light You A Local thirty two K two vision, bow
and scar Ford Hyder Construction are in our foundation specialists,
your local Northwest Chevy Dealer, Delta Airlines, of course, our
(01:09):
friends at King County Metro ORCA Card and our friends
as well at Mitsubishi Heating and Air of Valentine Roofing.
It takes a village, takes a lot of sponsors to
afford the big time salaries these guys command, Reg Lewis
and Mario Bailey joining us for one final time in
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Fellas, how are you?
Speaker 5 (01:29):
I don't know, to be honest with you, Dave, I
probably stopped being on the show about three shows ago.
I've had so I've probably been off the show about
three weeks. But I'm doing all right, just getting ready
for the holidays and missing my two buddies. Yeah, I
hope you, Mario doing well.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
We're doing good, Mario.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
The last time we spoke was pregame before the La
Ball Huskies go out and put a whoopo on Boise
State to finish.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The year nine to four.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Why don't we just kind of get an overall view
from forty thousand feet from both of you guys, and Mario,
we can start with you on what kind of job
you think Jed Fish did and how would you grade
this last season on Husky Football Man, I.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Said it before. I think coach did a good job.
You know, it's his second year. When he came here,
the cover was totally bear, didn't have anything. He's done
a great job of recruiting. Nine and four is okay
for us. You know, we wish we could have had
more of the Wisconsin game will forever steam because it
could have changed everything. Even if we launch the Oregon
(02:31):
we still have a ten win season. But overall, I
think coach Fish did a good job. Like I said,
he's a great recruiter. But when you look at it,
you know, you have two years. You could say he's
okay for two years, but next year, I don't want
to hear about nine and four being acceptable. We should
have ten wins next season, but coach Fish, I'll give
(02:52):
him a beat so far.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Greg, how about you?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
You know it's a thin line between love and the
and appreciating it and then having some regrets. And you know,
Mario said it, that thin line was about us not
scoring six more points down in Wisconsin and walking away
with the loss. There have we won that game. You're
into the fourth quarter of the Oregon game thinking you
(03:19):
might have a chance to sneak into the playoffs when
you do a don't you know would have been determined
later that day, but you're in the fourth quarter thinking, hey,
we might have a shot. So, you know, all all
things being said, we're on track, We're on course. I
think we have to make some real improvements and we
have to figure out how to get better upfront in
(03:42):
the big ten to really make that big step I
guess from you know that back in our third tier
to get into that top tier, knowing that teams like
Penn State are going to try to claw back in,
you know, and teams like Iowa and all of that,
that we got to not only stay better than them,
but climb into next level. So I'm looking forward to
see what they do in the portal and hopefully we
(04:03):
get another step and next year, Mario's right, you know
it's ten and two or you know we're going to
be upset.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I'd say third tier for me, guys, and Mario, I'm
curious what your thought is on that. I'm in Indiana,
Ohio State or clearly I guess we can just toss
in Oregon. Those three teams were clearly at the cream
of the crop and the Big Ten, and then you
got Michigan, you got USC and then Iowa, and then
you have the Huskies at five and four with Illinois
and in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
So and I agree with you, Mario man. I mean, look,
I mean, you.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Give Jed Fish a little bit of a break considering
what he inherited. And now it's been two years and
now it's time to go. You've got a lot of
guys back next year. We'll talk about some of the
guys in the portal in a minute here. But Greg
just mentioned the offensive line, the line of scrimmage. So
to take that next step and be in the second
or even top tier of the Big Ten, what does
this team need to add?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
What do they need to do better?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Slat out, it's just both sides of the line. Offensive
line always in defensive line. The Big Ten is in
the trenches. Defensively, you got to stop the run. You
gotta get some pressure on the quarterback, and offensively you
got to make sure you protect the quarterback and be
able to run the football. So first thing we got
to do is the line, both sides. I think we're
(05:18):
going to need a corner. We've probably lost our two
corners from the last year. We got some good safeties.
We might need a new running back, but start with
the line to be able to play in a Big ten.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, Greg, how easily is that fixed? How quickly you
think can can Jedfish get that done? Because we got
some good news in the pregame for the LA Ball
right when we heard that gear In Hatchett was going
to return, along with Landon Hatchet, along with Drew as
a party obviously John Mills at left guard. So seemingly
four of your starting five offensive linemen from that game
(05:49):
are going to be back, which on the surface is
a good thing. Right, You've got four or five guys back,
But are they the right four guys? Just because they're
all returning, should all of them be given their jobs
next year as starters?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Well?
Speaker 5 (06:02):
I think in football, unless you know, there's very rare
cases where anything's just given. You know, it's always a
matter of earning it. But I think we are very
close on the offensive line. I think, especially with all
those guys coming back. When those people that you just
named were healthy last year, the Husky offense looked pretty
darned good. Uh. There were certainly times where at Michigan
(06:25):
and Ohio State that those guys got banged up and
you have to mismatch and you know, put guys in
different places. I think you just named four guys. We
got one of the best offensive recruits in the country
who may start as a true freshman, uh In Kobe Green,
and I think there's some other guys. I think the
big kid champ. I don't want to Butcher's name on
(06:49):
you guys know Who'm talking about the big polities and
kids they camp and packing now. So you have really
seven guys for five starting positions on your offensive line.
So I think you're off the line can be a
big ten quality starting offensive line next year with all
the experience that they'll come back with. To me, the
defensive line is further away. You're losing some of the
(07:09):
guys that you had that played, you know as rotational
guys this year, and you didn't have any superstars anywhere
across that line, whether it was you know, on the
ends or in the tackle spots. And so I think
that's where you really got to make some movement and
find the guy or two, you know, one guy in
the middle and one guy on the edge as a
(07:30):
you know, big ten quality you know monsters up front,
and so for me, it's really more that defensive line
that's kind of focus on and get better at it.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, and I agree with that.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I just yeah, look, I mean, obviously you get some
experience on the offensive line, Mario. You know, Jacob Lane's
back next year. Zechtor Fhi my favorite player gone at
the end of this year. But they didn't have one
player in the top twenty five and sacks on defense
last year and the Big ten which kind of was
made what Ryan Walters did pretty special and pretty impressive.
So I feel like as long as they've got Ryan Walters,
(08:01):
their defense should be okay because of their scheme. But
it's funny that we've been sitting here for five minutes
talking about how this team will take the next step,
and nobody's mentioned Demon Williams playing better football. Yet it's
always been about the offensive line, the defensive line, the
line of scrimmage. What about number two? How much more
does number two have to improve? How much more can
he improve? Mario for this team to make the playoff
(08:23):
next season.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Well, he is the one and he has to make
it happen. He has to take the next step. I know,
me and Greg have talked about from your sophomore year
to your junior year, that jump that you make. He
got to start. He got to start over twelve games.
Now he has this seat where he should be able
to do what we thought he would do this year.
And like I said, he must see TV. But he
(08:48):
has to be able to stand in the pocket. And
if he can't stand in the pocket, then coach has
to do a better job of getting out the pocket
to throw the ball. We have to be able to
throw the ball downfield. It can't be deank and dunk,
and we have to have some more runs for the guy.
We can't sit up here next season and every game
we'd be worried about him getting hurt. Everybody that plays football,
(09:09):
you're always going to be concerned with him getting hurt.
We're concerned with taking the next level and Demon Williams
didn't play good in all of the games that we lost,
So we need him to take that next step and
I look forward to him taking it.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Greg.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Yeah, I think you know beating it to death. You know,
we've been on the record saying that demand is the
catalyst and the key, and that he has to take
a big step, not just a step, but a big
step in my opinion. But I don't think it's just
on Demand. I think him and his coach have to
get on the same page and understand what plays are
best for Demand, what type of offense is going to
(09:45):
be best suited to his skill set. You know, how
do we get him outside of the pocket and throwing
you know, downfield? Because you know, he's not a tall guy,
so being in the pocket can be a detriment. And
then when you get outside of the pocket and extend plays,
the secondary breaks down. So how do we get him
out there? And then how do we use his athleticism
and show every game that he's the best person on
(10:06):
the field and make defense is extremely afraid and make
them have to do things differently. So I think it's
not just Demand getting better, but it's him and his
coach being better together on what makes him a great
quarterback and how to use him and what offense to run.
So I think Jet Fish in that sense has to
get better as well.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, I'm just Mario looking at some of the numbers
for Demand, and I mean, obviously the numbers don't tell
the entire story. But the guy ended up thirty yards
in the big ten, fourth and touchdowns, fifth and yards
per attempt and fourth and passer rating. And the guys
that are all ahead of him either won the Heisman
Trophy or are in the playoff like Dante Moore and.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Julian saying so.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And then you had the rushing totals obviously for Demand
Williams like I ran for six hundred yards and six
more touchdowns. So how much of this is just simple Mario?
For Demand, that man, you've got to be able to
just simply put play better against the better teams and
play better on the road.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
End of the story, Let's not make this hard.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
No, I'm not necessarily sure. I think what a little
bit of what Greg said is what we have to do.
Like him and Coach Sis have to be on the
same page. Coach siss is the play caller, and I
always talk about the best offensive coordinators know how to
get their playmakers the ball and figure out ways. Well,
if he's the great play caller, then he should know
by now two seasons with Demand what works best for him,
(11:26):
whether it's getting him out of the pocket, whether it's
running him, it's whether it's RPOs like it shouldn't be
like this, big letdown from the big kind games to
just running over opponents like we did in Boise State.
There has to be something different, So I don't think
it's that simple.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah, well, Greg, the running game obviously was a downer
right this year for a myriad pletreau of reasons, injuries,
lack of commitment to the run game, whatever you want
to talk about. Now, Jonah Coleman's gone, and now Adam
Mohammad is in the tree for portal after only having
two carries against Poise State in the ballgame when he
(12:05):
was kind of the guy in the last couple of
games of the regular season, when Jonah Coleman got banged up.
I mean, how surprised Warria that he got two carries
in the ball game and then put his name in
the portal.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Yeah, I think I'm a little surprised. I thought that,
you know, him only getting a few carries was just
the coach believing that he's solid. You know, we don't
have to do anything special for Adam. We can allow
our senior to go out and have a you know,
a big game in his final hurrah, because you know,
we're in good with the guy who's going to be
(12:38):
the starter next year, and you know, regardless of what
happened this year, Adam is leaving the year before, he
is going to be the guy, right, So there's obviously
something more than football at stake here.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
You know.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
I don't want to put words in anyone's about I
don't want to speculate necessarily, but this has to be
related to more than just football, because he showed down
a stretch and frankly, all the things we were complaining
about think about this guy, about not running the ball,
not getting the running back to the ball that much,
all that changed with Ada Muhammad took over as a starter.
(13:10):
I mean, he was getting the ball, he was getting
the hundred yard games. So this isn't necessarily a football
related decision only so I don't know why the young
man is jumping too portal, you know, to nowadays we're
going to all say nil, or maybe he doesn't like
maybe he's from Arizona. Maybe he's tired of his damn reign.
I'm tired of it. I don't know, but it is
(13:31):
surprising to me that he's leaving, especially when the offense was,
you know, in those last few games, giving him the
touch it and he needed other than the Bowl Game,
and I thought that was just you know, we got him.
He's solid. So let's get Jonah to go out on
top and maybe let the young guy who's not going
to be the starter next year, who's going to still
be a backup, get him a couple of carries so
he'll feel good too and not transfer. So, you know,
(13:54):
a little bit mind bothering, but hey, that's the world
we live in. It got a great freshman running back
recruit coming in that everybody's excited about out of the
state of California. Kid needs to put on a little
more size. It's about one hundred and eighty five pounds
right now, but man, can he run. He's run hard,
he's you know, built well compact, so you know, we'll
(14:16):
see you know, it's definitely gonna be a running back.
And I think Washington has shown that, you know, with
his speed and his ability to make some guys miss
that he'll be, you know, poise the contribute next year
as well.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, I'm not that concerned Mario about the running back room.
I think you can find a running back. You can
find whatever the hell you want in the portal obviously,
but you know, look, they don't make anything public with
these nil salaries. You know, when a player resigns, they
announce something on social media. But this is not like
the NFL, where you can go online and look up
and see what guys are making. And I mean it's
(14:50):
hard not as a fan to surmise and speculate that
Adam Muhammad is putting this name in the portal Mario
because Husky's aren't paying him what he thinks he's worth.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Period.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I feel like there's gotta be a number of reasons,
Like Greg talked about us giving him the ball, like
I felt in an organ game like we shut him
down and he should have got the ball at least
twenty times that game, or more like he was the
one carrying us and they stopped giving him the ball.
And then you go in the bowl game, like I
understand loyalty to our running back Coleman, but man, we're
(15:26):
going into a new season, like we got to take
care of the guy who's gonna be here next year.
There's got to be a point where we say Adam
Muhammad is our guy. I'm sorry, Jonah, you've been hurt,
but we got to go with Adam Muhammad. And I
felt like the last two games, he didn't get the
ball enough. But they're always money, like I always told you,
and Greg's I'll feel like, hey, if somebody offered me
(15:48):
some more money, I would probably leave because it's about
taking care of your family because the NFL is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, no, I got it, guys. Again, I totally understand it.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
For a ninety nine point nine nine percent of these kids, Greg,
this might be the height of their earning power as
an athlete, right because they'll never make it in the
NFL and this might be the last time in their
life to go out and get some money. And I mean,
do we think that's behind what's going on with Rayd
and vines Bright and his transfer? Does he see the
kids they're bringing in through the portal? Does he see
(16:20):
the kids they brought in in their high school recruiting class,
and just say, I don't want to have to compete
for anything. I want to go somewhere where I'm the
guy automatically. So I can, you know, you know, keep
my earning power where it's at. Right now, it's hard
to even get a real feel for next year when
we're sitting here not having any damn clue.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Greg with this roster is going to look like, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
I mean it is hard for us as fans to
kind of wrap our brains around all of this because
this is not what we watched for the last one
hundred plus years. You know, all of those that haven't
been around that long, just me, But you know, as
football fans, watching football change like this is kind of weird,
and it's it's it's tough, and you know, we don't
(17:02):
know what the team is going to look like. This
still might be a few more, but you know, I
think this this coaching staff has done a really good
job of keeping as many core guys and important guys
as possible. And those that are leaving, you know, I
wish them well, but you know they're no longer on
my radar. Why they're leaving, I don't, you know, I
can't speculate what's in the kid's heart. I cannot sit
(17:23):
here and say he didn't want to compete, you know,
that would be unfair of me. And I can't sit
here and say it's all about the money. But all
of those things are things that you know, fans and us,
you know, we speculate on and we think about. I
guess the kid just has to do what's best for him.
I'm you know, I can say this if I was
in this era and I was making a decision whether
(17:47):
to come back my senior year and it was a
different amount of money. If it's a you know, like
Marl said, if it's a big difference, you know, I'm
probably gonna consider it. If it's not a huge difference,
then you know, I probably you know, I'm loyal ish
this to my program because you know, I wanted to
come to you up for a reason. So you know,
(18:07):
all those things are you know, factors that you have
to consider, and no one knows what they would do
until they're in that situation.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Now for sure.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Well Greg Lewis Mario Bailey with us guys real quick,
we'll just wrap it up with this because I remember
when Kaylen was here kind of right around this point
in time, right a couple of years ago in twenty
twenty three, we were talking about him being the next
DJ and being here for a long time. He's a
Midwest guy's personality seems to fit Seattle, right, I mean,
this is seems like a great marriage. And then you know,
(18:36):
a month later the guy was gone for Alabama. So
how would you characterize Mario? We'll start with you and
Greg you can wrap it up. How would you characterize Mario?
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Your belief, your.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Prediction, I guess if you will for what the future
at Washington looks like down the road for Jetfish.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Man, I'm gonna have to say this because I feel
like mine's is tainted because it's just a about the
word that I hear about coach fists around town. I
don't really know Coach Fish like that. I've seen him
a few times, met him, had a few conversations, so
I can't say. But everybody I talk to says he's
out of here at the first chance he gets. So
that's how I view it, That's what I look at.
(19:17):
I'm hoping that's not the case. But everybody I talk
to doesn't feel like he's the type of guy that's
going to stay here for ten years. He's looking for
the next best opportunity. So I'm thinking Coach Fish would
be gone because I think Coach Fish will be successful
here at Washington in the next year or two and
then they'll have to be gone.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, and if we can benefit from that, okay, fine,
that might just be the new wave of college football.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Coaches, Greg, I'll say you, I would say people are
looking for the next down James or that kind of scenario.
Or let's look at the coach from Utah who just
decided to retire. If you're looking for that, that's not
realistic anymore unless it's at a program like Alabama or
you know, Michigan, LSU somewhere where it's a blue, blue,
(20:00):
blue blood program where they're always going to get you
everything you need. The resource is gonna always be there,
the fans are gonna always show up, whether you're winning
or losing or whatever happens. It lets us that scenario.
You're not gonna see coaches stand anywhere for sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen years. It's just not reality, just like the kids
and the nil and the transfer. So I don't think
(20:21):
anyone's gonna do that. Coach Fish included, I do believe
that he's committed to building this program and winning and
being successful here, and we'll enjoy that as long as
he's here. And then when he's gone, he moves to
that next step, we'll have to hope we can find
another person to do the same thing.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, no doubt. All right, guys, listen, great stuff this year.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I appreciate both the you know, Like I said, Gene
asked me there today what I wanted for the holidays,
when I.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Said, I don't need anything.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
I've got the relationship and the friendships of Mario Bailey
and Greg Lewis, and that's enough for me. So you
guys enjoy it. Man, all right, have a great Christmas
and we'll talk soon. Boys, all right, you bet?
Speaker 4 (20:58):
All right?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Go dog call me again. You know what, Hey, I'll
wait until next year to call you. How's that sound?
Speaker 4 (21:04):
All right?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I won't call you until next year, all right?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Greg Lewis Mario Bailey with a rap on the Husky
football season. We're gonna break Seahawks and Panthers on Sunday.
John Wilder is going to join. At five, we'll get
to Kansas City, where they're moving their stadium to a
different state. Literally, that's coming up five point forty five
on ninety three three KJRFL
It's Husky Football, Football Football.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Your Home for the Huskies proudly presents the Coors Light
Husky Honks on Tuesday and brought to you by Mitsubishi
Electric Heating and air Conditioning by Valentine Roofing EA Local
thirty two A two Vision, by Hyder Construction, R and
R Foundation Specialists, by Bowen scar four your Northwest Shevutyzeries
(00:25):
Delta Airline and by King County Metro porta Card. Now
the Husky Honks, Great Lewis, Mario Bailey and your host
Dave Sucky Muller.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hey, you didn't expect this, Dad, Yeah, one more time,
one more run around with the Husky Hanks before we
call it a year for twenty twenty five. My wife
was asking me the other day, you know what do
you want for Christmas?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Dave?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
What do you want for Honika?
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Dave?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
And I said, you know what, Honey, I just want
a chance to do it one more time with my
friends Greg Lewis and Mario Bailey. So here they are
brought to you by our friends at Frost Fruit Corps.
Light You A Local thirty two K two vision, bow
and scar Ford Hyder Construction are in our foundation specialists,
your local Northwest Chevy Dealer, Delta Airlines, of course, our
(01:09):
friends at King County Metro ORCA Card and our friends
as well at Mitsubishi Heating and Air of Valentine Roofing.
It takes a village, takes a lot of sponsors to
afford the big time salaries these guys command, Reg Lewis
and Mario Bailey joining us for one final time in
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Fellas, how are you?
Speaker 5 (01:29):
I don't know, to be honest with you, Dave, I
probably stopped being on the show about three shows ago.
I've had so I've probably been off the show about
three weeks. But I'm doing all right, just getting ready
for the holidays and missing my two buddies. Yeah, I
hope you, Mario doing well.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
We're doing good, Mario.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
The last time we spoke was pregame before the La
Ball Huskies go out and put a whoopo on Boise
State to finish.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The year nine to four.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Why don't we just kind of get an overall view
from forty thousand feet from both of you guys, and Mario,
we can start with you on what kind of job
you think Jed Fish did and how would you grade
this last season on Husky Football Man, I.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Said it before. I think coach did a good job.
You know, it's his second year. When he came here,
the cover was totally bear, didn't have anything. He's done
a great job of recruiting. Nine and four is okay
for us. You know, we wish we could have had
more of the Wisconsin game will forever steam because it
could have changed everything. Even if we launch the Oregon
(02:31):
we still have a ten win season. But overall, I
think coach Fish did a good job. Like I said,
he's a great recruiter. But when you look at it,
you know, you have two years. You could say he's
okay for two years, but next year, I don't want
to hear about nine and four being acceptable. We should
have ten wins next season, but coach Fish, I'll give
(02:52):
him a beat so far.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Greg, how about you?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
You know it's a thin line between love and the
and appreciating it and then having some regrets. And you know,
Mario said it, that thin line was about us not
scoring six more points down in Wisconsin and walking away
with the loss. There have we won that game. You're
into the fourth quarter of the Oregon game thinking you
(03:19):
might have a chance to sneak into the playoffs when
you do a don't you know would have been determined
later that day, but you're in the fourth quarter thinking, hey,
we might have a shot. So, you know, all all
things being said, we're on track, We're on course. I
think we have to make some real improvements and we
have to figure out how to get better upfront in
(03:42):
the big ten to really make that big step I
guess from you know that back in our third tier
to get into that top tier, knowing that teams like
Penn State are going to try to claw back in,
you know, and teams like Iowa and all of that,
that we got to not only stay better than them,
but climb into next level. So I'm looking forward to
see what they do in the portal and hopefully we
(04:03):
get another step and next year, Mario's right, you know
it's ten and two or you know we're going to
be upset.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I'd say third tier for me, guys, and Mario, I'm
curious what your thought is on that. I'm in Indiana,
Ohio State or clearly I guess we can just toss
in Oregon. Those three teams were clearly at the cream
of the crop and the Big Ten, and then you
got Michigan, you got USC and then Iowa, and then
you have the Huskies at five and four with Illinois
and in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
So and I agree with you, Mario man. I mean, look,
I mean, you.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Give Jed Fish a little bit of a break considering
what he inherited. And now it's been two years and
now it's time to go. You've got a lot of
guys back next year. We'll talk about some of the
guys in the portal in a minute here. But Greg
just mentioned the offensive line, the line of scrimmage. So
to take that next step and be in the second
or even top tier of the Big Ten, what does
this team need to add?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
What do they need to do better?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Slat out, it's just both sides of the line. Offensive
line always in defensive line. The Big Ten is in
the trenches. Defensively, you got to stop the run. You
gotta get some pressure on the quarterback, and offensively you
got to make sure you protect the quarterback and be
able to run the football. So first thing we got
to do is the line, both sides. I think we're
(05:18):
going to need a corner. We've probably lost our two
corners from the last year. We got some good safeties.
We might need a new running back, but start with
the line to be able to play in a Big ten.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, Greg, how easily is that fixed? How quickly you
think can can Jedfish get that done? Because we got
some good news in the pregame for the LA Ball
right when we heard that gear In Hatchett was going
to return, along with Landon Hatchet, along with Drew as
a party obviously John Mills at left guard. So seemingly
four of your starting five offensive linemen from that game
(05:49):
are going to be back, which on the surface is
a good thing. Right, You've got four or five guys back,
But are they the right four guys? Just because they're
all returning, should all of them be given their jobs
next year as starters?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Well?
Speaker 5 (06:02):
I think in football, unless you know, there's very rare
cases where anything's just given. You know, it's always a
matter of earning it. But I think we are very
close on the offensive line. I think, especially with all
those guys coming back. When those people that you just
named were healthy last year, the Husky offense looked pretty
darned good. Uh. There were certainly times where at Michigan
(06:25):
and Ohio State that those guys got banged up and
you have to mismatch and you know, put guys in
different places. I think you just named four guys. We
got one of the best offensive recruits in the country
who may start as a true freshman, uh In Kobe Green,
and I think there's some other guys. I think the
big kid champ. I don't want to Butcher's name on
(06:49):
you guys know Who'm talking about the big polities and
kids they camp and packing now. So you have really
seven guys for five starting positions on your offensive line.
So I think you're off the line can be a
big ten quality starting offensive line next year with all
the experience that they'll come back with. To me, the
defensive line is further away. You're losing some of the
(07:09):
guys that you had that played, you know as rotational
guys this year, and you didn't have any superstars anywhere
across that line, whether it was you know, on the
ends or in the tackle spots. And so I think
that's where you really got to make some movement and
find the guy or two, you know, one guy in
the middle and one guy on the edge as a
(07:30):
you know, big ten quality you know monsters up front,
and so for me, it's really more that defensive line
that's kind of focus on and get better at it.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, and I agree with that.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I just yeah, look, I mean, obviously you get some
experience on the offensive line, Mario. You know, Jacob Lane's
back next year. Zechtor Fhi my favorite player gone at
the end of this year. But they didn't have one
player in the top twenty five and sacks on defense
last year and the Big ten which kind of was
made what Ryan Walters did pretty special and pretty impressive.
So I feel like as long as they've got Ryan Walters,
(08:01):
their defense should be okay because of their scheme. But
it's funny that we've been sitting here for five minutes
talking about how this team will take the next step,
and nobody's mentioned Demon Williams playing better football. Yet it's
always been about the offensive line, the defensive line, the
line of scrimmage. What about number two? How much more
does number two have to improve? How much more can
he improve? Mario for this team to make the playoff
(08:23):
next season.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Well, he is the one and he has to make
it happen. He has to take the next step. I know,
me and Greg have talked about from your sophomore year
to your junior year, that jump that you make. He
got to start. He got to start over twelve games.
Now he has this seat where he should be able
to do what we thought he would do this year.
And like I said, he must see TV. But he
(08:48):
has to be able to stand in the pocket. And
if he can't stand in the pocket, then coach has
to do a better job of getting out the pocket
to throw the ball. We have to be able to
throw the ball downfield. It can't be deank and dunk,
and we have to have some more runs for the guy.
We can't sit up here next season and every game
we'd be worried about him getting hurt. Everybody that plays football,
(09:09):
you're always going to be concerned with him getting hurt.
We're concerned with taking the next level and Demon Williams
didn't play good in all of the games that we lost,
So we need him to take that next step and
I look forward to him taking it.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Greg.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Yeah, I think you know beating it to death. You know,
we've been on the record saying that demand is the
catalyst and the key, and that he has to take
a big step, not just a step, but a big
step in my opinion. But I don't think it's just
on Demand. I think him and his coach have to
get on the same page and understand what plays are
best for Demand, what type of offense is going to
(09:45):
be best suited to his skill set. You know, how
do we get him outside of the pocket and throwing
you know, downfield? Because you know, he's not a tall guy,
so being in the pocket can be a detriment. And
then when you get outside of the pocket and extend plays,
the secondary breaks down. So how do we get him
out there? And then how do we use his athleticism
and show every game that he's the best person on
(10:06):
the field and make defense is extremely afraid and make
them have to do things differently. So I think it's
not just Demand getting better, but it's him and his
coach being better together on what makes him a great
quarterback and how to use him and what offense to run.
So I think Jet Fish in that sense has to
get better as well.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, I'm just Mario looking at some of the numbers
for Demand, and I mean, obviously the numbers don't tell
the entire story. But the guy ended up thirty yards
in the big ten, fourth and touchdowns, fifth and yards
per attempt and fourth and passer rating. And the guys
that are all ahead of him either won the Heisman
Trophy or are in the playoff like Dante Moore and.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Julian saying so.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And then you had the rushing totals obviously for Demand
Williams like I ran for six hundred yards and six
more touchdowns. So how much of this is just simple Mario?
For Demand, that man, you've got to be able to
just simply put play better against the better teams and
play better on the road.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
End of the story, Let's not make this hard.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
No, I'm not necessarily sure. I think what a little
bit of what Greg said is what we have to do.
Like him and Coach Sis have to be on the
same page. Coach siss is the play caller, and I
always talk about the best offensive coordinators know how to
get their playmakers the ball and figure out ways. Well,
if he's the great play caller, then he should know
by now two seasons with Demand what works best for him,
(11:26):
whether it's getting him out of the pocket, whether it's
running him, it's whether it's RPOs like it shouldn't be
like this, big letdown from the big kind games to
just running over opponents like we did in Boise State.
There has to be something different, So I don't think
it's that simple.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah, well, Greg, the running game obviously was a downer
right this year for a myriad pletreau of reasons, injuries,
lack of commitment to the run game, whatever you want
to talk about. Now, Jonah Coleman's gone, and now Adam
Mohammad is in the tree for portal after only having
two carries against Poise State in the ballgame when he
(12:05):
was kind of the guy in the last couple of
games of the regular season, when Jonah Coleman got banged up.
I mean, how surprised Warria that he got two carries
in the ball game and then put his name in
the portal.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Yeah, I think I'm a little surprised. I thought that,
you know, him only getting a few carries was just
the coach believing that he's solid. You know, we don't
have to do anything special for Adam. We can allow
our senior to go out and have a you know,
a big game in his final hurrah, because you know,
we're in good with the guy who's going to be
(12:38):
the starter next year, and you know, regardless of what
happened this year, Adam is leaving the year before, he
is going to be the guy, right, So there's obviously
something more than football at stake here.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
You know.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
I don't want to put words in anyone's about I
don't want to speculate necessarily, but this has to be
related to more than just football, because he showed down
a stretch and frankly, all the things we were complaining
about think about this guy, about not running the ball,
not getting the running back to the ball that much,
all that changed with Ada Muhammad took over as a starter.
(13:10):
I mean, he was getting the ball, he was getting
the hundred yard games. So this isn't necessarily a football
related decision only so I don't know why the young
man is jumping too portal, you know, to nowadays we're
going to all say nil, or maybe he doesn't like
maybe he's from Arizona. Maybe he's tired of his damn reign.
I'm tired of it. I don't know, but it is
(13:31):
surprising to me that he's leaving, especially when the offense was,
you know, in those last few games, giving him the
touch it and he needed other than the Bowl Game,
and I thought that was just you know, we got him.
He's solid. So let's get Jonah to go out on
top and maybe let the young guy who's not going
to be the starter next year, who's going to still
be a backup, get him a couple of carries so
he'll feel good too and not transfer. So, you know,
(13:54):
a little bit mind bothering, but hey, that's the world
we live in. It got a great freshman running back
recruit coming in that everybody's excited about out of the
state of California. Kid needs to put on a little
more size. It's about one hundred and eighty five pounds
right now, but man, can he run. He's run hard,
he's you know, built well compact, so you know, we'll
(14:16):
see you know, it's definitely gonna be a running back.
And I think Washington has shown that, you know, with
his speed and his ability to make some guys miss
that he'll be, you know, poise the contribute next year
as well.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, I'm not that concerned Mario about the running back room.
I think you can find a running back. You can
find whatever the hell you want in the portal obviously,
but you know, look, they don't make anything public with
these nil salaries. You know, when a player resigns, they
announce something on social media. But this is not like
the NFL, where you can go online and look up
and see what guys are making. And I mean it's
(14:50):
hard not as a fan to surmise and speculate that
Adam Muhammad is putting this name in the portal Mario
because Husky's aren't paying him what he thinks he's worth.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Period.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I feel like there's gotta be a number of reasons,
Like Greg talked about us giving him the ball, like
I felt in an organ game like we shut him
down and he should have got the ball at least
twenty times that game, or more like he was the
one carrying us and they stopped giving him the ball.
And then you go in the bowl game, like I
understand loyalty to our running back Coleman, but man, we're
(15:26):
going into a new season, like we got to take
care of the guy who's gonna be here next year.
There's got to be a point where we say Adam
Muhammad is our guy. I'm sorry, Jonah, you've been hurt,
but we got to go with Adam Muhammad. And I
felt like the last two games, he didn't get the
ball enough. But they're always money, like I always told you,
and Greg's I'll feel like, hey, if somebody offered me
(15:48):
some more money, I would probably leave because it's about
taking care of your family because the NFL is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, no, I got it, guys. Again, I totally understand it.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
For a ninety nine point nine nine percent of these kids, Greg,
this might be the height of their earning power as
an athlete, right because they'll never make it in the
NFL and this might be the last time in their
life to go out and get some money. And I mean,
do we think that's behind what's going on with Rayd
and vines Bright and his transfer? Does he see the
kids they're bringing in through the portal? Does he see
(16:20):
the kids they brought in in their high school recruiting class,
and just say, I don't want to have to compete
for anything. I want to go somewhere where I'm the
guy automatically. So I can, you know, you know, keep
my earning power where it's at. Right now, it's hard
to even get a real feel for next year when
we're sitting here not having any damn clue.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Greg with this roster is going to look like, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
I mean it is hard for us as fans to
kind of wrap our brains around all of this because
this is not what we watched for the last one
hundred plus years. You know, all of those that haven't
been around that long, just me, But you know, as
football fans, watching football change like this is kind of weird,
and it's it's it's tough, and you know, we don't
(17:02):
know what the team is going to look like. This
still might be a few more, but you know, I
think this this coaching staff has done a really good
job of keeping as many core guys and important guys
as possible. And those that are leaving, you know, I
wish them well, but you know they're no longer on
my radar. Why they're leaving, I don't, you know, I
can't speculate what's in the kid's heart. I cannot sit
(17:23):
here and say he didn't want to compete, you know,
that would be unfair of me. And I can't sit
here and say it's all about the money. But all
of those things are things that you know, fans and us,
you know, we speculate on and we think about. I
guess the kid just has to do what's best for him.
I'm you know, I can say this if I was
in this era and I was making a decision whether
(17:47):
to come back my senior year and it was a
different amount of money. If it's a you know, like
Marl said, if it's a big difference, you know, I'm
probably gonna consider it. If it's not a huge difference,
then you know, I probably you know, I'm loyal ish
this to my program because you know, I wanted to
come to you up for a reason. So you know,
(18:07):
all those things are you know, factors that you have
to consider, and no one knows what they would do
until they're in that situation.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Now for sure.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Well Greg Lewis Mario Bailey with us guys real quick,
we'll just wrap it up with this because I remember
when Kaylen was here kind of right around this point
in time, right a couple of years ago in twenty
twenty three, we were talking about him being the next
DJ and being here for a long time. He's a
Midwest guy's personality seems to fit Seattle, right, I mean,
this is seems like a great marriage. And then you know,
(18:36):
a month later the guy was gone for Alabama. So
how would you characterize Mario? We'll start with you and
Greg you can wrap it up. How would you characterize Mario?
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Your belief, your.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Prediction, I guess if you will for what the future
at Washington looks like down the road for Jetfish.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Man, I'm gonna have to say this because I feel
like mine's is tainted because it's just a about the
word that I hear about coach fists around town. I
don't really know Coach Fish like that. I've seen him
a few times, met him, had a few conversations, so
I can't say. But everybody I talk to says he's
out of here at the first chance he gets. So
that's how I view it, That's what I look at.
(19:17):
I'm hoping that's not the case. But everybody I talk
to doesn't feel like he's the type of guy that's
going to stay here for ten years. He's looking for
the next best opportunity. So I'm thinking Coach Fish would
be gone because I think Coach Fish will be successful
here at Washington in the next year or two and
then they'll have to be gone.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, and if we can benefit from that, okay, fine,
that might just be the new wave of college football.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Coaches, Greg, I'll say you, I would say people are
looking for the next down James or that kind of scenario.
Or let's look at the coach from Utah who just
decided to retire. If you're looking for that, that's not
realistic anymore unless it's at a program like Alabama or
you know, Michigan, LSU somewhere where it's a blue, blue,
(20:00):
blue blood program where they're always going to get you
everything you need. The resource is gonna always be there,
the fans are gonna always show up, whether you're winning
or losing or whatever happens. It lets us that scenario.
You're not gonna see coaches stand anywhere for sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen years. It's just not reality, just like the kids
and the nil and the transfer. So I don't think
(20:21):
anyone's gonna do that. Coach Fish included, I do believe
that he's committed to building this program and winning and
being successful here, and we'll enjoy that as long as
he's here. And then when he's gone, he moves to
that next step, we'll have to hope we can find
another person to do the same thing.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, no doubt. All right, guys, listen, great stuff this year.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I appreciate both the you know, Like I said, Gene
asked me there today what I wanted for the holidays,
when I.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Said, I don't need anything.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
I've got the relationship and the friendships of Mario Bailey
and Greg Lewis, and that's enough for me. So you
guys enjoy it. Man, all right, have a great Christmas
and we'll talk soon. Boys, all right, you bet?
Speaker 4 (20:58):
All right?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Go dog call me again. You know what, Hey, I'll
wait until next year to call you. How's that sound?
Speaker 4 (21:04):
All right?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I won't call you until next year, all right?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Greg Lewis Mario Bailey with a rap on the Husky
football season. We're gonna break Seahawks and Panthers on Sunday.
John Wilder is going to join. At five, we'll get
to Kansas City, where they're moving their stadium to a
different state. Literally, that's coming up five point forty five
on ninety three three KJRFL
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