January 28, 2025 • 18 mins
Jon Wilner of The San Jose Mercury News and Wilner Hotline joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the possible coming College Football Playoff changes, his interview with Jedd Fisch on the podcast, Demond Williams, and expectations for WSU.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for a weekly pac twelve conversation with San
Jose Mercury News reporter John Wilner, brought to you by
Simply Seattle. Our friends at simply Seattle dot com have
the most amazing collection of all things Seattle Seahawks gear.
UW had some the largest selection of Sonics gear anywhere
in the world. Learn more at simply Seattle dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right, by the way, you want to buy the
commemorative each year out of the Hall of Fame shirt,
They've got it available simply Seattle dot com.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
You got your eye on anything on the website.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Always, always, always use code kjar fifteen for fifteen percent
off anything at simply Seattle dot com. Here he is
the Pope of the pack, the bear of the Big ten.
Our friend John Wilner from the San Jose Mercury News.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Johnny, how are you man?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
I'm good. You guys learned something new just a minute ago.
I did not realize the Husky game in Minneapolis was
at nine am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, at nine o'clock in the morning out here, so
eight thirty pregame with Tony and Jason on Saturday morning.
And I'm actually glad you brought that up because Dick
and I were talking off the air about when you
were tracking how West Coast teams did going two time
zones away in football. Have you been looking at what
basketball teams are doing, because obviously you got long road
(01:15):
trips East coast, West Coast. You know Purdue was out here,
you Dub has been on the East coast.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Maryland came here.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Is that still a phenomenon in basketball like it was
in football?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
You think it is.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I looked at it about ten days ago, and the
West Coast schools were not doing well. I don't remember
what the exact number was, but it was far below
five hundred, and that included Callen Stanford ACC games. I
did not check Big twelve games. There are not many
Big twelve games. There are multiple time zones for the
(01:46):
former pac Club school, so it was mostly ACC and
Big ten and it was significantly below five hundred. I
haven't looked though in the last ten days.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
So John, we got the ratings for the Ohio State
note game lower than Washington Michigan. So what changes need
to be made in the in the college football calendar
based on that?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And what does it tell you about future schedules?
Speaker 5 (02:09):
That we got the twenty twenty seven title game announced
for January twenty fifth.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Which is just three days. Three days ago would have
been a week later.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
It's crazy. I think they need to move it up,
but it's gonna be hard to do it because there's
only so many weeks in the calendar based on when
the season starts, and if you include the conference championship games,
college football is gonna have to make a decision, a
major decision on the schedule if they want to move
(02:38):
things up. I think it's just gonna get worse because
the NFL is gonna go to an eighteenth game, and
that'll mean that that the two weekends in between the
semi finals and the and the CFP Championship would be
the final weekend of the NFL regular season and then
the first weekend of the Wildcard Round. And the first
weekend of the Wildcard Round includes that Monday night game,
(02:59):
which would be base said, say, the same time slot
as the National Championship game.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
So what would you do if you were in charge?
What's your fix?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Well, so there's two options. One is you actually go
the other way and move it later and play it
the weekend in between the NFL conference championship games and
the super Bowl. So this coming weekend, Yes, you're in
favor of that.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I am in favor of that.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
You would get the entire week leading up to it
talking about it, or it.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Does extend the season that much longer, right, but it is.
It does give college football its own stage. There's no
doubt about that. The other option would be you have
to start the season earlier, like late August for everybody,
and get rid of the conference championship games. Yeah, then
(03:50):
then you could do everything and basically you could finish
it the season at the Rose Bowl for the championship. Right,
So they both things.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
The first option will put that game on February and
they may eventually move the super Bowl back another week
if they go to eighteen games. So you're telling you
that they're just gonna follow the NFL's calendar no matter
how long they go.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
What if they play eight games.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Super Bowl is on February sixteenth, They're gonna play this
game on February ninth.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I can't. I don't think they're gonna do it. But
those really the only options. If if you think that
it's in a bad spot, and my view is That's
a pretty good number for Ohio State Notre Dame given
when it was placed in the calendar. But Ohio State
Notre Dame should do better. It should be in a
(04:37):
better spot and should be drawn close to thirty million
people with those two schools. So they need to maximize
their championship games. So they got to do something. I
think moving it later in January early February is the
the option they want to avoid. But the better options
are much more complicated because they involve changing your whole
(05:00):
December calendar. I mean, it would involve having the quarterfinals
before Christmas, not on New Year's Day.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
What if they just tweaked it a little bit because
a lot of people were complaining that, hey, we had
two divisional playoff games on Saturday, we had two divisional
playoff games on Sunday. We were kind of like big
game fatigued out by Monday night. Yes, what if we
just made it three nights later, had it on Thursday.
We're all used to watching football, both college and pro
on Thursday. Anyway, you'd have two three days leading up
(05:29):
to that to talk about college football.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I suppose they could do that. I haven't heard that
suggested but it makes some sense. That would mean that
there would be two weeks between the semifinals if they
stay on that Thursday Friday, two weeks between the semi
finals and the championship. It's a long time that it
does make a little sense. Generally speaking, a lot of
college people are opposed to moving it later in January,
(05:57):
even by one day. They think it's yea as late
as it can be. But nobody has a good idea,
the easy idea, painless idea for moving it up.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, I think the longer you move it away from
the semi finals, the more people will check out.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
I think you gotta play it. You gotta play it
a week later.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
This is This is not the NFL where you can
spend two weeks talking about the game.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
John Wilner with US Courtesia simply Seattle.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
John, you and the other John Johnny Canzano caught up
with Jetfish on your podcast. Uh would you take away
from that conversation with the coach of the Huskies.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
So a couple things really stuck out to me. Part
of our discussion was about the blurring of the line
between how an NFL team manages its roster and how
college teams are gonna have to manage their rosters with
revenue sharing because you're gonna have to figure out how
much you're paying your quarterback, how much you're paying your tackle. Uh,
you're gonna have to try to go over the salary
(06:54):
cap so some of it. And he's, you know, he's
been in the NFL for so long, so many stops.
We thought it would be a good conversation to have
with him, and he was very candid and very insightful
on that stuff. The thing I really wanted to ask
him about, and we talked about it, was whether he
(07:15):
sensed that Washington as an institution and the Husky football
community were prepared to do whatever it takes to compete
with Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Oregon going all
in on football. And he says he's gotten the vibe
(07:36):
that yes, they're ready to do it. It's hard to know
for sure because Washington's going to be changing presidents and
that is a huge hire for the university for the
football program. But I wanted to get Fish on the
record about the degree of the institutional commitment to do
whatever it takes to compete for Big ten.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Tigers John are we over hyph being Demand Williams here
in Seattle or people around the country just not know
what Washington has and he's going to be unleashed on
them next fall.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I think the boring answer is a little bit of both.
I I totally understand the excitement about him and how
he played, and we talked to Fish on the podcast
about Demand a little bit too. Uh. But at the
same time, you could argue, Gosh, he hasn't really done
a whole lot so because he deserved that level of hype.
(08:35):
Probably not. Here's the Here's the piece that I've gotten
back to a few times sticking this through in my head.
Though Oregon's got a new quarterback, US He's gonna have
a new quarterback U C l a uh, Indiana, Michigan,
Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It's only Washington, Penn State, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Do they have an opportunity, yeah, no, no doubt. But
do they have the lines to take advantage of it.
I mean, that's one thing that remains to be seen
for me. I'm just expecting that Michigan and Ohio State,
Penn State teams like that will just retool with lineman
that can get the job done. So I mean I'm
just curious if Jedfish can pull that off. I mean,
because right now, I don't know if this line is
(09:14):
good enough right now to get that done. But I'm
just kind of curious John what the expectations should.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Be for year two. But if he goes eight and yeah, four,
go ahead.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Fish talked about getting bigger because we asked him about
lessons from the Big Ten, So we got to get bigger.
We're gonna we're gonna beat bigger on the offensive line,
We're gonna feed bigger defensive ends. But yeah, you're totally right.
What the expectations, you know, so much of it depends
on the schedule. And I think they've got Illinois, and
I think Illinois is going to be really good. I
(09:45):
looked at that schedule and thought, if you give them
three and zero non conference, and that's maybe a little
risky with the Apple Cup. Uh, you know, seven and five.
If I were putting an over under right now on
the win total, based on the whole schedule, I would
probably put it at right at seven, Right at seven, Uh,
(10:09):
I don't know, seven and a half might be a
little too high.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Okay, Well, yeah, I mean that's probably fair. But I
think they'll.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I think eight and four is a good number for
them for a year, for a year from night, John,
let me ask you just stay in state for a
second because uh Ian Ferness. You may have heard of him,
he's a big TV star does the hockey stuff up
here in Seattle. He had Jimmy Rodgers, the new Wazoo coach,
on his show today, and I wonder kind of what
you expect from this guy in Pullman And I saw
where you a Wazoo is scheduled at home and home
(10:37):
with Arizona. That feels like a pretty decent sized win
for the Koops to get a familiar foe on their
schedule for a couple of years.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Oh yeah, that's a great game for Washington State. Any
and I think that, you know, there could be other
former legacy packed up schools that you know, they want
to schedule Washington State and Oregon State because they're they're
good draws for home for the home fans, because they
know those schools, and it's a it's good competition, it's
(11:06):
not you know, coman home doesn't cost you anything. So
that was a great game for them to schedule. And
I am not you know, I'm pretty luke warm on
the coups for next season. I got to tell you
I was. I was high on them this past year,
certainly the higher than I was on Oregon State. I
think it might flip a little bit next year with
(11:27):
those two. I'm I think Oregon State's gonna rebound, and
I'm not sure about Washington State short term. Longer term,
I don't know either, because you know, we don't know
much about Rogers. A lot of guys have done well
coming up from the f FCS, but we just don't know.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
You made some big predictions for twenty twenty five. You
got any favorite this year with us?
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Well, the big one I think is that I don't
expect that there's gonna be realignment at the power four
level in twenty twenty five. I you know, the PAC
twelve's got to add a school or two, and that could,
you know, change some things at the Group of five level.
But I think it's going to be quiet for the
next three four years, and then the next big realignment
wave will be at the end of the decade, tied
(12:12):
to the Big ten TV deal. I think athletes are
going to be declared employees by the courts. I think
that I talked to somebody who is very clued in
on on athletic department finances, and that person said that
you're gonna if you want to compete with Ohio State
(12:33):
and A and M, you're gonna have to go ten
million over the cap, so ten million in true nil
over the fifteen. The football teams are going to get
out of the revenue sharing like that is a that
is an issue for the Huskies. For instance, they're going
to be allowed to spend fifteen million on their football roster,
but then there's also the nil piece. How far over
(12:54):
the fifteen will they be able to go? A lot
of schools might be a twenty twenty five million. So
that's just that's a couple of them. But you know,
I wanted to kind of get it on record what
I think is gonna possibly happen this year. And there's
so much off the field stuff that affects the on
the field product.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
John Wilner with US Courtesy is simply Seattle every Tuesday
at five and John, we had Jim Bowden on the show.
Former Major League GM was with us at four o'clock,
just completely destroyed the Mariners.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
If you want to listen to that in the podcast.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
By the way, I heard that.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I heard that, there you go.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
But the Trojans just hired his son to be their
general manager at USC. And I know that the Trojans
o Lincoln Riley a buttload of money. But every year
that number goes down by about what nine or ten
million dollars. If he rolls out another six and six
seven and six type year, how much do the odds
increased that Jen Cohen will have no choice but to
(13:48):
whack him.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, that was one of my predictions is that he will.
This will be it for him, the last the UCLA
game will be his last game as USC's coach. I
don't think it's good work. And Chad Bowen is Bowden
is a very well respected GM in the college ranks,
but he's not a three hundred pound defensive tackle. And
(14:11):
unless USC is able to get similar to Washington, unless
they're able to get much bigger and better on defense
at the line of scrimmage, I don't see how it's
gonna end well for Riley. The difference between Washington and
USC in that regardless, I think Washington is more capable
of playing a style that you know, compensating for their
(14:33):
problems up front. Lincoln Riley is just so you know,
his air raid thing, it's it doesn't work without the players,
and I don't think he's gonna get the players, So
this is gonna be it.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Softie asked me a couple of days ago if I
thought there'd be an Apple Cup in five years, and
I just kind of knee jerked.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
I said, absolutely, I.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Think there'll be an Apple Cup in five years.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Do you agree with that?
Speaker 4 (14:58):
I do think there will be. I think there's too
much pressure on both schools, especially on Washington, and I
don't it's a good game for Washington. I mean, yes,
there's a chance of losing, but I don't know why
the Huskies would want to abandon it. You know what,
what are you going to replace it with? Now? This
all assumes that the Big Ten doesn't go to ten
(15:21):
conference games, and right now there's no talk about that.
But I think that is potentially that could be a
move for Big Ten in SEC either there's ten conference
games or you have one of your non conference is
some kind of scheduling alliance that could change the Apple Cup.
But as long as the Huskies have got three pure
(15:43):
non conference slots, I don't know why that game wouldn't continue.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Well, we'll see. I mean, I know a lot of
Cougar fans don't want to play it. And if they
keep getting that, the.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Cougar fans who don't want to play the Apple Cup,
that is the they are so shortsighted. I can't even
describe it, Thank you, John.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
It was just like pushing the easy button right there.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Booms just come on people right right?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Well, I know Troy Dan and I haven't talked to
Chun about this. When Dan and got hired, he said
he had to have seven home games a year, and
so the Apple Cup was kind of up in the
air a little bit. So, you know, we'll see they
got seven home games I know this.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Year for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
All right, John, great stuff. Enjoy the evening, and we're
talking a week passion. Uh have you seen USC's schedule,
by the way, that they've got this year?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
So they start off pretty easy.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I could see him kind of making a run through
the top twenty five Missouri State, Georgia, Southern, Purdue, and
Michigan State, who were all terrible. Then they got Illinois, Michigan,
Notre Dame, Nebraska, Northwestern, but then Iowa and Oregon. So
this is six and six is not another questions? Yeah,
I mean you know who the quarterback is. It's that
transfer from you, that Jordan myaver kid.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Sam Hewort's there too, by the way, I don't I
don't know where he is in the depth chart, but
he's also there.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
But I totally agree with him on link and run.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
They roll out another six and six, seven to five
type year, lose their bowl game, He's gotta go.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Scheduling is going to be so huge in the Big Ten,
and you're gonna kind of have an on off type
schedule like the Husky schedule was.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
On this year.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
It was brutal, right, absolutely brutal. It's more of an
off type schedule next year. Whereas usc AS you just
show it has got an on schedule. So in those
years when you've got the kind of off schedule, right,
those are the ones that you got to rack up
the wins and get yourself in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, you got UC Davis, CSU meeting Colorado State and
the Cooves. I think they win all three of those games,
and then Ohio State's coming here. But then you're going
to Maryland. I don't know what the travel will do
to them. It kind of they short circuited last year
with the Rutgers game. Rutgers come here. So let's just say,
worst case scenario, you're four and two after six games.
Then you got Michigan there, Illinois here, and Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
So that's kind of that little run there where.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Depending on how they start, that little run could decide
what they end up doing. Hugh Millen made a proclamation
about Geno Smith today. Apparently I didn't hear it, but
you did. You'll fill us in next on ninety three
three KJRFM
It's time for a weekly pac twelve conversation with San
Jose Mercury News reporter John Wilner, brought to you by
Simply Seattle. Our friends at simply Seattle dot com have
the most amazing collection of all things Seattle Seahawks gear.
UW had some the largest selection of Sonics gear anywhere
in the world. Learn more at simply Seattle dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right, by the way, you want to buy the
commemorative each year out of the Hall of Fame shirt,
They've got it available simply Seattle dot com.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
You got your eye on anything on the website.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Always, always, always use code kjar fifteen for fifteen percent
off anything at simply Seattle dot com. Here he is
the Pope of the pack, the bear of the Big ten.
Our friend John Wilner from the San Jose Mercury News.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Johnny, how are you man?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
I'm good. You guys learned something new just a minute ago.
I did not realize the Husky game in Minneapolis was
at nine am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, at nine o'clock in the morning out here, so
eight thirty pregame with Tony and Jason on Saturday morning.
And I'm actually glad you brought that up because Dick
and I were talking off the air about when you
were tracking how West Coast teams did going two time
zones away in football. Have you been looking at what
basketball teams are doing, because obviously you got long road
(01:15):
trips East coast, West Coast. You know Purdue was out here,
you Dub has been on the East coast.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Maryland came here.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Is that still a phenomenon in basketball like it was
in football?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
You think it is.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I looked at it about ten days ago, and the
West Coast schools were not doing well. I don't remember
what the exact number was, but it was far below
five hundred, and that included Callen Stanford ACC games. I
did not check Big twelve games. There are not many
Big twelve games. There are multiple time zones for the
(01:46):
former pac Club school, so it was mostly ACC and
Big ten and it was significantly below five hundred. I
haven't looked though in the last ten days.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
So John, we got the ratings for the Ohio State
note game lower than Washington Michigan. So what changes need
to be made in the in the college football calendar
based on that?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And what does it tell you about future schedules?
Speaker 5 (02:09):
That we got the twenty twenty seven title game announced
for January twenty fifth.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Which is just three days. Three days ago would have
been a week later.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
It's crazy. I think they need to move it up,
but it's gonna be hard to do it because there's
only so many weeks in the calendar based on when
the season starts, and if you include the conference championship games,
college football is gonna have to make a decision, a
major decision on the schedule if they want to move
(02:38):
things up. I think it's just gonna get worse because
the NFL is gonna go to an eighteenth game, and
that'll mean that that the two weekends in between the
semi finals and the and the CFP Championship would be
the final weekend of the NFL regular season and then
the first weekend of the Wildcard Round. And the first
weekend of the Wildcard Round includes that Monday night game,
(02:59):
which would be base said, say, the same time slot
as the National Championship game.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
So what would you do if you were in charge?
What's your fix?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Well, so there's two options. One is you actually go
the other way and move it later and play it
the weekend in between the NFL conference championship games and
the super Bowl. So this coming weekend, Yes, you're in
favor of that.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I am in favor of that.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
You would get the entire week leading up to it
talking about it, or it.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Does extend the season that much longer, right, but it is.
It does give college football its own stage. There's no
doubt about that. The other option would be you have
to start the season earlier, like late August for everybody,
and get rid of the conference championship games. Yeah, then
(03:50):
then you could do everything and basically you could finish
it the season at the Rose Bowl for the championship. Right,
So they both things.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
The first option will put that game on February and
they may eventually move the super Bowl back another week
if they go to eighteen games. So you're telling you
that they're just gonna follow the NFL's calendar no matter
how long they go.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
What if they play eight games.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Super Bowl is on February sixteenth, They're gonna play this
game on February ninth.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I can't. I don't think they're gonna do it. But
those really the only options. If if you think that
it's in a bad spot, and my view is That's
a pretty good number for Ohio State Notre Dame given
when it was placed in the calendar. But Ohio State
Notre Dame should do better. It should be in a
(04:37):
better spot and should be drawn close to thirty million
people with those two schools. So they need to maximize
their championship games. So they got to do something. I
think moving it later in January early February is the
the option they want to avoid. But the better options
are much more complicated because they involve changing your whole
(05:00):
December calendar. I mean, it would involve having the quarterfinals
before Christmas, not on New Year's Day.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
What if they just tweaked it a little bit because
a lot of people were complaining that, hey, we had
two divisional playoff games on Saturday, we had two divisional
playoff games on Sunday. We were kind of like big
game fatigued out by Monday night. Yes, what if we
just made it three nights later, had it on Thursday.
We're all used to watching football, both college and pro
on Thursday. Anyway, you'd have two three days leading up
(05:29):
to that to talk about college football.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I suppose they could do that. I haven't heard that
suggested but it makes some sense. That would mean that
there would be two weeks between the semifinals if they
stay on that Thursday Friday, two weeks between the semi
finals and the championship. It's a long time that it
does make a little sense. Generally speaking, a lot of
college people are opposed to moving it later in January,
(05:57):
even by one day. They think it's yea as late
as it can be. But nobody has a good idea,
the easy idea, painless idea for moving it up.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, I think the longer you move it away from
the semi finals, the more people will check out.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
I think you gotta play it. You gotta play it
a week later.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
This is This is not the NFL where you can
spend two weeks talking about the game.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
John Wilner with US Courtesia simply Seattle.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
John, you and the other John Johnny Canzano caught up
with Jetfish on your podcast. Uh would you take away
from that conversation with the coach of the Huskies.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
So a couple things really stuck out to me. Part
of our discussion was about the blurring of the line
between how an NFL team manages its roster and how
college teams are gonna have to manage their rosters with
revenue sharing because you're gonna have to figure out how
much you're paying your quarterback, how much you're paying your tackle. Uh,
you're gonna have to try to go over the salary
(06:54):
cap so some of it. And he's, you know, he's
been in the NFL for so long, so many stops.
We thought it would be a good conversation to have
with him, and he was very candid and very insightful
on that stuff. The thing I really wanted to ask
him about, and we talked about it, was whether he
(07:15):
sensed that Washington as an institution and the Husky football
community were prepared to do whatever it takes to compete
with Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Oregon going all
in on football. And he says he's gotten the vibe
(07:36):
that yes, they're ready to do it. It's hard to know
for sure because Washington's going to be changing presidents and
that is a huge hire for the university for the
football program. But I wanted to get Fish on the
record about the degree of the institutional commitment to do
whatever it takes to compete for Big ten.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Tigers John are we over hyph being Demand Williams here
in Seattle or people around the country just not know
what Washington has and he's going to be unleashed on
them next fall.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I think the boring answer is a little bit of both.
I I totally understand the excitement about him and how
he played, and we talked to Fish on the podcast
about Demand a little bit too. Uh. But at the
same time, you could argue, Gosh, he hasn't really done
a whole lot so because he deserved that level of hype.
(08:35):
Probably not. Here's the Here's the piece that I've gotten
back to a few times sticking this through in my head.
Though Oregon's got a new quarterback, US He's gonna have
a new quarterback U C l a uh, Indiana, Michigan,
Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It's only Washington, Penn State, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Do they have an opportunity, yeah, no, no doubt. But
do they have the lines to take advantage of it.
I mean, that's one thing that remains to be seen
for me. I'm just expecting that Michigan and Ohio State,
Penn State teams like that will just retool with lineman
that can get the job done. So I mean I'm
just curious if Jedfish can pull that off. I mean,
because right now, I don't know if this line is
(09:14):
good enough right now to get that done. But I'm
just kind of curious John what the expectations should.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Be for year two. But if he goes eight and yeah, four,
go ahead.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Fish talked about getting bigger because we asked him about
lessons from the Big Ten, So we got to get bigger.
We're gonna we're gonna beat bigger on the offensive line,
We're gonna feed bigger defensive ends. But yeah, you're totally right.
What the expectations, you know, so much of it depends
on the schedule. And I think they've got Illinois, and
I think Illinois is going to be really good. I
(09:45):
looked at that schedule and thought, if you give them
three and zero non conference, and that's maybe a little
risky with the Apple Cup. Uh, you know, seven and five.
If I were putting an over under right now on
the win total, based on the whole schedule, I would
probably put it at right at seven, Right at seven, Uh,
(10:09):
I don't know, seven and a half might be a
little too high.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Okay, Well, yeah, I mean that's probably fair. But I
think they'll.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I think eight and four is a good number for
them for a year, for a year from night, John,
let me ask you just stay in state for a
second because uh Ian Ferness. You may have heard of him,
he's a big TV star does the hockey stuff up
here in Seattle. He had Jimmy Rodgers, the new Wazoo coach,
on his show today, and I wonder kind of what
you expect from this guy in Pullman And I saw
where you a Wazoo is scheduled at home and home
(10:37):
with Arizona. That feels like a pretty decent sized win
for the Koops to get a familiar foe on their
schedule for a couple of years.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Oh yeah, that's a great game for Washington State. Any
and I think that, you know, there could be other
former legacy packed up schools that you know, they want
to schedule Washington State and Oregon State because they're they're
good draws for home for the home fans, because they
know those schools, and it's a it's good competition, it's
(11:06):
not you know, coman home doesn't cost you anything. So
that was a great game for them to schedule. And
I am not you know, I'm pretty luke warm on
the coups for next season. I got to tell you
I was. I was high on them this past year,
certainly the higher than I was on Oregon State. I
think it might flip a little bit next year with
(11:27):
those two. I'm I think Oregon State's gonna rebound, and
I'm not sure about Washington State short term. Longer term,
I don't know either, because you know, we don't know
much about Rogers. A lot of guys have done well
coming up from the f FCS, but we just don't know.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
You made some big predictions for twenty twenty five. You
got any favorite this year with us?
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Well, the big one I think is that I don't
expect that there's gonna be realignment at the power four
level in twenty twenty five. I you know, the PAC
twelve's got to add a school or two, and that could,
you know, change some things at the Group of five level.
But I think it's going to be quiet for the
next three four years, and then the next big realignment
wave will be at the end of the decade, tied
(12:12):
to the Big ten TV deal. I think athletes are
going to be declared employees by the courts. I think
that I talked to somebody who is very clued in
on on athletic department finances, and that person said that
you're gonna if you want to compete with Ohio State
(12:33):
and A and M, you're gonna have to go ten
million over the cap, so ten million in true nil
over the fifteen. The football teams are going to get
out of the revenue sharing like that is a that
is an issue for the Huskies. For instance, they're going
to be allowed to spend fifteen million on their football roster,
but then there's also the nil piece. How far over
(12:54):
the fifteen will they be able to go? A lot
of schools might be a twenty twenty five million. So
that's just that's a couple of them. But you know,
I wanted to kind of get it on record what
I think is gonna possibly happen this year. And there's
so much off the field stuff that affects the on
the field product.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
John Wilner with US Courtesy is simply Seattle every Tuesday
at five and John, we had Jim Bowden on the show.
Former Major League GM was with us at four o'clock,
just completely destroyed the Mariners.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
If you want to listen to that in the podcast.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
By the way, I heard that.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I heard that, there you go.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
But the Trojans just hired his son to be their
general manager at USC. And I know that the Trojans
o Lincoln Riley a buttload of money. But every year
that number goes down by about what nine or ten
million dollars. If he rolls out another six and six
seven and six type year, how much do the odds
increased that Jen Cohen will have no choice but to
(13:48):
whack him.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, that was one of my predictions is that he will.
This will be it for him, the last the UCLA
game will be his last game as USC's coach. I
don't think it's good work. And Chad Bowen is Bowden
is a very well respected GM in the college ranks,
but he's not a three hundred pound defensive tackle. And
(14:11):
unless USC is able to get similar to Washington, unless
they're able to get much bigger and better on defense
at the line of scrimmage, I don't see how it's
gonna end well for Riley. The difference between Washington and
USC in that regardless, I think Washington is more capable
of playing a style that you know, compensating for their
(14:33):
problems up front. Lincoln Riley is just so you know,
his air raid thing, it's it doesn't work without the players,
and I don't think he's gonna get the players, So
this is gonna be it.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Softie asked me a couple of days ago if I
thought there'd be an Apple Cup in five years, and
I just kind of knee jerked.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
I said, absolutely, I.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Think there'll be an Apple Cup in five years.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Do you agree with that?
Speaker 4 (14:58):
I do think there will be. I think there's too
much pressure on both schools, especially on Washington, and I
don't it's a good game for Washington. I mean, yes,
there's a chance of losing, but I don't know why
the Huskies would want to abandon it. You know what,
what are you going to replace it with? Now? This
all assumes that the Big Ten doesn't go to ten
(15:21):
conference games, and right now there's no talk about that.
But I think that is potentially that could be a
move for Big Ten in SEC either there's ten conference
games or you have one of your non conference is
some kind of scheduling alliance that could change the Apple Cup.
But as long as the Huskies have got three pure
(15:43):
non conference slots, I don't know why that game wouldn't continue.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Well, we'll see. I mean, I know a lot of
Cougar fans don't want to play it. And if they
keep getting that, the.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Cougar fans who don't want to play the Apple Cup,
that is the they are so shortsighted. I can't even
describe it, Thank you, John.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
It was just like pushing the easy button right there.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Booms just come on people right right?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Well, I know Troy Dan and I haven't talked to
Chun about this. When Dan and got hired, he said
he had to have seven home games a year, and
so the Apple Cup was kind of up in the
air a little bit. So, you know, we'll see they
got seven home games I know this.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Year for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
All right, John, great stuff. Enjoy the evening, and we're
talking a week passion. Uh have you seen USC's schedule,
by the way, that they've got this year?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
So they start off pretty easy.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I could see him kind of making a run through
the top twenty five Missouri State, Georgia, Southern, Purdue, and
Michigan State, who were all terrible. Then they got Illinois, Michigan,
Notre Dame, Nebraska, Northwestern, but then Iowa and Oregon. So
this is six and six is not another questions? Yeah,
I mean you know who the quarterback is. It's that
transfer from you, that Jordan myaver kid.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Sam Hewort's there too, by the way, I don't I
don't know where he is in the depth chart, but
he's also there.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
But I totally agree with him on link and run.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
They roll out another six and six, seven to five
type year, lose their bowl game, He's gotta go.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Scheduling is going to be so huge in the Big Ten,
and you're gonna kind of have an on off type
schedule like the Husky schedule was.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
On this year.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
It was brutal, right, absolutely brutal. It's more of an
off type schedule next year. Whereas usc AS you just
show it has got an on schedule. So in those
years when you've got the kind of off schedule, right,
those are the ones that you got to rack up
the wins and get yourself in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, you got UC Davis, CSU meeting Colorado State and
the Cooves. I think they win all three of those games,
and then Ohio State's coming here. But then you're going
to Maryland. I don't know what the travel will do
to them. It kind of they short circuited last year
with the Rutgers game. Rutgers come here. So let's just say,
worst case scenario, you're four and two after six games.
Then you got Michigan there, Illinois here, and Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
So that's kind of that little run there where.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Depending on how they start, that little run could decide
what they end up doing. Hugh Millen made a proclamation
about Geno Smith today. Apparently I didn't hear it, but
you did. You'll fill us in next on ninety three
three KJRFM
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