Nigel Burton on Huskies to Big Ten, UW O-Line, Jedd Fisch + Portal

Nigel Burton of the Pac-12 Network joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the Washington Huskies Spring Game coming up tomorrow night including the team’s move to the Big Ten, the offensive line concerns, the 2024 enthusiasm, and Jedd Fisch.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
For a guy that played in thePac ten back of the day and saw
these guys do great things with ChrisPeterson and Rick Neuheisel and obviously Kaitlin de
Borr. Give us your thoughts onthe end of the Pac twelve era and
the beginning of the Big ten erafor your beloved Husky football team. Man,
you know what, it's it's stilla little strange to kind of hear

(00:21):
it that way, but you know, it's it's it's strange. It's a
little sad, if I'm being honest, but you know, college football and
the landscape is just so wild rightnow that you know, who knows how
long any of these iterations are goingto be for conferences teams. You know,

(00:42):
they're talking about super conferences, andyou know that there's these groups of
people who want to just buy therights to everything and create eighty team conferences.
I mean, who knows. Butultimately, when it's all said and
done, you look at what thisprogram has done in the history of the
conference and champions and short of shortof maybe USC, there's nobody else that

(01:06):
can match it. And so it'sobviously a point of pride for all of
us that that Rock the Purple andgold. So what have you been told
about kind of your future as faras the PAC twelve network goes, I
mean, what are we going tosee this year? What are we going
to see beyond? I don't knowwhat do you? What'd you hear?
I got no idea, man.But you know, luckily for me,

(01:29):
you know, I learned the hardway when I had you know, radio
show in Portland, and you know, I was doing a lot of things,
and then you know, life ain'talways fair, so you better be
prepared to to, you know,adapt, adapt or die. And so
I've adapted. And so you know, our family is fine. I got
a couple of businesses that I runin Portland. My wife has a great

(01:53):
job or our kids are doing great, and so you know, I hope
to continue to do college football becauseit's you know, as Nick Alioti who
coaching Oregon all those years and Iwould work together and be like, you
know, you always tell me that. Then I these guys realize we're stealing
right, like like you kidding,Like wait, let me get this straight.

(02:13):
You're gonna fly me to the bestPAC twelve games? Yeah, and
put me up in really you know, nice hotels. Yeah, give me
a rental car. Yeah, putme on the sideline. Yeah, I'm
gonna talk about the game that I'mgonna watch, whether I was there or
not. Yeah. And you're gonnapay me for this. Yeah, Okay,

(02:34):
not that gig. Not a badgig, man, Yeah sure,
yeah. So, I mean,yeah, it's it's one of those things
where I've just been blessed man,and and you know, ultimately, you
know, if it ends, itends, and what a what a great
run the last nine ten years hasbeen. And if I can continue to
do it, hey, that'd begreat too. Well, let's talk about
what we'll see tomorrow and kind ofwhat your take is on this team coming

(02:57):
out of the Kailin de bor erainto the Jed Fish air and Nigel old
Burton with us, and clearly thenumber one concern that most Tuskie fans have
is the offensive line. I mean, you lost all five starters from last
year. I can't remember, Nigelthe last time the Huskies had a brand
new starting line from one year tothe next. But give us your take
on what you think that rebuilt offensiveline could look like and how effective it

(03:21):
might be. You know, it'sinteresting I talked to coach Fish today and
he said, you know, webring back the uniform and that's about it,
you know, I mean, ultimately, you know, it's not the
same team, it's not the samestaff, it's not. But you know,
I think there they at least soundreally excited. And I got a
chance to catch a practice, youknow, earlier and and and then also

(03:44):
catch one on Thursday, and soyou know, in the end, they've
got some good pieces. It's justgoing to be, you know, how
quickly do these guys learn to playwith each other? You know, it's
just such an interesting era of collegefootball now where there's basically free agency and
guys can come and go as theyas they please, and you know,
based on whether it's in il moneyor or what have you. And so

(04:11):
it's really just how quickly can youget a group of guys to gel be
on the same page, play foreach other, and really with the staff
and the team accomplished the last twoyears has been nothing short of amazing.
So you know, obviously they're gonnahave their work cut out for them,
but you know, they feel solidthey have the pieces to be able to
continue to be successful. Well,there's no question Nigel that when they kick

(04:31):
that ball off in Houston for theNational Championship game, and that was the
highest of highs for Husky football overthe last at least thirty years. Now,
how much has been lost we've beendebating on how much Husky fevers still
is left right now? How muchdo you think has been lost between that
moment and right now? You know, I don't know. You guys are

(04:55):
probably be a better judge of that. I mean, me being down in
Portland, you know, I don'tget a you know, I don't get
a daily sense of what the fanbase thinks. You guys here a lot
more than I do. You know, Ultimately, what I do know is
this, I know that you know, Jed Fish has put together a staff
that's pretty wild. I mean,when you consider the fact that you have

(05:15):
you know, NFL defensive coordinators asyour coordinator, You've got you know,
NFL former NFL players and coaches thatare on the staff. You've got two
of the biggest legends in the historyof the game. All right, Your
practice is pretty much every other day. You know, the knowledge base is
there. I think you know asmuch as I and I love coach Deborr
and I hate hearing people talk bad, you know, guys who didn't like

(05:39):
the way that he may have left. I'm like, look, man,
ultimately, he's going to do what'sright for his family and what he wanted
to do. And you guys shouldjust enjoy the fact that he took a
program that was you know, let'sbe honest, you know, right before
he showed up, things are bad. And to get to a national championship
game be you know, a fewquarters away from another title. Yeah,
man, just thank the guy forwhat he did and keep it moving,

(06:01):
you know, and you know,and so uh, you know, ultimately,
you know, the one thing Iwill say, I think this staff
will probably do a little bit betterjob in terms of recruiting. I think
you're gonna see, you're gonna seesome continued talent coming through here. And
it's just gonna be their ability todevelop guys, uh the way that I

(06:23):
think, you know, Kaitlin andhis staff and take advantage of the talent
of the guys who walk in thedoor. But uh, you know,
I think I think Husky fans shouldfeel really good. I mean, and
the last thing I'd say is justconsider where Arizona was. Jeed Fish should
have at that place was a disaster. And so I mean, I think
I think coach Fishes walking to away better situation than he walked in into

(06:44):
Tucson. And we all saw whatthey did in his last Arizona just mantled
Oklahoma. So I mean, youknow, give give everybody a chance to
get their feet underneath them, andI think good things are here, are
here to stay. Yeah, bothcoaches took over a dumpster fires, Let's
be honest with you, and bothboth coach got those things turned around.
But the quarterback position, Nigel,I'm curious to hear your thoughts tomorrow after

(07:04):
you see these guys. Demon Williams, the freshman who had committed to play
football for Jed at Arizona, followshim here. Damericus Davis, who committed
to play for Kaylan, went intothe portal for a second time. So
now it's just Demon Williams and WillRogers from Mississippi State, who's the second
all time leading passer in the SEC. And I'm wondering, you know,

(07:27):
put your old coaches hat on herefor a second, Nigel, the state
of your offensive line would that potentiallyimpact what you do at quarterback meeting?
You have a young guy that likesto run versus a guy who's more of
a stationary guy in rogers. Youknow, I don't think that really plays
into it. I think ultimately thequarterback position is about guys who make good
decisions, can get the ball outof their hands, and are accurate.

(07:50):
And so whoever that ends up being, you know, I think you know
the days of and I mean obviouslyat the college level you can still beat
guys with your feet when you havea great athlete and things like that,
but you know, there's just somany great athletes out there right now that
if you think, you know,if demon walks into this thing thinking this
is gonna be like high school andhe'll just be able to outrun everybody,

(08:11):
that's a great way to get killed. So you know, ultimately you got
to beat people with your mind atthis level. And so I think ultimately
it's going to be you know,who can get the ball out of their
hand, make good decisions, andbe accurate, and whoever does that better
has a chance to give them achance to win. And even if you're
and I think people understate the athleticismthat will have, I think he's a

(08:33):
better athlete that people give him creditfor. And you know, what's your
ability to just get the ball outof your hands. That's gonna be way
better than run around thinking you're thesecond coming of Doug Flutie or Michael Vick
or you know, go down alist of these guys who you know,
do these highlights. Get the ballout of your hand and let the players
play. Nigel, all fans,all Doug fans watching you on TV or

(08:54):
or they're in personally, can beobviously watching the quarterback position. They're going
to be watching. What level ofa disaster is the offensive line? Those
are probably the two things are gonnabe watching the most. What else should
they be watching? What are They'reeither individual players or units, So you're
gonna be watching really carefully tomorrow.Yeah. I mean again, I wouldn't
worry too much about the offensive line. Man. I mean this is I

(09:16):
think they this staff really took thesefifteen practices. They wanted to keep things
simple and really have a chance toevaluate kids. And you can't really evaluate
somebody when you're confusing them. Soyou know, I think this is what
you're gonna see is real simple football, basic stuff. I think they've installed
some things that they'll you'll see inthe fall, but you know, just
relax on all that stuff. Ithink the other things you'll see. And

(09:39):
I've been at practice, man DenzelBoston is a dude like that guy is
a guy who you know, ifhe didn't have three three top three round
draft picks in front of him,would have been the guy like he would
have been the guy at almost anyother school right last year. And so
I think Boston is a is aI think they have a running back room

(10:01):
that is, uh maybe second tonone when you consider, you know,
the transfer they got from Arizona CamDavis can be back and then they really
like this Mohammed kid. I thinkthat's gonna be a thing. And you
know, I think defensively, Ithink there's nowhere to go but up,
you know, ultimately, you know, I know I keep saying that word,
but you know, I think,you know, if there was an

(10:22):
Achilles field this team last year waswas was the defense, and I think
that's gonna get short up a littlebit as well. So I just think
I think there's a lot of alot of positive I think it's impossible to
not take a step back when thelast time he played was for the national
championship. But I still think,I still think that there there is a

(10:46):
ton of great football ahead for thisprogram. And you know you had mentioned
before, like, hey, bothboth coaches took over dumpster fires. I
don't think there's any question that whatJed took over at Arizona was five times
as bad as what was here.I think there was a lot of talent
that was here, it maybe wasn'tused in the right way, and Caitlin
just did a really good job offiguring it out quickly and getting it going.

(11:07):
With Jen toogover was non existent andhe built that thing into a power.
And so I think with more resources, better you know, all these
things that'll be better here right.I can't wait to see what he gets
done well. Nigel Burton's with us. I was going to say, thank
God for the portal, but ifthe portal did not exist, then Parker
Brelsford's here, Kalepo's here, Bilo'shere, and Miish Powell's here. Jabar

(11:31):
Mohammed while he would have been comingfrom Okay State, but there's no question
that it's helped them Price Sock andColeman and then Jeremiah Hunter. I don't
know if you saw him play withCal last year for the Bears, But
Nigel, I agree. I thinkthe wide receiver corps might be okay,
they'll never be as good as theywere a year ago. But I will
disagree with you a little bit onthe offensive line. I'm a little freaked

(11:52):
out, man about the offensive lineright now. So I'm just curious to
see how much damage they can doin the portal and the next maybe a
couple of weeks or so. Yeah, I mean, they've got a couple
of guys committed that will show up. I also think they got two guys
who are down coming off of aCLS that you know aren't gonna be there.
I mean, they only got nineguys, so yeah, of course,

(12:13):
you know. But and I goback to this is spring football,
Like everybody just kind of chill.I can tell you right now, there's
not a whole lot of teams thatlook exactly as they look right now will
look like that in the fall.Sure, so you know it's gonna take
a little bit of time to getput together. Everybody, relax, But
they're gonna have two good trigger guys, you know, in terms of wide
receiver. That's the greatest wide receivercrew. And hey, nothing against Mario

(12:37):
and the guys and the ninety onecrew and against Jerome Payton and Freddie Coleman,
but this place, and I'm tryingto think in my mind, I
mean, you guys, tell mein the history of the conference, when's
the last time you had a groupthat looked like the three, four or
five six guys that they have whenhe I mean throw in you know,
not just the three guys get draftedin the top three rounds. Throw in

(12:58):
you know, the Devin cole theJack the Westovers. You know you're throwing
all those guys. When has anythinglooked like that in the history of the
conference? I can't. I mean, you can go back to the USC
I coached against these FC teams withPete Carroll. They didn't look like that.
You know, Mike Wads didn't getdrafted in the first round. So
it's just one of those things whereI would not compare. It's just what

(13:20):
you what you witness was a levelof greatness man, that'll you might not
see. It might have been generational, and now it's just you know,
how can you how can you justkeep the ball, rolling and moving in
the right direction, Nigel, Howdaunting will it be right away for Washington
going to the Big Ten? Becauseif you look, you know, historically
last fifteen twenty years, clearly theBig Ten has been a superior conference of

(13:41):
the PAC twelve. But if youjust look at this past year, the
most recent sample size, PAC twelveis better. I mean in just about
every way, shape or form,PAC twelve is better. So how daunting
will it be? Yeah? AndI don't I don't even think i'd agree
with their first, David. Idon't think the Big ten's and better.
The top two teams in the inthe Big ten have consistently been better than
what you've seen out of the PACtwelve. The rest of that conference would

(14:05):
be bottom third tier. You know, Penn State wouldn't. I'd give you
Penn State they would, they would, They would would have been able to
compete for a title with the Washingtons, the Oregons, the USC's, you
know along those lines. Indiana,Yeah, Northwestern Maryland, Illinois, Maryland,
Rutgers, I mean, Iowa,They're they're leading their you know,

(14:28):
leading scorer was their safeties. Imean, so I mean no, I'm
not, No, I think topto bottom, the story was always the
PAC twelve was the deepest conference inthe in the in the in the country,
and I still believe that wholeheartedly.There were no gimmes, which is
why we always had these Our topteams were knocking each other, you know,

(14:50):
getting knocked off by somebody, andyou know, because that's how the
conference was built, whereas these otherconferences were so top heavy. So I
think I think in the end,you know, the Washingtons, the Oregons,
the USC's U c l As,I think they'll be ready, you
know, will they be able tocompete with Ohio State and Michigan right away?
Who knows. We'll find out.And I think it's based on a

(15:11):
lot of what you said, offensive, defensive, line wise, everybody else.
No, if those four teams fromthe PAC twelve don't end up in
the top half of the Big ten, I'll be stunned. Yeah, Nigel,
before you go, Nigel Burton withus, I heard a rumor,
by the way, that family memberof yours is walking on at you,
dub. Who would that family memberbe? You know, I'm actually sitting

(15:39):
with him right now, man,My, my, and and actually his
teammate from high school is also goingto be his teammate in college, Elias
Johnson, but my son Jays.You know, I don't know, man,
because I'll be honest, I nevershowed Washington football down his throat.
Like we got a lot of blanketslaying around the house, but they all
got given to the dog. Istarted thinking like maybe, like maybe he
just hates it. I don't know. Oh, but you know, when

(16:00):
it was all said and done,man, I think, you know,
he got a chance to be arounda bunch of the guys that I played
with, and I think he gota chance to witness and so did Elias.
You know, you know what Huskyfootball is about. The family that
that that's here, the guys whoplayed and and how tight we all are
thirty years twenty years later, andyou know said, hey, man,

(16:21):
that's what I want to be apart of. And so he's a great
student, great athlete, great kid. And I couldn't be prouder. You
know, that's he's gonna be adog. So it's it's pretty cool.
I love it. I love it. We'll keep an eye on Jason Burton
for you. He gets out ofcontrol on a Friday night or whatever,
we'll let you know, all right, we'll let dad know. Come,
come get The question is, Sophie, if my stunt is getting out of

(16:44):
control of a bunch of college kids, why the hell would he be seeing
you? If he's if he's runninginto you, then I think you might
have more to answer this. That'sa fair point, I see it.
On TikTok by. All right,we got to run, great stuff man,
looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.Palace. Thanks Offee, Thanks,
they appreciate it, all right.Nigel Burton with us, we're gonna break
Michael Pennix and the Atlanta Falcons.Who's getting the short end of that stick?

(17:07):
Kirk Cousins or Big Mike Next onninety three to three kJ RFM.