December 3, 2025 • 23 mins
Washington Huskies football Head Coach Jedd Fisch joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about his recruiting class today and major pieces, the finances the program has to spend in recruiting and with the transfer portal, his future, and Demond Williams.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's get to it.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Husky's thirteenth best class in America is deemed by our
friends over at two four seven.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Would you say? Dick Composite has them at.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Number twelve in the country, including the number one player
in California, tackle Cody Green. Great day for Jedfish and
company over at you Dub, and he joins us right
now on the radio program, Coach, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm doing great, really excited about the way it went today.
I think our whole staff, Matt Doherty's personnel department are
assistant coaches, did an unbelievable job. Highest ranked class in
the history, you Dub. I'm just so proud of the
team and the amount of great players we brought in.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, let's talk about these guys, a few of them
in detail, because I think in years past you have
a class like this and maybe there's two or three
guys Jed that would play right away, right, you know,
most freshmen back in the day would sit and learn
for a couple of years and not the way of
the world.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Coach anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And let's start with the big offensive tackle from Matt Day,
Cody Green. Uh, there's going to be an opening in
case you didn't know, at at left tackle next year
with Carver Willis taken off. So where does Cody Green
fit into your plans as far as a day one
player on that offensive line.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, I mean, he's you know, the coolest part about
Cody is he's you know, he's from Seattle, just played
a modern day dad's a you know, dad's a teacher
here in Bellevue. So just so excited about having Cody
with us. I think, you know, when you bring in
somebody of his caliber, athleticism, size way, mentality, he reminds
(01:36):
me a lot of bringing a guy like John Mills
that they're ready to play day one. Now you've got
to earn it. You've got to compete for it. You've
got to be able to, you know, handle the pass
rushers of the big can and be able to handle
everything that goes into being a starting offensive lineman. But
he's in position to have that, to compete for that spot,
and we're excited about having him here. Obviously, the number
(01:59):
one player in the state of California to come to
University of Washington's pretty cool, no question.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Well, about ten years ago we got the Moniker DBU
over there at at mont Lake and you guys are
still great at the defensive back position, but it's almost
turning into wide receiver. You over the last few years
with the last few recruiting classes, tell us about Jordan Clay,
another kid with just NFL body six three two from Texas.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, you know, he was. He was one of our
later rivals. We were able to get him yesterday and
we've recruited him. Really, we've known about him for I
don't know, nine ten months. I think I have like
original messages since July and even before with him. But
he is he looks, he looks how you want him
(02:47):
to look. And you know, he looks like a younger
Denzel Boston type body type and a younger t mac
And that type of body that you know we want
to have in our exposition is that somebody that's in
that above six two frame, somebody that's long and linear
that could win one on one battles. And when we
(03:08):
were able to sign him along with you know, Mason
James has been committed to us from the very beginning,
you know, with the number one player in Oklahoma and
then adding in Trads and Blazelvista, we got group.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Let's talk about the kid from Kennedy Catholic right down
where Dick and I live by the way, just off
the highway. There there's a great history, a great pipeline
from Kennedy to you dub As. You know that's been
going on for a long long time. And Derek Coleman
Brusa Ed rusher Man. I think you talk to a
lot of Husky fans and you ask him what's one
thing you'd love to have over the offseason, they say,
(03:43):
a war daddy on the on the edge, on the
defensive line. So I'm just gonna call the guy DCB.
Where does DCB fit with your plans for twenty twenty six?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh, well, he's special now he's he is playing that
we will be playing him early. Wow. I expect him
to walk in here and make a huge difference. Uh.
He reminds me of you know what what it looks
like when you take a first round pick in the NFL. Uh.
He's he's a first round pick here in college and
(04:14):
you know we'd beat the best teams in the country
for him. He's the number one player in the state
of Washington. Him and Xadrias from a year ago. It's
important to us to get the best players in the
state to stay here, yep, and to get back to
back number one players in the state. It's critical. And
then this guy is I think he can rush the poster.
I think he'd stop the run. I think he could
(04:36):
play really at all four spots on the defensive line,
depending on what we need and win. H and really
thrilled about him joining us. Softie.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I saw him about four weeks ago in person and
he had four sacks in the second half against my
alma Maters, So you know, I wasn't happy about that game,
but I was happy he was coming to the University
of Watching, no question about it.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Coach.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
You know, recruiters need a ward chest these days. It's
a it's a different world than it used to to be.
How satisfied were you with the war chest you had
to work with.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Well, you know, as I said to our staff that
I've read a lot of articles over the last week
or so about what some teams have done, and I'm
very proud of the fact that we recruited the old
fashioned way, and we were able to get players to
commit here based on their ability to be developed. We
(05:26):
were ready to get players to commit here based on
the relationships and then they learned that when they get
here that they'll be able to receive compensation. And we
were not in that position to be able to play
high school players early and we didn't do it. So
we're really happy with how it worked. And now we're
trying to build that war chest out to be able
(05:48):
to make sure that we can retain the team that
we need to retain here in January and then also
be able to reward the team after spring for next year.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
On what you look like, you said just a couple
of weeks ago, I think you and I were talking
on a on a Monday or a Thursday that you're
you're you're not where you got to be with with
the nil budget. How how much of your daily grind
is spent convincing people to help get you where you
need to be financially to be on that level where
you can recruit the old fashioned way with a great
(06:21):
sales job, but also have the war chest as Dick
talked about, to get the players you're looking for and
keep the players you have.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, it certainly takes up a good amount of time
as we're continuing to try to, you know, create the
program that we want to create. You could see really
throughout the last two weeks, there's been a lot of
reports of programs, you know, trying to get to ten
million dollars out above above revenue share, you know, and
(06:53):
most of these programs that we've heard about on Twitter,
and uh, you know, that's what you're looking to do.
And I said, and the top twenty five rosters next
year will probably cost somewhere between twenty to thirty million dollars.
And you know that those are going to be the
teams that are going to be competing the CFP annually.
And it's going to be our goal to be able
(07:13):
to get our revenue share plus our community behind a
great third party program and be able to put ourselves
in position to have that type of roster.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Well let me just let me just jump in then,
because you mentioned between twenty and thirty million.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Where are we at?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I mean, I'll just ask you flat out, how much
are we spending on football next year?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, we're gonna have to We're gonna have to find
a way to get to that number. We're gonna have
to find a way to get to you know, between
twenty and twenty five million dollars and We're gonna work
really hard over the next you know, six months to
get there, and I think we can get there. And
I believe if we can get there, we'll be able
to put ourselves in a position that there won't be
(07:52):
as big of a gap as there as there was
this season in terms of some of the some of
the teams and some of the rosters that we played.
I think we all can and see good way the
gaps work. Some programs that we had a big gap
on that we paid our team a lot more than
their team, and you could see the scores. And there's
other times that you could see some of the programs
(08:13):
that paid their guys a lot more than what we
were able to do, and you can see the scores.
And we're proud that all of our games that we
didn't win was a one score game in the fourth
quarter for all four games. We feel we're one quarter away,
and we feel like that quarter is a quarter of depth,
and we got to be able to pay for depth,
(08:33):
and that's going to be the key for us to
be able to get to that next spot.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Are the conversations with players and parents a lot different
now in the NIL era, or is too much being
made and it's really not a ton of parents or
players that are just looking for the most money.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Now, Unfortunately, I would say that they are what you
would expect them to be at the end, I'd say,
you know, for about three hundred and sixty days or so,
you know, if you're recruiting a kid for a year,
for about three hundred and sixty days or so, not
ninety nine percent of the conversations are what they've always been.
It's the last five days when I think people start
(09:13):
trying to get involved. Agents start calling kids up and
start saying, we can get you more if you sign
with us. And you have guys that have come out
of the woodwork and wanting to try to get a
hold of you, you know, twenty four hours before signing
today and tell you that they now represent x Y
or zeah. And you know, the challenge becomes. You know,
(09:33):
a lot of these agents are out there trying to
pedal guys and you don't even know what they're really
getting and what they're really asking for, but they're just
trying to prove they're worth. So you've got to be
able to get through all of that. And you know,
it's a lot more fun to work with agents that
represent NFL players right as you kind of know that
they're making their money off of those guys, not off
of these kids.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Well, Jeff Fish is with us a signing day. You
dub thirteenth in the country according to our friends over
at two four seven sport you're bringing in the four
wide receivers. Audric hitting the portal. Yesterday you mentioned Denzel Boston.
He did walk for the Oregon game, but he's got
one more year if he wants it. Uh, you think
Denzel's coming.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Back next year? I don't know. You know, there's a
lot of conversations about it. There's a lot going on
in his said there's a lot of people that are,
you know, giving him a lot of information. I'm a
big believer that you have to you have to make
He has to make that decision because I don't want
to be in a situation where he has to regret
(10:34):
one way or the other. He would support it one
hundred percent either way. There's great arguments for both. You know,
there's always opportunities now that there never were before to
come back, get paid and give your chance and self
a chance to rise in the draft. And then there's
other opportunities to say I feel good where I'm at
and it's time for me to go. So we're gonna
(10:55):
continue to have those conversations here, but I'm gonna, you know,
leave it up to him to make that final call. Certainly,
I've had a lot of players that have returned in
my past and they've all benefited from that. But again,
you know, you just never know.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Well, we talked a lot about the wide receiver group.
Do you feel like that that position group got the
most help in this recruiting class or is there another
group that you really think really benefited.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Well, I think our receiver group continued to to be enhanced.
But we played a lot of freshman this year at receiver,
and those guys are going to have an off season.
They're going to know the system, they're going to build
the callus up. And the guys that we have here,
the Robots, the Chris Lawson's, the Raid and Vines Bright,
those guys were huge, you know, huge impact in our
(11:46):
program and I expect those guys to make even more
of an impact next next year as well as the
marcu Terrists of the world that are that are all
so young, So that group is going to continue to
grow with the four guys that we were that it
came as well, but I think that we got reinforcements
the defensive backs. We signed five signed five dbs. We
(12:08):
signed two safeties, three corners, and I think that's going
to make a huge difference for us. Getting those five guys.
I really like, I love I love signing Ramsack Threwing,
another in state player from Bethel. I think he's gonna
make a huge impact as another in state linebacker, very
similar to Dadrius. We're now looking at two six foot
(12:30):
three linebackers out there and Ziatokio another linebacker six foot three.
So as I told you, guys, man, we're growing. And
I look back in the twenty twenty three game of
Washington VUS Michigan, and I you know what it looked
like rushing the football, what it looked like in score?
And I say, okay, well that was a Big ten
(12:50):
vers Pac twelve game. Now it's signed for the Big
ten Verus Big ten games too, to work themselves out
the way we hope. Now.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Well, Jeed Fish is with us, and I'm just curious
about the transfer portal. If I'm not mistaken, you got
nineteen kids in the portal a year ago, including your
starting left tackle and Carver Willis. And I'm also interested
in guys that are you know, coming back or maybe
taken off.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I mean, can we, for.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Example, Jay, can we count on Jacob Manu and Buddha
tarik A Luktau playing together for you next season?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yeah, we can count of we can count on those
guys being here. Yeah, you know, I believe that's what
I'm planning on. I get no, those guys are good. Yeah,
but I think that you know, as we look at it,
there are always gonna be some changes. There's always gonna
be some players that you know, get talked into going
(13:44):
into the portal, that feel that they should go in
the portal so they can play, Guys that have played
that feel like compensation might work out better from somewhere else.
On the same token, you know, I always throw our players.
I will take as many players from the portal that
enter the portal. If nobody enters, nobody comes, if one enters,
one comes, three enters, three come. So you know, it's
(14:07):
up to the locker room. It's up to the team
to figure out how they want to do it. But
I am loyal to the players that I signed and
that we signed and then or that came here from
high school. After that, if they choose to move on,
then well then we'll go find players in the portal.
(14:27):
But the key is I want the core nucleus of
players that we signed to be here for senior Day
and for our fans to say, wow, I've known this
kid for four years, and I think that just will
make college football remain the best sport there is. Coach.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
You know, preseason hype means nothing in the NFL as
far as reaching the playoffs, but preseason hype in college
football still matters because the teams that are ranked two, three,
four in the preseason, they can lose a few games
and still be right there at the at the end
of the season. What needs to be done fan base,
University of Washington itself to let the country know how
(15:08):
damn good this team should be in twenty twenty six.
So they're ranked I in twenty twenty six in that
first poll.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yeah, I think that we just have to be behind
our team and the more positive, the more positive we are,
you know, the more positive the national media will look
at us. But you know there's gonna be a there's
a prove it there's a prove it world that we
live in, and it's gonna be our job that when
(15:38):
we host Indiana, when we host ten State uh here,
that we're gonna you know, we've got to come out
on top. And we host Iowa here, we got to
come out on top. And when we go to Michigan State,
and when we go to USC and when we go
to Purdue and you know, we go to Minnesota or
whatever the games are that we have, we got to
come out on top. And if you win, you'll be
(15:59):
rankig That's what I tell our team. Just win. If
you keep winning, it doesn't matter where you start, you'll
finish in the top twelve what And that's going.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
To be our goal, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Jed fish with us and Joe tell you what you know,
Dick and I mentioned the other day that we're going
to have you on and the text line just blows
up with questions for you, right, I mean, we gotta Jaed,
we gotta have you come down here over the offseason
like he did last summer and sit in the studio
and just stare at the text line for about an hour.
All right, just see what people are asking what the
(16:28):
questions they want to know, the answers.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
They want to know.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Can I pull a couple off the text line from
the audience for you here?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Do you mind before you take off? Is that all right?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Sure? Go ahead?
Speaker 1 (16:39):
All right?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So this one's for the two five three? Ask Jed
why he didn't run the ball more against Oregon? Mohammed
was the hot hand and he took him out of
the game too early. What do you say to people
who have that take on the game with the Ducks?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, I mean I think we ran at thirty three times.
We probably could have kept running some more. I think
there were some opportunities that you know, that we probably
could have given them the ball a few more times.
I also think that we had some great opportunities there
to hit on some passes that we didn't, and then
we hit on some that we needed to. So the
(17:15):
last seven plays of the game or five were passes
because we were down by twelve. Other than that, I
think we ran the ball pretty decent. I love the
fact that we outgained them by sixty yards. It tells
me that we went from you know, a year ago
they outrushed us by over o one hundred yards. A
year ago, they had eleven more first times than we
(17:35):
did this week. This year, we had one first time
more than they did, and we outgained them by sixty
So we're getting there. But yeah, we got to keep
running the ball and keep doing a great team that
can do both.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, I love it. And this is from the eight
oh eight area code.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I think that's Hawaii, Dick, if I'm not mistaken, we
got a lot of people tuning in from Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Softy.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I'm considering buying season tickets for next year. I love
the group that's potentially coming back. Can you please, asked
Jed if he can guarantee he'll be coaching Washington in
twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Respond to that, I will be coaching Washington in twenty
twenty six. He should buy his tickets. Okay, they should
buy their tickets. There was a there was a lot
of articles and a lot of rumors about me now
coaching Washington, but that those ever came from me, and
I really one hundred percent believe in this team. I
(18:27):
believe in the jump that we made from year one
to year two, and I had zero interest in seeing
anything other than the jump we're going to make from
year two to three, and it would be very nice
to one day have a ten year at a place
that people can look back on and say, wow, that
was one hell of a run. So that where I
see it good.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Was that a distraction at all for your kids in
your locker room this year?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
All those articles you talked about, you know, I hope not,
but I'm sure they were at some point. You know,
I'm sure at at some point kids start thinking and
talking their kids. It's you know, everyone's talking a little
bit about what's true, what's false, what does it look like,
what it doesn't. But in the end, I thought that
the last few weeks of the season, our guys played
(19:10):
some of our best games of football against Purdue and UCLA,
which were two games that the rumors were hot and heavy.
And you know, I look back at the Oregon game
and I say, you know, you look at our team
and it's nineteen to fourteen with eight minutes left in
the game. A year ago he lost by twenty eight
points and it wasn't even that close. So I felt
like our team has really taken a big stride of
(19:32):
being able to put distractions, you know, aside. And I
thought we came out ready to play this whole month
of November, and we're gonna do the same thing for
the Bowl.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Well, before you go, jed to get to that point
you want to get to and look, you know, I
think all of us see a bright future starting obviously
this offseason, you know, heading in the next year. But
Demand the season he had. I think if you were
to told people at the start of the year that
Demand would have the year he had numbers wise, especially
against the big boys right Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, I.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Think a lot of folks would have been disappointed.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know, twelve sacks, five picks, two touchdowns in those
games and you went oh and three. So how do
you assess from your perspective of the year that Demand
just had.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, I mean I talked to our team a little
bit about it, you know, and I said, you guys,
when you look at last year, we were one hundred
and fourth in the country and scoring. This year we
were twenty third, We were one hundred and first and
third down this year we were seventh. We were seventy
fifth in the red zone this year of fourteen, and
we were ninety seventh in touchdowns. And this year a fifth.
So when you look at that type of jump, you
(20:35):
got to look at a twelve game You got to
look at a twelve game schedule, just like we did
a year ago. When you look at games against some
of the teams that were the better teams, I would
say that, you know, statistically, it wasn't much different than
you know, a guy that might have been taking in
the first round against teams like Michigan and Ohio State.
(20:56):
There's some really good defenses. I think Ohio State had
the record for the greatest defense in college football this year,
and I think they let up one hundred points or
less than one hundred points all season long. These guys
are elite, and we're working to become elite. But Demon's nineteen,
and when Demon's twenty, he's going to be better than
(21:18):
when he was nineteen. And I think that it's easy
to get so excited about the mom when we score
fifty and sixty and seventy points in games that we
forget about the challenge. When you start playing teams like Michigan, Oregon,
Wisconsin in the snow, rain, whatever, and we get real
(21:40):
disappointed in certain outcomes and we forget the fact that
all we're going to do is get better, and I
believe that when you look at what he's done overall,
I thought he's had an elite year for where he
was as a true freshman. This was his first year
ever as a starter now as a true sophomore, and
he didn't red shirt when he got here. He played
right away, and we're his receivers were too true freshmen.
(22:03):
He was playing with two true freshmen out of three.
He was playing with a true sophomore tight end. He
was playing with a true freshman at tackle, a true
sophomore at running back. When Jonah got hurt and the
true you know and really with no backup behind him,
that were the two true freshmen that were behind them
both got hurt. So, you know, as I look at
what we've done and how we've done, and I think
(22:25):
that he's done some great things and I can't wait
to watch what demand does next year. When now you're
playing against those teams and you have a year of experience.
Those teams are really really good on defense, and that's
been proven across the country.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah, it feels like the nucleus is there. I'll give
you one more before you go. You can tell this
to your marketing team over there. There were only ten
teams in the country that finished in the top twenty
three in scoring defense and scoring offense, and you were
one of them this year. So find a way to
finish those games, be competitive in the second half against
the big boys, and who knows what's coming.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Hey, listen stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Appreciate this, thanks for doing this, Congrats on the class,
and we'll talk soon.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Coach.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Thanks coach, Thanks guys, appreciate you having me on here.
All right, let's get to it.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Husky's thirteenth best class in America is deemed by our
friends over at two four seven.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Would you say? Dick Composite has them at.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Number twelve in the country, including the number one player
in California, tackle Cody Green. Great day for Jedfish and
company over at you Dub, and he joins us right
now on the radio program, Coach, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm doing great, really excited about the way it went today.
I think our whole staff, Matt Doherty's personnel department are
assistant coaches, did an unbelievable job. Highest ranked class in
the history, you Dub. I'm just so proud of the
team and the amount of great players we brought in.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, let's talk about these guys, a few of them
in detail, because I think in years past you have
a class like this and maybe there's two or three
guys Jed that would play right away, right, you know,
most freshmen back in the day would sit and learn
for a couple of years and not the way of
the world.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Coach anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And let's start with the big offensive tackle from Matt Day,
Cody Green. Uh, there's going to be an opening in
case you didn't know, at at left tackle next year
with Carver Willis taken off. So where does Cody Green
fit into your plans as far as a day one
player on that offensive line.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, I mean, he's you know, the coolest part about
Cody is he's you know, he's from Seattle, just played
a modern day dad's a you know, dad's a teacher
here in Bellevue. So just so excited about having Cody
with us. I think, you know, when you bring in
somebody of his caliber, athleticism, size way, mentality, he reminds
(01:36):
me a lot of bringing a guy like John Mills
that they're ready to play day one. Now you've got
to earn it. You've got to compete for it. You've
got to be able to, you know, handle the pass
rushers of the big can and be able to handle
everything that goes into being a starting offensive lineman. But
he's in position to have that, to compete for that spot,
and we're excited about having him here. Obviously, the number
(01:59):
one player in the state of California to come to
University of Washington's pretty cool, no question.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Well, about ten years ago we got the Moniker DBU
over there at at mont Lake and you guys are
still great at the defensive back position, but it's almost
turning into wide receiver. You over the last few years
with the last few recruiting classes, tell us about Jordan Clay,
another kid with just NFL body six three two from Texas.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, you know, he was. He was one of our
later rivals. We were able to get him yesterday and
we've recruited him. Really, we've known about him for I
don't know, nine ten months. I think I have like
original messages since July and even before with him. But
he is he looks, he looks how you want him
(02:47):
to look. And you know, he looks like a younger
Denzel Boston type body type and a younger t mac
And that type of body that you know we want
to have in our exposition is that somebody that's in
that above six two frame, somebody that's long and linear
that could win one on one battles. And when we
(03:08):
were able to sign him along with you know, Mason
James has been committed to us from the very beginning,
you know, with the number one player in Oklahoma and
then adding in Trads and Blazelvista, we got group.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Let's talk about the kid from Kennedy Catholic right down
where Dick and I live by the way, just off
the highway. There there's a great history, a great pipeline
from Kennedy to you dub As. You know that's been
going on for a long long time. And Derek Coleman
Brusa Ed rusher Man. I think you talk to a
lot of Husky fans and you ask him what's one
thing you'd love to have over the offseason, they say,
(03:43):
a war daddy on the on the edge, on the
defensive line. So I'm just gonna call the guy DCB.
Where does DCB fit with your plans for twenty twenty six?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh, well, he's special now he's he is playing that
we will be playing him early. Wow. I expect him
to walk in here and make a huge difference. Uh.
He reminds me of you know what what it looks
like when you take a first round pick in the NFL. Uh.
He's he's a first round pick here in college and
(04:14):
you know we'd beat the best teams in the country
for him. He's the number one player in the state
of Washington. Him and Xadrias from a year ago. It's
important to us to get the best players in the
state to stay here, yep, and to get back to
back number one players in the state. It's critical. And
then this guy is I think he can rush the poster.
I think he'd stop the run. I think he could
(04:36):
play really at all four spots on the defensive line,
depending on what we need and win. H and really
thrilled about him joining us. Softie.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I saw him about four weeks ago in person and
he had four sacks in the second half against my
alma Maters, So you know, I wasn't happy about that game,
but I was happy he was coming to the University
of Watching, no question about it.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Coach.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
You know, recruiters need a ward chest these days. It's
a it's a different world than it used to to be.
How satisfied were you with the war chest you had
to work with.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Well, you know, as I said to our staff that
I've read a lot of articles over the last week
or so about what some teams have done, and I'm
very proud of the fact that we recruited the old
fashioned way, and we were able to get players to
commit here based on their ability to be developed. We
(05:26):
were ready to get players to commit here based on
the relationships and then they learned that when they get
here that they'll be able to receive compensation. And we
were not in that position to be able to play
high school players early and we didn't do it. So
we're really happy with how it worked. And now we're
trying to build that war chest out to be able
(05:48):
to make sure that we can retain the team that
we need to retain here in January and then also
be able to reward the team after spring for next year.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
On what you look like, you said just a couple
of weeks ago, I think you and I were talking
on a on a Monday or a Thursday that you're
you're you're not where you got to be with with
the nil budget. How how much of your daily grind
is spent convincing people to help get you where you
need to be financially to be on that level where
you can recruit the old fashioned way with a great
(06:21):
sales job, but also have the war chest as Dick
talked about, to get the players you're looking for and
keep the players you have.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, it certainly takes up a good amount of time
as we're continuing to try to, you know, create the
program that we want to create. You could see really
throughout the last two weeks, there's been a lot of
reports of programs, you know, trying to get to ten
million dollars out above above revenue share, you know, and
(06:53):
most of these programs that we've heard about on Twitter,
and uh, you know, that's what you're looking to do.
And I said, and the top twenty five rosters next
year will probably cost somewhere between twenty to thirty million dollars.
And you know that those are going to be the
teams that are going to be competing the CFP annually.
And it's going to be our goal to be able
(07:13):
to get our revenue share plus our community behind a
great third party program and be able to put ourselves
in position to have that type of roster.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Well let me just let me just jump in then,
because you mentioned between twenty and thirty million.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Where are we at?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I mean, I'll just ask you flat out, how much
are we spending on football next year?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, we're gonna have to We're gonna have to find
a way to get to that number. We're gonna have
to find a way to get to you know, between
twenty and twenty five million dollars and We're gonna work
really hard over the next you know, six months to
get there, and I think we can get there. And
I believe if we can get there, we'll be able
to put ourselves in a position that there won't be
(07:52):
as big of a gap as there as there was
this season in terms of some of the some of
the teams and some of the rosters that we played.
I think we all can and see good way the
gaps work. Some programs that we had a big gap
on that we paid our team a lot more than
their team, and you could see the scores. And there's
other times that you could see some of the programs
(08:13):
that paid their guys a lot more than what we
were able to do, and you can see the scores.
And we're proud that all of our games that we
didn't win was a one score game in the fourth
quarter for all four games. We feel we're one quarter away,
and we feel like that quarter is a quarter of depth,
and we got to be able to pay for depth,
(08:33):
and that's going to be the key for us to
be able to get to that next spot.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Are the conversations with players and parents a lot different
now in the NIL era, or is too much being
made and it's really not a ton of parents or
players that are just looking for the most money.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Now, Unfortunately, I would say that they are what you
would expect them to be at the end, I'd say,
you know, for about three hundred and sixty days or so,
you know, if you're recruiting a kid for a year,
for about three hundred and sixty days or so, not
ninety nine percent of the conversations are what they've always been.
It's the last five days when I think people start
(09:13):
trying to get involved. Agents start calling kids up and
start saying, we can get you more if you sign
with us. And you have guys that have come out
of the woodwork and wanting to try to get a
hold of you, you know, twenty four hours before signing
today and tell you that they now represent x Y
or zeah. And you know, the challenge becomes. You know,
(09:33):
a lot of these agents are out there trying to
pedal guys and you don't even know what they're really
getting and what they're really asking for, but they're just
trying to prove they're worth. So you've got to be
able to get through all of that. And you know,
it's a lot more fun to work with agents that
represent NFL players right as you kind of know that
they're making their money off of those guys, not off
of these kids.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Well, Jeff Fish is with us a signing day. You
dub thirteenth in the country according to our friends over
at two four seven sport you're bringing in the four
wide receivers. Audric hitting the portal. Yesterday you mentioned Denzel Boston.
He did walk for the Oregon game, but he's got
one more year if he wants it. Uh, you think
Denzel's coming.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Back next year? I don't know. You know, there's a
lot of conversations about it. There's a lot going on
in his said there's a lot of people that are,
you know, giving him a lot of information. I'm a
big believer that you have to you have to make
He has to make that decision because I don't want
to be in a situation where he has to regret
(10:34):
one way or the other. He would support it one
hundred percent either way. There's great arguments for both. You know,
there's always opportunities now that there never were before to
come back, get paid and give your chance and self
a chance to rise in the draft. And then there's
other opportunities to say I feel good where I'm at
and it's time for me to go. So we're gonna
(10:55):
continue to have those conversations here, but I'm gonna, you know,
leave it up to him to make that final call. Certainly,
I've had a lot of players that have returned in
my past and they've all benefited from that. But again,
you know, you just never know.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Well, we talked a lot about the wide receiver group.
Do you feel like that that position group got the
most help in this recruiting class or is there another
group that you really think really benefited.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Well, I think our receiver group continued to to be enhanced.
But we played a lot of freshman this year at receiver,
and those guys are going to have an off season.
They're going to know the system, they're going to build
the callus up. And the guys that we have here,
the Robots, the Chris Lawson's, the Raid and Vines Bright,
those guys were huge, you know, huge impact in our
(11:46):
program and I expect those guys to make even more
of an impact next next year as well as the
marcu Terrists of the world that are that are all
so young, So that group is going to continue to
grow with the four guys that we were that it
came as well, but I think that we got reinforcements
the defensive backs. We signed five signed five dbs. We
(12:08):
signed two safeties, three corners, and I think that's going
to make a huge difference for us. Getting those five guys.
I really like, I love I love signing Ramsack Threwing,
another in state player from Bethel. I think he's gonna
make a huge impact as another in state linebacker, very
similar to Dadrius. We're now looking at two six foot
(12:30):
three linebackers out there and Ziatokio another linebacker six foot three.
So as I told you, guys, man, we're growing. And
I look back in the twenty twenty three game of
Washington VUS Michigan, and I you know what it looked
like rushing the football, what it looked like in score?
And I say, okay, well that was a Big ten
(12:50):
vers Pac twelve game. Now it's signed for the Big
ten Verus Big ten games too, to work themselves out
the way we hope. Now.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Well, Jeed Fish is with us, and I'm just curious
about the transfer portal. If I'm not mistaken, you got
nineteen kids in the portal a year ago, including your
starting left tackle and Carver Willis. And I'm also interested
in guys that are you know, coming back or maybe
taken off.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I mean, can we, for.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Example, Jay, can we count on Jacob Manu and Buddha
tarik A Luktau playing together for you next season?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yeah, we can count of we can count on those
guys being here. Yeah, you know, I believe that's what
I'm planning on. I get no, those guys are good. Yeah,
but I think that you know, as we look at it,
there are always gonna be some changes. There's always gonna
be some players that you know, get talked into going
(13:44):
into the portal, that feel that they should go in
the portal so they can play, Guys that have played
that feel like compensation might work out better from somewhere else.
On the same token, you know, I always throw our players.
I will take as many players from the portal that
enter the portal. If nobody enters, nobody comes, if one enters,
one comes, three enters, three come. So you know, it's
(14:07):
up to the locker room. It's up to the team
to figure out how they want to do it. But
I am loyal to the players that I signed and
that we signed and then or that came here from
high school. After that, if they choose to move on,
then well then we'll go find players in the portal.
(14:27):
But the key is I want the core nucleus of
players that we signed to be here for senior Day
and for our fans to say, wow, I've known this
kid for four years, and I think that just will
make college football remain the best sport there is. Coach.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
You know, preseason hype means nothing in the NFL as
far as reaching the playoffs, but preseason hype in college
football still matters because the teams that are ranked two, three,
four in the preseason, they can lose a few games
and still be right there at the at the end
of the season. What needs to be done fan base,
University of Washington itself to let the country know how
(15:08):
damn good this team should be in twenty twenty six.
So they're ranked I in twenty twenty six in that
first poll.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yeah, I think that we just have to be behind
our team and the more positive, the more positive we are,
you know, the more positive the national media will look
at us. But you know there's gonna be a there's
a prove it there's a prove it world that we
live in, and it's gonna be our job that when
(15:38):
we host Indiana, when we host ten State uh here,
that we're gonna you know, we've got to come out
on top. And we host Iowa here, we got to
come out on top. And when we go to Michigan State,
and when we go to USC and when we go
to Purdue and you know, we go to Minnesota or
whatever the games are that we have, we got to
come out on top. And if you win, you'll be
(15:59):
rankig That's what I tell our team. Just win. If
you keep winning, it doesn't matter where you start, you'll
finish in the top twelve what And that's going.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
To be our goal, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Jed fish with us and Joe tell you what you know,
Dick and I mentioned the other day that we're going
to have you on and the text line just blows
up with questions for you, right, I mean, we gotta Jaed,
we gotta have you come down here over the offseason
like he did last summer and sit in the studio
and just stare at the text line for about an hour.
All right, just see what people are asking what the
(16:28):
questions they want to know, the answers.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
They want to know.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Can I pull a couple off the text line from
the audience for you here?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Do you mind before you take off? Is that all right?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Sure? Go ahead?
Speaker 1 (16:39):
All right?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So this one's for the two five three? Ask Jed
why he didn't run the ball more against Oregon? Mohammed
was the hot hand and he took him out of
the game too early. What do you say to people
who have that take on the game with the Ducks?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, I mean I think we ran at thirty three times.
We probably could have kept running some more. I think
there were some opportunities that you know, that we probably
could have given them the ball a few more times.
I also think that we had some great opportunities there
to hit on some passes that we didn't, and then
we hit on some that we needed to. So the
(17:15):
last seven plays of the game or five were passes
because we were down by twelve. Other than that, I
think we ran the ball pretty decent. I love the
fact that we outgained them by sixty yards. It tells
me that we went from you know, a year ago
they outrushed us by over o one hundred yards. A
year ago, they had eleven more first times than we
(17:35):
did this week. This year, we had one first time
more than they did, and we outgained them by sixty
So we're getting there. But yeah, we got to keep
running the ball and keep doing a great team that
can do both.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, I love it. And this is from the eight
oh eight area code.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I think that's Hawaii, Dick, if I'm not mistaken, we
got a lot of people tuning in from Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Softy.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I'm considering buying season tickets for next year. I love
the group that's potentially coming back. Can you please, asked
Jed if he can guarantee he'll be coaching Washington in
twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Respond to that, I will be coaching Washington in twenty
twenty six. He should buy his tickets. Okay, they should
buy their tickets. There was a there was a lot
of articles and a lot of rumors about me now
coaching Washington, but that those ever came from me, and
I really one hundred percent believe in this team. I
(18:27):
believe in the jump that we made from year one
to year two, and I had zero interest in seeing
anything other than the jump we're going to make from
year two to three, and it would be very nice
to one day have a ten year at a place
that people can look back on and say, wow, that
was one hell of a run. So that where I
see it good.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Was that a distraction at all for your kids in
your locker room this year?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
All those articles you talked about, you know, I hope not,
but I'm sure they were at some point. You know,
I'm sure at at some point kids start thinking and
talking their kids. It's you know, everyone's talking a little
bit about what's true, what's false, what does it look like,
what it doesn't. But in the end, I thought that
the last few weeks of the season, our guys played
(19:10):
some of our best games of football against Purdue and UCLA,
which were two games that the rumors were hot and heavy.
And you know, I look back at the Oregon game
and I say, you know, you look at our team
and it's nineteen to fourteen with eight minutes left in
the game. A year ago he lost by twenty eight
points and it wasn't even that close. So I felt
like our team has really taken a big stride of
(19:32):
being able to put distractions, you know, aside. And I
thought we came out ready to play this whole month
of November, and we're gonna do the same thing for
the Bowl.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Well, before you go, jed to get to that point
you want to get to and look, you know, I
think all of us see a bright future starting obviously
this offseason, you know, heading in the next year. But
Demand the season he had. I think if you were
to told people at the start of the year that
Demand would have the year he had numbers wise, especially
against the big boys right Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, I.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Think a lot of folks would have been disappointed.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know, twelve sacks, five picks, two touchdowns in those
games and you went oh and three. So how do
you assess from your perspective of the year that Demand
just had.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, I mean I talked to our team a little
bit about it, you know, and I said, you guys,
when you look at last year, we were one hundred
and fourth in the country and scoring. This year we
were twenty third, We were one hundred and first and
third down this year we were seventh. We were seventy
fifth in the red zone this year of fourteen, and
we were ninety seventh in touchdowns. And this year a fifth.
So when you look at that type of jump, you
(20:35):
got to look at a twelve game You got to
look at a twelve game schedule, just like we did
a year ago. When you look at games against some
of the teams that were the better teams, I would
say that, you know, statistically, it wasn't much different than
you know, a guy that might have been taking in
the first round against teams like Michigan and Ohio State.
(20:56):
There's some really good defenses. I think Ohio State had
the record for the greatest defense in college football this year,
and I think they let up one hundred points or
less than one hundred points all season long. These guys
are elite, and we're working to become elite. But Demon's nineteen,
and when Demon's twenty, he's going to be better than
(21:18):
when he was nineteen. And I think that it's easy
to get so excited about the mom when we score
fifty and sixty and seventy points in games that we
forget about the challenge. When you start playing teams like Michigan, Oregon,
Wisconsin in the snow, rain, whatever, and we get real
(21:40):
disappointed in certain outcomes and we forget the fact that
all we're going to do is get better, and I
believe that when you look at what he's done overall,
I thought he's had an elite year for where he
was as a true freshman. This was his first year
ever as a starter now as a true sophomore, and
he didn't red shirt when he got here. He played
right away, and we're his receivers were too true freshmen.
(22:03):
He was playing with two true freshmen out of three.
He was playing with a true sophomore tight end. He
was playing with a true freshman at tackle, a true
sophomore at running back. When Jonah got hurt and the
true you know and really with no backup behind him,
that were the two true freshmen that were behind them
both got hurt. So, you know, as I look at
what we've done and how we've done, and I think
(22:25):
that he's done some great things and I can't wait
to watch what demand does next year. When now you're
playing against those teams and you have a year of experience.
Those teams are really really good on defense, and that's
been proven across the country.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah, it feels like the nucleus is there. I'll give
you one more before you go. You can tell this
to your marketing team over there. There were only ten
teams in the country that finished in the top twenty
three in scoring defense and scoring offense, and you were
one of them this year. So find a way to
finish those games, be competitive in the second half against
the big boys, and who knows what's coming.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Hey, listen stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Appreciate this, thanks for doing this, Congrats on the class,
and we'll talk soon.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Coach.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Thanks coach, Thanks guys, appreciate you having me on here.
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