February 4, 2025 • 25 mins
Washington Huskies Head Coach Jedd Fisch joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about Demond Williams’ rise and staying at UW, what they did in the transfer portal this offseason including Carver Willis, the changes to his staff, and getting players back.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fourth down and goal at the one. Williams out of
the shot, hun one by two formation step to Williams,
throws the fade to the right side.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's caught. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Touchdown? Giles Jackson just the second four touchdown game and
Husky is dreak his sixty third and final college football game.
Giles Jackson catches it from freshman quarterback to Mont Williams
and the Huskies pull within one.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Gud.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
You can tell he's right there on the edge. The
voye says, just about to crack. It's just about to
crack on the car. Joining us right now on the
radio show going into year two as the head coach
of your Husky football team, Jed Fish with us now
on the Beacon plumbing hotline. Coach, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm good? I'm good. That was an amazing I had
never heard that one before and that was quite a
commentary of the end of the game.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, no, Tony, Tony does a great job. We got
to get you those calls. You can make him like
the Ringtones on your cell phone. By the way, when
when the important phone call come in. But you know,
it's funny that we're sitting there hearing demand, by the way,
and obviously played phenomenally against Louisville. And I'm just kind
of wondering, and Dick and I are wondering out loud.
Was there any part of you since the season ended
(01:14):
that even took a second or two to wonder what
things would have looked like if you have gone to
the kid maybe a little bit earlier in the year.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Uh No, I really haven't. I've thought about, you know,
what what it's going to look like in the future,
you know, I thought, I think that it reminded me
very much of the two game sequence that we had
when we went to Noah weeks, you know, after we
had Noah for about you know, fifteen games and start
(01:47):
and his first start was against Washington and we lost,
and then our second star was against USC and we
lost in triple over time on a two point play,
and then we went ahead and won the seven in
a row. And it reminded me a lot of you know,
there's a part of development that you you you easily
(02:08):
can mess a guy's development up by starting him too early.
You can not get the you know, the best out
of them by throwing them to the fire too quick.
And I like the way that Will was handling a
very rocky, you know, a very rocky road where you know,
you you go to Loomenfield and you you know, make
(02:30):
some big plays, but don't don't make enough of them,
and then you know, a week later, you or a
week after you beat Michigan and you know, then you
feel like you've completed seventy five percent of your passes
and we'll start at ten touchdowns, no interceptions. So it's
pretty hard to make, you know, quarterback changes when you've
got a guy that's you know, over I think he
was number one in the country in completion percentage and
(02:52):
he was number one in the country and touchdown interception ratio.
So that was hard to do. But I'm I'm so
excited because, you know, people as we were able to
evaluate the best way possible to give Demon ten to
twelve reps, and there was a lot of people that
had a lot of problems with that, and a lot
of people that wanted to be public about the decisions
of of giving DeMont ten to fifteen plays a game.
(03:15):
But I think that will give us such a better
advantage this coming year than if we wound up, you know,
just throwing him to the fire there at the end.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Well, coach, my hypemeter for demand is borderline unhealthy. I
gotta be honest with you. I'm just been on the
air just drooling over this kid for for months, really,
so you can either settle me down or just keep
pouring gas on it. I mean, is this a full
blown Heisman campaign beginning of the season, or is it like,
let's slow roll this, get him into his first year
(03:46):
as a starter, and then we'll talk New York down
the road.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, let's slow roll that s right? I bet all right, Softy,
I need you to slow roll them up.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Wait a minute, just hang on a second. You said
yourself at a press offends you want to get this
guy in New York City.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, that doesn't mean in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Okay, that was my question. That was my question. Good
solid answer.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I want to get I absolutely want to get to
New York City, and I absolutely feel like we can
do great things together. And I can't wait to watch
his growth and development. And you know, I don't know
when that happens. He a true freshman. Yeah, you know,
when he got the campus in January of this past year,
(04:33):
he was seventeen. He turned eighteen at the end of March,
so he's currently sitting here at eighteen years old. So
as much as we've seen some pretty good poise and maturity,
and I think he's doing a really good job talking
to the media and learning, you know, how to handle
some of that, he's still eighteen. And if we can
(04:56):
continue to get his body right and continue to keep
teaching them football, situational football, you know, I think we're
going to have a heck of a quarterback here. I
think our fans will rally behind that. I think the
nation will see how great it is to you know,
have someone for you know, I would love for him
(05:17):
to be our quarterback in the next three years. And how
cool would that be to have a run, you know,
with a quarterback. It's so far few and far between
these days. But that being the case, man, we got
to slow the roll just a little bit. We haven't
even spring.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Football, yeaheah, yeah, Well, Jed Fish is with us, and
Jed you mentioned it's rare these days to have a
quarterback play that long for you and there's just so
many things that we're discussing now that we wouldn't have
even dreamed about discussing even three, four, five years ago,
and one of those things is can we keep the guy?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Right?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
People were even wondering can we keep him for twenty
twenty five? And are you at all any way, shape
or form concerned about somebody coming in and poaching this
kid at the end of every single season.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Well, I mean at the end of every single season.
They'll try, I would think, and we certainly saw that
this past year. But what I would say is this,
We're the University of Washington. We're not, you know, some
random university that can't hold onto their guy. We're not
(06:19):
a university that's not trying to compete for national championship.
We're not a university that hasn't shown the ability to
go undefeated in their conference or shown the ability to
win national championships or conference titles. So I feel like
we should put our resume, our program, our stadium, our university,
our city up against anybody. And I'm looking forward to
(06:42):
watching that grow and develop. And I hope that our
fan base and I hope that the community and the
businesses around it and the university all rallied behind someone
like Demand and see him as someone that could be
an unbelievable spokesperson for this university and he's a four
to zero student. He does things right. He's gonna be
a great football player for us. And how amazing will
(07:04):
it be if we can get a Heidsman Trophy winner
out of him in a few years from now.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
How big was the effort you think by other teams
to get him to leave after the stumble?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Uh, you know, I think it was. It was pretty
big from what I saw and text messages he got
and from some calls. But hey, you know the bottom
line is this Demand is. Uh. What I love about
Demand and his family is they committed to myself, Coach Doherty.
(07:34):
Dom Caldwell was our GA at our last place, and
all three of us came up here and he came
up here, and we are you know, I think we have.
We've shown them our commitment to them, and they've shown
us their commitment to us. And I just can't wait
to watch Demand continue to rally the team and rally
(07:56):
the troops. And I'm just so proud of how much
he's grown. I just continue to remind people he's still
eighteen and we're going to do everything we can and
just help him achieve all of his dreams.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Well, coach, I promise you will talk about the other
eighty four scholarship players in a second. But I got
one more question on.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Where you guys just need to have me on more?
So we could just we could call.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yet who's been saying that ever since you showed up here?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Holy moly, what I mean? You just called it the
I've never All you gotta do is ask, well, we
just have? We could have the demon Sia the next out.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
There we go, Well, where does he need to take
his biggest leap between now in September?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah? Well, Situational football is by far the biggest differentiator
from experience. So understanding when you're in the red zone
a way, understanding backed up, what decisions you need to
make when you're you know, inside the five seven yard line,
(09:01):
Understand third down versus first down, two minute drives. This,
all those situations that you only get better at with experience.
Experience of practice, experience in games, and experience of just
watching football will continue to really help separate him down
the road. Obviously, we'll always work on, you know, more
(09:23):
body armor, you know, getting him bigger, getting him stronger,
But that's gonna come with just age maturity, our weight room.
But we're going to really pour into the mental side
this year, and we're going to also do that as coaches,
and we're going to see what unique things can we
bring to him that is different than what we've done
in the past as well. Well.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Jed fish with us, and I assume his biggest friend
is going to be his offensive line. I mean, he
took a beating in the Organ game and I was impressed, actually, coach,
by how much he just popped right back up. It
was like Rocky and Drago, for God's sakes. But that's
not gonna You don't want that. You don't want your
quarterback getting hit that much at all. And last year
you brought an Enoch, you brought in d you brought
in as a party, You brought in Maximus McCree. And
(10:03):
this year not as much activity in the transfer portal.
Did you do enough?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
You think? Yeah? I think the difference is, you know,
the guys that we brought in were guys that we
brought in the springtime that really didn't have Division one
football playing experience. We really brought it other than as
a party who played for you know, a year at
San Diego State. The rest of those guys were really
(10:28):
coming in, you know, from Portland State, a backup at
Ohio State, and from a junior college. And what we
feel in we needed to bring in bodies and guys
that we could you know, give us, give us playing time.
I don't think any of us even dreamt of below
giving us everything. He gave us for thirteen games. I mean,
(10:50):
hats off to that guy. I mean he came in
here from Portland State and he started every single game
for us at Washington. That is amazing. And you know,
Enoch came in and did a great job. We felt
as if what we needed to do this go around
was now that we had the year of you know,
Land and Hatchet back, Now that we had the year
(11:11):
of as a party, Now that we had the year
of Swanning, now that we had the year of MaxMa Cree,
now that we had the year of Pocket Female. Then
add to that Garon Hatchett, add to that Carver Willis,
add to that the five freshmen we signed, and now
you're looking at a whole different setup, right, a whole
different group of players that now have true experience, and
(11:34):
then bringing back as a party on top of that,
and Zach Henning. Now you've got a situation where I
believe we're really in a great spot of being able
to have sixteen seventeen guys compete in our weight room
in January, February, March, April, May player run practices. Very
very different scenario than seven scholarship players last year at
(11:56):
the O line, and two of which were guys that
we're coming off of ACLS.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Tell us a little more about Carver Willis. I mean
that's a former All Big twelve player.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, I mean he was one of the top guys
available in the transfer portal, one of the top offensive
tackles out there. Very excited about the maturity. Oh, it
was an unbelievable visit the on the zoom call and
in person. But on the zoom call he said, Coach,
I'm just looking for a staff and an offense that
(12:27):
I could be a part of that could bridge my
gap for one year to try to get to the NFL.
I want to learn an NFL offense. I want to
play in an NFL system. I want to be able
to play, you know, with my hand on the ground,
but also in the two point stands. I want to
be able to run scheme, pas scheme, and like he's
the perfect fit for our program. And you know, just
(12:49):
a quick story on Carver Willis. I get an email
one week into the job from a firehouse, a local
firehouse here in Seattle, that said, you have a young
man named Carver Willis who bought dinner for the entire firehouse,
thanking them for all they do. And it was the
day after the fires, you know, in l A. And
(13:09):
I just think that was so cool that, you know,
he's at a restaurant. There were six firemen there and
he just went and paid for their dinner. And he's
the type of that type of kid. And hats off
to him, and hats off to you know, Brendan Carroll
finding him and Mike Switzer. And I think he's only
a big help.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
No, No, that's that's that's a very cool story. Jeed
Fish is with us on the air, and Jed Jimmy
was on yesterday with us. Jimmy Doherty, your new offensive coordinator.
We asked him if he's going to call plays and
he said, nobody thinks he should be able to.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, I'm sure that's what he said.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, he said maybe the fourth quarter of the UC
Davis game, You'll give me a yeah. But you know, look, naturally,
when a team has success, there's names that people gravitate to,
and Scott Huff was one of them. Obviously, we just
obviously was with the Seahawks and likely not coming back,
and people are asking, was Scott Huff a guy that
(14:01):
we looked at to replace Brennan when he took off
to go to Arizona? Talk to the fans about why
you made the moves you made, and were names like
Scott Huff names that you considered.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, I mean, I think every situation is very different
when you're making decisions regarding your staff, and I think
it's very very clear that there's also, you know, plenty
of different circumstances that go into successes of programs, players
being the most important part of them. And we I
feel like we had some guys on our staff that
(14:32):
were really good coaches that have done a really great
job with the players that we've had in the past.
You know, when we were a top ten offense with
Noa fa Feet, a top ten offense with Jaden DeLaura,
we were, you know, one of the best five passing
offenses in the country, and I felt like there was
(14:52):
no doubt that Jimmy deserved the opportunity to coordinator. He's
certainly proven that every step of the way, whether he's
a use or here at Arizona or here or at
Arizona or here at Washington, with what he's done with
the Mond and with Will Mike Switzer's been with me
when we were at Michigan. He was our offensive line
graduate assistant assistant on lineman. We had the number I
(15:15):
think three points in the country in twenty sixteen. We
won twenty games in two years. He learned from Harbaugh,
learned from Drevno there then had a chance to run
his own room for three years, and then it's been
with us for four years. And he was a key
part of developing Jordan Morgan to be a first round pick.
He was a key part in developing Jonah seven A
as a true freshman All American and now he's predicted
(15:38):
to be a first round pick. He was a huge
part of helping Brennan in every aspect of recruiting guys
like John Mills, guys like Champ, guys like Jack Shaper,
guys like Jake Flores, and a huge part of taking
a guy like d lo or Enoch, guys that have
never had a lot of playing experience. In developing him,
it was I think it's the responsibility to give that
(16:00):
guy that the opportunity to now move up, step up
and lead that room. So I've seen him, I've seen
what he's done. I've listened to players, I've listened to
former players that are now in the NFL, and conversations
I've had with guys that were coached by him. I
felt great about making him the line coach. I know
that Scott has an amazing line coach, you know, but
(16:23):
in this case, in this situation, at this time, it
was Mike Switzer's job to have coach.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
How secure do you feel about your defensive line and
do you expect to add to it? In April?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Hold On, did Softie just say fair at the end
of that guy?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
No, I said, I said, Okay, that's my way of
agreeing with you.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I thought you gave a fair at the end. No.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I mean, you know what if, jennif I think it's
just unfair, unfair, I retorts, I retorts.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
What was the question?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah, you'r D line? How comfortable are you with your
D line? And do you think you'll add to it
in April.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
You know, I think the key will be health. Do
I would be very, very very comfortable with our D
line if our D line is healthy. Zach Durfy's coming
off of foot surgery, Javon Parker achilles surgery. We added
ty Tyan Delele, who's an All Pac twelve player two
(17:25):
years ago, a really good player last year in the
Big twelve. We brought in Ontario Thompson. I think Alinius
Davis is really doing a good job of developing it
to something special. I think Isaiah Ward's going to be
a fantastic pass rusher this coming year, getting his weight right.
And then it's up to Jacob Lane and Logan to
continue to develop Armant Parker to continue to develop. And
(17:49):
then we brought in Pepa from Utah, and that's a
huge get for us. You're talking about another three hundred
and forty pound nose tackle. But if we can get
Parker back, durfeedback, and keep everybody else healthy, I feel
really good about about where this is headed. You know,
the key here, guys is that you know, we signed
twenty eight freshmen and we played with a bunch of
(18:13):
younger guys last year that we brought in with us,
and then we're you know, so we've got to develop
those guys and we've got to see each year how
much better they're going to be, and then we want
to try to bring in the free agents to to
supplement it. And that's what I think we did there.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Jed what happened with Thatius Dixon? And I bring that
up because Takario getting him was obviously gigantic, but it
would have been great to have him in addition to
Thatius and not in some ways instead of why did
we lose Statius?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, I think he run into you know, those those
numbers games, and there's opportunities. I think you know that
I was at Dad's house. I was the only head coach.
I did a home visit with that, you know, the
three days before he made his vision, you know, and
we brought our entire defensive staff there. But there's also
(19:06):
a situations that came into play that none of us
were expecting. I mean, if Pavia, if the Pavia ruling
didn't take plates, that would have been you know, right
now trying to get to the NFL right, there would
have been no opportunity. We tried to do everything we
could to have the three corner system, but at some
(19:27):
point in time those become challenging. I think we all
saw that there'd be great opportunities to be able to
move three guys inside outside, But in the end, there's
an opportunity out there for that to play on the
outside where he wants to play with Coach Belichick, and
what a fantastic opportunity for that. And we're really excited
(19:49):
about the Carrio and Ephesians, and we believe that those
two guys on the edges. We've got two guys that
are both going to be if I was to predict,
two guys both drafted in the first three rounds of
next year's draft. And we're going to do everything we
can to continue to develop those two guys. And nothing
(20:10):
but love for that. Dad Dixon played his heart out
for us last year and I'm just a huge fan
of him and his family, and I wish it nothing
but the best.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
How do you replace Jeremiah Giles? So you got Omari
Evans coming in, there's one talk about him and the
rest of that receiving corp and how comfortably are with it?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, I'm Maury. I mean bringing Denzel Back. I mean
that was critical, right. We needed you know, Denzel Back, Jonah.
I mean, we had to keep the guys that brought
a ton of production to the program last year, so
now we had to compliment Denzel and Giles was another
(20:49):
one of our guys that had eighty something catches eighty
five catches or whatever it was and eight touchdowns or
what somewhere in that range. And we needed to get
someone that was going to be able to give us
that type of production along with Rashid Williams, along with
Aldric Harris. And we felt that the guy for that
was Amuri Evans. And you know, we felt he was
(21:10):
one of the starters at Penn State. He was a
guy that can take the top off of the defense.
I mean, this guy's gonna run for three at the
combine he had, you know, I think he averaged nineteen
point six a catch. You know, he had twenty catches
and five of them were touchdowns. We feel as if
the way we run our offense, we traditionally get two
(21:33):
receivers eighty plus catches. I mean, if you look at Arizona,
we had two guys at ninety two years in a
row with Jacob Kelly and t Mack and then Dorian
Singer at sixty seven and eleven for eleven fifty and
Jacob at ninety there, and you know, we have these
two guys at eighty five and seventy or something that
range with Denzel and Jiles. So we explained, all, Mari,
(21:54):
you have that opportunity here man. So he was excited
about that. I think we're all going to be excited
about his explosive And then you guys got like Audric
Oudric's gonna have a really good year, I believe really,
and Rashid I think should have a really good year.
So we lost Jeremiah and Giles due to eligibility. We
brought in Memory. We brought in five young receivers, man,
(22:17):
and I think these guys are special. Three of them
are here right now, Marcus Hears and Raydon Biden's bright
and Chris Lawson. These guys are working their tail off
in the late room. Kevin Green's healthy again, So we're
excited about our room.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Yeah, hey, that's fair. By the way, that's a really
fair answer by you. Hey, Jed, before you go, you welcome.
As your guys said yesterday at the podium, relationships still matter,
but money matters more than ever before in this game.
And I remember you and I talked over Media Day
last July and you said that you were about half
of where Ohio State was at at that point in
(22:52):
time with your NIL budget. Are we where we need
to be right now or still falling behind in your opinion?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah? If I said half, I overshot by twenty five percent. Wow,
from a year ago. I would say this year moving forward,
where we're in a really good place is that we've
gotten a full commitment from our athletic department that we
will max out our revenue share. And maxing out your
(23:21):
revenue share is you know, about fifteen million dollars, So
that's critical to our success. And then you know, from
January to June is where things get interesting to it's
January to June. You have no revene share. You're using
the collective, and that's where we can continue to use
(23:42):
help to be able to add as much money into
that collective as possible, to be able to not have
to use all of the revenue share for the twenty
five team, and be able to use it to also
keep players going into twenty six. But you know We're
excited about the fact that we hope this will normalize
(24:03):
and stabilize the environment for probably the top thirty five
teams that can all generate that kind of that kind
of revenue. And I think at that point in time
we'll see a lot a lot of good parody, which
we had this year as well, and now it's going
to come down to some stability. You know. Year ones,
(24:25):
it's such a challenge, and I really am excited about
year two, three and beyond.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, I love it. Hey, I got you penciled in
from March the fourth for the second edition of The
Demon Williams Show. All right, we'll talk then done.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I put it on my calendar.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
I love it, all right, man, thanks thanks for doing this.
Appreciated coach.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Thank you guys. Take care.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
We bet Jeed fish with us. Fair fair, very fair,
very fair. One thing about him he doesn't hold back anything.
I mean, there's there's there's no question that he's not
going to answer. He's totally blunt and honest about it all.
I got pretty revealing stuff fall. Let's come back and
chat about that next On ninety three three kJ RFM
Fourth down and goal at the one. Williams out of
the shot, hun one by two formation step to Williams,
throws the fade to the right side.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's caught. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Touchdown? Giles Jackson just the second four touchdown game and
Husky is dreak his sixty third and final college football game.
Giles Jackson catches it from freshman quarterback to Mont Williams
and the Huskies pull within one.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Gud.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
You can tell he's right there on the edge. The
voye says, just about to crack. It's just about to
crack on the car. Joining us right now on the
radio show going into year two as the head coach
of your Husky football team, Jed Fish with us now
on the Beacon plumbing hotline. Coach, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm good? I'm good. That was an amazing I had
never heard that one before and that was quite a
commentary of the end of the game.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, no, Tony, Tony does a great job. We got
to get you those calls. You can make him like
the Ringtones on your cell phone. By the way, when
when the important phone call come in. But you know,
it's funny that we're sitting there hearing demand, by the way,
and obviously played phenomenally against Louisville. And I'm just kind
of wondering, and Dick and I are wondering out loud.
Was there any part of you since the season ended
(01:14):
that even took a second or two to wonder what
things would have looked like if you have gone to
the kid maybe a little bit earlier in the year.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Uh No, I really haven't. I've thought about, you know,
what what it's going to look like in the future,
you know, I thought, I think that it reminded me
very much of the two game sequence that we had
when we went to Noah weeks, you know, after we
had Noah for about you know, fifteen games and start
(01:47):
and his first start was against Washington and we lost,
and then our second star was against USC and we
lost in triple over time on a two point play,
and then we went ahead and won the seven in
a row. And it reminded me a lot of you know,
there's a part of development that you you you easily
(02:08):
can mess a guy's development up by starting him too early.
You can not get the you know, the best out
of them by throwing them to the fire too quick.
And I like the way that Will was handling a
very rocky, you know, a very rocky road where you know,
you you go to Loomenfield and you you know, make
(02:30):
some big plays, but don't don't make enough of them,
and then you know, a week later, you or a
week after you beat Michigan and you know, then you
feel like you've completed seventy five percent of your passes
and we'll start at ten touchdowns, no interceptions. So it's
pretty hard to make, you know, quarterback changes when you've
got a guy that's you know, over I think he
was number one in the country in completion percentage and
(02:52):
he was number one in the country and touchdown interception ratio.
So that was hard to do. But I'm I'm so
excited because, you know, people as we were able to
evaluate the best way possible to give Demon ten to
twelve reps, and there was a lot of people that
had a lot of problems with that, and a lot
of people that wanted to be public about the decisions
of of giving DeMont ten to fifteen plays a game.
(03:15):
But I think that will give us such a better
advantage this coming year than if we wound up, you know,
just throwing him to the fire there at the end.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Well, coach, my hypemeter for demand is borderline unhealthy. I
gotta be honest with you. I'm just been on the
air just drooling over this kid for for months, really,
so you can either settle me down or just keep
pouring gas on it. I mean, is this a full
blown Heisman campaign beginning of the season, or is it like,
let's slow roll this, get him into his first year
(03:46):
as a starter, and then we'll talk New York down
the road.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, let's slow roll that s right? I bet all right, Softy,
I need you to slow roll them up.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Wait a minute, just hang on a second. You said
yourself at a press offends you want to get this
guy in New York City.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, that doesn't mean in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Okay, that was my question. That was my question. Good
solid answer.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I want to get I absolutely want to get to
New York City, and I absolutely feel like we can
do great things together. And I can't wait to watch
his growth and development. And you know, I don't know
when that happens. He a true freshman. Yeah, you know,
when he got the campus in January of this past year,
(04:33):
he was seventeen. He turned eighteen at the end of March,
so he's currently sitting here at eighteen years old. So
as much as we've seen some pretty good poise and maturity,
and I think he's doing a really good job talking
to the media and learning, you know, how to handle
some of that, he's still eighteen. And if we can
(04:56):
continue to get his body right and continue to keep
teaching them football, situational football, you know, I think we're
going to have a heck of a quarterback here. I
think our fans will rally behind that. I think the
nation will see how great it is to you know,
have someone for you know, I would love for him
(05:17):
to be our quarterback in the next three years. And how
cool would that be to have a run, you know,
with a quarterback. It's so far few and far between
these days. But that being the case, man, we got
to slow the roll just a little bit. We haven't
even spring.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Football, yeaheah, yeah, Well, Jed Fish is with us, and
Jed you mentioned it's rare these days to have a
quarterback play that long for you and there's just so
many things that we're discussing now that we wouldn't have
even dreamed about discussing even three, four, five years ago,
and one of those things is can we keep the guy?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Right?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
People were even wondering can we keep him for twenty
twenty five? And are you at all any way, shape
or form concerned about somebody coming in and poaching this
kid at the end of every single season.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Well, I mean at the end of every single season.
They'll try, I would think, and we certainly saw that
this past year. But what I would say is this,
We're the University of Washington. We're not, you know, some
random university that can't hold onto their guy. We're not
(06:19):
a university that's not trying to compete for national championship.
We're not a university that hasn't shown the ability to
go undefeated in their conference or shown the ability to
win national championships or conference titles. So I feel like
we should put our resume, our program, our stadium, our university,
our city up against anybody. And I'm looking forward to
(06:42):
watching that grow and develop. And I hope that our
fan base and I hope that the community and the
businesses around it and the university all rallied behind someone
like Demand and see him as someone that could be
an unbelievable spokesperson for this university and he's a four
to zero student. He does things right. He's gonna be
a great football player for us. And how amazing will
(07:04):
it be if we can get a Heidsman Trophy winner
out of him in a few years from now.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
How big was the effort you think by other teams
to get him to leave after the stumble?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Uh, you know, I think it was. It was pretty
big from what I saw and text messages he got
and from some calls. But hey, you know the bottom
line is this Demand is. Uh. What I love about
Demand and his family is they committed to myself, Coach Doherty.
(07:34):
Dom Caldwell was our GA at our last place, and
all three of us came up here and he came
up here, and we are you know, I think we have.
We've shown them our commitment to them, and they've shown
us their commitment to us. And I just can't wait
to watch Demand continue to rally the team and rally
(07:56):
the troops. And I'm just so proud of how much
he's grown. I just continue to remind people he's still
eighteen and we're going to do everything we can and
just help him achieve all of his dreams.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Well, coach, I promise you will talk about the other
eighty four scholarship players in a second. But I got
one more question on.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Where you guys just need to have me on more?
So we could just we could call.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yet who's been saying that ever since you showed up here?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Holy moly, what I mean? You just called it the
I've never All you gotta do is ask, well, we
just have? We could have the demon Sia the next out.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
There we go, Well, where does he need to take
his biggest leap between now in September?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah? Well, Situational football is by far the biggest differentiator
from experience. So understanding when you're in the red zone
a way, understanding backed up, what decisions you need to
make when you're you know, inside the five seven yard line,
(09:01):
Understand third down versus first down, two minute drives. This,
all those situations that you only get better at with experience.
Experience of practice, experience in games, and experience of just
watching football will continue to really help separate him down
the road. Obviously, we'll always work on, you know, more
(09:23):
body armor, you know, getting him bigger, getting him stronger,
But that's gonna come with just age maturity, our weight room.
But we're going to really pour into the mental side
this year, and we're going to also do that as coaches,
and we're going to see what unique things can we
bring to him that is different than what we've done
in the past as well. Well.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Jed fish with us, and I assume his biggest friend
is going to be his offensive line. I mean, he
took a beating in the Organ game and I was impressed, actually, coach,
by how much he just popped right back up. It
was like Rocky and Drago, for God's sakes. But that's
not gonna You don't want that. You don't want your
quarterback getting hit that much at all. And last year
you brought an Enoch, you brought in d you brought
in as a party, You brought in Maximus McCree. And
(10:03):
this year not as much activity in the transfer portal.
Did you do enough?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
You think? Yeah? I think the difference is, you know,
the guys that we brought in were guys that we
brought in the springtime that really didn't have Division one
football playing experience. We really brought it other than as
a party who played for you know, a year at
San Diego State. The rest of those guys were really
(10:28):
coming in, you know, from Portland State, a backup at
Ohio State, and from a junior college. And what we
feel in we needed to bring in bodies and guys
that we could you know, give us, give us playing time.
I don't think any of us even dreamt of below
giving us everything. He gave us for thirteen games. I mean,
(10:50):
hats off to that guy. I mean he came in
here from Portland State and he started every single game
for us at Washington. That is amazing. And you know,
Enoch came in and did a great job. We felt
as if what we needed to do this go around
was now that we had the year of you know,
Land and Hatchet back, Now that we had the year
(11:11):
of as a party, Now that we had the year
of Swanning, now that we had the year of MaxMa Cree,
now that we had the year of Pocket Female. Then
add to that Garon Hatchett, add to that Carver Willis,
add to that the five freshmen we signed, and now
you're looking at a whole different setup, right, a whole
different group of players that now have true experience, and
(11:34):
then bringing back as a party on top of that,
and Zach Henning. Now you've got a situation where I
believe we're really in a great spot of being able
to have sixteen seventeen guys compete in our weight room
in January, February, March, April, May player run practices. Very
very different scenario than seven scholarship players last year at
(11:56):
the O line, and two of which were guys that
we're coming off of ACLS.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Tell us a little more about Carver Willis. I mean
that's a former All Big twelve player.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, I mean he was one of the top guys
available in the transfer portal, one of the top offensive
tackles out there. Very excited about the maturity. Oh, it
was an unbelievable visit the on the zoom call and
in person. But on the zoom call he said, Coach,
I'm just looking for a staff and an offense that
(12:27):
I could be a part of that could bridge my
gap for one year to try to get to the NFL.
I want to learn an NFL offense. I want to
play in an NFL system. I want to be able
to play, you know, with my hand on the ground,
but also in the two point stands. I want to
be able to run scheme, pas scheme, and like he's
the perfect fit for our program. And you know, just
(12:49):
a quick story on Carver Willis. I get an email
one week into the job from a firehouse, a local
firehouse here in Seattle, that said, you have a young
man named Carver Willis who bought dinner for the entire firehouse,
thanking them for all they do. And it was the
day after the fires, you know, in l A. And
(13:09):
I just think that was so cool that, you know,
he's at a restaurant. There were six firemen there and
he just went and paid for their dinner. And he's
the type of that type of kid. And hats off
to him, and hats off to you know, Brendan Carroll
finding him and Mike Switzer. And I think he's only
a big help.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
No, No, that's that's that's a very cool story. Jeed
Fish is with us on the air, and Jed Jimmy
was on yesterday with us. Jimmy Doherty, your new offensive coordinator.
We asked him if he's going to call plays and
he said, nobody thinks he should be able to.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, I'm sure that's what he said.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, he said maybe the fourth quarter of the UC
Davis game, You'll give me a yeah. But you know, look, naturally,
when a team has success, there's names that people gravitate to,
and Scott Huff was one of them. Obviously, we just
obviously was with the Seahawks and likely not coming back,
and people are asking, was Scott Huff a guy that
(14:01):
we looked at to replace Brennan when he took off
to go to Arizona? Talk to the fans about why
you made the moves you made, and were names like
Scott Huff names that you considered.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, I mean, I think every situation is very different
when you're making decisions regarding your staff, and I think
it's very very clear that there's also, you know, plenty
of different circumstances that go into successes of programs, players
being the most important part of them. And we I
feel like we had some guys on our staff that
(14:32):
were really good coaches that have done a really great
job with the players that we've had in the past.
You know, when we were a top ten offense with
Noa fa Feet, a top ten offense with Jaden DeLaura,
we were, you know, one of the best five passing
offenses in the country, and I felt like there was
(14:52):
no doubt that Jimmy deserved the opportunity to coordinator. He's
certainly proven that every step of the way, whether he's
a use or here at Arizona or here or at
Arizona or here at Washington, with what he's done with
the Mond and with Will Mike Switzer's been with me
when we were at Michigan. He was our offensive line
graduate assistant assistant on lineman. We had the number I
(15:15):
think three points in the country in twenty sixteen. We
won twenty games in two years. He learned from Harbaugh,
learned from Drevno there then had a chance to run
his own room for three years, and then it's been
with us for four years. And he was a key
part of developing Jordan Morgan to be a first round pick.
He was a key part in developing Jonah seven A
as a true freshman All American and now he's predicted
(15:38):
to be a first round pick. He was a huge
part of helping Brennan in every aspect of recruiting guys
like John Mills, guys like Champ, guys like Jack Shaper,
guys like Jake Flores, and a huge part of taking
a guy like d lo or Enoch, guys that have
never had a lot of playing experience. In developing him,
it was I think it's the responsibility to give that
(16:00):
guy that the opportunity to now move up, step up
and lead that room. So I've seen him, I've seen
what he's done. I've listened to players, I've listened to
former players that are now in the NFL, and conversations
I've had with guys that were coached by him. I
felt great about making him the line coach. I know
that Scott has an amazing line coach, you know, but
(16:23):
in this case, in this situation, at this time, it
was Mike Switzer's job to have coach.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
How secure do you feel about your defensive line and
do you expect to add to it? In April?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Hold On, did Softie just say fair at the end
of that guy?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
No, I said, I said, Okay, that's my way of
agreeing with you.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I thought you gave a fair at the end. No.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I mean, you know what if, jennif I think it's
just unfair, unfair, I retorts, I retorts.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
What was the question?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah, you'r D line? How comfortable are you with your
D line? And do you think you'll add to it
in April.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
You know, I think the key will be health. Do
I would be very, very very comfortable with our D
line if our D line is healthy. Zach Durfy's coming
off of foot surgery, Javon Parker achilles surgery. We added
ty Tyan Delele, who's an All Pac twelve player two
(17:25):
years ago, a really good player last year in the
Big twelve. We brought in Ontario Thompson. I think Alinius
Davis is really doing a good job of developing it
to something special. I think Isaiah Ward's going to be
a fantastic pass rusher this coming year, getting his weight right.
And then it's up to Jacob Lane and Logan to
continue to develop Armant Parker to continue to develop. And
(17:49):
then we brought in Pepa from Utah, and that's a
huge get for us. You're talking about another three hundred
and forty pound nose tackle. But if we can get
Parker back, durfeedback, and keep everybody else healthy, I feel
really good about about where this is headed. You know,
the key here, guys is that you know, we signed
twenty eight freshmen and we played with a bunch of
(18:13):
younger guys last year that we brought in with us,
and then we're you know, so we've got to develop
those guys and we've got to see each year how
much better they're going to be, and then we want
to try to bring in the free agents to to
supplement it. And that's what I think we did there.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Jed what happened with Thatius Dixon? And I bring that
up because Takario getting him was obviously gigantic, but it
would have been great to have him in addition to
Thatius and not in some ways instead of why did
we lose Statius?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, I think he run into you know, those those
numbers games, and there's opportunities. I think you know that
I was at Dad's house. I was the only head coach.
I did a home visit with that, you know, the
three days before he made his vision, you know, and
we brought our entire defensive staff there. But there's also
(19:06):
a situations that came into play that none of us
were expecting. I mean, if Pavia, if the Pavia ruling
didn't take plates, that would have been you know, right
now trying to get to the NFL right, there would
have been no opportunity. We tried to do everything we
could to have the three corner system, but at some
(19:27):
point in time those become challenging. I think we all
saw that there'd be great opportunities to be able to
move three guys inside outside, But in the end, there's
an opportunity out there for that to play on the
outside where he wants to play with Coach Belichick, and
what a fantastic opportunity for that. And we're really excited
(19:49):
about the Carrio and Ephesians, and we believe that those
two guys on the edges. We've got two guys that
are both going to be if I was to predict,
two guys both drafted in the first three rounds of
next year's draft. And we're going to do everything we
can to continue to develop those two guys. And nothing
(20:10):
but love for that. Dad Dixon played his heart out
for us last year and I'm just a huge fan
of him and his family, and I wish it nothing
but the best.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
How do you replace Jeremiah Giles? So you got Omari
Evans coming in, there's one talk about him and the
rest of that receiving corp and how comfortably are with it?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, I'm Maury. I mean bringing Denzel Back. I mean
that was critical, right. We needed you know, Denzel Back, Jonah.
I mean, we had to keep the guys that brought
a ton of production to the program last year, so
now we had to compliment Denzel and Giles was another
(20:49):
one of our guys that had eighty something catches eighty
five catches or whatever it was and eight touchdowns or
what somewhere in that range. And we needed to get
someone that was going to be able to give us
that type of production along with Rashid Williams, along with
Aldric Harris. And we felt that the guy for that
was Amuri Evans. And you know, we felt he was
(21:10):
one of the starters at Penn State. He was a
guy that can take the top off of the defense.
I mean, this guy's gonna run for three at the
combine he had, you know, I think he averaged nineteen
point six a catch. You know, he had twenty catches
and five of them were touchdowns. We feel as if
the way we run our offense, we traditionally get two
(21:33):
receivers eighty plus catches. I mean, if you look at Arizona,
we had two guys at ninety two years in a
row with Jacob Kelly and t Mack and then Dorian
Singer at sixty seven and eleven for eleven fifty and
Jacob at ninety there, and you know, we have these
two guys at eighty five and seventy or something that
range with Denzel and Jiles. So we explained, all, Mari,
(21:54):
you have that opportunity here man. So he was excited
about that. I think we're all going to be excited
about his explosive And then you guys got like Audric
Oudric's gonna have a really good year, I believe really,
and Rashid I think should have a really good year.
So we lost Jeremiah and Giles due to eligibility. We
brought in Memory. We brought in five young receivers, man,
(22:17):
and I think these guys are special. Three of them
are here right now, Marcus Hears and Raydon Biden's bright
and Chris Lawson. These guys are working their tail off
in the late room. Kevin Green's healthy again, So we're
excited about our room.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Yeah, hey, that's fair. By the way, that's a really
fair answer by you. Hey, Jed, before you go, you welcome.
As your guys said yesterday at the podium, relationships still matter,
but money matters more than ever before in this game.
And I remember you and I talked over Media Day
last July and you said that you were about half
of where Ohio State was at at that point in
(22:52):
time with your NIL budget. Are we where we need
to be right now or still falling behind in your opinion?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah? If I said half, I overshot by twenty five percent. Wow,
from a year ago. I would say this year moving forward,
where we're in a really good place is that we've
gotten a full commitment from our athletic department that we
will max out our revenue share. And maxing out your
(23:21):
revenue share is you know, about fifteen million dollars, So
that's critical to our success. And then you know, from
January to June is where things get interesting to it's
January to June. You have no revene share. You're using
the collective, and that's where we can continue to use
(23:42):
help to be able to add as much money into
that collective as possible, to be able to not have
to use all of the revenue share for the twenty
five team, and be able to use it to also
keep players going into twenty six. But you know We're
excited about the fact that we hope this will normalize
(24:03):
and stabilize the environment for probably the top thirty five
teams that can all generate that kind of that kind
of revenue. And I think at that point in time
we'll see a lot a lot of good parody, which
we had this year as well, and now it's going
to come down to some stability. You know. Year ones,
(24:25):
it's such a challenge, and I really am excited about
year two, three and beyond.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, I love it. Hey, I got you penciled in
from March the fourth for the second edition of The
Demon Williams Show. All right, we'll talk then done.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I put it on my calendar.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
I love it, all right, man, thanks thanks for doing this.
Appreciated coach.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Thank you guys. Take care.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
We bet Jeed fish with us. Fair fair, very fair,
very fair. One thing about him he doesn't hold back anything.
I mean, there's there's there's no question that he's not
going to answer. He's totally blunt and honest about it all.
I got pretty revealing stuff fall. Let's come back and
chat about that next On ninety three three kJ RFM
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