November 4, 2024 • 8 mins
Washington Huskies quarterback Will Rogers joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about UW’s win over USC last week, the home win streak, Denzel Boston, having a possible bowl game ahead and if he would play in it, plus facing Penn State this week.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming to you live from your home for a Husky football.
This is our weekly conversation with you, Doug quarterback Will Rogers,
brought to you by Mottlake Futures, empowering University of Washington
student athletes by leveraging name, image and likeness for a
positive community impact. Visit Mouttlakefutures dot com today to find
(00:20):
out how you can donate. Now with Will Rogers, here's
softy and Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Husky's up by five snapped to Miller.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Moss drops back to pass backpedals of the twenty five
chase club, flutters the ball up and leave it said complete.
It said complete? I say, award head a Lance Holtz
Klaub get after the quarterback and the Husky defense comes
up with the stop and eleven seconds to go.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
All right normally at four point thirty, but we're going
early today because Will's got a team meeting to get
to at four o'clock. Joining us right now courtesy of
our friends at Montlake Futures. The quarterback for your five
and four Huskies, Will Rogers. Will, how are you man
going on?
Speaker 5 (01:02):
How's it going?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I'll do all right?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Good?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Better now after that went over, USC so you're not
You're not as old as we are man sitting here
on the West coast. Beating UC is always a fun
thing for us, is you know, a long time pack
ten packed twelve guys. But when Lance Holtsklaw on his
only snap of the game, by the way, whips Mason Murphy,
who's the right tackle for USC, gets into Miller Moss's
(01:24):
face and forces that deflection, what's the reaction of the sideline.
What's your reaction when you guys won that game after
that big defensive stand.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Oh, I was going crazy. I wish somebody could find
a video of me or something when that play.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Was going home.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
But I don't know. I know I jumped up in
the air like three or four times and was just
really excited, and you know, just really stoked for the guys,
especially the defense to get a huge stop there.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well on the defense was was phenomenal and soft. He
mentioned beating USC. It's now three times in a row.
U dub has not beaten USC three times in a
row since the glory days of the early nineties. And
you know there's another streak that's going on as well,
at nineteen straight at Husky Stadium. How much is that,
if at all talked about in your locker room.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
I mean a little bit here and there.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You know, I think.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
I think guys are just focused on one week at
a time, though, you know, it's obviously something that people
know about, and it's something you know, from what I've seen.
You know, obviously we haven't only been here a year,
but it's something that I've seen people take a great,
great deal of pride in, you know, just winning at home,
winning in front of these great fans. And you know,
obviously the fans are terrific Saturday night. So anytime we
(02:38):
can play play anybody here, we feel good about our chances.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
So yeah, yeah, Well, Will Rodgers is with us. I
got to ask you about number twelve man and Denzel Boston.
Another big day for him, and we're sitting there in
the press box watching just Crosser after Crosser after Crosser
after Phil Crosser and just slicing USC's defense up with
that route. What is it about that and that receiver
and your connection with him that's working so well?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
You think?
Speaker 5 (03:06):
I mean, it's honestly just reps, you know, I mean,
he's he's the first receiver I threw too when I
got here, you know. So it's it's a ton of
reps since you know, last January, just getting to know
each other, getting to be familiar with how he runs
his routes. He's extremely talented, he's he's a big physical
you know, but they're still still room to grow in
(03:27):
my opinion. You know, there's some things that we could
do better. I missed him on a couple of throws,
so there's some things that clean up, for sure. But
I think he's done a great job of just preparing
week in and week out, and he's obviously pretty pretty
electrifying with the ball in his hands and the way
he gets opened.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Number is unbelievable. Seventy one point one percent. You're just
your completion percentage right now, I think it was as
high as seventy three at one point during the game.
For the season. Break it down for us, I mean,
how much of it is accuracy? How much of it
is play calling, you know, running the right plays in
order for you to be that great? How much is
just your decision making and the fact that you've been
(04:04):
playing college quarterback for a half a decade.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
I mean, I think it's a little bit of everything,
you know. I mean you're making me feel old right there.
But it's a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
You know.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
It's a credit to coach and the way he calls
plays and things like that. It's a credit to the
offensive line and then the receivers of course for you know,
bringing down some tough catches at times. You know, I've
obviously played played football for a little while now, but
I think it all just comes down to just knowing
the system, know what we're trying to do on offense,
(04:38):
knowing the play college purpose wise, coach calling this play, yeah,
and then just trying to do my job playing and
play out. You know, things are gonna happen, you know,
tip balls, some things like that that you can't control.
But you should have to have ability just to play
the next play and keep on rolling.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Will Rogers again is with us. If you win Saturday
against Penn State, you're eligible for a ball game, which
I'll be honest with your vantis isn't celebrated much around
here because the standards are a lot higher than that.
But the context of having you know, half a new
roster flipping everything over, is there room for you to
celebrate something like that if you can get to win
number six and at minimum become ball eligible.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
I mean I think anytime you can come ball eligible,
it's a great deal. I mean, obviously we feel like
we should have been for a couple of weeks now,
but you know, it is what it is. Our record
is what it is. You know, I think it is
something we talked about in the locker room this week
is you know, you can't go back, you can't go
back to two months ago and change them things. But
we just have to focus on now and we obviously
(05:39):
have a big task ahead this week, so we have
to have a great week of practice and that's where
it all starts this week.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Yeah, well, let me ask you about that, because there's
this like new tradition will as you know, of guys
skipping out on bowl games, right for a lot of reasons.
Christian McCaffrey started this, like six seven years ago whatever,
he skipped the Sun Bowl for Stanford. If the Huskies
get to a bowl game, can we count on you
playing in that thing?
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Yeah, for sure, I'll be there. I've h that's not
really how I was. And everybody's got their own reasons
for not playing a bowl game, for sure, and I
respect those reasons. And I respect people, you know, chasing
their dreams and you know, preparing for the NFL and
things like that, but you know that's just not really
who I am as a person. And you know I'm
not the type of guy just to bail on on
(06:25):
on my teammates with one game left.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
So that's sure, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We love to hear that Will Rodgers is joining us.
Will I I I tweeted out today, has there been
a bigger badass this century on the Husky football team
than Carson Brunner. I'm gonna twist the question a little
bit to you and say, where does Carson Bruner rank
as far as the best leaders and badasses you've ever
played with in college football?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I mean he's up there for sure. You know, I've
I've played with a lot of a lot of really
good just football players. You know, that's a great way
to describe him is that he's just a football player,
you know. And he's not the biggest, He's not the
fastest or the strongest stor angthing like that. But you
know you can tell Saturday he can really turn it
on and flip that switch where he's just you know,
playing football at a really, really high level. So I'm
(07:10):
really really proud of him. I'm excited to excited to
see where he goes these next you know, three or
four weeks at the end of the season, and I
hope he can kill keep building on the confidence that
he had from last game. So yeah, he's the man
for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
I love it. Hey, just give us a quick thought
going to Penn State. Haven't won a game away from
Husky Stadium all year long. What do you guys need
to do preparation wise, protocol wise to get off the
schneid and win a road game for the first time
this year.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
Yeah, it's a it's a huge challenge obviously. I mean,
it's the white out, It's an eight o'clock kickoff on
Eastern tom So it's gonna be a huge challenge. You know,
it's in front of one hundred and ten thousand or
whatever it is. So honestly, just worry about it one
day at a time, man, you know, just worry about
practice tomorrow, worry about our meetings tonight tomorrow. So just
(08:03):
just locking in on those small things, you know. So
if we can just prepare good this week during the
week and then transfer that over to the field Saturday.
I feel good about.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
It, all right, man, go get I'm hoping talking monday
about it. Win over Penn State, number six team of
the country. Best of luck and we'll talk Monday.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Man.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Appreciate it, dude, Yes, sir, y'all have a good day.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Got it. Will Rogers with us courtesy. I'm out like futures.
We're a little late, but let's get to
Coming to you live from your home for a Husky football.
This is our weekly conversation with you, Doug quarterback Will Rogers,
brought to you by Mottlake Futures, empowering University of Washington
student athletes by leveraging name, image and likeness for a
positive community impact. Visit Mouttlakefutures dot com today to find
(00:20):
out how you can donate. Now with Will Rogers, here's
softy and Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Husky's up by five snapped to Miller.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Moss drops back to pass backpedals of the twenty five
chase club, flutters the ball up and leave it said complete.
It said complete? I say, award head a Lance Holtz
Klaub get after the quarterback and the Husky defense comes
up with the stop and eleven seconds to go.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
All right normally at four point thirty, but we're going
early today because Will's got a team meeting to get
to at four o'clock. Joining us right now courtesy of
our friends at Montlake Futures. The quarterback for your five
and four Huskies, Will Rogers. Will, how are you man
going on?
Speaker 5 (01:02):
How's it going?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I'll do all right?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Good?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Better now after that went over, USC so you're not
You're not as old as we are man sitting here
on the West coast. Beating UC is always a fun
thing for us, is you know, a long time pack
ten packed twelve guys. But when Lance Holtsklaw on his
only snap of the game, by the way, whips Mason Murphy,
who's the right tackle for USC, gets into Miller Moss's
(01:24):
face and forces that deflection, what's the reaction of the sideline.
What's your reaction when you guys won that game after
that big defensive stand.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Oh, I was going crazy. I wish somebody could find
a video of me or something when that play.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Was going home.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
But I don't know. I know I jumped up in
the air like three or four times and was just
really excited, and you know, just really stoked for the guys,
especially the defense to get a huge stop there.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well on the defense was was phenomenal and soft. He
mentioned beating USC. It's now three times in a row.
U dub has not beaten USC three times in a
row since the glory days of the early nineties. And
you know there's another streak that's going on as well,
at nineteen straight at Husky Stadium. How much is that,
if at all talked about in your locker room.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
I mean a little bit here and there.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You know, I think.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
I think guys are just focused on one week at
a time, though, you know, it's obviously something that people
know about, and it's something you know, from what I've seen.
You know, obviously we haven't only been here a year,
but it's something that I've seen people take a great,
great deal of pride in, you know, just winning at home,
winning in front of these great fans. And you know,
obviously the fans are terrific Saturday night. So anytime we
(02:38):
can play play anybody here, we feel good about our chances.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
So yeah, yeah, Well, Will Rodgers is with us. I
got to ask you about number twelve man and Denzel Boston.
Another big day for him, and we're sitting there in
the press box watching just Crosser after Crosser after Crosser
after Phil Crosser and just slicing USC's defense up with
that route. What is it about that and that receiver
and your connection with him that's working so well?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
You think?
Speaker 5 (03:06):
I mean, it's honestly just reps, you know, I mean,
he's he's the first receiver I threw too when I
got here, you know. So it's it's a ton of
reps since you know, last January, just getting to know
each other, getting to be familiar with how he runs
his routes. He's extremely talented, he's he's a big physical
you know, but they're still still room to grow in
(03:27):
my opinion. You know, there's some things that we could
do better. I missed him on a couple of throws,
so there's some things that clean up, for sure. But
I think he's done a great job of just preparing
week in and week out, and he's obviously pretty pretty
electrifying with the ball in his hands and the way
he gets opened.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Number is unbelievable. Seventy one point one percent. You're just
your completion percentage right now, I think it was as
high as seventy three at one point during the game.
For the season. Break it down for us, I mean,
how much of it is accuracy? How much of it
is play calling, you know, running the right plays in
order for you to be that great? How much is
just your decision making and the fact that you've been
(04:04):
playing college quarterback for a half a decade.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
I mean, I think it's a little bit of everything,
you know. I mean you're making me feel old right there.
But it's a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
You know.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
It's a credit to coach and the way he calls
plays and things like that. It's a credit to the
offensive line and then the receivers of course for you know,
bringing down some tough catches at times. You know, I've
obviously played played football for a little while now, but
I think it all just comes down to just knowing
the system, know what we're trying to do on offense,
(04:38):
knowing the play college purpose wise, coach calling this play, yeah,
and then just trying to do my job playing and
play out. You know, things are gonna happen, you know,
tip balls, some things like that that you can't control.
But you should have to have ability just to play
the next play and keep on rolling.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Will Rogers again is with us. If you win Saturday
against Penn State, you're eligible for a ball game, which
I'll be honest with your vantis isn't celebrated much around
here because the standards are a lot higher than that.
But the context of having you know, half a new
roster flipping everything over, is there room for you to
celebrate something like that if you can get to win
number six and at minimum become ball eligible.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
I mean I think anytime you can come ball eligible,
it's a great deal. I mean, obviously we feel like
we should have been for a couple of weeks now,
but you know, it is what it is. Our record
is what it is. You know, I think it is
something we talked about in the locker room this week
is you know, you can't go back, you can't go
back to two months ago and change them things. But
we just have to focus on now and we obviously
(05:39):
have a big task ahead this week, so we have
to have a great week of practice and that's where
it all starts this week.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Yeah, well, let me ask you about that, because there's
this like new tradition will as you know, of guys
skipping out on bowl games, right for a lot of reasons.
Christian McCaffrey started this, like six seven years ago whatever,
he skipped the Sun Bowl for Stanford. If the Huskies
get to a bowl game, can we count on you
playing in that thing?
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Yeah, for sure, I'll be there. I've h that's not
really how I was. And everybody's got their own reasons
for not playing a bowl game, for sure, and I
respect those reasons. And I respect people, you know, chasing
their dreams and you know, preparing for the NFL and
things like that, but you know that's just not really
who I am as a person. And you know I'm
not the type of guy just to bail on on
(06:25):
on my teammates with one game left.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
So that's sure, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We love to hear that Will Rodgers is joining us.
Will I I I tweeted out today, has there been
a bigger badass this century on the Husky football team
than Carson Brunner. I'm gonna twist the question a little
bit to you and say, where does Carson Bruner rank
as far as the best leaders and badasses you've ever
played with in college football?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I mean he's up there for sure. You know, I've
I've played with a lot of a lot of really
good just football players. You know, that's a great way
to describe him is that he's just a football player,
you know. And he's not the biggest, He's not the
fastest or the strongest stor angthing like that. But you
know you can tell Saturday he can really turn it
on and flip that switch where he's just you know,
playing football at a really, really high level. So I'm
(07:10):
really really proud of him. I'm excited to excited to
see where he goes these next you know, three or
four weeks at the end of the season, and I
hope he can kill keep building on the confidence that
he had from last game. So yeah, he's the man
for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
I love it. Hey, just give us a quick thought
going to Penn State. Haven't won a game away from
Husky Stadium all year long. What do you guys need
to do preparation wise, protocol wise to get off the
schneid and win a road game for the first time
this year.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
Yeah, it's a it's a huge challenge obviously. I mean,
it's the white out, It's an eight o'clock kickoff on
Eastern tom So it's gonna be a huge challenge. You know,
it's in front of one hundred and ten thousand or
whatever it is. So honestly, just worry about it one
day at a time, man, you know, just worry about
practice tomorrow, worry about our meetings tonight tomorrow. So just
(08:03):
just locking in on those small things, you know. So
if we can just prepare good this week during the
week and then transfer that over to the field Saturday.
I feel good about.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
It, all right, man, go get I'm hoping talking monday
about it. Win over Penn State, number six team of
the country. Best of luck and we'll talk Monday.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Man.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Appreciate it, dude, Yes, sir, y'all have a good day.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Got it. Will Rogers with us courtesy. I'm out like futures.
We're a little late, but let's get to
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