Why Vegas is right about the 2024 Washington Huskies football team

well we're going to do this each and every week throughout the college football season I figured after you know one of the most historic runs in the history of the University of Washington's program last year and I know we started to do this late in the year my big brother Damon jumped AB board and may even at some point over the course of this season thought you know what let's not just wait till this team gets good and gets hot and gets to 14-0 and plays in a national championship let's start talking about jetfish in these huskys week one and while I don't think they're going to be playing in the 12 team playoff you just never know in college football there's always a bunch of surprises that feel like a little bit of a reach uh even with my purple hat on and my purple glasses uh that Sal says I can wear every once in a while I'm going to kind of set this up over the course of the year and and and try to use a bit of an outline I like a play sheet I like a script to uh talk to and react to both as a quarterback as a broadcaster when I do my games and I'm going to set it up in three ways what I learned what I think and what I know what I learned about the Huskies in the opening week and each and every week over the course of the Season what I learned what I think about them like and especially early in the season the first quarter of the Season where every game's going to be in Seattle what I think about them and then ultimately you know as I go back and I watch the tape of the game what I know what the football tells me what the jimmies and the Joe's and the x's and the O's really tell me and what I know about this team always a little hard and got to sift through some fool's gold in the first part of a year but here's what I learned in the season opener really two things I learned that Jed fish is capable and competent I learned that Jed fish is going to follow in the footsteps of Caitlin dbor and be a pretty transparent guy that while he's got a bellich on his staff and a Carol on his staff I think personality wise press conference wise he's gonna lean a lot more Pete Caroll with even fewer words and is going to cut right to the chase of it and B Be LLY honest about his team and why that is refreshing to me is because that does carry over to his brand into his sales and to his messaging to the Huskies he's made it abundantly clear he wants the 2025 class this February to be the best class in the history of the program he's on his way to doing that if they find more success over the course of the Season maybe they jump from 15th into the top 10 and truly be one of the best and he's doing it by selling you're you're going to be a pro when you come to Washington if you come here you're going to play for pros like bellich you're going to run a pro style system I'm going to communicate with you like the guys in the pros do and just be bluntly honest with what you're doing and what you're not doing and I felt like over the course of that game uh certainly in the postgame in the pregame that that was abundantly clear this is a pro style system with a promm minded coach who's going to be a professional in the way that he bluntly communicates with everybody in and around that program from the players to the media to the fans you're going to know what Jed fish believes and uh and here's what I learned too that little running back Jonah Coleman I shouldn't call him little that little thick thot now get rid of little he get rid of little thick thighs save lives Jonah Coleman is a monster a dude has no surface area to hit you could do all the tackl drills you want and certainly Weber State who's been a physical program through the years in the Big Sky I'm sure they did all their tackling drills and you could do all your live tackling and Eastern Michigan who comes in from ipolani can do all their tackling and then you know that linebacker or that safety or that dend all of a sudden is looking at Jonah Coman going what do I hit I mean he looks like Maurice Jones Drew it UCLA like he's that far off the ground and there is no surface area to hit and he's unbelievably powerful and strong and everything moves forward he had a 55 y called back on the second play of the game game otherwise he's going to push 200 yards rushing on last Saturday so Jonah Coleman going to have a fun Factor that's going to replace the romad dun the Jaylen McMillan the Michael penck the all the superstars that were super talented but also had a fun factor to watch Jonah Coleman's going to replace a lot of that fun factor I certainly learned that um what do I think what do I think after week one went over a Big Sky Team what I think and also watching college football is Vegas has these huskys right they're going to be a seven and a half win team when he just look at the personnel and what they are and what they're not I'll get to more of that and what I really do know but what I think is they're going to be right there in that range with Wisconson uh with Iowa we'll see if Iowa can actually score like they did in the second half last week we'll see I think there's some fools gold there in the season opener but just that Nebraska ruter those teams in that tier right there's a Penn State an Ohio State I think a Michigan Oregon did not look great but I think roster wise maturity wise culture development wise those teams are the head of the class right they're sitting up in first class Washington's an economy plus and they're right there looking at hey Nebraska how you doing hey Wisconsin how you doing hey Ruckers how you doing hey Iowa maybe Iowa's pushed in the front of the the Comfort plus and the huskys are a few rows behind them but right there and as I watched most of those teams and I saw Minnesota close and personal another team with like six win total this year like the Huskies are right there now what can they do over this first quarter of the Season into the second quarter of the season to maybe find themselves at the top of that economy plus and that would be eight or nine wins and if Jed fish gets there with this crew uh he and staff have done an awesome job I think they're going to be really good on third Downs I think when you bring in an NFL guy like belich you you've got to look at situations how are we on third down how are we in twom minute how are we in these situations that really do and are the biggest Mark of the NFL even bigger than college football because in the NFL you get eight n possessions College you get 1213 so you have more bites at the Apple more volume situations are still super important but they're not as heightened as they are in the NFL so when a Steve bich learns under Bill bellich and knows how important situational football is how important third Downs are how important four-minute drives how important Red Zone and all those areas and you come out and you put a four for 17 I don't care who you're playing you've done some pretty good work so I I think I'm going to keep an eye on situational football both offensively with a pro guy and jedf fish defensively with absolutely a pro guy and Steve bich and what that really looks like lastly what I know what I know from the tape what I know from the Personnel what I know looking at these huskies from the first 60 Minutes of action is this line of scrimmage does not have Elijah quals great gains or vitaa the crew that really elevated that team and I know there was Jake Brownie and Buddha and all sorts of stars Blue Chip players but the reason they made that National semifinal was inside via really the the tip of the spear along with Gaines who's still playing in the league and qus who had a cup of coffee like you had NFL dudes that just made that dline dominant and they took him to the National semi-final last year yes it was panic and Rome and great perimeter players but first round Troy fonu at left tackle first round Roger Rosen Garden or second round Roger Rosen Garden at right tackle you had book in NFL dudes that just elevated uh everybody around them and solidified an offensive line and a line of scrimmage that while defensively you were average and brillan tce was exceptional I know that this year the line of scrimmage Jed fish and his and Brandon Carroll who works with those guys and defensively they're going to have to they're going to have to work incredibly hard to at times mask what they are with the size and strength deficiencies especially as they get into Big 10 play and especially when they go on the road and all that becomes that much more important I know that that is uh I know that that's going to be a challenge for this team over the course of the year and again if you want to get from the back of economy plus to the front of economy plus and you want to go from a 67 win team that some see you as and be an 8 n Win team then masking deficiencies up front and then developing some of those young people they played a bunch of guys Jed fish said yeah we're going to rotate that offensive line because it really hasn't differentiated themselves as players it's going to be seven or eight of them they're going to have to do it as a group and the same thing on that defensive line for bich that gave up some yards and I think over 100 yards rushing to Weber State like yeah it's not going to be dominant there and there for to compete with the Ohio States and Penn States and you know the to the top Upper Crust who has line of scrimmage game I know that that's going to be challenge over the course of the year what I learned what I think what I know we're going to do it each and every week um we're going to bring in some some guests over the course of the season for sure uh lastly I was just reminded heading into week one really on our Washington Wednesday on air a week ago and I said to Sal like think about it think how crazy it is that we are sitting here on the precipice of a Husky football season and you look back at the last 12 months and you say to yourself yep kayin the board took him to the second half of Michigan in a tightly contested national championship game yep he's now at Alabama because of of course Nick Sabin you know decided to leave college football oh Michael penx of course was the runner up to the Heisman Trophy and the number eight pick in the NFL draft and from romad dun to fanu to Roger rosengarden what an unbelievable run the 2020 preseason was I don't expect 2024 to have quite those mountain tops but I do expect it to be an amazing journey navigated by a head coach who knows what he wants a QB and Will Rogers that I didn't even mention 20 to 27 super efficient who's thrown for almost 13,000 yards and knows how to play the game and play it at a high level uh this is going to be a journey and in a navigation this season that's going to lead to a lot a lot of fun when we talk about learning thinking and knowing so that's a little dog talk with Brock as we kick off the 2024 Husky football season