Christian Caple’s latest piece at On Montlake gets right to the heart of the situation Washington is staring at under center. He draws a clear line between UW’s quarterback dilemma and the one Jedd Fisch managed at Arizona when Jayden de Laura was sidelined and Noah Fifita stepped in.
In both cases, the starter went down, the backup was less celebrated, and the replacement quickly changed the feel of the offense. Fisch eventually stuck with Fifita, and that call paid off for an Arizona team that was surging.
Now the same question hangs over Washington: does Fisch go in that direction with Elijah Brown as Demond Williams gets closer to full health?
The quarterback debate isn’t the only thing shaping Washington’s offense, either. The line has been part of the problem all year, and there was at least some momentum building once Landen Hatchett returned.
His presence let the staff reshuffle things and move players like John Mills and Kolt Dietrich into better spots for the team. Then Hatchett suffered a season-ending neck injury over the bye, and that progress was interrupted.
The Seattle Times looks at how the Huskies might try to keep the line moving in the right direction after losing him again.
There’s also a broader Nebraska angle worth getting up to speed on before Saturday’s matchup. At Dawgman, Kim Grinolds posted a DawgmanRadio podcast with Brian Christopherson from Nebraska’s 247 site. The conversation helps frame the game itself, but it also digs into where Nebraska stands in the bigger college football picture and whether Matt Rhule has restored stability to a program that once sat among the sport’s powers.
And while this weekend brings a fresh meeting, Washington and Nebraska have history well beyond it. One of the most significant games between the two came at Husky Stadium in 1991, and A.J. Foss revisits that matchup in a recap at the Old School Sports Blog.
In Other News...
Washington Finally Gets A Key Transfer Back For The Opener
Ryan Beasley should be back in the mix for Washington when the regular season begins, a welcome development for a backcourt that has been waiting to see what the fourth-year point guard can add. The transfer from San Francisco was expected to be a key piece for Danny Sprinkles group, but a concussion kept him out of both exhibition games against Boise State and Washington State while the Huskies tried to sort through their preseason rotation.
Sprinkle said Beasley is set to practice and start ramping up for the opener, giving him a few days to get his legs back under him before the games count. For Washington, the timing matters as much as the return itself, since Beasleys presence should help stabilize the offense and give the Huskies another experienced option in a guard room that was missing one of its most anticipated newcomers in October. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Faces A Familiar Problem In A Game It Can't Waste
A trip to Memorial Stadium after a bye week puts Washington in a spot where the Huskies know exactly what kind of afternoon they may be walking into. Nebraska is treating the Blackout game as a chance to reset its season in the final month, and the Cornhuskers are trying to clean up two of the issues that have nagged them most of the year: a running game that needs more consistency and defensive breakdowns that have too often shown up late.
For Washington, the quarterback picture adds another layer to a road game already heavy on noise and urgency. The Huskies are working through uncertainty under center, and that kind of situation tends to shape everything from play-calling to tempo when a team is trying to survive a difficult setting. Nebraska would love nothing more than to make this a game where the pressure keeps building, but Washington still has enough around it to make the matchup feel like more than a simple tune-up for the home team. [Read more 🡒]
Washingtons Trip To Nebraska Looks Tougher Than Fans Might Think
Washingtons next road trip comes with more than the usual Big Ten baggage, because Nebraska is no longer the same opponent Huskies fans may remember from past seasons. Matt Rhule has his team sitting at 5-2 in his fourth year, and the Cornhuskers have settled into a more stable identity on both sides of the ball, with Dana Holgorsen running the offense and Glenn Thomas working closely with quarterback Anthony Colandrea, who has given the position a clearer ceiling than the previous starter.
The matchup also looks sharper on defense, where Rob Aurichs unit is built around a 4-2-5 look and has an experienced tone led by linebacker Owen Chambliss. For Washington, that means this is not just another difficult road environment, but a game where the details could matter as much as the talent on paper, especially with Nebraskas roles on offense and defense seeming to fit together better than they did early in the year. [Read more 🡒]