Jedd Fisch delivers Monday presser before UW travels to Maryland

During his weekly Monday press conference with the media, Jedd Fisch reflected on the Huskies’ 24-6 loss to the No. 1-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes in last Saturday’s game. Fisch reiterated his feeling that his team played well and fought Ohio State close until the fourth quarter. He also discussed the upcoming game against Maryland and gave an update on the team’s injuries. The Huskies will travel to Maryland to take on the 4-0 Terrapins at SECU Stadium on Saturday. Here are three takeaways from Jedd Fisch’s Monday presser.

Fisch discusses injuries and possible fill-ins

When asked about the status of edge rusher Zach Durfee and OT Carver Willis, Fisch did not provide an update. He did discuss the players he is hoping will step up in the absence of Durfee and Willis if they are unable to play on Saturday. Fisch acknowledged that replacing Durfee will be a challenge for his defense, and he is looking to Xe’ree Alexander, Deshawn Lynch, Hayden Moore, and Devin Hyde to fill in for Durfee. The other position Fisch has to make a rotational decision because of injuries is at left tackle. There is a possibility that Carver Willis may be unable to play due to an unspecified injury.

“Yeah, it’s on Max and Soane are competing for that left tackle job if Max, if Carper can’t go. Then we also have some position flexibility. We have John Mills who played left tackle in high school, Drew can always slide over if we choose. You have the ability to slide, you know Paki, in certain places. You have the ability to slide Champ in at guard, if you move someone over to tackle. So I feel we’re in a much different position than we were a year ago with our offensive line. That we have much more flexibility in terms of personnel.”

OPEN COMPETITION AT LEFT TACKLE

According to Fisch, there will a battle at left tackle between Soane Faasolo and Maximus McCree. The Husky head coach also mentioned that he has other options to make up for Willis’s absence. UW has John Mills and Paki Finau as options. Mills can slide over to left tackle, and Finau can play left guard. These two competed earlier this year at left guard and were considered equals throughout the fall and spring. Given Mills’ experience in high school at left tackle, moving Finau to left guard is an option.

Fisch finds positives in loss to Ohio State.

Fisch liked the play of his safeties. According to Fisch, three safeties, Makell Esteen, Alex McLaughlin, and Rylon Dillard-Allen (RDA), were outstanding when the defense played a three-safety coverage scheme. UW gave up just four explosive plays to Ohio State, which was impressive given the weapons the Buckeyes have at wide receiver.

“It wasn’t a game where there were a lot of chunk plays. And you know if you keep Ohio State to four explosive plays out of their 62 snaps, there was only 115 plays in the whole game. You know 62 for them, and 53 for us, that we felt that that three-safety look was going to make sure that if we wanted to get a double on somebody, we could. But we also were going to be able to have the ability to put a roof on the defense.”

Fisch was impressed by how well the freshman safety, RDA, handled the pressure of playing in a big game. In addition to RDA, Fisch was impressed by the play of all of his young players against the top-ranked Buckeyes.

The Huskies are ready to travel east after gaining experience in 2024

One of the biggest questions going into this week’s game is whether UW can win when it plays in the Eastern Time zone. Last year, the Huskies were unable to win any of their three games when they traveled to Rutgers, Penn State, and Indiana. Playing three hours ahead of their own time zone at home is a challenge. Fisch believes his team has learned from playing in a different time zone last year.

“The difference being, we learned that our team is probably more prepared for those East Coast trips now that we’ve had three of them. This will be the fourth for a few of the guys. Demond lived through Rutgers, Penn State, Indiana, Iowa, four road trips this year from last year. So this won’t be anything new to him, or to Denzel, nor to Jonah, nor to many of the guys that were on the team a year ago. I’d say that the game is at 3:30, so we’re going to go on Thursday…All right, against Rutgers, we went one day before. It was a Friday night game, but we went on Thursday. We’re going two days before this week, because of the fact that it’s a 3:30 kick, not an evening kick.”

Along with Williams, Fisch noted that WR Denzel Boston, RB Jonah Coleman, and others have experience playing back east. They are a more confident road team and currently are 1-0 on the road this season. Saturday will be a big test to see how the Huskies have perfected the skill of winning on the road.

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