⚡ CFB Dashboard

Washington Head Coach Jedd Fisch spoke to the media right after the Purple team defeated the Gold team 27-10 in 'Dawgs After Dark', the annual spring game held Friday night at Husky Stadium.  With roughly 10-15 thousand fans in attendance, they saw a UW team that made a few plays on offense, but the main highlights came on the defensive end and in special team. He talked about those plays, the overall play of certain position groups, getting quarterback Demond Williams ready to play his best in the highest pressure moments, and more.  Full quotes from Fisch's media session are below.  Opening Comments "We won! It was great to be out there. Great turnout, want to appreciate our fans. Thought that was awesome how many people came out tonight and to be a part of it and really just watch our kids have a fun night. That was the goal and I think we executed that goal. No one got hurt, everyone stayed healthy. Everybody that could play played. Most of the guys participated in some way, shape, or form. It was fun to watch everybody have a good time and not have to do anything, so it was a perfect night for that. Beautiful night, beautiful weather here in Seattle. I think it's fun that we're still playing football in front of fans in the spring, which so many people are refusing to do. We owe it to our fans to do that. We owe it to the football universe to keep on the tradition of spring games and be able to give our kids and parents the opportunity to go watch them play in front of people. Not everybody gets to play Saturdays in the fall, but certainly the spring game gives them an opportunity to go out there and compete. And we'll do that for as long as we possibly can." On Rashid Williams' night... "Couple big plays by Rashid, Rashid's had a great spring. This is the first spring since we've been here that he's stayed healthy the whole spring and then obviously missing almost all of last season, and to be able to have him come back and take on that leadership role and be able to make some of those plays tonight with Demond was fun to see. Obviously the big touchdown was great and then also the sideline toe-tap was cool. It's been great to see Rashid step up and be the guy that we know he's going to be all season." What were your impressions of the physicality of the RB room? "It's so hard to assess it because the lines were split, the linebackers were split, the DL were split, but what I felt was cool was that everybody that had a chance to run ran really hard. Nobody really turned down a hit, nobody turned down contact, quarterbacks included. I just thought it was fun to watch guys go out there and play football. I think you get hurt when you go at a different pace than the other guys, and I thought our running backs did a great job of lowering their shoulders and making some plays. "But no Jordan Washington, no Trey Cooley, no Jayden Limar... two of them for all spring and one for nine practices. It's been a great learning curve for the young guys and the young guys got more reps than they ever normally would have gotten if this was just traditional spring football, especially with a 90, 100 person roster. You can't go two fields like you used to... I think it's going to be a really big summer for Jayden to get back, for Trey to get back and compete, for us to evaluate where Jordan is and make a decision there. For Quaid to continue to improve. For Ansu and Brian to see what their role could be. But I'm really looking forward to what it looks like when Jayden and Trey get going, but I think Quaid had the best spring by far in my book." On the defensive touchdowns by Dylan Robinson and Donovan Robinson... "I think Dylan Robinson will be an elite player for us. Obviously starting at corner. Donovan Robinson is a true redshirt freshman that is probably learning from four of the better linebackers around so I'm not expecting this season to be a year of the Robinson touchdowns at the linebacker position based on the fact that you've got Jacob (Manu), Xe'ree (Alexander), Zaydrius (Rainey-Sale), and Buddah (Al-Uqdah) all being in that position. I'm excited to see what those four guys are going to do and I think Donovan is really growing and learning what it's like to play linebacker with this defense. He has a tremendous future ahead of him learning from those guys this next season prior to most of them being able to move on." Player or two that has really taken advantage of all 15 practices... "I wouldn't count today as a real practice, so I would end it at the other practices, but I would say they've all taken advantage of their opportunities, some more than others in regards to how much they can add to the program at a given moment. I think Ramzak Fruean is going to be an elite player. I would expect him to be a huge contributor early and often. I think Derek Colman-Brusa, obviously. Kodi Greene, obviously. I think guys like Baron Naone made a huge jump this spring. Demond (Williams) has gotten a lot better this spring. So I think everybody's making a jump, I think everybody's gotten better. But we've got to see what Christian Moss looks like when it's time to go, he hasn't been able to participate in spring. We've got to see what Jordan Clay looks like, day-in and day-out. We've got to see what these backs look like, we've got to see what type of jump we can make between now and August 1st. I would expect our team to look stronger, bigger, thicker, faster, and even more focused when we get back out here in what ends up being three months. We've got all of May, June, and July, 12 weeks - give or take a few weeks when you're off - to really make a big leap, and then we'll see what type of football team we have when Kai McClendon is back and Buddah is back and the Hatchett brothers are back and that's when I think we'll really who and what we are." You said you wanted to see guys step up that may not get the same opportunities in the fall... did you get that at all this last week? "I think everybody is trying to step up. Omar Khan is stepping up, I think Darin Conley's stepping up. I think that RDA (Rylon Dillard-Allen) coming back makes all the other safeties better. Gavin Day had a good spring. What's going to happen as guys continue... Rahsjon Duncan was here today, he doesn't want to take a back seat. He wants to get in there. Jeron Jones has stepped up. Rahshawn Clark is about ready to get back. I hope that our entire team is ready to compete in the fall training camp. Blaise (LaVista) said to me coach, I can't wait to get out there. All I thought about was how much fun it looked. I don't know what some of these guys even look like when it's time to get going. We're going to have some amazing competition this fall and we're going to embrace it. We're going to play young, old, doesn't matter. The guys that make money, the guys that make very little money, it doesn't matter. We're going to play the guys that want to compete." On evaluating the outside receivers that were able to play this spring... "Was disappointing we couldn't do more of an evaluation there with Chris Lawson being out with a hamstring, Christian Moss being out with a hamstring. Jordan (Clay) did a good job. He made a bigtime catch on the sideline, probably could have caught another one on a curl route, but I didn't pay too much attention to every play. I was kind of having too much fun with the stuff on the sideline. This training camp coming up, Lawson better... is it Clay? Is it Moss? Mason (James) is competing his tail off. Is it BP (Miller)? I don't know. I don't know what it's going to look like. Obviously I saw Rashid (Williams) step up, I know how good Dez (Roebuck) is. But there's going to be a huge competition now to see who that third guy is and who that fourth guy is and force us to play than just three or four." How do you prepare a player like Demond Williams to play his best in the biggest moments? "John Wooden and his pyramid, it talks about competitive greatness. And he defines it as being at your best when your best is needed. What we've talked about is, how do we find different ways to emulate difficult situations? Number one, it's going up against our defense when it's ones on ones, because when you put out that 11, that's a challenge to go up against them and you have to be on top of your game to be able to do that. Number two, try to put him in some pressure situations, meaning hey, down 10 with four minutes to go... what are we gonna do? We don't have time to punt here, so how big can we play? On top of it is experience. You look at what Demond has done, he's played in a bowl game as a true freshmen and goes out and throws five touchdown passes. You see the plays he made against Michigan when we beat Michigan at home. He goes out there and he's one of 16 guys I think ever to have a 400/100 game. How do we play great against Ohio State? Well first of all, Ohio State was great. They had a great team. They had what, eight first rounders or whatever they had? Their whole defense was drafted. Going to Michigan with a 107,000 people with a 9 am kickoff our time... those things take more than just competitive greatness. It takes 21 guys around him to be special. Getting caught in a tough weather game in Madison in November where we had injuries at many positions, learning how it just doesn't have to be you. And then obviously having a 19-14 ballgame with 8 minutes left against Oregon and still wanting a couple plays back where we gave up a touchdown there at the end... I think the bottom line is that experience will help get him there. He's played 16 games as a starter, now he's going into game 17. This is now a season where he should go shine, and the good part is that honestly, he'll have three years he can play because of this new five-for-five rule will allow him to be here for two more years. So let's just figure out how to go out there and be great against Washington State and I do believe when you take on a rival team and it's a 21-all game and you end up throwing five touchdown passes..." On Mason James and his position versatilty... "I didn't love him as a punt returner today... not looking for that. But that's a tough situation. You're a true freshman, you get thrown out there and it's hey, go catch a punt and take off from your end zone and (Luke Dunne) absolutely boomed it. That thing was up in the air for a long time and I'm sure Mason had about four hundred different thoughts going through his head, and 1 through 399 was don't drop it. So, I'm not worried about Mason dropping a ball, I think that was a fluky play. But it was fun to see Mason jet sweep, option route, tried to get him on a double move... Mason is going to have a great career here, excited to see what we can do with him." On Jordan Washington being at the game with his neck brace... any update, and are you optimistic for his return? "No update. Everything is on schedule. Somewhere around July 1 we'll make a decision, we as in the medical staff and the physicians, both in this building and outside consultants will make a decision on what his return protocol looks like. But right now the key for him is to just do what he's doing, and he's doing well." On Brian Bonner being available tonight... "He was not. He had a hamstring, so didn't want to take any chances in this game. We need Brian to have the whole summer where he can be fully engaged in the offseason program. There was no reason to have any setbacks tonight. We have to get him going."