Generally speaking, it’s actually an interesting thing to try to set truly accurate expectations for college football these days. To be completely honest, with the advent of the transfer portal, things can change in a hurry for a college football program, depending on who is added and subtracted and the overall sense of continuity that programs had in years past can evaporate in a hurry if a coach isn’t careful.
All of that said, with the way Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies have been recruiting (and when you consider how last season actually went for Fisch and UW), it’s pretty clear that things should (in theory) be a bit better for the Huskies and their fans this season.
College football analyst Josh Pate seems to agree with that assessment.
As Pate noted, the Huskies struggled last season because of the rather intense amount of roster turnover that took place as Kalen DeBoer left Seattle to coach in Tuscaloosa after arguably the greatest coach in college football history chose to retire.
But, things should be a bit better this year. At least I tend to think so. And, well, Pate does as well.
“6-7 last year, I expect improvement,” Pate said in a recent podcast episode.
Josh Pate sure seems to believe Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies should be able to do better in 2025
Much of the reason that Pate seems to be buying in to what Fisch and the Huskies can accomplish this year has to do with the schedule that the Washington Husky football team has for this coming season. It’s really a pretty straightforward schedule.
“It’s a manageable schedule by Big Ten standard and they’re a hot start candidate too, if you look at their schedule,” Pate said.
What does that mean?
Well, according to Pate, Washington didn’t make the decision to schedule a bunch of tough games to start the season. Sure, there’s the Apple Cup in week three, and theoretically anything could happen on any given Saturday, but that probably won’t be much of a deal in 2025 for UW.
The first three weeks of the season are pretty simple. Then there’s week four.
“They got Ohio State at home,” Pate stated.
That could be a bit of a problem. As could a couple of other games down the stretch for Washington.
“They go to Michigan later in the year, they’ve got Oregon at home the last weekend of the season,” Pate said.
But, that’s really it for tough games. And as Pate pointed out, those first few weeks are generally pretty winnable. That’s important for a team that is trying to build momentum and break in a young quarterback to be the full time starter moving forward.