‘Those guys need opportunity’: Fisch addresses young Washington Huskies OL vs Indiana

There were several different things that didn’t go well for the Washington Huskies in their road matchup with the Indiana Hoosiers. The offensive line was a huge point of concern for Washington after this game. The Hoosiers were able to get three sacks on Will Rogers and they also got a total of six tackles for loss against the Huskies.

That’s not great! 

Washington needs some help up front. Or something needs to change moving forward. And when asked about some of the experimentation that Washington did on that side of the ball up front on the offensive line, Jedd Fisch provided some intriguing insight.

Jedd Fisch talks about how young members of Washington Huskies offensive line need opportunities to play

In his postgame press conference, Fisch addressed this and discussed how he wanted to start working some of the younger members of the offensive line into the lineup a bit more. He was able to do that against the Hoosiers and it sounds like he might do some more of that moving forward.

“We were looking for stuff that was going to work and we were looking for, right now we've got three guys on the offensive line that are in their second year of playing college football,” Fisch stated. “So, with Landen Hatchett, with Soane [Faasolo], with Kahlee Tafai, those guys need opportunity. Those guys need reps, those guys need to see how good they can get.”

That’s an encouraging thing to hear. From the outside looking in, it really seems like Fisch is willing to experiment a bit to ensure that he gets the right combination of players on the field to elevate Washington’s chances of winning. 

And with playing young linemen, he’s ensuring that his team is able to develop as it goes along throughout the season and into the future. That’s important. There’s no way he doesn’t understand what an asset continuity can be for a program that is rebuilding and has relied heavily on the transfer portal to get to this point. 

But, that wasn’t the only thing Fisch noted about the offensive line. It sounds like one notable lineman will be out for a little while longer.

“Max [McCree] is still probably a week or two away from being able to play,” Fisch said.

I, for one, think that’s suboptimal, folks.

The head coach of the Huskies also noted that while the offensive line needs to improve, the offense as a whole has some work to do.

“I thought we were better in the second half there in protection but again we got to get the ball out of our hands and we got to find ways to continue to establish the running game,” Fisch explained.

He’s not wrong. And also, that involves Will Rogers, or whoever is playing at quarterback, to take advantage of quick throws as they’re available. It worked well in the second halves against Rutgers and Michigan. It’s something that UW should keep in its arsenal. And if the Huskies do that, Rogers needs to ensure he’s hitting on those passes regularly and without throwing to the opposing team.

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