After Midseason Break, Here's What UW Needs to Make 2024 a Big Success

A well-placed victory in November would go a long way to rebuilding things in Montlake.

Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch watches his team warm up before the game at Iowa Hawkeyes. / Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Unlike Alabama, Texas, Michigan, Florida State and other high-expectation places, where everyone is up in arms over weekend losses and potentially lost seasons, the University of Washington football team will resume practice following a bye week that came on the heels of a 24-point blowout loss at Iowa.

In Seattle, no one is calling for the coach to be fired or the quarterback to be replaced. With the Huskies at 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten, everyone in town basically has shrugged over what's happened.

Fans were smart enough to see that this UW program came off a CFP national championship game appearance against Michigan with just a lone and lonely returning starter currently in the lineup in linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala after players left for the NFL or fled a potential rebuild that has rang true.

New coach Jedd Fisch likewise has braced everyone for the inevitable all along, never getting too high over the breakthroughs -- such as a 27-17 payback win over Michigan -- or too low over the losses -- which have now tripled last season's total.

"There was going to be so much new, so much new, it would impossible to suggest it would too different than it is right now," Fisch said.

As the Huskies reset their course for the final five regular-season games, which include the likes of No. 1-ranked Oregon, No. 3 Penn State and No. 13 Indiana, their first goal would be to win two of the remaining outings and qualify for a bowl game. The more victories, the better the postseason experience.

Alamo or Holiday bowl, anyone?

"I kind of knew this year was going to have its ups and downs," Fisch said. "There are so many new faces, new bodies, new people playing positions they've never played before, in atmospheres they've never played, in a conference we've never played in."

That said, the next objective for the Huskies would be to surprise everyone across the college landscape and upset one of those teams sitting high in the polls. Indiana already has provided some wiggle room by losing starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke to a thumb injury for Saturday's game against the UW in Bloomington.

No, rather than worry about how many wins or which bowl game they land, the Huskies could make this introductory Fisch season a huge success by either going into Penn State and its white-out crowd of 100,000-plus and shocking the Nittany Lions or, dare we say, beating Oregon for a fourth consecutive game with everything on the line for the Ducks.

A November win in State College or Eugene would supersede anything the Huskies could dream up in a bowl game.

Landen Hatchett celebrates a UW victory with a postgame selfie. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Of course, it wouldn't be easy to pull off something so bold as that. The UW would need the exquisitely talented but oft-injured edge rusher Zach Durfee to finally be at his playing best, for talented but largely unused wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter to become a focal part of the offense, for the offensive line to forget what happened at Iowa and rally behind the newly installed Landen Hatchett and show some more grit, and for quarterback Will Rogers to put a capper on his fairly successful college career with a footnote victory.

The Huskies don't have the number of bodies quite yet to consistently win like they did the previous two seasons under Kalen DeBoer. However, there's still enough talent in Montlake to pull off a shocker somewhere in the month or so ahead.

College football, with the transfer portal greatly evening things out, permits all sorts of possibilities these days.

"We're OK," Fisch said. "In terms of where we want to be, no. I'd like us always to be better. I like us to always to be playing a little bit higher level. But I feel if we continue to improve each week, we'll get there."

One huge UW victory to close out the 12-game schedule would go a long way to enhancing those building efforts.

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