For Washington Football, Wednesday Turns Into Reality Check

Fisch interview, top 50 list paint picture of next Huskies team.
Ja'Lynn Polk shows the disappointment of a CFP loss to Michigan.
Ja'Lynn Polk shows the disappointment of a CFP loss to Michigan. / Skylar Lin Visuals

We'll call this wake-up call Wednesday. The first alarm went off with the latest ranking provided posted by prolific college football list-maker Big Game Boomer. The second one sounded after listening to new University of Washington football coach Jedd Fisch sit down for an interview with Big Ten Network.

Big Game Boomer, a University of Oklahoma grad and social-media gadfly, presented the top 50 college football teams for the coming season -- and the Huskies pitched a shutout.

Not long after that, footage appeared of Fisch coming the closest to calling the coming UW football season a rebuild where previously the message has leaned more to a reload.

'it's not the same team -- it's the same university," Fisch told his interviewer. "We have to build it back up. We have to start from where we are today."

This is what happens when you lose 20 of 22 starters from a national championship runner-up team and become the poster boy for roster churn with 47 new scholarship players.

With all of the turnover, Fisch hardly has tried to mislead anyone that this is a playoff-possible team. Until now, he's sidestepped any hint there might be rough times coming this fall.

"We know there's going to be some growing pains along the way," he told the Big Ten Network, which is code for losses, something the Huskies haven't dealt with much since 2021. "But we look forward for the opportunity to compete for championships through our process."

As for Big Game Boomer, he totally dismissed a re-drawn UW team, finding at least 50 others for the coming season he deems better than Fisch's guys, a total that encompasses nearly three-quarters of the bowl game qualifiers.

After watching spring practice and the talent added to the roster, the general consensus among those in the media was these reconfigured Huskies were more likely a 7-5 or an 8-4 team during the regular season with a schedule that's not too oppressive.

This, of course, would place the UW somewhere between No. 25 and 50. Granted, with a fair amount of growing pains.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington


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Dan Raley

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.