Huskies Receive Brutal Reminder How Tough Big Ten Is

UW football remains a work in progress, Jedd Fisch reminds everyone.

The Husky and Iowa lines prepare for the snap of the ball. / Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Once Iowa moved in front of the University of Washington football team 40-10 in the fourth quarter on Saturday, people in the press box immediately started leafing through the record book looking for the Huskies' worst loss in recent seasons.

Had the score held up, that low bar at that point was a 52-17 drubbing at Arizona in 2012, pre Jedd Fisch. Yet a late Demond Williams Jr. 2-yard touchdown pass to Rashid Williams, no relation, changed the final score in Iowa City, but not the outcome. The UW''s 40-13 Apple Cup flameout to WSU in 2021 was the previous forgettable stumble.

While a 40-16 setback to Iowa was hard to fathom back in Seattle, the reality of the UW's Big Ten football membership after a month of slugging and getting slugged in return is this: this will be a brutal existence at times.

For everyone.

Bad losses are going to happen when the Huskies travel two time zones to face an Iowa team that offered up one of the nation's most talented running backs in Kaleb Johnson and one of the biggest offensive lines they'll encounter with guys averaging a stout 6-foot-6 and 315 pounds per man. UW senior defensive tackle Jacob Bandes looked height challenged and almost malnourished lining up against these guys.

Yet this is not a situation exclusive to a UW football team, one that's been prepared to wing it this season as Fisch rebuilds.

After all, name the last time Ohio State and Michigan lost conference games on consecutive weekends?

Name the last time the Buckeyes and Wolverines lost in West Coast cities on back-to-back weeks?

"Our team is a work in progress," Fisch reminded the media afterward. "Everything we're trying to do is to set us up for our future and create our identity."

To win consistently in the Big Ten, he's going to need better athletes, more physical players, older developed players.

After the 24-point loss in Iowa City Fisch was fairly relaxed as he sized up what happened. He went 1-11 in his first season at Arizona as he patiently navigated that program rebuild.

This one isn't so dire, yet there will be sizable potholes along the way. The Huskies, needing two wins to become bowl eligible, still have to travel long distance to Indiana and Penn State in the coming weeks, while finishing with that biennial trip to Oregon.

"I think we're seeing who we want to be, but it's going to take some time," Fisch said. "It is a different conference. The big Ten is built a different way."

The Huskies will need to be put together similarly.

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