Penn State Game Was UW Reality Check and Lowest Scoring in 13 Seasons

The Huskies went without a touchdown for the first time in 159 outings.

Jedd Fisch unhappily looks at the scoreboard at Penn State. / Skylar Lin Visuals

The thought process early on was the residue of a national championship game appearance and the energy brought by a new coach successful elsewhere would keep the University of Washington football team leaning in a fairly competitive direction.

The reality of entering the Big Ten, however, was you better have a lot more than that to offer when taking on the upper echelon of the conference, and this past Saturday's game at Penn State revealed the program's transitional shortcomings more than any other this season.

In the 35-6 loss to the Nittany Lions, the UW was never competitive, especially up front, and most revealing was this: the offense went without a touchdown for the first time in 13 seasons and 159 games, all while scoring its lowest amount of points -- since a Steve Sarkisian Husky team was manhandled 41-3 by LSU in Baton Rouge in the second outing of the 2012 season.

As the losses have piled up this season for the Huskies (5-5 overall, 3-4 Big Ten), four in the past six games, which is one more than the previous two seasons of setbacks combined, UW coach Jedd Fisch has become increasingly more circumspect

"We're going to bring guys in and we're going to continue to get bigger," Fisch said. "That is the Big Ten, right, The conference is different, and the transition between the Pac-12 and the Big Ten is a huge transition. This team has been recruited as a Pac-12 team."

In the minds of many FBS coaches, the offensive line is more crucial than any other position group on a football team: If you can't block anybody, the offense can't score and the defense thus gets overtaxed in the process.

The fact that the Huskies were able to survive up front against USC and Michigan, though both are suffering through moribund 4-5 seasons themselves, was nothing short of miraculous.

Lately, the UW has opened with redshirt freshman Kahlee Tafai at left tackle, junior Gaard Memmelaar at left guard, Portland State senior transfer D'Angalo Titialii at center, sophomore Landen Hatchett at right guard and sophomore Drew Azzopardi at right tackle.

Those five players entered the season with exactly six starts at the FBS level, all coming from the 6-foot-7, 315-pound Azzopardi as a redshirt freshman at San Diego State in 2023.

One of Fisch's first orders of business at the UW was to get the school to pay for a new $2 million weight room for his players. He understands the investment involved with going up against the biggest and the best.

Fisch noted how Penn State's two-deeps of offensive linemen were nearly 1,000 pounds heavier than the Huskies. Iowa's offensive linemen still remain the most gigantic and physically imposing simply from looking at them from ground level in Iowa City, which was a 40-16 loss for the UW.

Previous Husky offensive linemen such as Troy Fautanu and Roger Rosengarten, who were respective first- and second-round selections in the most recent NFL Draft, didn't start at the UW until their third seasons and Fautanu only a handful of games in 2021 at that.

Soane Faasolo, Tafai and Hatchett, all from the Class of 2023, each have had to accelerate their career paths after last season's five starting Husky linemen, each with eligibility remaining, headed for the NFL or the SEC.

Landen Hatchett (66) is among those giving chase on a UW interception at Penn State. / Skylar Lin Visuals

And it probably should be noted, those five talented and by then very veteran UW offensive linemen got manhandled themselves in the national title game against the Big Ten and Michigan, in a 34-13 loss, opening enough holes only for 46 yards rushing.

Fisch's staff has started three different left tackles and two players each at left guard and right guard to go with season-long starters in D'Angalo and Azzopardi. While Azzopardi continues to develop and there is great hope for him, he was seen getting beaten badly by the Nittany Lions on Saturday night.

The staff is redshirting the promising Paki Finau, Michael Levelle Watkins and Justin "Moose" Hylkema. It has five or six players set to sign with the UW next month. It might pick up another portal player to join them. It's a grinding process.

"They're going to spend more time in the weight room," Fisch said. "They're going to get bigger. Theyre going to get stronger."

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