While DeBoer Had Huskies Go Lean, Fisch Prefers More Pounds

The UW football team is much bigger than the past few seasons.

Three players who have put on a lot of Husky, from left, Kahlee Tafai, Soane Faasolo and Michael Levelle Watkins. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Kalen DeBoer's staff came in and concluded the University of Washington football team wasn't very fit, and immediately made 70 percent of the players shed weight and dramatically remake their bodies.

The Huskies then went out and won 25 of 28 football games, getting physically manhandled just once -- against Michigan in the CFP national championship game. Yet the image vividly remains of Wolverines defensive tackle Mason Graham violently driving UW offensive guard Nate Kalepo backward 10 yards and throwing him to the ground, which was a microcosm of what took place in Houston.

Now comes Jedd Fisch's staff, which has a different take on things. The message, especially after the UW became newly installed Big Ten members with Michigan and the rest of those Midwest football bullies, is this -- bigger is better.

"Our team has gained 650 pounds since we arrived," Fisch said on Thursday, "and a lot of that comes with an investment our administration has allowed us to make."

Among the individual weight gains made are redshirt freshman offensive tackle Soane Faasolo, who has gained 32 pounds, putting him at 325; freshman offensive guard Paki Finau, up 21 pounds to 297; JC transfer defensive tackle Bryce Butler, who's added 17 pounds to 312; freshman wide receiver Audric Harris, up 14 pounds and now listed at 189; slender 6-foot-4 junior cornerback Ephesians Prysock, now at an even 200 after bulking up 11 pounds; and freshman quarterback Demond Williams Jr., 17 pounds heavier to 192.

The 6-foot-8 Faasolo turned all of his extra weight into a starting job for Saturday night's season opener against Weber State.

"He's got great length and the body you want at left tackle," Fisch said.

The Huskies have a new football weight room, adding equipment to what was once considered a state of the art facility that had fallen behind, and invested in nutrition advances, cryotherapy that freezes and removes unwanted tissue, and select hires. The hope is all of this should add up to high performance on the football field.

"There's just some guys who've gotten bigger naturally and in how they're eating and in how they're lifting with what we're requiring them to do, which we believe will help us in the long run in what we're trying to do," Fisch said. "Which is building body armor."

The Huskies have new head trainer since July when they hired Tom Reed, who spent 15 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and nine years with the Atlanta Falcons. In what was widely described as an unpopular move, Reed was fired in 2023 when the franchise fell off, changed coaches and tried to redo everything. Reed had graded out highly in what he did, but the Cardinals facilities were among the worst in the NFL, no fault of his own. Cardinals players, including offensive lineman Josh Miles, swore by the ousted trainier.

“Almost a year ago to the day Tom Reed basically pushed me into getting an MRI that found a mixed tumor in my neck that had been there for 12 years without my knowledge, rushed to schedule my surgery and it may have saved my life,” Miles wrote on the site formerly known as Twitter.

Almost a year ago to the DAY, Tom Reed basically pushed me into getting an MRI that found a mixed tumor in my neck that had been there for 12 years without my knowledge, rushed to schedule my surgery and it may have saved my life. https://t.co/yBrHxarY8I pic.twitter.com/ubVi02DD6N

— Joshua Miles ☥ (@Lord_Bil) March 25, 2023

The Huskies also have a first-year strength and conditioning coach in Tyler Owens, who was a walk-on linebacker at Alabama wok wored his way onto the field and lettered in 2014 for Nick Saban, became an assistant weight-room coach for Saban for six seasons and joined Fisch in Arizona as the lead guy and came with him to Seattle. Similar to his Husky predecessor, Ron McKeefery, now at Alabama, Owens seems very popular with the UW players.

As the above photo accompanying this story demonstrates, Owens has worked with Faasolo to improve his upper-body strength to go along with his naturally thick lower trunk that sets him apart, while redshirt freshman offensive tackle Kahlee Tafai is up to 338 pounds and seems to carry it reasonably well and freshman offensive guard Michael Levelle Watkins is now packing 323 pounds.

"Those types of changes in your body and maintaining your strength gives you a great opportunity to be successful," Fisch said.

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