Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

The Huskies got the 2019 football season started off in spectacular fashion on Saturday with a 47-14 drubbing of Eastern Washington at Husky Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 65,709.

In one of the most impressive debuts for a Washington quarterback, Jacob Eason, a transfer from Georgia that had to sit out the 2018 football season due to NCAA rules, went 27 of 36 for 349 yards with four touchdowns and never looked flustered or confused by what he saw.

In their weekly post-game podcast, the guys from Dawgman.com -- Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, Scott Eklund and intern Jack McCauley -- give their thoughts on a number of subjects including what Eason did that was so impressive as well as Richard Newton's big day as well.

They also dove into all of the true and redshirt freshmen who saw the field.

Nine true freshmen played during the game -- K Tim Horn, WR Puka Nacua, DL Faatui Tuitele, DL Jacob Bandes, LB Alphonzo Tuputala, OLB Laiatu Latu, S Cameron Williams, DB Asa Turner and CB Trent McDuffie -- and the impact that each made while they were in the game.

Latu notched a safety and was in for about 15 to 20 plays, showing a burst off the edge in the pass rush while Williams started and looked good although there was a bit of a miscue late in the first half when he collided with Keith Taylor, allowing Eastern Washington wide receiver Andrew Boston to haul in a long pass from Eric Berriere and then outraced the rest of the Husky secondary for a 67-yard touchdown reception.

McDuffie played quite a bit on special teams and also found his way onto the field late in the game in the secondary rotation.

Horn looked solid on kickoffs, notching five touch-backs while Bandes, Turner, Tuputala, Tuitele and Nacua each got on the field, but didn't do much worth noting, at least without looking at the game film.

The Washington Huskies kick off the 2019 season at noon against one of the top FCS programs in the country, Eastern Washington, a team which played in the FCS National Title game back in January.

Heading into the game there are quite a few storylines that fans and the media have been talking about.

How does Washington's offense transition after four seasons with quarterback Jake Browning and tailback Myles Gaskin now gone? Does the defensive line have what it takes to keep Eastern Washington's explosive offense in check? Will the Huskies employ a spy to keep an eye on Eagles quarterback Eric Barriere? How many of the talented true freshmen will play this week and will they play all season?

The last two times the Huskies played the Eagles, both at Husky Stadium, the Dawgs were pushed to the brink, winning 59-52 in overtime back on September 6, 2014, in Chris Petersen's first home game as the head coach with the Dawgs. In 2011, the Huskies barely held off the Eagles, eking out a 30-27 win as Desmond Trufant intercepted a pass in the endzone on the final play of the game to secure the win.

Will this be a repeat of those results?

The stress of that may be too much for Husky Nation to bear.

One exciting thing about the start of any season is projecting which true freshmen may play in week one and which freshmen may play enough to burn their redshirts.

We know that Tim Horn and Cameron Williams, both of whom are listed as starters will likely play more than the four-game maximum, but other players, like Asa Turner, Trent McDuffie, and Puka Nacua may all play enough to burn their redshirts, but at the very least, Saturday will be their first taste of big-time college football and that's exactly why they signed their letters-of-intent.

In today's DawgmanRadio Podcast, Kim Grinolds, Scott Eklund, and Chris Fetters touch on those subjects as well as others as they give you something to whet your appetite as you enjoy your pregame festivities...

With the season opener right around the corner, Intern Emeritus Luke Mounger brings Cascadia Preps' Micah Chen on to discuss Washington's upcoming tilt against the Eastern Washington Eagles. EWU made it all the way to the FCS title game last year, led by dual-threat quarterback Eric Barriere.

The sophomore signal-caller will be accompanied by a veteran offensive line as they take on a relatively inexperienced Husky defensive front. On paper, the Eagles may be outmatched, but head coach Aaron Best isn't bringing his team all the way from Cheney just to collect a check. The Eagles will do their best to set the football world upside down on Saturday in Husky Stadium.

Listen to the podcast below to hear Luke and Micah discuss Eastern's winning culture, their high flying offense, and their improving defense. They are two-thirds of the amazing Washington Football Crunch Podcast, where they take a real deep dive into anything and everything regarding high school and college football in the state of Washington (and sometimes even beyond that).

Thursday was the last day the media could meet with Washington Head Coach Chris Petersen before Saturday's season-opener against Eastern Washington, and Petersen was asked about the last time his team faced the Eagles, a 59-52 shootout where the Huskies eventually prevailed.

Petersen was also asked about the quarterback room, life after Jake Haener, brining back and old face in Blake Gregory, and also expectations for Jacob Eason being 'out of whack', in his opinion.

At Dawgman.com, we've been lucky to form strong relationships with people in the nation and regional media and one personality who has been gracious to us time and again is Yogi Roth, a renaissance man if you will, who recently sat down with Kim Grinolds to discuss myriad subjects as we prepare for the official start of the 2019 football season.

First a little background on Roth.

After playing wide receiver at Pittsburgh during his days as a student athlete, Roth transitioned to coaching and joined the USC Football staff while earning magna cum laude with a master’s degree in Communications Management at the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism.

His bio on his website YogiRoth.com also says...

He was also the co-founder of Win Forever, LLC with Pete Carroll, which was a company dedicated to coaching coaches on the development of a philosophy.

As an actor Yogi has appeared on Comedy Central, multiple national commercials and in various independent films.

An explorer of over 30 countries Yogi enjoys unplanned adventures, surfing and a local latte.

Of the many subjects they touched on, Roth shared some of his conversation with former Husky quarterback Jake Haener who opted to transfer over the weekend after Washington head coach Chris Petersen named Jacob Eason as the starter for their game against Eastern Washington on Saturday.

Roth also discussed the transfer portal and how it could impact things in the future as well as the effects it is currently having on roster management and recruiting, not only for the Huskies, but the other programs in the country as well.

Grinolds, in addition to finding out the best spot for a burger in the Venice/Marina Del Ray area, also got Roth to talk about his recent nuptials as well has how the parent involvement has escalated in recent years and how the 7v7 circuit has impacted football and what it could mean in the future.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Jack McCauley - spoke with players and coaches from the offensive side of the ball Wednesday to get a sense of how they are feeling ahead of Saturday's season-opener at Husky Stadium versus Eastern Washington.

Chris talked with Bush Hamdan about the quarterback competition, the decision that the coaches made, and also the decision by Jake Haener to leave the program after Jacob Eason won the competition. He also talked about the Eastern Washington game, the things they are stressing on the offense based on last year's audit of their difficulties, including the red zone, and more.

Jack talked to Aaron Fuller about being a senior, taking a leadership role for the younger players like Puka Nacua and Taj Davis, and his relationship with the guys he came up with - Chico McClatcher, Andre Baccellia, and Quinten Pounds. The goal for Fuller is the same as it's always been, to get to another Pac-12 title game and to the National Championship game.

Kim and Jack talked to Salvon Ahmed about the hottest game ticket during the season, how this year is a new experience for the team because so many players left to go to the NFL, and how the team is rallying behind Jacob Eason. He's an 'older guy' now, so nothing is going to faze him now.

Kim talked to Nick Harris about being a pre-season All-American, why everyone likes Chico McClatcher so much, and his take on the quarterback spot and how that affects the team when players leave before the season starts.

Kim also spoke with Chico McClatcher, and his work ethic and desire to play football. He also talked about getting bigger, faster, and stronger once he came to UW from Federal Way, and also how he's able to impact the offense.

And lastly, Kim talked with Trey Adams about his favorite part of game day, and how the linemen have fun out there on the field while they are taking care of their jobs at the same time.

The Lineup (in order of appearance):

Bush Hamdan

Aaron Fuller

Salvon Ahmed

Nick Harris

Chico McClatcher

Trey Adams

The first game of the season is this weekend and as the Huskies prepare to stop an explosive Eastern Washington attack, the defensive players and staff know they have their work cut out for them.

We got the chance to catch up with defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake who talked about playing a lot of different players in the secondary including two new starters -- Kyler Gordon and true freshman Cameron Williams -- both of whom the coaches and players feel very comfortable with in the deep patrol.

Co-defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski has some familiarity with the Eastern Washington coaching staff, so there isn't a lot of unknowns as far as what they will see on Saturday.

The linebackers have to replace a lot of leadership and experience, but linebackers coach Bob Gregory told the media he feels like the players he has stepping into those spots -- Brandon Wellington and Kyler Manu as well as youngsters Jackson Sirmon and M.J. Tafisi -- are more than capable of getting it done and now is their chance to show what they can do. Even though he's been around for a while, Gregory said he still gets the jitters and wouldn't be coaching anymore if he didn't still get them. He also discussed how seeing an opponent early in the season, especially in college, where they don't have a lot of film or just a limited scouting report makes things easier because you can just go out and play ball instead of being overloaded with information.

Linebackers Kyler Manu and Brandon Wellington talked about getting their first starts at Husky Stadium and how big it is for Manu to finally earn a starting spot after five years in the program.

Finally, Elijah Molden and Levi Onwuzurike talked about finally getting the chance to hit someone that isn't wearing purple.

Apparently, it's springtime all over again. At the end of spring football, Washington was down to only three scholarship quarterbacks for 48 hours: Jacob Eason, Jake Haener, and Dylan Morris.

Move forward nearly four months, and Washington is back to having only three scholarship quarterbacks for the 2019 season: Jacob Eason, Jacob Sirmon, and Dylan Morris.

So what happened? What caused Jake Haener to suddenly announce that he was immediately transferring from Washington just one day after Chris Petersen confirmed the news that Eason had won the starting quarterback job over Haener, Sirmon, and Morris?

Dawgman.com's Chris Fetters and Scott Eklund get together Saturday afternoon, to record an emergency podcast to address these questions, and to offer up a vision for how the Washington Quarterbacks room will look this fall, and next year as well.

Will the Huskies look to add another quarterback to join Ethan Garbers in 2020? Or will they look to the transfer portal to give back a quarterback now that they've lost two quarterbacks to the portal this year alone? Is a graduate transfer the way to go? Will they go with a top-notch preferred walk-on?

The announcement by Haener on Saturday only opens up more questions, and Fetters and Eklund offer up their insights into the move during this 17-minute podcast.

It's that time. The coaches know it, the players know, the fans know it. A week from now, the Washington Huskies will be putting on pads for the first time since January, knowing they'll be hitting someone else for a change. That 'someone else' is the Eastern Washington Eagles, with the game starting at Noon at Husky Stadium next Saturday.

The players have had productive camps in April and August, but now it's time for the real football to begin.

Dawgman.com's Kim Grinolds and Scott Eklund spoke to Myles Bryant and Trey Adams, about that feeling of getting ready for 'real' football, how they've seen their respective sides prepare for the season, and what they're looking forward to seeing.

Washington Head Coach Chris Petersen was supposed to meet up with the press anyway on Friday, but the gaggle just got a lot spicier when news broke the night before that junior transfer Jacob Eason had been handed the starting quarterback job for the Eastern Washington opener a week from Saturday. Petersen confirmed the news, talked about Jake Haener as well, and also talked about his 'Day in the Life' video that was released by the football department earlier in the day.