Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds and Scott Eklund - were at Washington's 13th fall practice early Friday morning, held inside the Dempsey due to rainy skies. With Jedd Fisch and the UW coaches now firmly in 'game week' mode, the practice was more of a one where the Huskies did their work in shoulder pads and shorts, working on cleaning things up and installing more things UW fans can expect to see Saturday night during their second 'mock game' of fall camp.

They talked about what they saw on both sides of the line of scrimmage, but three main storylines on offense caught a lot of their attention. The first was the return of Denzel Boston was a focal point, as was the return of another receiver, Dezmen Roebuck, who missed Thursday's practice. The second storyline; how much will Roebuck play this year? Is he a certainly to burn his redshirt?

And the other storyline that has certainly developed over the course of fall is the battle at left guard between Paki Finau and John Mills. The redshirt frosh had the job at the end of spring, but the true freshman Mills has continued to just get better and better by the practice to where it's now basically a dead heat between the two.

The battle has been at a point now where the coaches alternate series between Finau and Mills with the first team. And an additional subplot; who makes up the full 8-man rotation? The guys feel good about the first six (the four constant starters plus Finau/Mills) but who are shoe-ins for those other two slots?

All the competition is simply showing the Huskies are in a great spot heading into Saturday's mock game, even if today's practice was the 13th. And even if it did take place on a Friday. 

Jack McCauley and Luke Mounger unveil their first podcast under a new name, Mac and Mounger, for the 2025 season. In this 33-minute collaboration, the Dawgman lifelong interns share their rankings of each position group as the Washington Husky Football team prepares for their second year under Jedd Fisch.

They swear they didn't share their lists before recording; however, their lists are eerily similar with a few discrepancies that spark debate. Nevertheless, Jack and Luke unpack the depth, upside, and star power the Dawgs bring to the table at each spot.

Throughout this season, Jack and Luke will have a weekly podcast underscoring storylines for the week. Also, they will have three recurring segments:

Washington Head Coach Jedd Fisch, and even Denzel Boston himself, said that he was going to be returning on Thursday to full work, and that's exactly what happened. The 6-foot-4 junior receiver was in full pads with the rest of his Husky teammates and he sparked the offense to a much better showing than they've had all week to date.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - talked about Boston's return in their daily post-practice podcast, as well as some of the other receivers that showed up.

There were some players missing today too that hadn't missed any of fall camp to date, players like Dezmen Roebuck, Logan Sagapolu, Anthony Ward, and Tacario Davis. Were they just given the day off to rest and recover, or is something else going on?

No matter what the reason, there were a number of players that stepped up in their place and make their own case for playing time. For example, with no Davis, that meant true freshman Dylan Robinson was asked to take first-team reps alongside Ephesians Prysock, and Robinson came up with the only takeaway of the day.

And Anthony Ward wasn't available today, paving the way for true freshman Donovan Robinson to get his reps with the second team alongside Xe'Ree Alexander.

With no Roebuck, that allowed other younger receivers like Justice Williams and Luke Gayton to get more turns, and they took full advantage as they both scored touchdowns.

There was also a practice-ending field goal session from 57-yards out, the longest any of us could ever remember those kicks being tried. Both Grady Gross and Ethan Moczulski made at least one from that distance.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds and Chris Fetters - were at the east field Wednesday to watch Day 11 of fall camp for the Washington Huskies, and it felt a lot more like the normal give and take we've seen before Tuesday's practice that was dominated by the defense.

That doesn't mean the defense didn't get their licks in; they did. They were able to force a few turnovers, something that has to please new Huskies DC Ryan Walters.

Kim and Chris talked about the defense getting theirs while the offense got back in the swing of things mainly through their receivers - Raiden Vines-Bright, Rashid Williams, Omari Evans, and Audric Harris chief among them. And Decker DeGraaf once again showed the world why he should be taken seriously as a deeper threat despite being a tight end.

And the battle at left guard between Paki Finau and true freshman John Mills has been fully joined as both were splitting time equally with the ones and twos.

And defensively, even though the shoulder pads and shorts practice was done mostly in thud tempo during the team periods, there were still some touch sacks and activity around the line of scrimmage that made life tougher for Demond Williams and Kai Horton.

Ephesians Prysock, Vincent Holmes, and Makell Esteen all came up with thefts today, Esteen's taking place during an install period when he was going up against Dash Beierly and the scout team. And Alex McLaughlin continues to establish himself as a safety to be reckoned with. 

And special teams gets a note too, as Luke Dunne had a period where he skied some knuckle punts at Denzel Boston and Kevin Green, and the knuckle action definitely got the best of Green on at least one rep.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - were at Washington's Day 10 practice (Day 11 if you count Sunday's walkthrough) on Tuesday under sweltering Seattle skies.

And for whatever reason, the Huskies' Offense just wasn't really on the same page for all of the nearly 150-minute practice. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was just getting back to work in full pads after a three-hour practice/scrimmage on Saturday night, maybe it's because UW is truly now in the Dawg Days of fall camp... either way, the defense definitely looked the sharper.

Jedd Fisch said one of the takeaways from Saturday's scrimmage was there there weren't any takeaways, but that definitely changed today. Tacario Davis had two interceptions and Makell Esteen one, as the senior safety was back at work after taking the scrimmage off.

It was also good to see Geirean Hatchett back and fully participating after having a bit of a scare during Saturday's scrimmage.

And it wasn't all doom and gloom for the offense; Audric Harris, Chris Lawson, and Rashid Williams all had moments on Tuesday that they'll build on.

But generally-speaking there were just too many drops and too many plays made by the defense on a day where the team periods were designed to get the ball in the air.

A lot was going on Saturday night in Seattle, but for those die-hard Dawg fans who jonesing for some football? They were treated to a long scrimmage inside Husky Stadium, one that UW Head Coach Jedd Fisch lasted roughly 120 plays, as well as 20 or so special teams plays.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Chris Fetters and Scott Eklund - were on hand to watch all of it from the beginning warmup to the practice-ending gassers, and they talked about their highlights during this 40-minute review podcast.

The main talking point of the night was the apparent injury to right guard Geirean Hatchett. He was able to walk off the field with some help, and later came back putting weight on both feet without issue. Fisch told the assembled media after practice that they think there's nothing to be concerned about long-term for Geirean, so that's fantastic news. But that certainly put the guard rotation into a bit of a mix for the true freshmen - John Mills and Champ Taulealea - as well as redshirt freshman Paki Finau.

Chris and Scott went through the players they thought stood out on the night on both sides of the ball, players that they both ended up agreeing on and also gave their thoughts on some of the linemen on both sides of the ball that had really good moments during a scrimmage that was, at times live to the ground but mostly 'thud' tempo.

After a quick break they moved to the special teams, where fans got to see a lot of both Grady Gross kicking and Oregon transfer Luke Dunne punting. The guys also talked about their picks for who might end up being the main punt and kick returners for the Huskies based on what they saw.

Chris rolled through the main (and very unofficial) offensive stats that he took during the scrimmage, and then the guys talked about the true frosh they expect will burn their redshirts because they've already shown that the coaches won't be able to keep them off the field.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - broke down their thoughts from a spirited Day 8 of fall camp, held under beautiful Friday Seattle skies completely on the east field next to Husky Stadium.

The guys started today's podcast with a bit of a look forward to Saturday night's scrimmage. And offensively, a couple of the younger receivers had big days that they talked about. Who has Demond found the most in camp so far?

Moving to the defensive side, as it has been all week long starting with true freshman safety Rylon Dillard-Allen starting bits with receivers like Kevin Green and Omari Evans, today it was receiver Chris Lawson that was happy to take up the baton and figuratively shove it in Ramonz Adams' face. Adams retaliated, some of the freshmen linemen intervened, and just like that - practice was over.

Vincent Holmes also engaged in a little something that got an immediate retaliation from some of the offensive linemen.

It was good to see Lawson back with a full day of practice under his belt after spending almost all of camp up to this point doing half of practice with the team and the other half conditioning.

To finish off the podcast, the guys talked about the special teams work being done, the person of new Special Teams Coordinator Chris Petrilli, how he got to Montlake, and more.

The weather may not have been conducive to a productive practice, but that's why Washington has an indoor facility. So the Huskies moved inside on Thursday to the Dempsey to take part in Day 7 of fall camp. And while the first part of practice was very quiet and business-like, as soon as the horn sounded for that first team scrimmage period, the intensity went way up, as did the hitting.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - broke down what they saw during a day where both the offense and defense got their licks in during a day where more scrimmaging took place than during the previous days.

To start, the guys naturally went to the offensive side of the ball, focusing first on the offensive line. True frosh John Mills is getting more time at the ones and the battle between him and Paki Finau has truly been joined. There was some really good work by the tight ends today, especially USC transfer Kade Eldridge, and with Marcus Harris, Kevin Green, and Raiden Vines-Bright not available there were a couple receivers that really took advantage of their turns, namely Dezmen Roebuck and Justice Williams.

After a quick break the guys then focus their attentions toward the defense. And who else could it be but freshman safety Rylon Dillard-Allen? Batman once again made waves by getting into it with another offensive lineman, this time it was Drew Azzopardi, after RDA unceremoniously dumped one of the receivers to the turf. He has shown to play on that razor's edge for a few days now, and even the NFL scouts on hand were paying attention to it.

Another defensive back that stood out was NAU transfer Alex McLaughlin, whose day was highlighted by a TFL on Adam Mohammed and a pick where he had to display his cat-quick reflexes to bring in a pass that was wildly deflected to the middle of the field.

Michigan transfer Hayden Moore moved from ILB to EDGE during spring and he's really starting to emerge as a player the coaches want a good look at this fall. With Zach Durfee unavailable today for some reason, it allowed Moore even more turns to prove his worth and he's definitely taking advantage of his opportunities.

The guys also saw live punting for the first time all camp and they talked a little bit about what they saw from Oregon transfer Luke Dunne, what he's being asked to do by Special Teams Coordinator Chris Petrilli, and how well he pulled it off.

Before the guys' final thoughts, Kim talked a bit about hoops, as the men had another media day with Danny Sprinkle, 

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - were on hand Tuesday morning to watch the Washington Huskies go through their first full pads practice of fall camp, and it was a long one, well over two-and-a-half hours long.

Talk started, as it always does, with the offensive side of the ball, and there were definitely some changes with the full pads coming on. John Mills ramped up his work at the one left guard spot (Paki Finau is still the number one LG), while true freshmen like Dezmen Roebuck and Quaid Carr continued to get more and more turns during the substantial team scrimmage periods that took place.

After a quick break the talk turned to the defensive side of the ball, and it was once again true frosh safety Rylon Dillard-Allen that generated most of the conversation. He was involved in the first major dust-up of camp, one that initially took place between him and left tackle Carver Willis after Willis took exception to RDA planting receiver Kevin Green to the turf. When Green got up he made a beeline right toward RDA and the gloves were literally off, as were the helmets. It only took a few seconds for cooler heads to prevail, but considering Green and Dillard-Allen had a bit of a skirmish the day before it wasn't necessarily surprising that things might boil over once the two were in full pads.

The guys then talked about the defensive line, guys getting some more run, and also the other true freshmen that are getting more and more turns like cornerback Dylan Robinson, linebacker Donovan Robinson, and EDGE Devin Hyde.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - took in day five of fall camp, held mostly on the east field until the final team periods of competition, and while the jawing had starting out on the practice field, the intensity of the competition ramped up quite a bit once inside the Greatest Setting.

There were a number of players that stood out during the final scrimmage periods - and UW Head Coach Jedd Fisch confirmed that the team will go full pads for the first time all fall camp starting Tuesday - starting with tight end Decker DeGraaf, receivers Kevin Green and Raiden Vines-Bright, and some of the offensive linemen like Drew Azzopardi and John Mills.

After a quick break the talk turned to the defensive side of the ball and how competitive players like Leroy Bryant, Rylon Dillard-Allen, and Alex McLaughlin have been so far. We fully expect that competitiveness to continue to grow as the players go full pads. They also talked about the DB and DL rotations, as the Huskies have plenty of bodies to roll in and out for whatever situations come up.

To finish the guys give their overall thoughts on practice, especially how the idea of brotherhood and togetherness remains despite the fierce competition that's happening on the field.