Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

Washington Head Coach Jimmy Lake spoke to the media after Uw's 52-3 win over Arkansas State Saturday at Husky Stadium.

While many Washington fans have already chucked the 2021 season down the garbage disposal, there are still at least 10 more games to be played, and the guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - will be here for all of them.

After two miserable performances to start the 2021 season, the Washington Huskies find themselves at an unlikely and unwanted reckoning this weekend against Arkansas State. Win, and the Huskies begin the process of building back a program that is at an early tipping point in the tenure of second-year head coach Jimmy Lake.

Lose, and everything is on the table, including letting Lake go. These are the stakes that are at play during today's game, something we thought we'd never be talking about at this point in the season.

In the first part of the show, the guys discuss what they feel has gone wrong and who is to blame. And there's plenty of blame to go around.

After a quick break to pay some bills, they come back to discuss whether or not it's even feasible to talk about firing UW Offensive Coordinator John Donovan. And if they did, how would they reassemble the offensive staff, and who has the resume to take over the playcalling duties?

And finally, Scott provides a quick recruiting update for those wondering what might be happening on that side of things.

Jack McCauley and Luke Mounger give us the lowdown on Washington's third opponent of the 2021 season. 

We are still in information gathering mode, and each week we like to talk to someone who knows Washington's opponent inside and out. This week, the Huskies are playing the Arkansas State Red Wolves, so Dawgman.com's Kim Grinolds reached out to Jeff Reed of AStateNation, the 247Sports site that covers Arkansas State.

They started out talking about the Red Wolves' program under first-year head coach Butch Jones, who previously was best-known as the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers from 2013-2017, and his take on the two games Arkansas State has played so far - an opening-season win over Central Arkansas, and then a tough loss at Memphis in a high-scoring game.

Then they moved to the offense, including what they plan to do with their two-headed quarterback monster in James Blackman and Layne Hatcher, as well as the top skill players Arkansas State has - and they have a bunch.

After a quick commercial break, Grinolds and Reed talked about the Arkansas State defense and what UW fans should expect to see from the Red Wolves on that side of the ball.

Washington Head Coach Jimmy Lake spoke to the media Thursday ahead of UW's showdown with the Arkansas State Red Wolves Saturday at 1:15 pm PT. The Huskies just finished up their third practice of the week, and he spoke on a number of individual players, as well as some position groups and the continuing struggle to force turnovers.

It's not exactly Air Raid, but Arkansas State is still putting up some monster offensive numbers through two games. They are third in all of FBS in total offense (610 yards per game), and top-20 in scoring offense at 44.5 points per game.

In talking with the Washington defensive players Wednesday, they're excited to see the Red Wolves come to town. It's going to be a real clash of the titans because Arkansas State leads the country in pass offense (460 yards a game), while Washington is number 2 when it comes to passing yards allowed in a game (74.5).

"Spread, they like to throw the ball," cornerback Kyler Gordon said. "Ready for that, been waiting for that. It's going to be a fun game."

"That's my Dad's alma mater, actually," said freshman outside linebacker Cooper McDonald said, smiling. "Hoping we can put the smack on them."

The Huskies have only had 38 passes thrown on them so far through two games, so they haven't had a ton of opportunities to come up with a pick. That shouldn't be a problem Saturday afternoon, as the Red Wolves have already attempted 106 passes.

"We've got to be able to stop the run and then we've got to be able to stop the pass after that," said UW DB Coach Will Harris. "It's going to create opportunities, and I believe great defenses create turnovers, whether that is through the run or whether that's through the pass."

With no turnovers forced to date, it's something that's been on Gordon's mind. He's got a bet with Trent McDuffie to see who gets the first interception of the season. The winner gets a video game. And Kyler's got his heart set on the new Call of Duty. 

"I'm thinking the ball's in the air, someone's gotta get it," he said. "One of the DBs gotta get it. If it's not me, it's Trent or Bookie, AC, someone. Someone's gonna get it, so everyone's really excited to see the ball in the air. It's definitely more motivating."

The defense is motivated as much by the 0-2 start than anything else, but Harris knows it starts with the coaches first to put the players in a position to be successful. We've already seen one change in the depth chart; Cameron Williams will start at free safety.

"Let's be realistic; at the end of the day we'd like to be better on the defensive side of the ball," said Harris. "We have to, first and foremost, look ourselves in the mirror as coaches, and then we've got to get these guys situated to where we can get a better scheme for them to go out there and execute it."

Does that mean fans could see more changes on the defensive side of the ball on Saturday?

For the past two weeks, Washington's offense has been, well, offensive. They've struggled to run the ball, something head coach Jimmy Lake said he wanted his team to be known for and they have gotten off to slow starts in their last four games, going back to 2020.

Why the struggles?

Veteran offensive tackle Jaxson Kirkland and wide receivers coach Junior Adams sat down and talked to the media on Tuesday and were peppered with questions about why the offense is struggling so much and what they need to do to change the trajectory of the team.

Kirkland said he's almost embracing the adversity they are going through because it helps him to know who is ready to compete and who isn't.

Adams was asked a number of questions about the offense and what needs to improve. While he was non-committal in coming up with remedies other than saying that they need to continue to improve and take advantage of their opportunities, he noted that it all shouldn't fall at the feet of offensive coordinator John Donovan. Where should it lie? On the entire coaching staff, according to Adams.

To hear what Adams and Kirkland had to say, click on the audio link below...

Here is everything Washington Head Coach Jimmy Lake had to say during Monday's weekly press conference. They lost at Michigan 31-10 in the first true road game since BYU in 2019, and host Arkansas State this Saturday in the first meeting between the two schools. Game time is 1:15, with the game being shown on the Pac-12 Networks.

Lake addressed the ineptitude of the offense, whether or not John Donovan's job is on the line, the inability of Washington's defense to slow down Michigan's run offense, the lack of turnovers, slow starts, and a lot more.

Washington Head Coach Jimmy Lake talks to the media after UW's 31-10 loss to Michigan

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - found themselves on a call after Washington's 31-10 loss to Michigan Saturday night, trying to make sense of what they saw. And there wasn't much sense to it.

Those UW fans hoping to see a much different team than the one that lost 13-7 to Montana were bound to be disappointed. The Huskies couldn't run the ball, and they couldn't stop the run. And that was really the tale of the tape. The Michigan Wolverines were bound and determine to stuff the ball down the Huskies' throat, and they did it in a resounding fashion.

The offense was really poor for the second-straight week. There were no wrinkles in the run game to really speak of, putting the offense entirely on Dylan Morris's shoulders. Morris threw for nearly 300 yards and a score, but most of those numbers were piled up when the game was already out of reach.

So the main question still remains; why? What has turned this offense, which wasn't incredible in 2020 but at least could score some points, into a total shambles? Where is the identity, the execution, the coaching? And is John Donovan the man that can deliver on Jimmy Lake's vision for a pro-style offense that starts with a power run game and includes an explosive passing element? Or is Lake's mandate simply beyond the reach of these players and coaches? And if that's the case, what does that say about Lake?

Was there anything UW could hang their hat on? They didn't turn the ball over, so that was something. And they kept Michigan to 44 yards through the air, but that's because they only threw it 15 times.

Grinolds, calling in from the sidelines at Michigan Stadium, offered up his take on the Michigan game day experience and how it compares to Pac-12 away days.