Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

And in a matter of moments, it was all over. All the promise of playing games in 2020, becoming the Pac-12 North champions, trying to finish a rough season off the right way with a bowl game at the end of the year…dust.

When Washington announced Friday that it would not pursue a bowl opportunity because of medical reasons, it simply underscored the obvious; the coronavirus pandemic hit the Huskies at the worst possible time, and there was no way they were going to be able to extract themselves from it in time to play post-season football.

So that was it. Washington will finish their 2020 season with a 3-1 record. The last time they only played four games in a season? 1918, the same year America suffered through its last pandemic.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - talk about the abrupt end to UW’s season, what to make of it, and whether or not fans should get excited for spring football or if they might get delayed. And what might that mean for the high school football season, scheduled to take place in the spring? If it doesn’t happen, would that affect when certain prospects might enroll at UW?

Talk moved to Friday night’s Pac-12 Championship game, won by Oregon over USC 31-24. Nothing about the game seemed right from the start, from the fact that Oregon was playing in it, to USC’s 38 total rush yards, to Oregon’s 243 total yards of offense. It was certainly not the showcase event Larry Scott and the conference was hoping for.

Back to more Husky news, there were some comings and goings over the last 48 hours, highlighted by Jacob Sirmon transferring from UW to Central Michigan, and Luke Wattenberg announcing his intention to come back to Montlake for his sixth season. The Dawgman guys talk about the impact Wattenberg’s return could mean for the offensive line, and how they might line up next spring.

The Huskies continued to add potential impact players with their preferred walk-on program, as two players from O’Dea, Milton Hopkins and Styles Siva-Tu'u both announced their intentions to enroll at UW this summer. Walk on players are still recruitable athletes, so we’ll see if they do but the fact that they want to stay local at this point in time is a very encouraging sign.

After a quick break to pay some bills, the Dawgman guys finish the podcast with more recruiting talk, focusing on how the Huskies will finish out their 2021 class (there is a signing period that starts in early February), as well as jump-starting their 2022 class. Could there be news on that front as early as this weekend? Stay tuned.

Mike Hopkins and Nate Pryor spoke to the media Friday ahead of their travel to Las Vegas to play Colorado Sunday as part of the Far West Classic. The last time the Huskies faced a conference opponent in a non-conference contest was during the 1973-74 season when they played Oregon and Oregon State in the Far West Classic held in Portland, Ore.

The media got a chance to hear from Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott ahead of the Pac-12 Championship Game, and they peppered him with questions on a variety of subjects.

Scott said the conference as a whole has had a .15 percent false positive rate since the Quidel testing partnership was put into place, and the rate of 1.2 percent positive COVID-19 tests was a testament to having student-athletes closely monitored by the schools and their own best practices and protocols within the pandemic.

He also talked about the players’ work toward social justice, saying the conference is 100 percent behind their efforts, and also touched on name, image, and likeness rights. Scott said they still fully believe in the amateur model, but understand where things are headed but they need to find solutions that avoid pay-for-play.

When the talk turned to Scott answering questions, he was hit on a number of different fronts. He was asked about the reputation of the Pac-12 when it comes to college football, looking back at starting the season late, how he measures success of the season, his own contract with the conference, and dealing with massive fiscal deficits throughout all the Pac-12 athletic departments.

Scott was asked specifically about Colorado’s situation and being asked to be on stand-by while Oregon and USC get ready for the Pac-12 Championship Game, and also why UW and USC weren’t considered co-champions since one of the teams couldn’t play in the championship game.

The questions then turned to the league's future media rights negotiations. Scott seems to believe the conference is in a position to leapfrog others when it comes to what he calls ‘untapped growth in our value’. The negotiations start up in a couple of years.

Nate Roberts and Mike Hopkins talk to the media Wednesday night after UW lost to Montana 66-58, the first loss for the Huskies to Montana since 1994.

There were no big surprises on Signing Day, no rewrites necessary. But it’s just the first day of the mid-year signing period for college football, so the University of Washington could add players before the end of the normal signing period, which ends in mid-April. But they won’t be able to sign anyone until the beginning of February once the rest of this week has passed.

Washington Head Coach Jimmy Lake spoke to the media today after it was announced UW signed 15 players to national letters of intent, binding documents that declares their intention to eventually enroll at Montlake. He talked about certain players, like quarterback Sam Huard, but also about the difficulties in recruiting during a pandemic, the inability to have in-person contact with recruits and families while still pitching UW as the best college option out there. How were they able to do that? And how is the current pandemic already affecting how recruiting will take place for the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes?

Lake talked about all of it, as well as the search for players he calls ‘football savants’, players who ‘live and breathe’ the game of football.

Washington is expected to sign all 15 of their 2021 football commits and while many of you have been looking at each prospect over the past year, we thought it was a good chance to sit down with 247 National Recruiting Editor Brandon Huffman to get his thoughts on the class. How does it look overall? Is the talent level good enough to build off of moving forward?

During our nearly one-hour podcast, we touch on each Husky signee and talk about what makes them special, how their recruitment progressed and why they are a good fit with Washington. Huffman also goes in-depth on the entire 2021 class from a national perspective and gives his thoughts on how hard it was to evaluate kids and rank them and why this class could be one of the most fluid as it pertains to them sticking with the school they have chosen. Most of the kids who are signing around the country have never met the coaches in person or toured the school and seen the facilities with the coaches showing them around.

After looking at each Husky commitment, Huffman and Eklund look ahead to the 2022 and 2023 classes and talk about some of the strengths in state including a look at the top player in the state for the 2022 class -- Rainier Beach (Seattle) OL Josh Conerly -- as well as for the 2023 class - Lincoln (Tacoma) ATH Jayden Wayne.

Washington Men's Basketball Coach Mike Hopkins and redshirt sophomore center Riley Sorn talk to the media Tuesday ahead of UW's game versus Montana at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Washington Head Coach Jimmy Lake and UW Associate Athletic Director for Health & Wellness Rob Scheidegger speak to the media after the Pac-12 announced Washington would not be able to field a team versus USC in this Friday's Pac-12 Championship Game.

Dawgman has been around for nearly a quarter of a century and during that time, we've seen a lot of whacky and wild stuff on the recruiting trail. Because of that, we have some good stories to share and we felt it was a great time of the year to do just that with the mid-year signing period starting on Wednesday.

Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters and Scott Eklund start off by talking about the start of Dawgman.com and what led to them launching a site that was, at least initially, just a message/bulletin board where people could talk recruiting as well as about their favorite team.

Grinolds goes through some of the craziness surrounding the hiring of Rick Neuheisel and when the site brought Fetters aboard and Eklund talks about what led him to join the site and how he eventually started covering recruiting.

Then they get down to the nitty gritty, remembering the recruitment of former St. Bonaventure (Ventura, Ca.) tailback Lorenzo Booker and his announcement on national television and the ensuing meltdown on the message boards as well as what it was like when Reggie Williams was being pursued by everyone in the country.

The trio also relive some other recruiting weirdness associated with Donte Nicholson, Jaydon Mickens and a handful of other anecdotes from the past couple of decades as well. 

To listen to the 65-minute podcast, click on the audio link below.

Washington Guard RaeQuan Battle and Head Coach Mike Hopkins speak to the media Saturday night after UW's 74-71 loss to Oregon at Alaska Airlines Arena.