Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

The Dawgman.com interns - Jack McCauley and Luke Mounger - preview Washington’s Saturday opponent, the Stanford Cardinal, in this latest DawgmanRadio podcast.

McCauley first covered the Stanford playmakers on offense, starting with quarterback Davis Mills, and then talked about the main receivers he will likely throw to; Connor Wedington, Michael Wilson, and Simi Fehoko, as well as tight ends Tucker Fisk and Scooter Harrington.

Last, Jack talked about Stanford’s run game, their big offensive line, and how the numbers so far for the Cardinal may be a bit misleading, especially when watching them on tape. And he also talks about what he expects to see from Stanford when it comes to their game plan and what they could have success against when going up against Washington’s defense.

On defense, Luke is tasked with the breakdown on that side of the ball, and he lays out the players Washington fans should watch out for when the Huskies are on offense. Starting with their front, players like Thomas Booker, Thomas Schaffer, and Dalyn Wade-Perry. At linebacker, it’s Curtis Robinson, Levani Damuni, and an underperforming outside linebacker rotation that has likely been at the root for some of their overall deficiencies.

At defensive back, Stanford is a mix of young and old, as well as size.

To finish off the podcast, Jack and Luke talk about what teams have been able to do against Stanford and how that might work in Washington’s favor, as well as the important matchups and their keys to a UW win over the Cardinal. How confident are the interns feeling about a fourth-straight win for the Huskies?

Dawgman.com’s Kim Grinolds caught up with RJ Abeytia from The Bootleg, the Stanford site for the 247Sports Network, to get a sense for what Washington fans might see from the Cardinal on the field Saturday when they take on Washington at Husky Stadium, but also what’s going on with Stanford Athletics behind the scenes now that they’ve had to uproot their program for a couple of weeks due to new Santa Clara County COVID-19 testing and tracing guidelines.

In short, not only is Stanford’s football team adversely affected, but their basketball teams are also suffering as a result.

They also talk about the perception of Stanford Football Head Coach David Shaw, the current dean of the Pac-12 coaching fraternity. He is the most successful head coach in the history of the program, but is he untouchable?

The conversation moved to the Cardinal offense, led by quarterback Davis Mills. He may be a senior, but he’s still a player that is developing. Stanford has a number of receivers he can go to, including former Sumner star and one-time UW commit Connor Wedington. They also talk about running back Austin Jones and their tight ends and what they do to contribute to Stanford’s offense as a whole.

To wrap up talk on the offense, Abeytia focuses on Stanford’s big offensive line and why they may be built more to promote the pass at this point in 2020 compared to the run.

Flipping to the other side of the ball, RJ goes in-depth with Stanford’s defense, starting with an improvement on the defensive line despite losing a couple of graduate transfers they were hoping to have this fall. They are led on the line of scrimmage by Thomas Booker, Thomas Schaffer, and Dalyn Wade-Perry.

There’s one thing Abeytia points to as an area of concern for the Cardinal; third-down defense. But they’ve been able to make up for some of that with hawking the ball and grabbing turnovers.

The Cardinal linebackers are experienced, yet are still just gelling as a unit. The younger guy of that group, Levani Damuni, is the one that has really flashed early in the season. But they haven’t been able to wreak a lot of havoc along the edges in terms of producing a consistent pass rush.

In the secondary, Abeytia talked enthusiastically about the younger defensive backs and how willing they’ve been when asked to stick their nose in and be physical.

To wrap up the chat, RJ talks tactics and how he sees the chess game unfolding within the football game, as well as how he sees special teams potentially impacting the final score and what Stanford will need to do to win the game.

Nate Roberts and Mike Hopkins spoke to the media after the Washington Huskies lost Thursday afternoon to the Utah Utes 76-62 in Salt Lake City.

While many believe the ‘Intellectual Brutality’ of the best Stanford teams under David Shaw is not what it once was, don’t count Jimmy Lake in that group. Meeting with the media one last time before the Cardinal play Washington Saturday afternoon at Husky Stadium, Lake was blunt despite the numbers some point to that paint a different picture of Cardinal Football: this will probably be the most physical game they play in 2020.

“We have a bunch of respect for Stanford and the way they play football,” he said. “We watch the film and we see a physical team in all three phases. They’re physical in the run game on both sides of the ball, they’re physical in special teams. They enjoy having big personnel through their lines.”

With Saturday also being Senior Day, Lake was asked about those he expects to move on and those who may stay, especially considering eligibility has been put on pause in 2020. While there’s still plenty of decisions to be made, there’s no doubt Keith Taylor and Elijah Molden will be walking, especially now that they’ve accepted invitations to the Senior Bowl, joining Levi Onwuzurike.

Lake also talked about some of the UW players that have continued to stand out, including QB Dylan Morris and OLB Zion Tupuola-Fetui, as well as true freshmen that are showing up on the two-deeps, namely Sav'ell Smalls and Cooper McDonald.

He was also asked about the recent UW video featuring former defensive back Sean Vergara and his talent as a visual artist, namely turning shoes into art, as well as the story of how Vergara walked on to the program and who urged him to give the all-campus tryout a shot: Kevin King.

Lastly Lake was asked about keeping things going in the recruiting offices with no film to cut up as they move closer to the mid-December signing period.

Sean McGrew admitted Wednesday he’s seen the Washington sideline ‘pretty dead’ at times the first three games of the 2020 season. Usually it’s never an issue because the 70,000 fans at Husky Stadium provide enough energy to carry the day for 10 teams.

But this is 2020, and with no fans in the stands, it’s been up to the players, coaches, and trainers to pick up the slack and provide their own juice.

The Washington Huskies are about to play their fourth-straight home game Saturday when the Stanford Cardinal come calling. Normally not having to leave home would be something the players would love. And don’t get me wrong, they enjoy sleeping in their own beds and having a routine they can count on.

But it still is a little odd at times, and both McGrew and offensive lineman Henry Bainivalu talked about it Wednesday. Bainivalu said it’s still strange with no one in the stands, but he’d still rather be playing in Husky Stadium than anywhere else.

“When is our first road game…Oregon?” McGrew asked. He shook his head with a wry smile. It’s been that kind of a year.

McGrew and Bainivalu also talked about Washington’s new offense, the ability to run and throw the ball, having one of the bigger offensive lines in the Pac-12 and the enjoyment the players get when it comes to playing with a lot of physicality, and a lot more in this media call.

Quade Green and Mike Hopkins talk post-game after Washington (0-2) lost to UC-Riverside 57-42 Tuesday afternoon in Las Vegas.

After a crazy game on Saturday night where their team came back from a 21-point deficit in the second half against Utah to get to 3-0 on the season, one of the biggest themes coming from the players has been the competition the coaches foster every day in meetings and on the practice field. Two sophomore contributors to Washington's success, not only this past weekend, but also the whole season so far are defensive back Kyler Gordon and defensive lineman Sam Taimani. Both met with the media and Tuesday and talked about the win over Utah, including a key play by Gordon that forced a fumble deep in Washington territory in the fourth quarter.

Taimani, a Utah native, knows quite a few players on the Ute roster as well as the entire staff who recruited him back in 2018, so Saturday's win was big for him. One person who wasn't able to watch was his grandmother, the woman who helped raise him, but it wasn't because she was doing something else that conflicted with watching the game. She was so "stressed out", according to Taimani, that she wound up going down to her basement and fell asleep. It wasn't until his grandfather woke her up and she was able to jump on the phone with her grandson that she found out the final score of the game.

Both players also talked about the competition encouraged by the coaching staff every day in practice has helped the team improve on both sides of the ball.

Taimani talked about how Zion Tupuola-Fetui's success has helped the offensive line improve while Gordon said the secondary competes every day and that has improved the entire group and that is why you have seen some of the success from that group over the past couple of years.

You could still see the smile on Jimmy Lake's face on Monday as he was asked quite a few questions about his team's thrilling come-from-behind win over Utah and the resiliency his team showed in shutting out the Utes while scoring 24 points in the second half against a very good defense. But like all great coaches, Lake isn't going to bask in the glory of a win when he has just five days to get ready for another talented and physical opponent like Stanford.

Lake said that redshirt freshman quarterback Dylan Morris showed on Saturday night why he's the guy they chose to lead this team to start the season. After a shaky performance in the first half, one that saw the Husky offense completely shut out and shut down by Utah's defense, Morris came out and led his team to the win, completing a pass to tight end Cade Otton for a 16-yard touchdown with just :36 seconds remaining in the game to give Washington their only lead of the night.

"He's steady at the helm, he doesn't flinch, he doesn't blink, he's ready to go back through his process and deliver the ball where he needs to deliver it, get us into a good play and to get us out of a bad play and he's been able to do that in practice, so it's no surprise to our team that he was able to do that under tremendous pressure because we put that type of pressure on our offense in practice," Lake said.

Lake also noted that Zion Tupuola-Fetui is a player who really took things to heart following last season, a year when the coaching staff really started to see him come on, and he changed his physique, he worked on the technique and he worked on his game and improving himself and everyone is seeing that hard work pay off right now with his productivity in the first three weeks of the season.

Looking forward to their game against Stanford this weekend, Lake said that he knows it will be a fist-fight between these two programs because of the brand of football both schools subscribe to and he said he anticipates Davis Mills to be a tough quarterback for them to handle, but that he expects the Huskies to have a great gameplan to make things tough on the Cardinal starter.

Washington guard Jamal Bey and head coach Mike Hopkins spoke to the media after the Huskies lost their season-opener to No. 2 Baylor 86-52 in Las Vegas.

Needless to say, it wasn't hard to find players to talk about Washington's stunning 24-21 come-from-behind win over Utah Saturday night at Husky Stadium.

In a game no one knew would even be played a week ago, the historic fight back for the Huskies will be remembered around Montlake for years to come.

But most will want to forget the first half, a half that saw the visitors jump out to a 21-0 lead. Utah thoroughly dominated all phases of the game, and it didn't look good for Washington heading into the locker room.

But in talking with UW Head Coach Jimmy Lake, outside linebacker Zion Tupuola-Fetui, defensive back Elijah Molden, and tight end Cade Otton, the battle was only half-way through. It was a 'street fight' according to Lake, and the Utes were the only ones landing any punches. It was up to Washington to start landing some haymakers coming out of the tunnel, and that's what they did.

For the game, Tupuola-Fetui continued his torrid pace, coming up with 6 tackles, including 3 tackles for loss, three sacks, and a 29-yard fumble recovery after Kyler Gordon forced a Utah fumble in the UW red zone.

Molden, the senior nickel from West Linn, Ore., finished the game with 8 tackles, including 1 tackle for loss and 1 interception for 24 yards.

And Otton, the senior tight end from Tumwater, came up huge for the UW offense after they struggled for most of the first half. He finished with 8 catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning 16-yard strike from Dylan Morris with 36 seconds to play.

All four spoke on the poise under pressure when it came to Morris, the redshirt freshman quarterback from Graham Kapowsin. In Lake's words, "he never flinched."

Morris finished the game 23-38 for 272 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions - although one of those picks was a Hail Mary at the end of the second quarter, and he also had an underthrown ball tipped and eventually intercepted by Utah.