Wondering about Jeremiah Hunter, and a Quentin Moore update
DerekJohnson
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SEATTLE — Jedd Fisch was asked earlier this season about lacking targets for senior receiver Jeremiah Hunter, who caught 62 and 60 passes, respectively — and had 98 and 87 targets — the past two seasons at California.
There was little to it, Fisch said, other than the game simply dictating that the ball go elsewhere.
Through nine games, though, little has changed. Hunter has only 25 receptions — fewer than three per game — and has been targeted only 34 times. That ranks fourth on the team, behind Denzel Boston, Giles Jackson and even tight end Keleki Latu, who has become the Huskies’ third-leading receiver with 31 catches for 306 yards.
I asked Fisch on Monday: with a larger sample size to study, does he see anything to explain why Hunter, a legitimate playmaker at Cal the past three seasons, hasn’t seen the ball as often with the Huskies, despite playing regularly?
“Rashid (Williams) is playing more. We’re in 12 personnel (two tight ends), and Giles is playing more, so Denzel is probably playing … not twice as many, but a little bit more than 35 percent more reps than Jeremiah is in,” Fisch said. “I would say Giles is probably the same, in terms of percentage of reps. Giles and Jeremiah and Rashid are all splitting reps at the different personnel groups at Z (receiver). So (Hunter’s) opportunities are less. On the same token, I think we’ve tried to get him the ball at times. At times we haven’t been able to, at times we have. I think he got targeted last week.
“But also, we’re throwing the ball about 35 times a game. When you’re throwing it 35 times a game, and Denzel had nine catches last week, and Keleki is stepping up at tight end, and Giles is stepping up at F, it’s just kind of going that way.
“... We don’t run the Air Raid. We throw it 35 times a game. When you throw it 35 times a game, there’s going to be different guys on different nights getting more catches and less catches.”
Hunter’s smaller target share is, of course, due in some part to the emergence of Boston as a clear No. 1 wideout who should touch the ball a bunch in every game; his 682 receiving yards and nine touchdowns lead the team, and he’s compiled those numbers on 52 catches. It also seems as if coaches have made it a priority to get the ball to Jackson, who actually leads the team in receptions with 55 and is playing the best football of his career.
In fact, I’d say Jackson having 30 more catches than Hunter, at this point in the season, is the Huskies’ biggest offensive surprise. I remember thinking when Hunter announced his commitment to UW — during the Huskies’ CFP run, prior to the Sugar Bowl — that it was a huge pickup of a plug-and-play starter who could threaten the 1,000-yard mark in Kalen DeBoer’s offense. Hunter totaled 965 yards for Cal in 2022, and had 703 last year. He was a physical player who made contested catches and also excelled as a punt returner. Imagine what he could do in a more receiver-friendly offense?
Obviously, Fisch and his staff also felt strongly about Hunter. UW receivers coach Kevin Cummings said he pursued Hunter “heavily” while Fisch and his staff were still at Arizona, and retaining him after the coaching change seemed like a major victory. Hunter said in August — the first and only time he’s been made available to speak with reporters — that he left California because he felt a different offensive system could prepare him better for the NFL. He hoped to run a more diverse route tree in Fisch’s offense, and was drawn to the coach’s NFL background and pro-style scheme.
Hunter’s production hasn’t benefited from the change. He caught five passes against Eastern Michigan, six at Rutgers and four at Indiana. Those are Hunter’s only games with more than three receptions this season. Four times, he’s caught two passes or fewer, including zero in the opener against Weber State and just one in Saturday’s win over USC (though he was targeted four times). In fact, Hunter’s 85 receiving yards in a Cal loss at Washington last season are still the most he’s gained in a game at Husky Stadium.
This is in spite of Hunter starting seven of UW’s nine games and ranking ninth on the Huskies’ offense in snaps played.
It’s not that I’m convinced the Huskies are screwing up by not getting Hunter more involved. It’s just … strange, I guess, that such a standout performer at a Pac-12 school transferred to a UW team in need of offensive weapons and is seeing the ball significantly less often than he did at his old school. Maybe he’s just the odd man out, with Boston and Jackson playing well, and Latu emerging. Maybe it’s a function of lacking pass protection. Maybe he just doesn’t have the same connection with Will Rogers that Boston seems to have developed (though that would surprise me, given how often Rogers looked to Hunter during spring and training camp).
Whatever the reason, it’s perhaps a reminder that even for an established veteran, there is no assurance of greener grass — or, at least, greater target share — on the other side of the portal.
It doesn’t sound as if you will see senior tight end Quentin Moore again this season … but you might just see him next season, Fisch said. The coach seemed fairly confident that Moore, a sixth-year senior, would receive a waiver to return for a seventh year of eligibility, considering he was injured in the second quarter of the season opener.
“I feel pretty confident that they don’t like to take a person’s year away, with an injury that happened so early in the season,” Fisch said.
All indications, Fisch said, are that Moore is interested in returning.
In other injury news, Fisch said junior offensive lineman Maximus McCree is technically available as he recovers from a dislocated thumb, but he wore a cast on his right hand and did not play in Saturday’s game (though he did suit up). It sounds like redshirt freshman Kahlee Tafai will start at left tackle again this week.
On McCree, Fisch said, “you’re just not going to be able to accomplish everything you want to accomplish when you’re wearing a cast, and he’ll be in that hand cast the rest of the year. He’s certainly available for emergency situations, but right now, I don’t imagine any change in who’s starting.”
Landen Hatchett started at right guard in place of Enokk Vimahi, Fisch said, because he didn’t believe Vimahi’s body would hold up over the course of a full game, though Vimahi did rotate in for 29 snaps. Fisch thought Saturday’s game was the best Hatchett has played this season.
I tuned in to hear quarterback Will Rogers’ weekly appearance on Sports Radio KJR with Dave “Softy” Mahler and Dick Fain, and caught one newsworthy item: if UW does make a bowl game, Rogers said, he intends to play in it. I’d seen some speculation that perhaps Rogers would sit it out, considering that he’s a senior, which would allow UW to use the game as some kind of training ground for Demond Williams Jr. But Rogers made clear he isn’t going anywhere, saying he’s “not the type of guy to bail on my teammates with one game left.” So, if anyone was wondering, there you have it.
Penn State is, without question, the most difficult trip in the Big Ten for those traveling from Seattle. That is, unless you’re traveling by charter and flying direct from Seattle to State College, as the Huskies are. And with Saturday’s game kicking off at 5 p.m. PT, this actually will be a far simpler trip than those UW made to Iowa and Indiana, both of which kicked off at 9 a.m. PT and required Thursday travel.
This week, the Huskies will fly Friday morning, as they would have for any ol’ Pac-12 road trip (I was told last week that they planned to travel Thursday, but the late kick apparently brought Friday back into play).
“This trip truly is almost an identical trip to any other road trip — although we haven't had any other road trips — that we would have if we were still playing in the other conference,” Fisch said.
Beaver Stadium features a grass field — the horrors! — and Fisch said he’d heard that UW’s lack of a grass practice field has been something of a topic over the years. But Fisch seems less concerned about it than, say, DeBoer was.
Fisch did acknowledge that he’d like to have one, but said he didn’t know where it would go, and that he prioritizes other matters, anyway.
“How can we make this building the best building? How can we have a great recovery room? How can we have a great locker room? How can we have great nutrition?” Fisch said. “How can we make sure that we continue to provide for our players with a great players lounge? For me, I’m more along the lines of, what can we do, facility wise, within this structure, that our players can immediately feel impact on?
“The grass field — while nice, don’t get me wrong — I feel as if there (are) other things right now that are a priority, where I know other head coaches felt different.”
For his two interceptions, 12 tackles and two pass breakups against USC, senior linebacker Carson Bruener was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week.
Want to watch Washington-Penn State in IMAX? You’re in luck!
— Christian Caple, On Montlake
Comments
Thanks Taft!
Hunter has been targeted a decent amount but he and Rogers haven't been able to connect. Part of it may be that Boston and Latu are bigger targets while Jackson is quicker and thus gets more separation.
He was the #1 wideout at Cal. Not Alabama.
We always lose to Cal
Why has Seattle media brought up Hunter so many times? Who cares? He’s the #3 WR and would have been #3, probably #4 under DeBoer as Germie would still be here. If Giles and Boston weren’t putting up good numbers then maybe it’s a story but they’re playing pretty well. It’s just lazy to keep asking about a 3 or 4 receiver.
Yeah the fascination with Hunter is weird. I mean, he’s a solid receiver. He’s got some size. But he isn’t fast and I don’t know what kind of blocker he is because I haven’t paid attention.
JAG