Early thoughts on Washington's Sun Bowl matchup vs. Louisville
DerekJohnson
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From Christian: It’s not every year that your daughter turns 4 years old on the same day as Washington’s selection to the Sun Bowl. Big thanks to Ty Gilstrap for stepping in today to provide some thoughts on the Huskies’ matchup, and Jedd Fisch’s comments today.
SEATTLE — Selection Sunday wasn’t quite as fun this season, was it?
Maybe you tuned in to the live stream to find out where Washington would play. If so, your reward was watching a larger-than-life Tony the Tiger mascot hold up Louisville and Washington helmets, after a seemingly endless number of elected officials gave speeches to fill the 84-minute production.
Not quite the dramatic buildup a Rece Davis-led studio show can provide.
No, this isn’t Houston or San Antonio. This is El Paso, where Washington will meet Louisville in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31. The game is scheduled for an 11 a.m. PT kickoff on CBS.
UW coach Jedd Fisch, however, is far from disappointed.
“I don’t like the fact that people don’t give credit to bowl games,” Fisch said. “I think bowl games are exactly what they were, and people have decided not to make them that. These are opportunities for players to play in a postseason game. They are opportunities for players who gave a ton of blood, sweat and tears in spring ball, in training camp, in the season, during 6 a.m. workouts, lifting all throughout November and December to be able to play in a game. For some reason, we’ve decided that they’re not as important. I don’t agree.
“I don’t think it matters if you’ve won six and you’re 6-6 or if you’ve won nine and you’re 9-3 — if you have a chance to play in a bowl game, it should be a championship mentality, a championship opportunity, and our goal is to go into that bowl game and win.”
Here are some other thoughts on Louisville, Steve Belichick rumors, Fisch’s Sunday remarks and more:
Offensively, Louisville is a better team than a Sun Bowl appearance might indicate. The Cardinals are 13th in scoring (36.6 points per game), third in yards per play (6.88), t-27th in yards per pass attempt (8.1), and 12th in yards per rush (5.6).
The defense, meanwhile, is t-52nd in scoring defense (23.3), 49th in yards per play (5.28), 37th in yards per rush allowed (3.80, and t-50th in yards per pass attempt allowed (6.9).
Tyler Shough, the former Oregon Duck, has thrown for 3,195 yards and 23 touchdowns this season, but Louisville’s offense has largely been powered by its ground game, with freshman running back Isaac Brown rushing for 1,074 yards and 11 touchdowns. In its 41-14 blowout of Kentucky, for example, Shough completed just 9 of 18 attempts for 128 yards, while the Cardinals rushed for 358 yards and four touchdowns.
The only reason Louisville doesn’t sit among the upper echelon of ACC teams is because of one-score losses to No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 10 SMU and No. 13 Miami. Oh, and that 38-35 loss to Stanford in November. It would have been fun to see the College Football Playoff selection committee deal with that one.
Punter Jack McAllister will play in the Sun Bowl, Fisch said, and any other players who enter the transfer portal will at least have the opportunity. Fisch views the bowl game as a celebration of the past season, which is unaffected by a decision to enter the portal. So long as the players don’t take any visits or miss practices, they’ll be eligible to make the trip to El Paso. Of course, it’s always possible that a transferring player will want to focus solely on the process of finding a new home, so we’ll have to wait and see what UW’s roster looks like come New Year’s Eve.
Fisch doesn’t expect any players to opt out of the bowl game, although plenty can change between now and then.
“This is a bowl game on New Year’s Eve, so no one’s hungover yet,” Fisch said of the 2 p.m. ET kickoff. “Everybody’s tuning in. … It’s at a perfect time to play football.”
I’d imagine that Louisville’s rushing offense will continue to excel against Washington’s banged up defensive line, with Fisch confirming junior Zach Durfee, junior Russell Davis II, and junior Jayvon Parker will all miss the Sun Bowl due to injury. Senior tight end Quentin Moore won’t play, either.
As he did after Washington’s loss to Oregon, Fisch affirmed that freshman quarterback Demond Williams Jr. will start in the Sun Bowl and take about 75 percent of the first-team practice reps.. As for senior Will Rogers, Fisch said that they’re going to treat the next few weeks as preparation for the NFL Draft, with renewed focus on “weight room, speed, accuracy, individual fundamentals, being part of a great nutrition program, and continuing to learn the game.”
This is Fisch’s perspective on the reports that defensive coordinator Steve Belichick could follow his father, Bill Belichick, to North Carolina, if the school hires the elder Belichick as head coach: “I’m sure there will be a story every time Belichick’s name gets brought up for any job, whether it’s the North Carolina job or the Chicago Bears job, or any other job. And then they’ll ask whether or not his son will join him or stay here.
“... I think that they’re separate. Bill Belichick is not on our staff. Steve Belichick is on our staff. Bill will determine whether or not he wants to coach. He’s the greatest coach of all time, so if he goes and coaches somewhere, then he’ll make a decision, and then Steve will make a decision, and we’ll figure it out from there.”
Fisch was all dressed up for his Sunday press conference, with Washington hosting its annual postseason awards banquet just moments before. Sixth-year linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala won the Guy Flaherty Award, which is bestowed to the team’s “most inspirational player.” Junior running back Jonah Coleman, fifth-year linebacker Carson Bruener, and sixth-year linebacker Drew Fowler were awarded Washington’s most valuable offensive, defensive, and special team players, respectively.
Remember last year around this time, when the College Football Playoff committee did the unthinkable and kept unbeaten, ACC-champion Florida State out in favor of one-loss, SEC champion Alabama, who still had the fortune of having a healthy starting quarterback?
Surely there wouldn’t be any controversy with an expanded field, right?
Alas, the drama was alive and well Sunday morning, as, much to my surprise, the committee elected to keep Kalen DeBoer’s 9-3 Alabama squad out of the College Football Playoff.
While there certainly won’t be any tears shed in Seattle, I can’t help but think of the margin of error this leaves the Huskies. In the next four seasons, Washington faces at least two of the following teams each year: Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan — and that’s not including the regular meetings with Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and other premier programs.
Oh, and after that’s up, Washington starts a home-and-home with Tennessee. There will be plenty of places along the way to trip up and give the committee reason to keep the Huskies out.
As Christian wrote on Friday, Washington joined the Big Ten for the benefit of the doubt. Sunday indicated that the benefit might be less than we thought.
The Sun Bowl will mark the third consecutive season Washington has played a postseason game in Texas, and the second in a row for Fisch, who led Arizona to a 38-24 win over Oklahoma in last season’s Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. He views it as a huge advantage to get the Washington brand in front of recruits in the Lone Star State.
He also credits Texas with preparing him for his weekly press conferences.
“My wife’s from Texas,” Fisch said. “Friday Night Lights, she grew up with it. That’s why she asks me questions about the red zone, harder than you guys do.”
A native of Vista, Calif., Ty Gilstrap is a senior Political Science major at the University of Washington. He covers UW football for The Daily. Follow him: @ty_gilstrap
Comments
Early thoughts? Crappy bowl and crappy pairing. Louisville deserved better. Could get ugly early.
Thanks Taft!