For the first time this season, and for the third time since joining the Big Ten, the Huskies will kick off at 9:00 am local time. Michigan hosts Washington for Big Noon Saturday in Ann Arbor. The early time slot was a challenge for Washington last season, losing at Iowa 40-16 and at Indiana 31-17. But Jedd Fisch is taking a different approach to early away games this season. “I don’t look at it as a 9:00 am start, I look at it as a 12 o’clock start,” Fisch said on Monday of this week. “I was in the NFL for 14 years, we never once said this is a 10:00 am kick or an 11:00 am kick. The kick is when the time is.”
Washington’s Early Kickoff at Michigan
Travel Adjustments
Fisch has discussed road trip preparations with Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald. “I talked to Coach Macdonald, and I’ve asked him a bunch of things,” Fisch said. “We adjusted our schedule when we played Maryland to make it similar to what the Seahawks do for a four o’clock [road] kickoff.” Washington flew to College Park later in the day on Thursday, arriving in the evening. For the early kickoff this week at Michigan, Fisch is making a similar adjustment. “We adjusted our schedule this week to make it similar to what the Seahawks do for a 10:00 am kickoff, which is 1:00 pm Eastern.”
Upon talking with Macdonald, Fisch noted that the two biggest changes he needed to make had to do with the departure time and with the size of the plane. “We’re flying on a bigger plane, we’re leaving at a different time on Thursday,” he said. “We are giving our guys a different schedule leading up to the game. We’re practicing on Thursday morning, we’re walking through on Friday outside. We’re doing things different.”
The victory at Maryland made it seem as though the travel changes had a positive impact. Though it still took a few quarters of football before the Huskies got into a rhythm on the road. Slow starts have been an issue for Washington in Big Ten play thus far.
Addressing Slow Starts
Washington is outsourcing its opponents 80-10 in the fourth quarter this season. But in each of its last three games, Washington has scored zero first-quarter points. The Huskies have started all three Big Ten Conference games this season with a deficit. They needed 24 unanswered points to beat Maryland and had to fight from down 10-0 to defeat Rutgers.
On Monday, Fisch addressed the recent slow starts. But said his message to the team was this, “You don’t win games in the first quarter or the second quarter or the third quarter. The games are decided at the end of the game.” It’s never ideal to begin a game, but Fisch said he likes the way the team has responded to the adversity. “What I love is that our players didn’t blink. There was no flinch.”
Saturday morning, or afternoon, inside Michigan Stadium figures to be the biggest test of Washington’s season thus far, outside of Ohio State. “There’ll be 105 thousand, sold out, packed, which we know.” Fisch said on Monday. “We’re excited about the opportunity.”
Main Image: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
