{"id":59253,"date":"2024-04-22T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T16:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=59253"},"modified":"2024-04-21T18:10:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T22:10:39","slug":"jedd-fisch-and-the-washington-transfer-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/04\/22\/jedd-fisch-and-the-washington-transfer-portal\/","title":{"rendered":"Jedd Fisch’s Outlook on the Transfer Portal for Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were able to learn a lot about what Washington has right now from its scrimmage on Saturday. But the depth concerns at the line of scrimmage remain a topic of conversation. It\u2019s difficult to put together a full evaluation of individual players when the protection just isn\u2019t what it should be on offense. Jedd Fisch<\/strong> said after Saturday\u2019s practice that their goal is to have between 15 and 16 offensive linemen healthy to participate by fall camp in August. He also said that Washington is targeting players in the transfer portal at every position, looking for players who can come in to compete and make this team better. The Spring transfer portal window is open, and Fisch is actively looking to strengthen the roster.<\/span><\/p>\n

Offensive Line Depth<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Right now, Washington isn\u2019t able to double up on reps offensively. It doesn\u2019t have two full offensive lines such that the team can split fields and get things done twice as efficiently. During the scrimmage session on Saturday<\/a>, there were only nine offensive linemen dressed. That included Kahlee Tafai<\/a>, who was in a no-contact gold jersey for practice and was a limited participant. Those numbers are hardly enough to fill one offensive line rotation. Towards the end of the scrimmage, protections began to break down faster, and there were a couple of muffed exchanges from the center to the quarterback.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During practice the Thursday prior, Washington hosted Portland State transfer interior offensive lineman D\u2019Angalo Titialii<\/strong> on an official visit. He\u2019s a Washington native and attended Eastside Catholic in Sammamish, WA. Fisch and staff offered the 6-2 320-pound offensive lineman following practice. Just a few hours later, he committed to the Huskies. Titialii had 30 career starts at Portland State that were mostly at guard. But last season, he started every game at center. Titialii played over 2,100 snaps in his four years at Portland State and has given up just four sacks in total. The former Viking was the Huskies’ first, and much-needed, addition from the transfer portal at offensive line.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fisch said that Washington’s acquisition of players during the Spring transfer portal period might stretch out. The transfer portal is open for entry through April 30th, but signing players out of the portal can extend beyond that date. Fisch\u2019s goal is to know exactly who his 85 scholarship players are by the middle of May. He\u2019s told his team that, \u201cIn about four to six weeks, we\u2019ll know who our team is for 2024.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rising Tides Lift All Ships<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI think college football is messed up, but we\u2019re going to embrace what it is right now.\u201d Fisch made it clear to us after practice that he doesn\u2019t agree with what the landscape of college football looks like right now with respect to the transfer portal. \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as a one-day contract, except for college football, I guess.\u201d Despite the difficulty of the landscape, Fisch and his staff are embracing it.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The Washington head coach said, \u201cWe\u2019re targeting every position, and we\u2019re continuing to try to bring great talent here.\u201d He then explained what he tells his players with regard to competing for their positions. \u201cOur job is to try to find people that can replace you, and your job is to be irreplaceable.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This mantra has been evident since day one of the Fisch tenure at Washington. It started with bringing transfer portal quarterback Demond Williams Jr.<\/a> with him to Washington, despite the Huskies already having a four-star in the class of 2024 in Dermaricus Davis<\/strong>. Their competition has been making both quarterbacks better. This is also seen in the defensive backs room where Arizona transfer Ephesians Prysock<\/a> has helped elevate the cornerbacks’ play this Spring. Jordan Shaw<\/a> has done the same at the STAR position and with the safeties. At wide receiver, it\u2019s a similar story. Jeremiah Hunter<\/a> was the leading receiver at California in each of the last two seasons. We\u2019ve seen that receiver room play to a high level thus far in Spring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington’s\u00a0Transfer Portal Approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Fisch said, \u201cWe understand that\u2019s the world we\u2019re living in.\u201d He\u2019s embracing the challenging landscape of college football right now. \u00a0He also said, \u201cI do know that a lot of players want to be a part of this football team.\u201d The culture he’s building in Seattle is one of high energy and competition in a professional atmosphere. We’ve already seen several significant NFL names attend practice and speak to the team. Those names include Bill Belichick<\/strong>, Pete Carroll<\/strong>, Jack Del Rio<\/strong>, and John Lynch<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The head coach expects his approach to work out for the Huskies. \u201cGetting players is not the problem, it\u2019s getting the right players that fit our culture\u2026 and our roster.\u201d Washington is going to use the transfer portal to fill gaps where it\u2019s needed, as well as strengthen position groups across the entire roster. Expect the next few weeks to be significant for Washington in its quest to build a program to compete in the Big Ten this fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Image courtesy: Nick Lemkau<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were able to learn a lot about what Washington has right now from its scrimmage on Saturday. But the depth concerns at the line of scrimmage remain a topic of conversation. It\u2019s difficult to put together a full evaluation of individual players when the protection just isn\u2019t what it should be on offense. Jedd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":59266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,4],"tags":[7983,33470,33155,1666,33356,509,33385],"class_list":["post-59253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","category-pac12","tag-big-ten-football","tag-dangalo-titialii","tag-demond-williams-jr","tag-jedd-fisch","tag-jordan-shaw","tag-washington-huskies","tag-washington-spring-practice"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}