{"id":69850,"date":"2024-12-08T19:11:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T00:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=69850"},"modified":"2024-12-08T19:11:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T00:11:08","slug":"sun-bowl-for-washington-louisville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/08\/sun-bowl-for-washington-louisville\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Headed To Sun Bowl Against Louisville"},"content":{"rendered":"

In year one of the Jedd Fisch tenure, the Washington Huskies are headed to the postseason. The Huskies will play in the Sun Bowl, College Football’s second-oldest bowl game. Washington will face Louisville out of the ACC in El Paso, Texas, in the teams’ first head-to-head meeting. Washington last played in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve in 2002 against Purdue. This year’s game will be played at 11:00 am Pacific Time on New Year’s Eve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jedd Fisch Talks Sun Bowl<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“I told our team today that we’re playing in the Sun Bowl championship.” Fisch opened his statements with the media on Sunday with a clear mentality towards the postseason. “Our goal is to go out there and win the championship.” For Washington, the Sun Bowl is an opportunity for a team that began the season with so many unknowns and very few veterans. The opportunity for 15 additional practices and one more battle on the field is significant.<\/p>\n

“We had no idea what our team was going to look like in January,” Fisch said. “For us to go out there and get to a point where we are playing in a bowl game is something we’re very proud of.” Fisch believes that bowl games have the same relevance that they have always had. With player opt-outs becoming more prevalent, and the College Football Playoff taking much of the spotlight, some bowl games do not have the national meaning they used to have. Fisch’s mentality is the opposite.<\/p>\n

“I don’t agree. I don’t like the fact that people don’t give credit to bowl games.” Fisch spoke to the importance of what this game means for players who have poured hours, days, weeks, and months of effort into winning football games. “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 go play in a bowl game, it should be a championship mentality, a championship opportunity. Our goal is to go into that bowl game and win.”<\/p>\n

Player Availability<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Washington’s head coach does not expect any Husky players to opt out of the Sun Bowl against Louisville at this point. “I do expect people to transfer,” Fisch added. “This bowl game is to celebrate this past season. Entering the portal is moving forward into next season.” Fisch expanded on this idea saying, “They can enter the portal and still play in this game. The question becomes if you enter the portal and you want to start going on visits to other programs, then you’ve now eliminated yourself from playing in the game because we’re practicing.”<\/p>\n

For example, Washington starting punter Jack McCallister<\/a> has already entered the portal. But Fisch said that he will be the team’s starting punter for the Sun Bowl. Fisch also confirmed that Demond Williams Jr.<\/a> will start in the Sun Bowl ahead of Will Rogers<\/a>. Fisch said he had just been talking to Rogers before the press conference. The head coach reiterated how proud he is of his former starting quarterback. “[Rogers] is going to continue to compete, he is going to continue to make Demond better.” Right now, it’s Williams’ team. But as Rogers begins training for an opportunity at the next level, he remains the veteran helping mold the next quarterback as the team’s backup.<\/p>\n

Recruiting Footprint<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“It’s football in Texas… people in Texas, they love their football.” Washington has now played in a Texas bowl game in each of the last three years. It was the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio after the 2022 season, the National Championship in Houston last year, and now the Sun Bowl in El Paso. To add to that, Fisch’s staff coached in the Alamo Bowl last season at Arizona. This coaching staff and this program have experience with football in Texas, and the importance of recruiting in this area.<\/p>\n

“For them to know us, see us, see our brand, see our program, see our staff, is a huge advantage,” Fisch said. The Huskies’ 2025 class features 29 signees, but just one player from Texas. Ramonz Adams is a 6′-1″ three-star cornerback from Bastrop, Texas.<\/p>\n

First Look at the Louisville Cardinals<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Fisch said that he does not have any experience coaching with or against Jeff Brohm, the head coach of Louisville. Brohm is in his second year at his alma mater. He took Purdue to the Big Ten Championship in 2022 before his move to Louisville. “I have seen the production of his offenses over the years. I’m very much aware of how good of an offensive coach he is and how good of a team they have.”<\/p>\n

Brohm’s offense finished this season as the 11th-ranked offense, averaging 455 yards per game. The Cardinals scored 36 points per contest this year in an 8-4 campaign that included wins over Pitt, Georgia Tech, and the ACC Champion Clemson Tigers.<\/p>\n

\"Washington
Photo courtesy: Chris Pietsch\/The Register-Guard \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In year one of the Jedd Fisch tenure, the Washington Huskies are headed to the postseason. The Huskies will play in the Sun Bowl, College Football’s second-oldest bowl game. Washington will face Louisville out of the ACC in El Paso, Texas, in the teams’ first head-to-head meeting. Washington last played in the Sun Bowl on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":69949,"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":[5,7],"tags":[1666,1235,90,5709,4441,509],"class_list":["post-69850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-acc","tag-jedd-fisch","tag-jeff-brohm","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-louisville-football","tag-sun-bowl","tag-washington-huskies"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69850","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=69850"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69950,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69850\/revisions\/69950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}