Inside The Huskies

Huskies Get Second Opinion on Big Ten Football Fortunes

The source of UW optimism comes from a surprising source who used to wear a green and yellow uniform.
Dan Raley|
The Huskies head out for pregame warmups at Oregon in 2024.
The Huskies head out for pregame warmups at Oregon in 2024. | Skylar Lin Visuals

The Big Ten media, in its preseason poll, pegs the University of Washington football team as the league's 10th best entry.

George Wrighster of "The Unfraid Show" puts them fifth.

"People are like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, really?' " he said of his pick on his latest podcast.

A one-man media enterprise, Wrighster could easily elicit the same response from his alma mater alone for such an optimistic assessment of the Huskies.

He's a former NFL and Oregon Ducks tight end who played against the UW just once, in 2022, when he was on the receiving end of a 42-14 loss to a Rick Neuheisel team in Eugene. He caught two passes for 37 yards that day.

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As for these Huskies, Wrighster says they might be a year away from fully developing their offensive and defensive lines and doing some serious damage.

For now, he feels Jedd Fisch's team has enough skill-player talent, namely sophomore quarterback Demond Willaims Jr., to hold its own in the conference this fall.

"[Fisch] might make a serious jump in year 2 with Demond Williams, who I am very high on," Wrighster saiid.

For Wrighster, it all comes down to the UW's physicality, which didn't hold up well against the better conference teams in 2024.

"If those units do over perform, you're going to have to look out for the Huskies," he said, referring to their postseason chances, "to take that last Big Ten spot in the College Football Playoff."

By the way, Wrighster didn't compromise his Ducks any, picking them to finish second in the conference.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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