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Inside The Huskies

Texas Latest to Drop Spring Football Game, But Huskies Push Forward

A promoter by trade, Jedd Fisch wants to sell out the event, not cancel it.
Dan Raley|
Jedd Fisch likes being in a big crowd, promoting his football team.
Jedd Fisch likes being in a big crowd, promoting his football team. | Skylar Lin Visuals

One by one, college football spring games keep falling to the wayside, with Texas the latest to cancel any public viewing of its team in the offseason, joining a growing list of schools that include Nebraska and USC.

Coaches explain how they've become overly concerned that these events provide ready opportunities for opposing schools to come in and pilfer players after seeing someone they like in game conditions.

The word tampering is repeatedly thrown back and forth by everyone as they wade through somewhat of a lawless period that involves losing players to the highest bidder.

However, the University of Washington is taking a different tack -- Jedd Fisch is inviting everyone and his brother to come out and see the Huskies

"Coaches are talking about cancleing their spring game," the second-year UW coach said. "We will not do that."

Fisch, in fact, is almost daring anyone to come out and take a long, hard look at his players in a spring game scheduled for May 2 at 6:30 p.m.

"As a matter of fact, we would like to sell out our spring game," he said. "We would like it publicized on NBC, ABC and ESPN. We want to make sure everybody sees what we're doing at the University of Washington and make sure our program is in the forefront of what's being done."

Nebraska coach Matt Ruhle was the first to pull the plug on his program's spring game, expressing his concerns over losing players to other schools. USC reportedly will host a fan appreciation event rather than make its players available for public viewing in game conditions.

A lot of these moves are fueled by the prospect of another transfer portal window opening up in April and some schools attending spring games and in effective going shopping for players.

Fisch, however, prefers to showcase his team and let any personnel fallout happen where it may. He's a promoter by trade, and he's not going to pull back on an opportunity to sell his team. The more spectators the merrier is how he sees it.

"We're excited about what we have and we're excited about what we're doing," he said. "The goal is to sell it out. The baseline or the floor is 40,000 [people]."

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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