# Rick Neuheisel on Husky Struggles, Jedd Fisch, USC Preview

An episode of [Softy & Dick Interviews](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1245866571), 2 Oct 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/98a2599f-cd9b-4f2a-9be4-b22c00e585f2/907d6469-cef5-4bda-9f13-b2f100f49399/4c096813-c3da-4dfb-b23e-b4d700208527/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=26b16ce4-8fab-44ea-88d4-b2f100f493bc

Rick Neuheisel joins the show to talk about what is going wrong for UW right now, whether Brian Bonner can be the guy at running back, whether USC will be distracted on Saturday against the Dawgs and gives his thoughts on the hit on Dante Moore. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Your home for college football Saturdays is live with CBS
[0:04] Speaker 1: Sports Analyst Rick Neuheisel, powered by Taco Time.
[0:08] Speaker 2: Hungry? At Taco Time, it's easy to.
[0:10] Speaker 1: Create exactly what you're craving, and we wouldn't have it
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[0:16] Speaker 1: meal and order ahead on the Taco Time Northwest app.
[0:19] Speaker 1: Taco Time, time for something different. Now with Rick Neuheisel,
[0:24] Speaker 1: here's Softie and Dig.
[0:25] Speaker 3: All right, big thanks to our friends at Taco Time
[0:27] Speaker 3: for sponsoring this, Shindig, former Husky head coach, and now
[0:32] Speaker 3: superstar in the media like we always thought he would be,
[0:34] Speaker 3: our friend Rick Neuheisel joining us right now on the
[0:37] Speaker 3: radio program.
[0:37] Speaker 2: Coach, how are you?
[0:39] Speaker 4: I am wonderful, gentlemen. How's it going for the two
[0:42] Speaker 4: of you?
[0:43] Speaker 2: Good.
[0:44] Speaker 3: We want to win, man. Yeah, it's not going so
[0:46] Speaker 3: great for UW. I mean, they just, Rick, in four games,
[0:49] Speaker 3: they just haven't looked good yet. They haven't looked right.
[0:52] Speaker 3: You know, the competition obviously is part of the context.
[0:55] Speaker 3: And Wazoo struggle, Utah State struggle. You blow out a
[0:58] Speaker 3: high school team in Eastern, but nobody cares about that.
[1:01] Speaker 2: And then Minnesota.
[1:02] Speaker 3: Walks in here at 10 o'clock Central time and grabs
[1:06] Speaker 3: a win.
[1:07] Speaker 2: What gives? Tell us.
[1:10] Speaker 4: There's no rhythm to this offense. There hasn't been the
[1:14] Speaker 4: yin and yang of between running and throwing the ball
[1:17] Speaker 4: where you can see big play create the next big
[1:21] Speaker 4: play and such. And right now it's easy to point
[1:24] Speaker 4: at the running game. And you can mention, you know,
[1:27] Speaker 4: running backs that have fallen by the wayside based on injury.
[1:31] Speaker 4: And that's a fair enough.
[1:34] Speaker 2: Assumption.
[1:34] Speaker 4: But the bottom line is there's got to be more rhythm.
[1:37] Speaker 4: There's got to be more rhythm to this deal. And
[1:40] Speaker 4: the other thing I would say, you know, you've got
[1:43] Speaker 4: this great quarterback in DeMond Williams, and I really do
[1:45] Speaker 4: think he's talented. Too much in my mind, if I
[1:48] Speaker 4: were sitting next to Jed and talking to him, I'd
[1:50] Speaker 4: say we got to move him. This deal standing behind
[1:54] Speaker 4: the center at seven yards, you know, at that X,
[1:57] Speaker 4: everybody knows where he's going to be. Now, he doesn't
[1:59] Speaker 4: let people get him. The first guy never gets him.
[2:02] Speaker 4: But the problem is all your pass offense is rhythmic
[2:06] Speaker 4: to that spot. And he has to avoid whether it
[2:09] Speaker 4: be because of his height. or because of a missed block,
[2:13] Speaker 4: he has to avoid. And now you're in third period PE.
[2:18] Speaker 4: And the question is.
[2:18] Speaker 2: Can you live that way?
[2:20] Speaker 4: And as of now, they're not.
[2:24] Speaker 5: The run game, people say, well, the Huskies can't run,
[2:26] Speaker 5: the Huskies can't run. Well, the Huskies didn't even try
[2:29] Speaker 5: to run. They had 11 carries from their running backs
[2:32] Speaker 5: in that Minnesota game. So where are you in terms
[2:35] Speaker 5: of how much do you try to establish the run
[2:38] Speaker 5: when you perceive that it's not working? Do you still
[2:40] Speaker 5: try to crank it up or are you OK abandoning it?
[2:45] Speaker 4: Well, in that particular evening, they had to abandon it.
[2:49] Speaker 4: They had no other answers. But as they cobble together
[2:52] Speaker 4: offense for the future, they've got to find a way
[2:54] Speaker 4: for the quarterback to be at least a threat. He
[2:56] Speaker 4: doesn't have to carry it more than four or five times,
[2:59] Speaker 4: but he has to be at least a threat that
[3:01] Speaker 4: forces the eighth guy into the box and create some
[3:03] Speaker 4: opportunities for throwing down the field against one-on-one coverage versus
[3:07] Speaker 4: single high safety. That's what's got to happen. And until
[3:10] Speaker 4: they can get that done, they're going to be in
[3:11] Speaker 4: a predicament. The other piece of this is they've got
[3:14] Speaker 4: to move the launch point. It's going to be easier
[3:16] Speaker 4: for the offensive line. And given a 5'9 quarterback, it's
[3:20] Speaker 4: going to be easier for him to see and throw
[3:22] Speaker 4: on time.
[3:23] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, the thing that's got to make coaches
[3:25] Speaker 3: pull their hair out, though, is when people like us
[3:27] Speaker 3: and fans say things like, you know, you've got to
[3:30] Speaker 3: run the ball more, or you should move the pocket,
[3:32] Speaker 3: or you should call more design runs. You're like, listen, idiot,
[3:35] Speaker 3: I'm watching practice, and these guys can't do what you're
[3:38] Speaker 3: asking them to do. And that's what I'm wondering about
[3:41] Speaker 3: with a kid like Brian Bonner, who's a freshman from Valencia,
[3:45] Speaker 3: top ten running back in the country.
[3:46] Speaker 2: But he's a freshman.
[3:47] Speaker 3: He started the year as the, what, the fourth, third,
[3:50] Speaker 3: or fourth running back on the depth chart. And now
[3:52] Speaker 3: he's your starter. And, you know, Dick and I are
[3:55] Speaker 3: wondering why not give him the ball more. And I'm
[3:57] Speaker 3: certain that Jed sees something in practice that leads him
[4:00] Speaker 3: to believe that he can't do that.
[4:03] Speaker 4: Well, the number one liability when you have somebody that
[4:07] Speaker 4: young running back is the protection responsibilities that go along
[4:11] Speaker 4: with running backs. If you don't feel like you can
[4:16] Speaker 4: run the ball based on the front, based on the
[4:19] Speaker 4: numbers that are being produced. To put a freshman in
[4:24] Speaker 4: there at running back and have him be in charge
[4:26] Speaker 4: of all the protection things. And remember, the running back
[4:29] Speaker 4: is the guy that has to compensate for everything that
[4:32] Speaker 4: happens up front. So he's got to be able to
[4:34] Speaker 4: see all the machinations that happen in the back end.
[4:37] Speaker 4: That's a tall order for a young, young player. So
[4:40] Speaker 4: I can see where the struggle bus is. And now
[4:43] Speaker 4: we can see if we can get it back on
[4:44] Speaker 4: the road.
[4:45] Speaker 5: So, Rick, last year after four games, which included a
[4:48] Speaker 5: game against Ohio State instead of Minnesota, DeMond's QBR was 75.
[4:53] Speaker 5: It's under 50 right now through four games. So you
[4:56] Speaker 5: mentioned the play calling. How much of is it? Is
[4:59] Speaker 5: it that not moving around? How much of it is
[5:02] Speaker 5: DeMond just not doing what DeMond used to do? And
[5:06] Speaker 5: then how much is this simply taking Denzel away, Jonah
[5:09] Speaker 5: Coleman away and taking your top two running backs away
[5:12] Speaker 5: this year?
[5:13] Speaker 4: I think you hit the nail on the head. I mean,
[5:17] Speaker 4: the fact that Denzel Boston's having the impact that he's
[5:20] Speaker 4: having for Cleveland this early in the season is evidence
[5:24] Speaker 4: of what kind of a weapon he was for DeMond
[5:26] Speaker 4: a year ago. Jonah Coleman's, you know, making his presence known.
[5:32] Speaker 4: So this is this is growing pains. And I promise
[5:37] Speaker 4: the the offensive staff is cobbling it together. What can
[5:41] Speaker 4: we do? You know, this is the Apollo 13 moment, right,
[5:45] Speaker 4: where you put everything on the table, figure out what
[5:48] Speaker 4: you have and how you're going to get the astronauts home.
[5:51] Speaker 4: and there's no anybody resting easy over in that office
[5:57] Speaker 4: on Montlake because they have to figure this out.
[6:00] Speaker 3: That's a great analogy, by the way, with the run
[6:02] Speaker 3: game for UW. We've got to take all this, and
[6:06] Speaker 3: we've got to make that using nothing.
[6:07] Speaker 2: But this, right?
[6:09] Speaker 4: That's what we've got to do.
[6:10] Speaker 2: We've got to couple it together.
[6:13] Speaker 4: And years ago, that is exactly how we came up
[6:16] Speaker 4: with the beer. That's exactly how we came up with
[6:18] Speaker 4: the Marcus Tuias Sopo. And then we remembered, because we
[6:22] Speaker 4: didn't recruit those kids, we remembered that Pat Conniff went
[6:24] Speaker 4: to Woodinville too. Wait a minute, these guys know the beer.
[6:28] Speaker 4: We had them come in and coach us on the beer. Right.
[6:31] Speaker 4: And that's the way we started putting it together.
[6:34] Speaker 3: And you've been, I think, kind of semi-serious when you've
[6:38] Speaker 3: gone on our show about and said, let's go play
[6:41] Speaker 3: option football, which is all well and good if it's
[6:45] Speaker 3: May or June and you can install it and practice it,
[6:48] Speaker 3: but it's October the 1st. We're not thinking they can
[6:51] Speaker 3: do that now.
[6:54] Speaker 4: Well, you'd have to go back and see what DeMond's
[6:57] Speaker 4: background is. Does he have option football when he was
[7:00] Speaker 4: in Chandler, Arizona? I don't know. All I know is
[7:04] Speaker 4: we were sitting there going, we're 0-2. We've lost to
[7:07] Speaker 4: Air Force and we've lost to BYU. We can't win
[7:10] Speaker 4: the Mountain West, but we can win the Pac-12, Pac-10
[7:13] Speaker 4: at the time if we can figure this out. And
[7:17] Speaker 4: all of a sudden we cobbled together a little veer offense.
[7:20] Speaker 4: We beat Colorado and the rest, as they say, is history.
[7:24] Speaker 5: You know the mentality of USC as well as anybody,
[7:27] Speaker 5: playing against them, coaching against them. Soften, I last week thought, well,
[7:31] Speaker 5: it's probably better that USC wins over Oregon. They come
[7:33] Speaker 5: in fat and happy against Washington. Now we're thinking maybe
[7:37] Speaker 5: we got what we wanted and have USC being humbled
[7:40] Speaker 5: and all the fingers pointed at Lincoln Riley.
[7:42] Speaker 2: So is it good.
[7:44] Speaker 5: For Washington that USC is in some turmoil right now?
[7:48] Speaker 4: It's going to take a heck of a coaching job
[7:50] Speaker 4: by those folks at SC to get this team to
[7:53] Speaker 4: understand that the stadium isn't going to be as electric
[7:56] Speaker 4: this weekend. And this is no disrespect to Washington. It's
[8:00] Speaker 4: just disappointment from the Trojan fans. They packed the Coliseum
[8:04] Speaker 4: last week. And we're in the game and then it
[8:07] Speaker 4: squandered it late and we're unhappy with the fact that
[8:11] Speaker 4: it didn't go as well as they had hoped. And
[8:13] Speaker 4: so what will be the diminishing numbers of Trojan fans?
[8:18] Speaker 4: And if you go into that stadium and you don't
[8:19] Speaker 4: feel the same electricity that you felt the week before...
[8:23] Speaker 4: Does it have a kind of a demoralizing impact on
[8:26] Speaker 4: that team, especially if they don't start well? Which is
[8:28] Speaker 4: why the start of this game is really pivotal for Jed,
[8:31] Speaker 4: because they've been struggling offensively. If all of a sudden
[8:34] Speaker 4: they have a great first drive and go down and score,
[8:37] Speaker 4: and that crowd starts getting into it, this can be
[8:40] Speaker 4: a big-time opportunity for Jed and the Huskies.
[8:43] Speaker 3: Well, I'm looking at his defense since he's been there,
[8:47] Speaker 3: talking about Lincoln Riley now.
[8:49] Speaker 2: I'm just going back to the last five years, right?
[8:51] Speaker 3: And he's not his, what, one, two, three, fourth different
[8:54] Speaker 3: defensive coordinator since 2021. This is the defensive rank scoring
[9:00] Speaker 3: defense because that's really all that matters, right?
[9:02] Speaker 2: 51st, 58th, 123rd, 94th, and 93rd in the last five years.
[9:03] Speaker 2: I mean, they've been just god-awful.
[9:10] Speaker 3: Why are they so bad every year under Lincoln Riley defensively?
[9:14] Speaker 3: Does he think he's in the Big 12?
[9:17] Speaker 4: He doesn't play offense to help his defense. He plays
[9:21] Speaker 4: his offense. He throws the ball. Now, last week, he
[9:25] Speaker 4: ran the ball 33 times, so I'm not faulting him.
[9:28] Speaker 4: I've been a little critical of Lincoln because I know
[9:30] Speaker 4: he loves to throw the ball, coming from an Air
[9:33] Speaker 4: Raid background with Mike Leach. But he also needs– it's,
[9:38] Speaker 4: you know– You're responsible as the head coach not to
[9:41] Speaker 4: realize when you can run it. And last year, they
[9:44] Speaker 4: averaged over five yards a carry and still put their
[9:47] Speaker 4: defense out on the field for too much. Because drives
[9:50] Speaker 4: can happen quickly. You've got these fun toys. It's fun
[9:53] Speaker 4: to throw it down the field to, you know, the
[9:55] Speaker 4: Trent Mosley's of the world and have all this fun
[9:57] Speaker 4: stuff happen. But now so the defense has to go
[9:59] Speaker 4: back out there and they aren't blessed with great girth
[10:02] Speaker 4: on defense. They've got athletes, but they're not big. And
[10:05] Speaker 4: so if you get punched and even Rutgers showed that
[10:08] Speaker 4: they can get punched, you now put them in harm's way.
[10:11] Speaker 4: So time of possession has to be part of your weaponry.
[10:14] Speaker 4: And that's the one thing I haven't seen Lincoln do
[10:17] Speaker 4: at least on a, a, every game basis. He did
[10:21] Speaker 4: it against Iowa when it was in Clement in LA
[10:24] Speaker 4: and won the game last year. And I think if
[10:26] Speaker 4: he can start to incorporate that, do you go back
[10:29] Speaker 4: and look at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley? They ran the
[10:32] Speaker 4: ball for over 3000 yards there. Over 3,000 each of
[10:37] Speaker 4: those years that, you know, you had Kyler Murray winning
[10:39] Speaker 4: a Heisman. You had Baker Mayfield winning a Heisman. You
[10:42] Speaker 4: had Jalen Hurts as your quarterback who transitioned from Alabama.
[10:46] Speaker 4: 3,000 yards. They've never sniffed 3,000 since he's been to SC.
[10:51] Speaker 3: Well, just, Rick, on that real quick, put yourself in
[10:53] Speaker 3: Jen Cohen's shoes for a second. You owe him $ 70 million.
[10:57] Speaker 3: You owe the staff $ 10 million. You got columnists like
[11:00] Speaker 3: Canzano calling him a child. He's standoffish with the media.
[11:03] Speaker 3: He's not engaged with the Lums whatsoever. What would you
[11:07] Speaker 3: do if you were in Jen Cohen's shoes with this guy?
[11:11] Speaker 4: Unless you had somebody who was ready to come in
[11:13] Speaker 4: and write a $ 70 million check, you've got to hang
[11:15] Speaker 4: in there. It's just too much. It's just too much
[11:19] Speaker 4: money to let go. And, you know, let Gary Patterson
[11:22] Speaker 4: have another year and ask Gary Patterson what he needs
[11:26] Speaker 4: and see if he can't cobble together a defense. This
[11:28] Speaker 4: is not a lost season. Losing to Oregon wasn't a
[11:31] Speaker 4: terrible thing before they got beaten soundly by Oklahoma State.
[11:37] Speaker 4: This can be fixed, but you can't afford $ 70 million.
[11:42] Speaker 4: That is too big a hill to climb. While she
[11:46] Speaker 4: might be getting rid of one person, it might be
[11:48] Speaker 4: her the next person.
[11:50] Speaker 5: Rick, how would you have handled the two defensive players
[11:53] Speaker 5: behaving badly this last week? One from the Texas player
[11:58] Speaker 5: who faked going to the bathroom after a sack, and then,
[12:00] Speaker 5: of course, the USC player who's not playing against Washington
[12:03] Speaker 5: after he hit Dante Moore and celebrated.
[12:06] Speaker 4: They both should be suspended, and that's what's happening with
[12:10] Speaker 4: the kid from SC. The hit, we see that. Those
[12:16] Speaker 4: things happen in split seconds. So the hit, while bad
[12:20] Speaker 4: and rightfully so penalized, it's going to happen. What was
[12:25] Speaker 4: horrible is he didn't get up and check on the
[12:27] Speaker 4: guy that he just hit, that he didn't say, are
[12:29] Speaker 4: you okay? What was horrible was that there was celebration
[12:34] Speaker 4: and high-fiving and smiles. That is egregious, and that's just horrible,
[12:39] Speaker 4: and I think they're doing the right thing with respect.
[12:42] Speaker 2: To sitting him down.
[12:45] Speaker 4: Colin Simmons had five and a half sacks. He's clearly
[12:48] Speaker 4: a great player, and Sark wasn't in a position to
[12:51] Speaker 4: see the demonstration, but he's been in a situation to
[12:54] Speaker 4: see it post-game. And the fact that that guy's not
[12:58] Speaker 4: sitting means that if you get five and a half sacks,
[13:01] Speaker 4: you can do what you want. I just sit there
[13:04] Speaker 4: and go, look, I've been guilty of not disciplining guys
[13:10] Speaker 4: before in the past. And I remember it vividly. And
[13:15] Speaker 4: I felt after looking back at it with an honest
[13:19] Speaker 4: lens that I had let those guys down. And so
[13:23] Speaker 4: I made up my mind I was going to penalize
[13:25] Speaker 4: guys who act crazily in the future.
[13:29] Speaker 2: And I have.
[13:30] Speaker 4: But, yeah, that that was despicable and should have been
[13:34] Speaker 4: hit with a harsher penalty. Yeah, no doubt. All right.
[13:38] Speaker 3: Well, we're going to get to factor fiction brought to
[13:40] Speaker 3: you by the Lucky Eagle Casino and Hotel in a minute.
[13:42] Speaker 3: But before we make our pick for the day.
[13:46] Speaker 2: Ole Miss, Florida.
[13:48] Speaker 3: We lost on that one a week ago. That was
[13:50] Speaker 3: a big win for Florida. Holy moly was that a
[13:52] Speaker 3: big win for Florida. But the good news is 3-2,
[13:56] Speaker 3: 3-2 on the air. Taco Time Pick of the Week,
[13:59] Speaker 3: what do you think?
[14:02] Speaker 4: Well, I have been looking at this carefully. I think,
[14:09] Speaker 4: you know, Tosh Lupoi got beat last week, only scored
[14:12] Speaker 4: one touchdown. That was a pick six. Darren Chiave, Sangapola
[14:16] Speaker 4: Tele is better than that. They're on the road at Vegas.
[14:19] Speaker 4: Vegas has not looked good. anywhere like they did a
[14:24] Speaker 4: year ago when Dan Mullen first arrived and they had Calandria,
[14:28] Speaker 4: the quarterback who's now doing well at Nebraska. I'm going
[14:31] Speaker 4: to take Cal on the road. I think they're getting
[14:33] Speaker 4: a point and a half.
[14:34] Speaker 2: They are. Two and a half. Two and a half.
[14:36] Speaker 4: I'm taking the Bears to find a good way and
[14:40] Speaker 4: get themselves a win on the road against the Rebels. Okay.
[14:44] Speaker 3: Well, it's funny, and I don't want to give anything away,
[14:46] Speaker 3: but just, Rick, real quick, because we hardly ever ask
[14:49] Speaker 3: you for, like, your handicapping advice besides your pick of
[14:52] Speaker 3: the week. But I'm seeing Fresno State's getting a point
[14:55] Speaker 3: and a half at Wazoo.
[14:56] Speaker 2: What am I missing here?
[14:59] Speaker 4: You know, I just don't know that they feel like
[15:01] Speaker 4: Fresno State's got an offense, though. But I kind of like,
[15:04] Speaker 4: I'm with you. I kind of like the Bulldogs. That guy,
[15:09] Speaker 4: Matt Entz, the head coach there is a North Dakota
[15:12] Speaker 4: State guy. I think he's an up-and-comer. Matter of fact,
[15:17] Speaker 4: there was a lot of talk that should anything happen
[15:19] Speaker 4: to Lincoln, that he would be one of the guys
[15:20] Speaker 4: the Trojans would look at.
[15:22] Speaker 2: Wow, wow.
[15:23] Speaker 3: All right, listen, great stuff. Let's get back in the
[15:25] Speaker 3: win column off to a good start, 3-2. But you
[15:28] Speaker 3: know what's better than 3-2?
[15:29] Speaker 4: 4-2.
[15:29] Speaker 2: 4-2.
[15:31] Speaker 4: Let's get to 4-2. I'm with you, buddy.
[15:34] Speaker 2: We'll talk in a week, man. Appreciate it, Coach.

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