After Jedd Fisch said he wanted to use Friday's game against the Iowa Hawkeyes as a measuring stick for how much his team has grown since a 40-16 defeat on the road at Kinnick Stadium in 2024, the Washington Huskies were outgained 263 to -3 on the ground in a 41-24 loss.
Washington looked physically overwhelmed in every sense of the term, and after the head coach spent the entire offseason touting his team's improved size and physicality, it looked like the Huskies still have miles to go to compete with one of the strongest, most disciplined programs in the nation.
"I was surprised of the physical mismatch in a lot of ways," Fisch said after the game. "How do we close the gap?"
While Fisch and his staff have proven that they can recruit at a high
level and get the size and talent necessary to compete in the Big Ten, it hasn't looked cohesive in any way at the halfway point of the season. On top of that, while the Huskies are very clearly much bigger than they have been in Fisch's first two years, the strength and physicality levels left a lot to be desired.
"We have two more offseasons with these guys," Fisch added. "That's a team of fourth and fifth-year players that have been in the same weight room, the same expected conditioning program, and are all probably homegrown, for the most part. I think they have minimal transfers. âŠI think most of their players on the offensive and defensive line are 22 and 23 years old. And we were not strong enough and stout enough to be able to hold up at this point in time, and we need to be bigger, stronger to do that. And the point of emphasis that I've made for three years if you want to beat the Big Ten teams...you have to be physical, big, strong."
"You have to embrace the weight room, you have to embrace nutrition, you have to eat five meals a day, and you have to look at how are you going to be able to match up day in and day out with the type of players that those programs have? And it's gonna come with a maturity process, and maturation; it's also gonna come with being able to make that full investment and then...their nutrition, they're spending on conditioning, and all those things that they have to invest in themselves. And take that exceptionally serious."
While some of those things do come with maturation, Fisch has emphasized playing young players throughout his tenure, some of whom, like offensive lineman John Mills in 2025 and defensive tackle Derek Colman-Brusa this season, have shown to be up to the physical challenge of the conference right away. However, it's clear the Huskies still have a long way to go.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington physically overwhelmed by Iowa in 41-24 loss to Hawkeyes
