Chris Petersen, Brock Huard debate UW Huskies’ failed 4th down

Sep 18, 2024, 11:45 AM | Updated: 12:01 pm

Seattle Sports

Was the UW Huskies’ failed speed option to the short side of the field on a decisive fourth-and-goal play in the Apple Cup the wrong call, or was it bad execution?

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Washington head coach Jedd Fisch has said both at different times since his team lost 24-19 to the rival WSU Cougars on Saturday at Lumen Field. In his postgame media session, Fisch put the blame on himself for the call. But during his weekly Monday press conference, he instead said the play would have worked if the Huskies had executed it right.

WASHINGTON STATE GETS THE STOP ON 4TH DOWN!!! 🤩 @WSUCougarFB pic.twitter.com/u9X0TMsaKR

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 14, 2024

It seems most have agreed with Fisch’s initial assessment. But there’s a notable name who is the side of Fisch’s latest comments: Chris Petersen.

The former UW Huskies head coach joined Brock Huard‘s Dawg Talk this week, and the pair of Washington legends had an interesting debate about that controversial play that resulted in a turnover on downs as running back Jonah Coleman was credited with a two-yard loss after taking a pitch from quarterback Will Rogers.

“When I saw that play being run and what happened,” Petersen said to Huard, “I just shook my head and said, ‘Man, oh man’ – for a way different reason than you did and most everybody else did. That was not a bad call. That was poor execution. They actually had the look, Brock. Now it might have not been as clean as you love it, but they had it.”

Petersen, who is now a college football studio analyst for FOX, shared what he saw on the tape that solidified his position.

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“The problem was (UW) blocked it wrong,” Petersen said. “… You gotta leave one man on the line of scrimmage. (WSU) blocked that, so now we got a problem right there. Now it’s just turning into a quarterback sweep. But let’s say that (UW) did block it right, and they’re going to hang one because the look is there. The tight end tackle can take the D-end and scoop up to the (linebacker), who got involved too. The big problem was the guard got beat, he got knocked back. That D-tackle from Wazzu did a nice job… pushed him back, so now it’s soft on that side. To me, that’s why I went with the execution part of things.”

Did UW Huskies pigeonhole themselves?

Huard, who is a FOX college football analyst and has also done sideline reporting during USFL and UFL games, offered up two reasons why he falls on the side of the play call being the problem.

“I’ve learned sitting on the sidelines next to these coaches in real time with the USFL and the UFL and listening to these play calls – (Birmingham Stallions coach) Skip Holtz has won the last three championships, and I think, Chris, one of the great ingredients is in the red zone and goal line, third downs, he never pigeonholes himself. Every play has options. It’s amazing. He doesn’t do a million things. In fact, he runs the fewest plays of anybody in those leagues. But when he gets down there, every play has options.”

For Huard’s second reason, the former Huskies and NFL QB pointed to a couple of things. One is something he heard from his nephew, Sam Huard, who is in his first season as a quarterback at Utah after spending time at UW and Cal Poly. The other is the big play on fourth-and-short in last year’s 24-21 Huskies win in the Apple Cup – wide receiver Rome Odunze’s 23-yard reverse run that helped set up UW kicker Grady Gross’ winning field goal as time expired.

“I was just chatting with my nephew Sam about this a few weeks ago about (Utah offensive coordinator) Andy Ludwig. He’s like, ‘Man, you know what I love about this system? We got man or zone beaters. Third downs are so good. I’ve never been in a situation like this where there is always an answer. This isn’t just a man beater. This isn’t just a zone beater. We have options built into the play.’

“Jedd Fisch earlier in the week compared the reverse (by Odunze) last year on fourth down vs. Wazzu to that call, and to me they were entirely different. I thought that was totally unfair. That fourth down call to Rome Odunze had multiple options built into it, and that’s why (previous UW Huskies head coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb) loved it. ‘If they give us this look, we can run the ball. If they give us this look, you can fake the run and you can give a little flip around to Rome because you know you have space.’ You run that speed option after a timeout into the boundary, Chris, I don’t think there’s enough options. And if it’s muddy at all – is it one guy outside? Is it two guys outside? You know it’s dead with two, and if they muddy those waters up at all, it just felt like way too many options could be dead on arrival. Just, to me, it did not give enough options to the quarterback.”

An olive branch

Petersen did give a concession to the side Huard was arguing for.

“Here’s the only thing that I can maybe side with you a little bit even though you’re not making this point,” Petersen said. “When game is on the line, the one thing that I really like to do is go to a ‘grooved’ call. And ‘groove’ calls are calls that are in our core, they’re in our DNA, we’ve run them 1,000 times, we know the looks – you know, all those type of things. Because the pressure is huge at that time, and so those kids need to react and not think. There was obviously thinking going on in that look.”

Responded Huard: “With Will Rogers running speed option into the boundary? That cannot be a grooved call.”

Petersen: “I get that. There probably hasn’t been enough groove reps.”

Catch a new edition of Brock Huard’s Dawg Talk breaking down the UW Huskies every week on the Seattle Sports’ YouTube channel, the podcast page at SeattleSports.com, or your favorite podcast app. To hear this week’s show, click here, or hit play on either of the video or audio players at the top of this post.