UW Huskies Notebook: Where Dawgs stand after loss to Iowa

Head coach Jedd Fisch met with reporters Monday afternoon to look back at the UW Huskies’ 40-16 loss at Iowa, detail his team’s plans for their bye week, and look ahead to an Oct. 26 game at No. 16 Indiana.

UW Huskies suffer third loss, fall 40-16 to Kaleb Johnson-led Iowa

Here’s what to know.

Getting healthy

Priority No. 1 for UW during its bye week: heal up.

Junior edge rusher Zach Durfee missed the Iowa game with a toe injury, but should be able to play at Indiana, Fisch said.

Starting left tackle Maximus McCree dislocated his thumb early in the Iowa game and didn’t return. His status is uncertain, as Fisch said he’s still waiting to hear back from a hand specialist. “It’s one of those dislocations that there has to be a specific answer that decides if he can play with a club, if he can’t,” Fisch said. “There’s the ball cast, which you really can’t use as an offensive linemen. There’s some intricacies that I don’t know the answer to.”

Junior guard Gaard Memmelaar played sparingly against Iowa as he works through an injury, but Fisch said Memmelaar “should be healthier than he was, so that’s exciting to get him back.”

Fisch mentioned other players like senior linebackers Alphonzo Tuputala and Carson Bruener, plus senior safety Kam Fabiculanan, as veterans who will yield practice reps to younger players this week in order to get as healthy as possible.

Senior tight end Quentin Moore remains sidelined by the MCL injury he sustained in Washington’s opener against Weber State. He is unlikely to play at Indiana, Fisch said, and his return doesn’t sound imminent.

“It was a pretty substantial MCL injury, so we’re working through it,” Fisch said. “He didn’t have to get operated on, but we did have to let the doctors make the decision on what’s best for him. Right now, he’s not where, I guess, he hoped he would be, but he is progressing at a good level.”

Third-year sophomore receiver Kevin Green Jr., an Arizona transfer who sustained a leg injury late in training camp, could be cleared for the USC game on Nov. 2.

Another early kickoff

The Huskies will play consecutive games at 9 a.m. PT, with an idle week in between.

UW’s game at Indiana will kickoff at 12 p.m. ET and air on Big Ten Network. The Huskies’ 9 a.m. kick at Iowa began at 11 a.m. local time.

Fisch said he and his staff will look closely at UW’s travel and logistics process for another early road game, but doesn’t expect they’ll change much. Before Iowa, the Huskies practiced at 9 a.m. PT in Seattle on Thursday, flew to Cedar Rapids that day, then had a walk-through at 9 a.m. Friday morning.

The team will fly to Indiana on Thursday next week, Fisch said.

“We have to make it work. We will make it work,” he said. “And we’ll do the very best we can to put the best schedule together that we can.”

UW Huskies bye week deep dive

Fisch said the coaching staff will look closely at a few specific areas of the team’s performance during the bye week.

“We’re taking a huge dive into red-zone offense, a dive into third-down offense, a dive into end-of-half defense, a dive into our kicking game,” Fisch said. “But you’ve got three days, four days, maybe, to look at all of it. It’s not the NFL. You don’t switch out players. It’s our job to get our players better and continue to improve, and it’s our job to coach better.”

UW will practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Fisch said, and players will lift weights on Thursday. Then, coaches will go on the road recruiting, including attending some high school games, and will return for practice on Sunday.

This column from UW Huskies football insider Christian Caple is exclusive to Seattle Sports. Subscribe to OnMontlake.com for full access to Caple’s in-depth Husky coverage.

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