Washington visits Penn State: Dishing on Jedd Fisch’s Huskies ahead of the White Out game

A Washington Huskies' optimist would probably say the 2024 team is oh-so-close to being 7-2, not 5-4.

Two of Washington's losses were by a total of eight points.

Jedd Fisch's program, which faces 7-1 Penn State on Saturday night at Beaver Stadium, dropped a 24-19 non-conference decision to Washington State on Sept. 14.

Shortly after that, the Huskies ventured to the Garden State and came up just short against Rutgers, back when Greg Schiano's Scarlet Knights were respectable. Washington lost 21-18 in Piscataway.

Three big issues for the Huskies in that one: 1. Fisch's team somehow was held to 18 points despite generating 521 yards of offense and not turning the ball over; 2. Washington placekicker Grady Gross misfired on three of four field-goal attempts vs. Rutgers; 3. The Huskies run defense coughed up 184 yards, with Kyle Monangai rumbling for 132 yards on 25 attempts.

Still, there is a big opportunity awaiting Washington on Saturday in State College.

A few notes:

Huskies' DC weighs in on Tyler Warren. Steve Belichick, the son of Bill Belichick, runs the Washington defense. He was asked earlier in the week about dealing with Warren, the Lions' star tight end who has 51 catches for 606 yards and four touchdowns.

"Yeah, he's a different style (of) player than most tight ends out there," Steve Belichick said of Warren earlier in the week.

"It starts with the quarterback ( Drew Allar ), then you see (Warren) at quarterback.

"And so, that's interesting at first, and then you see how big he is. ... You see his play style and you see all the things that he does for that offense, it's pretty impressive, for sure."

Warren has also thrown a touchdown pass and run for a score. The Lions will almost definitely use him as a wildcat quarterback on a couple of plays vs. Washington.

"Tough guy to stop," Belichick added.

Is Washington's pass defense THAT good? The numbers say the Huskies are the No. 2 defense in FBS in terms of fewest yards allowed per game, 142. That is an extremely low number.

However, Washington has faced Rutgers, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and an Indiana team that played with its backup quarterback.

Four of those teams are not dangerous, or adventurous, through the air. And the Hoosiers ran 52 times for 188 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-17 win.

The visitors' path to an upset victory. That's easy. Run Jonah Coleman about 30 times.

The 229-pounder is hard to slow down. Coleman, who has collected 889 yards and seven touchdowns on 141 attempts, is averaging 6.3 yards per rush.

Coleman has five 100-yard games, and he would have had a sixth if Washington had run him more than nine times (80 yards) in a loss at Iowa.

Looking back on the last PSU-Washington meeting. Penn State has beaten the Huskies twice in the regular season previously, and the most famous PSU-Washington meeting took place in the 2017 Fiesta Bowl.

Behind outstanding performances by quarterback Trace McSorley and running back Saquon Barkley, the Lions won 35-28 to cap an 11-2 season.

McSorley threw for 342 yards and ran for another 60. Barkley scored on a 92-yard run and finished with 175 combined rushing-receiving yards in his final collegiate game.