Jedd Fisch’s coaching staff made a lot of impressive adjustments in the Washington Huskies’ 27-17 win over Michigan. None of those adjustments were more important than Fisch finally getting through and getting his team to play disciplined.
The Huskies came into the game as the most penalized team in the Big Ten after being flagged 43 times for 404 yards through their first five games. After defensive tackle Jacob Bandes was called for illegal hands-to-the-face in the second quarter, it felt like those issues, which have been prominent in both of Washington’s losses, might rear their ugly head again.
However, from that point on, only one flag was thrown on the Huskies, which was for having too many men on the field early in the third quarter, but Michigan declined it to take the result of the play instead.
“Penalties are always going to happen in a game,” Fisch said after the game. “But what we didn’t do is we didn’t hurt ourselves in a manner that we could play two teams. I said, ‘Let’s not play two teams, let’s just play one this week, let’s play Michigan.’ I felt our team, our players, our staff did a phenomenal job coaching that up and executing that plan.”
The Huskies picked a great time to make that adjustment because when they head to Iowa, they’ll be facing the nation’s least penalized team. Through six games, the Hawkeyes have been called for just 12 penalties, totaling 100 yards, which both rank No. 1 in the country.
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