Monthly Archives: February 2011

National Signing Day Thread

NEMBOT TO COLORADO — The last piece the Huskies could have potentially added was Stephan Nembot, but he picked Colorado instead.  That leaves this class at 23 guys.

NICE RECAP — This is a nice little round-up of every player that has signed so far, via gohuskies.com.

PAUL WULFF — Here’s a Paul Wulff chat with some Cougar fans earlier today.  I know it’s hard to reflect excitement through typing, but he sure doesn’t try.  This seems like the opposite of Sark.

SURPRISE! — While I was away, taking a test, the Huskies announced that they signed a JC player named Antavius Sims.  I know nothing about him other than he will either play quarterback or safety.  He will be a junior.  Here’s his bio.  As far as names go, this is about as good as it gets.  I’ve always wanted to cheer on a player named Antavius.

I’ll have more notes after I watch Sark’s press conference. (12:40)

SLOWING DOWN — The news has stopped for a while and so I’m going to slow down on the blog for a while.  Sark’s press conference is at noon, and I’ll be back with some thoughts from that this afternoon along with any news that comes out.  Go Dawgs!

NUMBERS BY POSITION UPDATE —

QB – 1
RB – 1
FB – 1
WR – 4
TE – 1
OL – 2
DL – 3
LB – 6
CB – 1
S – 2

Just a few observations on those numbers:  Obviously, the thing that jumps out at you is the number of linemen.  There’s only 5 linemen so far.  That’s a small number but this was considered a very weak class of lineman on the west coast.  Last year was far better, and the Dawgs signed 5 offensive linemen last year.  Next year is also supposed to be better.  Hopefully, Nembot commits but I wouldn’t worry too much about the numbers there.

The coaches did a good job of loading up at linebacker, where the Huskies lost the most last year.

The Huskies only lost one cornerback from last year, so only signing one there isn’t a problem.

Also, the running back position is pretty loaded, so only signing one isn’t a surprise at all.  Dezden Petty isn’t necessarily just a fullback either.  Some people envision him as a Lendale White type of guy (the USC version).

VAN ACKEREN GONE — Bellevue high senior, Kendrick Van Ackeren,  has signed with Hawaii.  I thought he’d be offered late by the Huskies with Jackson ending up at Cal but it might have been too late if that happened.

IS THIS IT? — The Huskies have received 21 LOI today (22 if you count Tutogi) and everyone who was expected to sign has.  Now, we’re waiting on Stephan Nembot and Pauley Asiata to officially announce.  The Dawgs seem to have a much better chance with Nembot than Asiata.  Anyone else who signs with the Huskies would be a surprise. (9:27)

ANNOUNCEMENT TIMES — Stephan Nembot, an offensive lineman, is set to announce whether he’s going to Colorado or UW at 2:00 today.  Because of the lack of lineman in this class, this is a pretty important player to pick up.  Jacoby Brisset, who is a long shot to pick UW, is set to pick his school on Friday.  (9:21)

BIO’S — I haven’t been linking many bio’s lately because I’m usually posting before they update.  They are on this page, just scroll down a little bit.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…. —- In baseball news, Chris Jakubauskas has signed with the Orioles.  Bummer.  (This is a joke)

WOODWARD ON KJR — Scott Woodward, UW’s athletic director, will be on KJR in just a couple of minutes.

5 TIMES’ BLUE CHIPPERS IN — All 5 of the Seattle Times’ Washington state blue chip recruits have now signed with Washington.  Condotta reported that this is the first time that’s ever happened.  Those 5 players are ASJ, Kasen Williams, Danny Shelton, Bishop Sankey, and Taniela Tupou. (9:09)

DANNY SHELTON IN — Another highly rated guy from Washington is in and that is Danny Shelton.  The Huskies won the battle for Shelton’s services with Oregon.  He’s a defensive lineman.  (9:05)

JAMES SAMPLE IN — S James Sample is in.  He’s a highly rated S out of California.  He’s expected to compete with Taz Stevenson and Sean Parker in future years at the SS position.  That area has really become a strength of the team.  (9:00)

UP TO TWENTY — I think that puts this class at 20.  Things will probably slow down now.  There haven’t been any surprises so far, aside from Jackson to California.  Condotta is doing an interview on KJR right now.  He has pretty good insight into some things.

MARCUS PETERS IN — The first cornerback of the class has now signed, Marcus Peters.  He’s also from California.  (8:55)

FEENEY AND TUFUNGA IN — Travis Feeney who is either a safety or linebacker has just signed.  Also, Siosifa Tufunga, an OL from California, is now in.  He’s just the second offensive lineman to sign as of right now.  (8:52)

LINKS — Here’s a link to the live chat they have going on at gohuskies.com.  Here’s another link to Bob Condotta’s Husky blog.  Everyone’s reporting pretty much the same thing, but they’re probably doing a little bit better job of it than me.

LYON’S IN — Matthew Lyon’s, a linebacker out of California, has now signed with Washington.  ROAR!  (8:47)

SANKEY IN — G00d news, as Bishop Sankey has signed his LOI now.  He’s the only, true running back in this class and is one of the highest rated backs on the west coast. (8:39) Here’s his bio

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Catching Up

The Good Guys’ are a little busy lately, and you may have noticed by the lack of posting.  Last week was the busiest week of my life.  Matthew is in school, observing school, about to teach school, and working all at once.  Joe is keeping up his busy life.  And Dan trumps us all by being a new father.  That should explain the lack of fresh material.  So, here’s the short end of what we missed this last week (going by teams):

Seattle Mariners: We didn’t miss much… They signed Jamey Wright, which is fine and fits in with all the other minor pieces that add depth to the roster.  They had FanFest, which is pretty cool.  Chone Figgins was about to be traded, and then he wasn’t.  Maybe the most exciting bit of news that’s coming out lately is all of the prospect lists that include Mariner prospects.  Most of the “Top 100 Prospects”  lists include 3 Mariners, and those are Dustin Ackley (second baseman), Michael Pineda (starting pitcher), and Nick Franklin (shortstop).  There are still some pretty significant lists to come out, but all of them are sure to include these 3 players.  Ackley has generally been in the top 5-20 prospects.  Pineda is usually somewhere in the top 10-30 prospects and Franklin generally comes in around 35-50.  This is something to be excited about if you’re a Mariners fan.  The depth in the organization is in a better place than it has been in years and is further proof that I think Jack Z is one of the best GM’s in the game despite the lack of results the big-league club has shown.

Spring Training starts in a couple of weeks and that will give us more meaningless news to talk about.  Yes, you read that right.

Husky Basketball: A week after a very strong showing against the Arizona Wildcats, the Huskies played their worst game of the season in losing to Wazzu on Sunday night.  It was not fun to watch, which is something we don’t say about this team very often.  They played extremely sloppy and couldn’t make a shot to save their lives in the 2nd half.  Lots of people are pretty worried about the way the team looked, I’m not.  That was the most hostile environment the Huskies will play in all year (don’t get me started on their fans), and the Cougars played the best I’ve seen them play.  Frankly, I think the dawgs just had an off-night.  I also think it’s pretty telling that the Huskies played their worst game of the year, the Cougars played one of their best and it was still only a 7-point loss.  We’ll get them back at Hec. Ed.

Husky Football: Here’s what we really missed.  Every year in college football, recruiting gets more hectic, and that has never been more telling than the last 2 weeks.  I won’t go into detail about recruits who will be signing tomorrow (because I plan to be having a live thread throughout the morning and afternoon that will be about the recruits) but there seems to be a new rumor every hour.  Today’s special rumor includes De’Anthony Thomas (who some services have as the number 1 recruit in the nation) coming to UW along with about half his team.  I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that this won’t happen, but it’s nice that the Huskies are in the center of all these rumors and shows that the program is becoming relevant again.  I have a feeling that tomorrow could yield some special surprises.  And if not, this class is still great!

By the way, tomorrow should be a national holiday.  I plan to make it a holiday for myself.  I will be running a live thread throughout the day (aside from going to one class for a test and having to stop by work for 15 minutes).  If you have any questions on recruits or anything Seattle sports related, stop by and put something in the comments.  If all goes as planned, I should be starting around 7 or 7:30 in the morning, so stop by!

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

Leave a comment

Filed under Huskies Basketball, Huskies Football, Mariners