Author Archives: Andrew Long

by | February 4, 2012 · 2:53 pm

Reviewing the 2012 Recruting Class – Running Backs

Yesterday, I began to review the Huskies 2012 recruiting class that signed on Wednesday.  Today, I’ll continue that as I move to the running backs.  This should be fairly easy, seeing how there’s not very many of them.  That’s also a problem though, I don’t know exactly who’s playing running back and who’s playing linebacker so I’ll give it my best guess.  I’m about to drop a Psalm on you!

  • Psalm Wooching, FB – Psalm is already in my top 20 favorite Huskies of all time.  First, there’s his name.  It truly is one of the coolest names I’ve ever heard.  It makes me smile every time I see it.  Secondly, there’s this video.  That is Psalm Wooching.  That is fire dancing.  That is Psalm Wooching fire dancing!  I’ll have to check the record books but I don’t think any Husky player has ever done this aside from Joe Jarzynka (I’m just assuming he did because he did everything).  Most of all, Psalm could be a pretty darn good football player.  Sark has looked for a fullback in the form of Stanley Havili since he arrived at U-Dub.  He thought he found one in Zach Fogerson but he had to retire because of injuries.  In his press conference on Wednesday Sark sounded hopeful saying, “So Psalm Wooching, I think, will really have an instant impact in our offense, an added dimension we haven’t had here for a couple of years.”  Wooching played running back in high school (along with fullback and linebacker) and rushed for 815 yards and 15 touchdowns.  He’s from Hawaii, as you might have guessed, and is 6-3, 217 lbs.  He may have to add a little bit of weight to become a steady fullback.  I think he’ll play right away as the Huskies big back though because that is something the Dawgs are missing on offense.  Wooching was committed to UCLA before their coaching change but reconsidered and chose UW a couple of weeks before signing day.  Psalm is rated as a 3-star recruit by most recruiting services.  I’m looking forward to this guy, if you couldn’t notice.
  • Erich Wilson II, RB – Wilson comes from San Mateo, California, where he had an excellent senior season.  Wilson rushed for 2,106 yards and 33 touchdowns.  He rushed for 9.6 yards per carry, which is a pretty great number.  The high school he came from has some amazing athletes come out of it (Tom Brady, Lynn Swan) and he broke quite a few records there.  When you’re breaking Lynn Swan’s records you’re doing something right.  There was a small possibility of him playing on the defensive side (he’s listed as a fullback by Scout.com) but it seems that he’ll be on offense.  Sark also mentioned that he could be an asset on special teams.  He’s 6-1, 190 lbs. and was also offered by Colorado.  He’s listed as a 2-star by Scout.com but it doesn’t seem like he was actually scouted by them so who knows.  He’s a good addition and will added some needed depth.  I don’t know if he’ll redshirt or play this year because there isn’t a lot of depth at the position and with a couple of injuries he’d be thrust into playing.

Overall Grade: B- 

I really like the addition of Psalm Wooching.  As Sark said, he’ll add something to the offense and will be used.  Wilson is somewhat of an unknown and who knows if he’ll be better or worse than Keivarae Russell (who’s a prospect the Huskies missed out on from Washington) in the long run.  This class could be judged by that.  There could be other guys in this class who switch to running back, like Ryan Mcdaniel but, as of now, most of them will start on the other side of the ball.  This isn’t a thrilling group of players in this position, but it’s solid and will be interesting to follow going forward.

-Andrew

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by | February 3, 2012 · 4:10 pm

Reviewing the 2012 Recruiting Class – Quarterbacks

As you know, if you’ve follow this blog or sports in general, yesterday was National Signing Day in college football.  I tried to keep up with the news all day with a live signing day thread but I didn’t go into much depth on reviewing any of the players.  That’s  because I’m going to review the players in their own separate posts.  We’ll start with quarterbacks today and as the days pass, I’ll make my way down the list of positions.  Some posts will be longer than other because of the amount of players, obviously.  I get most of my information from what the recruiting web sites say, watching video and hearing what Sark said about them.  With that being said, I’ll try to throw in some of my own opinion into the review and what it will mean to the Huskies.  I’ll give each position a review in terms of recruiting, although don’t take them too seriously.

Matthew has been reviewing the players that are already on the Huskies, by position (the latest one being wide receivers).  I won’t include any thoughts on those players aside from general comments.  This will strictly be about the incoming players who signed yesterday, but if you have any questions about the Huskies leave them in the comments and we’ll get to them.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, your newly signed Washington Husky quarterbacks:

  • Jeff Lindquist:  Lindquist is a kid from Mercer Island High School.  I’ve been to a few football games there in the past two years and was shocked at how few of players they had on their team.  They are a 3A school but only have 30-40 people on their team.  Lindquist turned them from a the bottom of the conference team to one who competed in a very tough league.  Jeff has a very strong-arm with good touch, from what I’ve seen.  He’s a big kid, 6-3, 230 lbs., and reminds some of Jake Locker.  He’s not as fast as Montlake Jake but is a much more polished passer at this phase in his career.  He did a lot of read-option stuff in the games I saw him in, along with some pro-style offense.  He’s rated as a 4-star prospect by most quarterback services and went to the elite 11 camp (a camp for, what are considered the best quarterback prospects in the nation).  Lindquist committed to U-Dub way back in April, as he was deciding between the Huskies and Stanford.  He has some pretty good stats from high school (as do all of these prospects).  Jeff was 141-255 passing this year for 1,908 yards and 22 touchdowns.  He also added 826 yards and 12 more touchdowns on the ground.  I’ve met Jeff once and know many people who are friends with him over on Mercer Island.  They all speak volumes about his character and how he’s a great person.  Coach Sark said the same thing in his press conference on Wednesday.  Lindquist is one of the top prospects in this class, but people seem to have forgotten how big it is that this guy has signed since he committed a long time ago.
  • Cyler Miles:  Miles will come from Denver, Colorado and is another top quarterback prospect.  He’s a little bit smaller than Lindquist but not much at 6-2, 220 lbs.  Miles, like Lindquist, committed back in the spring but his recruitment was a little more interesting.  After Doug Nussmeier left for Alabama, Miles considered going to USC.  He reaffirmed his commitment once and then on signing day he went silent.  He again considered USC and then finally decided on U-Dub.  Maybe he was just making fun of Jordan Payton, “You committed to 4 different schools?  Well, I’m going to commit to the same school 4 times!  Haha!”  If Miles doesn’t end up doing anything U-Dub I will associate him with keeping me up on signing day when I could have been taking my nap.  Fortunately, I don’t think that will happen because he’s pretty darn good.  Miles is considered to be another top-15 quarterback in the nation.  He’s rated as a 4-star recruit by most recruiting services.  If you’re wondering, he’s rated higher than Lindquist on some sites but lower on others (more on that later).  Miles has a bit of a strange release but I would expect that to be taken care of when he steps on campus.  He’s a very fast runner, he’ll probably be our fastest quarterback when he steps on campus.  I don’t know exactly what kind of offense he ran in high school, but it’s said that he’s taken a lot of snaps under center, so I’m guessing it was a sort of pro-style offense.  I’ve heard several times that he’s Keith Price-like in that he always keeps his eyes down-field while being elusive.  He played in the Army All-American game and did quite well, passing and rushing for a touchdown.  Miles is another one of this classes jewels and it’s a very good thing that we kept him.

Overall Grade – A

If I gave out A+ grades I’d give this position one.  I don’t give out them because A+’s are for kids who are always trying to 1-up each other and that’s annoying.  Take a break and watch a movie or go play catch, kids!  Anyway, it’s rare for a team to take 2 top-15 (maybe even higher) quarterbacks in one class.  They’ll immediately compete for a backup job against Derrick Brown and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of them not redshirt.  I have no idea who’s better at this point.  I like Lindquist a little more right now, but that’s only because I’ve seen him play more.  They both have a lot of potential and it will be fun to watch.  I don’t know what will happen with them, especially if Max Browne from Skyline picks UW next year (although it sounds unlikely at this point).  But, it’s nice to have quarterback depth and both of these kids could be very special.

More reviews on the positions later!

Andrew

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by | February 1, 2012 · 7:02 am

Live Signing Day Thread

Notes From the Press Conference:

  • The only early player who will be here for spring ball is linebacker (who could play running back) Ryan McDaniel.
  • Kalei Auelua may greyshirt so all of the bloggers and writers can have an extra year to learn how to spell his name.  Actually he might greyshirt because of a knee injury.  (A greyshirt means that he would sit out this season and enroll for winter quarter next year).  Everyone else will enroll in the summer.
  • Sark discussed fans contacting recruits via social media.  In a nutshell, he said that he was against it.  That’s not very surprising and I think most coaches would take that stance.  The sad thing is that not everyone takes that stance.

Sark broke down every player that committed and it was very interesting.  You can rewatch it at GoHuskies.com or read about it on Condotta’s blog (although he hasn’t added much from the press conference yet, he will soon).  For now, I’m going to call it quits on here and take a nap.  I’ve heard sitting on a laptop from 6:30 AM – 3:30 PM isn’t exactly healthy!  Leave any questions in the comments and I’ll get to them soon.  If there’s anymore news I’ll get to it.  Thanks for following along!  It’s been fun.  Go Dawgs!

More On Beaver – Beaver is 6-0, 176 lbs.  He’ll play cornerback for the huskies.  What an amazing last 48 hours it’s been for the future of the U-Dub secondary.  Here’s some video.

Brandon Beaver Commits! – Sorry I was out to lunch… I should have known better.  Anyway, Sark announced at his press conference that Brandon Beaver is a Dawg.  Another great get by Sark and company.  I know we lost Payton, but this was a great day for the Huskies.  It seems to be all over now and Sark more or less confirmed that in his press conference.  I’ll have a few notes from his press conference in a bit.

Miles Video – Here’s a video of Miles.  Glad he’s a Dawg!

Cyler is a Husky – Right as I pushed update, Miles announced that he is still going to attend and play at the university of Washington.  So, the Huskies keep both of their 4-star quarterbacks and only lose one player today, Jordan Payton.  Overall, a great day.  I think there will be another two or three commits before it’s all said and done.

Still Waiting On Cyler – As of 1:26, we’re still waiting on a Cyler Miles decision.  No one seems to know what’s going on right now.  People are speculating that USC is close to running out of room in their class but I don’t think it’s an issue.  We should know any minute what his decision is.  Also, there’s a rumor that the Huskies might be in play for cornerback Alphonso Marsh.

Shaq Thompson On KJR at 12:20 – Tune into Softy’s show at 12:20 to hear the bright, new star for the Huskies.

Announcement Times – Cyler Miles will announce around 1.  Goforth will announce around 2.  Brandon Beaver will announce around 3:15.  Stay tuned for those.

That Could Be It – It’s possible the Huskies will receive more letters (the most likely are Cyler Miles, Goforth and Beaver) but that might be it. It’s been a pretty successful day and the Huskies have gained more than they’ve lost.  If Miles goes elsewhere, we may have to reevaluate that but as of now, it was a good day!  Things might slow down here for a little bit.  If any news breaks, we’ll let you know.

Jaydon Mickens’ Letter Arrives – There’s only so many ways to say a letter of intent has come.  Anyway, Mickens is a receiver who committed last night.  He’s 5-11, 175 lbs. and is known for his speed.  Here’s video.

Kalei Auelua Officially In – Auelua is a defensive end who’s 6-1, 233 lbs.  The Dawgman guys were just talking about him and said he has great speed for a defensive end.  Here’s the video.

Breakdown by Position – Over the weekend I’ll go in depth on the prospects at the positions.  For now, here’s the numbers (of course, there’s a few more guys that will probably join soon).

QB – 1 or 2 (Depending on Miles)

RB – 2 (including fullback, Wooching)

WR – 3 (including Mickens)

TE – 0

OL – 5 (6 if you include preffered walk-on)

DT – 2

DE – 2

LB – 3

DB – 2 (3 if we get Beaver)

S – 1

P/K – 2

Breakdown by State – Here’s the breakdown of players who have signed by state

California – 13 (Jaydon Mickens would be the 14th)

Washington – 5

Hawaii – 2 (But another one should be coming anytime with Aeulua bringing the total to 3)

Arizona – 1

Cyler Miles is from Colorado if he picks UW over USC.

Another Blog to Follow – Ted Miller’s ESPN Pac-12 blog is a great blog to follow if you want to know what’s going on around the conference.  You can find it here.

Brandon Beaver- Beaver is also one to watch, as he’s thought to be a UW lean.  Although he seems to not have any idea based on his twitter account.

Three Guys Left – With the announcement that Jordan Payton is going to UCLA, there are 3 guys on UW’s commit list who haven’t got their letters in yet.  They are Cyler Miles, Jaydon Mickens and Kalei Auelua.  Of course, there are rumors going on with Miles.  I don’t know what the deal is with Mickens but I haven’t heard any rumors of him going elsewhere.  Auelua lives in Hawaii and should be in shortly.

Softy on KJR – Softy is on KJR now with some recruiting experts and Dick Baird.  They have a lot more information than what was happening earlier on that radio station so listen along if you can.

Payton officially to UCLA – In one of the stranger things I’ve seen, Jordan Payton committed to U-Dub on national TV yesterday but has now changed his mind and is going to UCLA according to his high school AD.  This is a bummer, and the kid clearly doesn’t know what he wants.

Psalm Wooching, Best Name Nominee – This is my favorite name in the class.  Psalm Wooching is a 6-3, 217 pound fullback.  He’s a Hawaiian.  GoHuskies reports that he can also Fire Dance.  And here’s some real video.

Who’s All In?  If you’re just catching up, this is a list of guys who have got their letters in:

Kendyl Taylor
Darien Washington
Pio Vatuvei
Shaq Thompson
Nathan Dean
Taylor Hindy
Blake Rodgers
Dwayne Washington
Erich Wilson
Jake Eldrenkamp
Damion Turpin
Jeff Lindquist
Cory English
Ryan McDaniel
Cory Littleton
Korey Durkee
Shane Brostek

And add Cleveland Wallace to that, so it brings the number to 20.  I have video of most of the guys posted below, so feel free to scroll through.

Cleveland Wallace is Official! – Surprise number 3!  A DB from California, Wallace comes to UW because of the hiring of Keith Heyward.  He’s 5-11, 165 lbs.  Great pickup for the Dawgs.  Here’s some video.

Slowing Down a Bit – It seems that the letters are slowing down some.  There are a few rumors flying around that we have covered (Miles, Payton, and Wallace) but nothing new on those.  It’s been about 2 hours since the letters started getting reported.

Brostek Video –  I didn’t post this earlier with his name so here is some video of Shane Brostek.

Rumor:  Cleveland Wallace to UW – Oregon State verbal commit, Cleveland Wallace, sounds as if he’s decided on UW.  There hasn’t been a letter received but several sources say that’s where he’s headed.

Cozens to Arizona – One of the last guys the Huskies were in on, Dylan Cozens, has committed to Arizona.  This isn’t a big surprise but it would have been nice to get the defensive end.

Shane Brostek Is In –  Shane is the 19th guy who has a letter in.  I’m excited about this guy.  He’s a 6-3, 300 lb offensive lineman from Hawaii.  His dad was a Husky and he kept his recruiting quiet.  It’s thought he would be ranked higher by scouts if he had attended more camps.

Cyler Miles Will Decide at 1 P.M. – Multiple sources have confirmed that Cyler Miles will announce whether he’s going to UW or USC today at 1 P.M.

Josh Banks – Josh Banks is a defensive tackle from California.  He’s 6-3, 274 lbs. He was at a JC in California for 2 years.

Korey Durkee Punts His LOI In – Durkee is a punter from Gig Harbor and no, he didn’t punt his letter in.  Wouldn’t that be cool though?  He’s a big guy, 6-3, 215 lbs.  We’ve got some big special teams guys!

Jordan Payton Is Wavering – Sounds like UCLA might steal the coveted receiver away from the Huskies.  That’s 2 4-star commits that we’ll have to keep an eye on as the day continues.  Things are getting pretty interesting.

Cory Littleton Is In – With the 16th letter, Littleton comes to UW as a linebacker from California.  He’s 6-4, 218 lbs.

The Class is Shaping Up –  Just from writing this, I’ve become amazed at how solid this class is all of a sudden.  It’s happened in the last 3 days, but the class has really come together with linemen and play-makers.  If we can add some DB’s (mostly just Brandon Beaver) I’ll feel great about this.  Good  depth just about everywhere that it was needed.

Ryan McDaniel – With the 15th letter, McDaniel is a linebacker out of California.  He’s 6-0, 225 lbs.  Here’s his video.  McDaniel is one of my favorite under the radar guys in this class.

Adding Some English to the Kick! – And now the headlines are going down hill.  Cory English is now in as the 14th letter.  He’s a 6-3, 284 lbs. offensive lineman from Auburn.  I don’t see many video on English unfortunately.

Kicking Has Arrived! – Travis Coons, who was ranked as the top JC kicker by several services, now has his letter in. He’s big for a kicker, 6-2, 205 lbs.  I don’t think you want to watch video of a kicker.  If you do, you’re really cool or really lame.  I haven’t decided which yet.

Where We’re At – It’s a few minutes after 9 AM and the Huskies have 12 letters in, with more rolling in every minute.  12 is probably close to half the amount the Huskies will end up with.  We’ve had 2 surprised in Pio and Lindy.  Pio is one to be really excited about and Lindy seems to be a backup plan to Banner.

Jeff Lindquist With Number 12 – Lindquist, the big name quarterback from Washington has his letter in now.  He’s one to be excited about.  He’s 6-3, 215 lbs. and has a cannon.  Here’s some video.

Damion Turpin is In- That rhymed!  Turpin is a defensive tackle from California.  He’s 6-5, 265 lbs. so clearly he has a bit of weight to gain.  Welcome to the Dawgpack Damion!  Here’s some video.

Jake Eldrenkamp – The offensive lineman from Bellevue is in as number 10 and the third offensive lineman.  He’s 6-5 and 295 lbs.  Here’s some video.  Love the big guy.

Erich Wilson is In, Number 9 – Erich Wilson is 6-1, 190 lbs.  He will either play running back or linebacker and we’ll probably find that out during Sark’s conference.  He came from the same high school as Tom Brady and Barry Bonds.  If he plays like a mix of those two then he’ll be on steroids and really annoying.  I think I’ll like him a lot more than those two though. 

Here’s Some extra Info on Lindy – The relatively unknown Lindy, is definitely a sleeper.  I don’t mean he likes to sleep (although he might), I mean the coaches are rolling the dice on him.

Dwayne Washington In The Fold – This brings the number of letters to 8 and the number of players named Washington to 2.  He’s a 6-2, 210 lbs and a receiver out of California.  Here’s his video.

Cyler Miles Uncertainty – Sounds as if no one knows what Cyler is doing.  Hopefully we’ll know something soon.

Blake Rodgers, #7 – Blake Rodgers, 6-2, 215 lbs., a middle linebacker from California is in.  Here’s his tape.

Letter #6, Taylor Hindy! Surprise? – This seems to be a surprise? I don’t know much about him but he’s an added offensive line commit. He’s a big boy, 6-5 and 295 lbs.  Here’s his tape and I’ll try to add some information about him as we go.  He will bring the number of offensive linemen to 5 (6 if you count the walk-on).  Good news there.

Nathan Dean Is In – Nathan Dean, an offensive lineman from Juanita High School in Kirkland, is now in.  He’s 6-7, 274 lbs. and here’s some video.

Virtual Highlights- GoHuskies.com has some weird virtual highlight thing going on in their website.  It’s a bit strange but kind of cool too.  Check it out there if you’d like to.

Shaq Thompson Officially In – We’re up to number 4 now and it’s Shaq Thompson, which is awesome.  Here’s some video of Shaq, who clearly has some good film.

Jeff Lindquist on KJR – The Husky quarterback commit from Mercer Island is on KJR with Mitch right now.

Surprise! Pio Vatuvei! – The first surprise of the day is Pio Vatuvei.  He has committed to U-Dub after formerly being committed to USC.  He’s a defensive end out of California who is 6-3, 272 lbs.  Great get and way to start, here’s his video.

Cyler Miles may be Rethinking- The highly rated quarterback commit for the University of Washington may be rethinking his commitment to the Huskies.  Obviously, that’s not great news but we’ll see what happens.

Pretty Awesome Video – Here’s a pretty cool video of Darien Washington laying out some guy.

Darien Washington Next – Darien Washington (6-1), a receiver out of California, is now officially a Husky.  He’s listed as a CB by scout but it looks like GoHuskies may have him a receiver, which would come from Sark.

Kendryl Taylor is the First One in – Washington has just announced that Kendryl Taylor (5-10, 196 lbs.), a receiver from Arizona, has got his letter in.  Here’s some video on him.

Shaq Thompson’s LOI is Signed – According to Joe Davidson on twitter, Shaq Thompson has signed his LOI and it will arrive a U-Dub shortly.  That is good news because we won’t have to worry about him flipping to Oregon or anything like that.  This is at 7:58 AM.

Press Conference at 2 – Sark’s press conference is at 2 P.M. today.  I don’t think I passed that along until now.  I’m not sure where it will be streamed but I would guess GoHuskies will have it.

From the GoHuskies Live Chat –  “Folks, still waiting to hear official confirmation on the LOIs. Just need to make sure all the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted.”

Dumb Debates – One of the best parts of signing day ending will be the end of all the dumb debates about whether schools should stop talking to a recruit after they verbally commit.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s not going to happen unless there is an early signing period and only the NCAA will allow it to happen if they want it to happen.  ‘Stealing’ recruits has been happening for longer than any of know.

Also, KJR needs to stop comparing Shaq Thompson to Terrance Jones.  Completely different situation and there is not really a comparison in the way they changed their minds.

Michael Rector to Stanford – Rector had been a UW commit has decided to sign with Stanford.  He was thought to be leaning that way after getting accepted earlier this week.  This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, and due to the slew of wide receiver commits in the last 2 days, it seems as if the Husky coaches may have known.  It’s a loss, but not a huge one.

Where UW Ranks – As of right now (7:38) the Huskies rank 4th in the Pac-12 and 21st in the nation with their recruiting class on Scout.  Of course, these rankings don’t exactly matter but, you’d rather have a highly rated class than not.

Pac-12 Top Classes – Scout and ESPN have Oregon as the number one ranked class in the Pac-12, as Oregon has made an early push this morning.  Rivals has USC as number one in the Pac-12.

Number One Ranked Classes –  For those who are curious, Alabama is ranked as having the number one class by ESPN and Rivals.  Scout Recruiting has Texas as number one in the nation.

Live Chat – At gohuskies they have a live chat going on.  As far as I can tell that will be the first way to hear about a letter coming in.  As of right now, 7:27, there are no letters in.

Why Shaq picked us – Condotta linked this article a few minutes ago, and I found it pretty interesting so I will do the same.  Although, if you’re following this blog without following his I’d suggest changing that quickly.  Anyway, here is what Shaq said about why he chose UW. (Shaq Thompson is the highest rated recruit U-Dub and the number 1 ranked safety in the nation).

ESPN3 – ESPNU (which you can find on ESPN3) is also streaming live coverage of prospects announcing.  I’m not sure if any UW prospects will announce on there but it’s still fun to follow.

7:11 – It’s 7:11 and we’re waiting as far as I can tell.  7-11 and a doughnut doesn’t sound too bad.  Then again, it doesn’t sound too good either.

No Fax Cam – Unfortunately, Gohuskies.com has done away with the fax cam.  This camera strictly just was set on the fax machine at UW and showed any letters coming in.  It was quite boring.  But, it’s the end of an era and it’s all over.  Goodbye fax cam, we’ll miss you.

No recruits in different time zones – Letters can be signed at 7 AM by players, so some schools have had letters come in already (Trey Griffey, the son of Ken Griffey Jr. has had his letter come into Arizona at 5 AM this morning) but the Huskies all have players in the pacific time zone (aside from a few in the mountain time zone) who are deciding.  So, anytime some will trickle in.

The Day Is Here – Good morning all and Happy National Signing Day!  The letters of intent are just a few minutes away from rolling into the University of Washington, and we’ll soon know who will be the incoming freshmen of 2012.  I’ll cover today by putting all new information at the top of this post as everything happens.  As we’re about to start, here’s a list of links to some of the blogs and information that’s worth following.

Here’s the Good Guys Recruiting Thread from the last couple of days, if you need to catch up.

Gohuskies has a ‘Signing Day Central’ feature on their website.

Bob Condotta’s (Seattle Times) Husky Football Blog

Ryan Divish’ (News Tribune) Husky Insider

I’m not sure if they’re doing anything specific, but UW Dawg Pound is a nice blog to follow.

The recruiting services, Dawgman and Realdawg will have information as well.

There you go, and we’re off!

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by | January 24, 2012 · 5:31 pm

Prince Fielder is a Tiger, Please Stay Calm

The subject of much (or should I say mass) baseball conversation this year can finally be put to rest.  Prince Fielder signed with the Detroit Tigers, who came out of nowhere to snatch up the first basemen paying the large (like the player) price of 214 million for 9 years.  Man, he’s payed like a prince!

I have long (another pun, but less obvious) been in the ‘sing Prince’ camp but today isn’t very disappointing since, well, look at that price!  That is insane.  The highest I’d have gone would have been 8 years for 165 million.  I’m a big (not as big as Prince) fan of Fielder, but that price just isn’t reasonable for this team.  It’s not reasonable for most of this team.

Yes, it’s disappointing that we won’t see Prince in an M’s uniform.  I’ve been picturing him hitting homers off the Hit It Here Cafe all off-season but that won’t happen until the Tigers visit.  This deal could have strapped the Marines for years to come and the re-signing Felix and the other young talent on the roster would have been much harder had this gone through.  Thing about Chone Figgins.  When he signed most people thought it was a good deal, myself included.  Now, it feels like he’s been here forever but still has 2 years left on his contract.  Of course, Fielder is much better than Figgins and will produce to an extent, at least.  The point is that by year 7 or 8 of his contract, Fielder could become crippling to the Tigers organization.  It may be worth it, but only time will tell.

The truth is, it sounds as if Fielder was never very interested in being here.  We don’t know how true that is, but take it for what it’s worth.  Hey Prince!  We don’t want you for that price either, so take that!

More thoughts after the jump.   Continue reading →

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by | January 19, 2012 · 1:32 am

Catching Up With The Dawgs

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks at Montlake for Sark and his football team.  Matthew wrote about the recruiting aspect a few weeks ago and that combined with all of the coaching news has made for an interesting month since the Alamo Bowl.  Tonight, I’ll take a look at most of the news (date-by-date fashion) and add a few thoughts to it.

December 14th, 2011 – What Happened: Demetrice Martin, who was the cornerback coach at UW, left to fill the same position at UCLA.  He was one of the top recruiters on the Husky staff and his loss was felt immediately in the recruiting realm.  Several commits flipped from UW to UCLA and a few other guys dropped the Huskies from their list.

Looking At It Now:  It doesn’t seem like a big deal now and, frankly, I think it might help the Huskies.  Martin was undoubtedly a good recruiter but I don’t know about his coaching.  Maybe we won’t see our corners lack confidence now?  Maybe they’ll play a little closer to the receiver.  None of the corners have developed under Martin (Q. Rich regressed significantly) and maybe they will under the new coach.  Maybe not, but I think it was time for a change at this coaching position anyway.

December 29th, 2011 – What Happened:  Kevaire Russel, one of the top recruits in the state, announces that he has verbally committed to Notre Dame over the hometown Huskies.  Message boards erupted (I’m talking about you Dawgman) in fury over how Sark can’t recruit.  It was a little shocking and interesting to see that the Huskies couldn’t keep a recruit at home.

Looking At It Now: It’s still a bit alarming that a lot of in-state recruits are turning elsewhere but it was never worth freaking out over.  The Huskies are still in on several big name guys and will probably end up with a very solid class.  I should have saved some of the comments from the Dawgman boards because it’s hilarious how blown out of proportion some were.

December 29th, 2011 –  What Happened:  The Huskies lost one of the most entertaining, frantic, fascinating football games I’ve ever seen.  The Alamo Bowl ended in with Baylor winning 67-56.  I still see that score and am astonished.  Both defenses were absolutely terrible and both offenses were phenomenal.  It’s a shame that a lot of the focus gets put on how horrible the defense was (which I admit, both were horrible) and not put on how good the offenses were.  Watching the national title week several weeks later, I couldn’t help think of how entertaining that game was.  By the way, the Dawgs and Baylor would score touchdowns on LSU and Alabama.

Looking At It Now:  You always want to win.  Let me start off by saying that.  A bowl win is nice because trophies are cool and you don’t want to have 67 points scored on you on national TV.  This game may be responsible for what all happened next and what happened next may be what takes the Dawgs back to the top of the Pac-12.

December 31st, 2011 – What Happened:  Sark fired Nick Holt, Mike Cox and Jeff Mills from his staff.  The Alamo Bowl seemed to be the final straw with the defense and Sark had enough.  It wasn’t much of a surprise and speculation quickly turned to candidates.

Looking At It Now:  It had to happen and it did.

January 2nd, 2012 – What Happened:  The Huskies hired away Justin Wilcox from the Tennessee Volunteers, he was their defensive coordinator.  He brought Peter Sirmon along with him and he will coach the linebackers.  This seemed to be Sark’s first choice and he made the move quickly.  People around the country were impressed by the hire of the up and coming DC and his right-hand recruiting man.

Looking At It Now:  When Sark gave Husky fans a day to speculate about who the new guy might be, Justin Wilcox was my top choice.  Needless to say, I was pleased with the hire.  Wilcox has an impressive resume and seems to know what he’s doing.  His players seemed to love him and he was successful at both of his stops.  He may leave for a head coaching gig soon, but that means that he’d have been successful.  I’m all for this hire and it seems like everyone else is too.

January 12th, 2012 – What Happened:  The Huskies hired Keith Heyward to be their new defensive backs coach.  He is a younger guy who had the same position at Oregon State.  There’s a theme to these hires and it’s that they’re all younger guys.  He was said to be one of the best recruiters on the OSU staff.  I don’t have any examples of his coaching ability.

Looking At It Now:  I don’t have a lot of basis for this but I think this might be the most underrated hire the Huskies made.  It seems like this one was forgotten after all of the news.  Heyward is well liked by recruits and may steal a few from Oregon State this year.  Again, I don’t know much about his coaching ability but he was loved at OSU and was said to be a good hire by many experts.

January 16th, 2012 – What Happened:  The Huskies hired Tosh Lupoi away from the California Golden Bears.  He was their defensive line coach and a pretty successful one.  He is said to be the best recruiter on the west coast and everyone was impressed with the hire.  Many Cal recruits were shocked and said to be opening their recruitment back up.

Looking At It Now:  Well, these last couple only happened a few days ago so there’s not a ton to add except for my opinion.  This is a great hire.  Lupoi probably can’t live up to the hype he has come with because I’ve never seen an assistant coach have so much hype aside from Ed Orgeron, who is the other top recruiting assistant in the Pac-12.  It was the best defensive-line coaching hire Sark could have realistically made.  It was the final piece of, what I consider, the best staff he could have put together.

January 16th 2012 – What Happened:  Nick Montana, the heralded quarterback, decided to transfer from the UW.  He came to the Huskies with much fanfare and didn’t perform very well in his only start (not that it was all his fault).  From what I saw he has a future as a college quarterback.  In fact, from what I saw he could start for Alabama or LSU and win a national championship.

Looking At It Now:  It was inevitable, really.  The guy wants to play and wasn’t going to have much of a chance here.  Watching his demeanor in practice, I was never a huge fan of his but he’s got talent and is a smart kid.  I hope he does well in the future.

January 17th – What Happened:  The Huskies offensive coordinator, Doug Nussmeier, left UW and took the same role at Alabama.  It’s hard to blame him, he’ll get to call his own plays for the defending national champions and he’ll get a raise.  Unfortunately for the Dawgs, Nussmeier was a great coach and they had to fill another position in their staff.  This was the date it became official, it was known quite sometime in advance.

Looking At It Now:  Nussmeier is a good coach and deserves a ton of credit for the progress Jake Locker and Keith Price made.  With that being said, everyone knows this is Sark’s offense.  He is the creative young mind and he has his system.  I would be surprised if the Huskies felt a huge impact by the loss of Nussmeier.  Best of luck to him at Alabama.

January 18th – What Happened:  The Huskies poached another Cal coach in Eric Kiesau to fill the role of offensive coordinator.  He’s another guy who’s said to be a good recruiter.  He was the wide receiver coach at Cal and will coach the quarterbacks here.  Cedric Dozier, another top recruit in Washington who committed to Cal, is said to be reconsidering because of this news.

Looking At It Now:  Another good hire, although I don’t really think it’s an upgrade from Nussmeier.  Time will tell what Kiesau will do on the recruiting trail and I’ll be interested to see if there’s any drop off in the development of the quarterbacks.  I would guess no, because of the presence of Sark.

Wow, a lot has happened.  When I put it all out like this I’m somewhat amazed.  So, where is the program now compared to about a month ago?  It’s hard to tell without a game being played, of course.  Everyone thinks the staff is better than it was.  The recruiting sure seems like it’s going to gain steam at some point in the next couple of weeks, if not days.  With all that in mind, I think the program is trending up.  These hires have given the Huskies some steam but, as we learned with Nick Holt, some hires aren’t as glamorous as they first seem.  Sark did the best that he could, but you just never know.

Two weeks until signing day!  I love that day.  For now, be careful out there in the snow.  It’s a little crazy out there.  Go Dawgs!

Oh, and Nick Holt Jr. transferred to Montana!

Andrew

 

 

 

 

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by | January 14, 2012 · 3:42 am

Pineda-Montero Trade Reaction

Earlier today I sat down and was starting to write a post on how we shouldn’t listen to any baseball reporters this off-season.  Part of it had to do with me being frustrated at the hysteria of Prince Fielder being in Texas.  The other part of me was frustrated with the Mariners for the lack of  moves this off-season.  Did I disagree with what they did?  No, but I was just bored.  Sports are entertainment, and it’s never fun when they leave you bored.  The last part of me was just hungry and didn’t even care about baseball reporters because I wanted to eat some chicken.  When I started that post, the Mariners made a trade.  Hey!  A trade!  After 4 months of peeking through the fence at Prince Fielder, the Mariners jumped over the fence, jumped on one of their horses, rode it into town, swapped it for another rancher’s horse, rode that horse back to the fenced-in area they owned, and had a glass of lemonade all in the span of about 10 minutes.  Sorry, about that.  I hope you followed.  My first point of this post, is that you shouldn’t take much of what these baseball writers say as gospel.  They get the reports right every now and then but tonight showed just how fast the unexpected can happen.

As for the trade, well surely you’ve read other people’s reaction by now.  There’s been enough time for you to form your own opinion.  But, if for some reason you’re indecisive on how you feel, and you’re up at 3 AM, a Good Guy is here to help!  I want to cover a few things before I get to my quick reaction.

It seems as if the opinion from people around Seattle is all over the place.  There are people completely against it, people who love it, and people who think it’s strictly average.  Dave ‘Softy’ Mahler had about a 10 tweet rant about how the ownership has to change now.  Mike Salk loved the trade.  (‘Softy’ wasn’t necessarily upset about the trade, but for some reason it sent him over the edge, just for the record.)  I want to caution you on who you listen to about this.  I believe that the Good Guys would have a more intelligent conversation about the Mariners than many of the Seattle sports radio guys.  That’s not to say they aren’t knowledgeable in other ways, but many of them aren’t experts on the Mariners and I think they’d admit as much.  Salk (from Brock and Salk) seems to try to understand more than any other.  Some of them just don’t care and don’t try to understand.  ‘Softy’ had no good reason for his rant and Jason Puckett is way off when he says that this feels desperate because the M’s should have just traded Lee for him.

That brings to my next point.  That very point of saying, why didn’t the Mariners just trade Lee for Montero.  For those of you that don’t know, that was very close to happening a few years ago before the Mariners’ decided on Justin Smoak instead.  It’s very ironic that they both ended up here now.  Anyway, it’s ridiculous to say they should have traded Lee for Montero so they could have kept Pineda.  When that traded happened, most baseball analysts thought the Mariners made the right move in getting Smoak.  Perceptions change over a year and a half and that is what has happened here.  Don’t think, “the Mariners made the wrong decision in getting Smoak, since they went out and got Montero now.”  They are 2 separate events and, though our mind’s link them together, they are independent of each other.  The Mariners got the best young hitter they thought they could get for the package they were offering and that had nothing to do with Cliff Lee and Justin Smoak.

Now, on to my thoughts on the actual trade.  I’m somewhere between liking and loving the trade.  Lookout Landing does a good job of summing up the pieces involved (much better than I could do, so read that).  I do think Sullivan may undersell Hector Noesi, who’s the pitcher coming over from New York, a little bit but there’s no way of knowing that.

Noesi seems like a good place to start since I just mentioned him a sentence ago and he’s the least known player in the trade as far as Mariner fans go.  He hasn’t pitched much in the majors, 56 innings last year and was nothing spectacular in doing so.  It sounds like the Mariners will lock him in as a starter to begin the season.  He seems like he’ll be a decent big league pitcher at least, and a few scouts seem to think he’s a very good pickup for the M’s.  Time will tell if those scouts are correct.  That’s a theme for this whole trade.

I’m sorry to see Jose Campos go.  Over the past couple of years I’ve started to follow the Mariners’ farm system fairly closely.  I read a review of each team’s game every night and try to familiarize myself with the top players from every part of the system.  By doing this I start to like players I’ve never watched more than the one’s I watch everyday on TV.  Jose Campos was one of those players.  He’d be rated about the number 5 prospect in the Mariners system and has tons of upside.  He’s only 19 and who  knows what will happen because, young pitcher but if he stays healthy, look out for his name in 3 or 4 years.

Now for the big names!  Jesus Montero is said to be a world-class hitter.  The comparison I’ve heard the most over the last 3 years is Edgar Martinez.  Heyo!  Edgar!  Put him in the Hall of Fame, by the way!  That’s a good comparison.  He’s either a catcher or a DH.  Catcher would be awesome, but his defense is lacking and most doubt that he’ll be able to stay at the position.  As far as his hitting goes, he’s said to have good power to all fields (important for Safeco) and good contact ability.  Yes, he hasn’t had much time in the majors and that’s a little frightening.  Jack Z knows more than me though and I trust his scouting ability above all of his other skills.

Michael Pineda was fun.  It’s sad to see someone fun go and there’s nothing I like more in baseball than a big, young, flame-throwing pitcher.  Man, he was big!  I hope he only gets better, even if he is pitching for the Yankees.   He deserves it.  I’m not sure he’ll ever turn into an elite ace and I’ll leave it at that because most of you who read this know who he is and what he projects as.  Some of you will disagree with me.

I like this because the Mariners got a hitter!  My philosophy if I was a GM is to draft talent (don’t draft for needs) and accumulate it by international signings.  Then trade from internal positions of strength for positions of weakness.  This is exactly what happened here.  Yes, it sucks that Pineda is gone but I think we’ve got a good one in return.

Now what happens?  I have no idea.  I really think the Mariners are still going to go after Prince but I’m in the very small minority.  They have the same amount of money they had when you woke up last week.  No one knows how much that is but it seems to be a fair amount.  If they don’t sign Prince, I still expect some other big move.  I think it will be another bat, but a pitcher makes plenty of sense.  I’d go for Roy Oswalt!  After today, we just have to realize that we have no idea what will happen.  Speculating and projecting is fun, but the truth is that not much turns out how we have it planned in our brain.  In sports, all we can hope for is that our team improves and I think that the M’s are a stronger organization now than they were 24 hours ago.  Not everyone does, but I do.  And hey, there’s still that report that Prince is renting a car in Seattle this weekend.

Andrew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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by | January 7, 2012 · 10:21 pm

The State of the Husky Basketball Team

Yes, I still write for this blog.  Welcome back, you say?  Why thank you.  How have you been, you say?  I’m doing well.  The main reason I haven’t written much lately is that I wanted to make sure that I was still writing on here for the right reasons.  All four of the Good Guys’ write on this blog as a hobby and nothing more.  We aren’t paid for what we write (nor should we be) and we aren’t the most popular sports blog in Seattle (again, we shouldn’t be).  We just do this for fun and we are hopeful that our readers find us entertaining and somewhat informative.  In the last month I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t writing just to see how many blog hits we could get.  I wanted to make sure that I didn’t think of it as a chore.  Most of all, I wanted to make sure that I enjoyed sports more while writing about them than not writing about them.  Now, I’m back!  Yes, I’ve missed writing and, having wasted about 200 words already, it’s time to get on with this post!  There will be more in the future and, hopefully, not as many breaks in the future.

I was driving back to Seattle today and caught the last couple of minutes of the Husky basketball game on the radio.  After watching their blowout loss against Colorado on Thursday, I was hesitant to even turn it on but I’m a Dawg and will always be.  Despite the Huskies best effort to lose the game to a terrible Utah team, they edged out a close victory.  It was their first road win of the year.

After the game had ended I spent a few minutes about what I thought ‘Husky basketball’ is.  In recent years I think the program has been successful enough to earn an identity and I think Romar, Bob Rondeau and Harry the Husky would agree.  What is that identity?  I would peg it as in-your-face defense that takes risks, fast paced offense that thrives off of penetration and shooters, and a dive on the floor to get the loose ball mentality.  Most of all, I think it’s that last part.  That’s what makes Dawg fans stand up and bark.  Since the program has been on the upswing, there is no doubt that Romar has taught his players to want it more than their opposition.  Sure, that hasn’t been the case every single game but I think most Husky fans would agree.  So what’s different about this year’s team? Continue reading →

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by | November 11, 2011 · 12:30 pm

A Few Thoughts Before the Weekend

The blog’s been a little quiet this week, as it usually is after a Husky loss.  Matthew and I will be away this weekend, I think he’ll get a predictions post up before we head out but I thought I’d throw up a few thoughts before we left.

Obviously, the big story of the week has been the scandal at Penn State.  I’m not going to write much about it, not because it’s not worthy of being discussed but because it makes me sick to my stomach.  Two things that have stuck out to me from the story this week.

One thought is how much good has come out of a horrible situation.  Both radio stations in the Seattle area have had counselors and people promoting help-lines for sexual abuse on the air throughout the week.  This has gone on throughout the country, and I believe that helps.  The more people who hear the horrifying statistics and tales of sexual abuse, the more aware our society will become.  Good job to the radio and TV stations in doing the right thing this week.

As Penn State students were protesting Joe Paterno’s firing on Wednesday night, there was a tweet flying around saying something like, “In the 60’s and 70’s a generation protested wars and civil rights, now students protest over a coach who did wrong.”  Then the tweet was usually met with a hash-tag that stated something about the current generation being lost.  I saw the tweet in numerous places.  The sentiment is right; the Penn State students were ridiculous in protesting this and they were in the wrong.  But, please rethink what this tweet is saying if you agree with it.  In the 60’s and 70’s groups of people from everywhere would protest wars and civil rights.  Please don’t take a few thousand students from Penn State as a representation of a whole generation.  I guarantee you that most college students around the country thought that Penn State did the right thing in firing their coach, I know I do.  People all over the world have been over-reacting or reacting wrongly to things since time began (see the Crusades, Nazi Germany, and even some of those protestors in the 60’s and 70’s just as an example).  Again, please don’t take those protestors as a representation of my generation.  We may be lost, but that ugly night didn’t signify what most of us believed.

I’m not going to say much else about this situation.  Please keep the victims in your prayers and thoughts.  Also, keep the offenders’ families in your prayers and thoughts, as I’m sure it’s a trying time for those families.  It’ll be great to get back to football tomorrow, to take our minds off such a terrible situation.

A few more random thoughts:

  • The Husky basketball team starts their regular season tomorrow afternoon against Georgia State.  We’ll have a more complete preview of the season in a couple of days.  Matthew and I were at their exhibition last week and they seem to be a young and very exciting team.  This is probably the most athletic team Romar has had, if you can believe that.  With that being said, I don’t know if it’ll be his best team or close to it.  They need to find dependable scorers and some leadership.  They are extremely young and will probably play like it sometimes.  Tony Wroten will awe us with some plays and then will leave us scratching our heads with others.  It’ll be an exciting year and fun to watch.  If they lose at some point this weekend, then something went extremely long.
  • Oregon and Stanford face off tomorrow in the game of the year in the Pac-12.  If any of you care, I think Stanford will win this game.  I don’t have a ton of conviction in that thought and wouldn’t be surprised if I was wrong.  I just think Stanford is more consistent and their offensive line is the best unit on the field (aside from their quarterback).
  • If Stanford wins, they should have a fairly good shot at the national championship.  That would mean that the Ducks, if they didn’t lose any other games, would probably end up in the Rose Bowl.  If that happens the Dawgs have the inside track on playing in the Holiday Bowl.  The Alamo Bowl is a possibility but not a very high one.  If the Dawgs slip up at all and finish below 8-4, the Sun Bowl is the most likely scenario.  San Diego sounds a lot better than El Paso to me.

That’s about it for today.  The predictions will be up in a few minutes.  I’d like to say thank you to any and all Veterans who read this blog.  Thank you for your service and thank you for our freedom.  Stay safe and God bless you!  Have a great weekend everybody, go dawgs!

Andrew

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