Category Archives: Uncategorized

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

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Matt Hasselbeck and Seattle Star Treatment

This post probably carried more weight a couple weeks ago following the Seahawks win over St. Louis, when Charlie Whitehurtst was trending well in Seattle, and Matt Hasselbeck was not. The same Charlie who completed one pass that traveled more than 10 yards. But anyways, onto my point: Matt Hasselbeck, the greatest quarterback in franchise history, seems to be a polarizing name in Seattle. Most agree he is a great guy and all, but for whatever reason, a lot of people aren’t fans of him. This is a perplexing topic and a major pet peeve of mine. I realize this sort of thing happens in other cities (i.e. Donovan McNabb), but for as few championships as Seattle has seen, you’d think Matt and the few stars we have would be well loved. Some are and some aren’t, but I am particularly curious why Matt is not unanimously loved like an Edgar Martinez or Steve Largent.

My two all time favorite athletes are Gary Payton and Matt Hasselbeck. My reasoning is simple. Twice in my lifetime have I seen a Seattle professional franchise reach the championship. In 1996, Payton (and Kemp) led the Sonics, and in 2005, Hasselbeck led the Hawks. Payton is a well liked name in Seattle, and you won’t find many fans who disliked him. But Hasselbeck, despite his 5 playoff wins, witty humor, and general likeability, still has plenty of haters.

I had multiple sports debates surrounding Matt Hasselbeck this year. Like I mentioned, he is up there with Gary Payton as my all time favorite athlete, so of course I am biased towards defending him. Even so, I couldn’t believe the amount of ignorant fans calling for Charlie Whitehurst, and booing Matt Hasselbeck this season. This guy took us to a Super Bowl. He’s played in 3 pro bowls, and he is the greatest quarterback in franchise history! I know that it’s about “what have you done for me lately,” and sports are results driven. Fans aren’t remembering 2005 when they boo Matt, I get that, and I was frustrated as any fan watching Matt committ 13 turnovers during a 4 game stretch this year. But all you need are a good pair of eyes and a 1/2 functioning brain to see that Matt still gave us the best chance to win.

This past season, Ken Griffey Jr, despite all his past greatness, reached a point where he was not helping the team. Lots of fans, including me, felt that his everyday DH role should be taken, but I didn’t hear many fans booing him or trashing him on sports radio. In this circumstance, fans treated Griffey well until the very end. I wish the same could be said for Hasselbeck and some of our other stars. I’ve seen this star treatment, or lack thereof, play out numerous times. Shaun Alexander, Ichiro, Jake Locker, and Mike Holmgren to name a few. They are all Seattle sports legends that have given this city plenty to cheer about. Alexander and Ichiro each won an MVP in Seattle. Locker committed 5 years of his life to re-build a university that he owed nothing to. Holmgren coached the Super Bowl team, and led the Seahawks to 5 division titles and 6 playoff appearances in 10 years. Fans should love players and coaches like this. They all deserve statues in my opinion. And yet, plenty of “fans” criticize these icons, even dislike them.

My point is this. If you must boo, then direct it towards Richie Sexson, TJ Houshmandzadeh, Carlos Silva, or the whole team’s performance. Trash them in the chat forums and on the radio if that’s your thing. But respect the guys who have worn Seattle on their jersey for many years, played in all star games, and taken our teams to championship games. We are on the map because of these guys, and frankly, we don’t have a lot of them, so please, embrace the few icons that we do have–guys like Matt Hasselbeck.

-Dan

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The Streak

It’s not very often in sports that you feel invincible.  If you’re a big enough sports fan, you probably follow multiple teams.  And unless you’re from New England, those teams don’t usually all do well at the same time.

But, for a few weeks, us fans here in Seattle got to feel invincible and it came against pretty high odds.  Up until last Thursday (when the Huskies lost at Stanford) the Husky football and basketball teams, along with the Seahawks, didn’t lose a game from December 26th to January 13th.

  • The Seahawks lost badly to Tampa Bay on December 26th.  It was ugly and there wasn’t much reason to hope their season would last another 3 weeks.  It did.  The Seahawks would beat the Rams the next week and then beat what seemed to be insurmountable odds the next week against the Saints.  Yes, they lost last Sunday.  But, no one thought it would last that long.
  • The Huskies football team only played one game during this stretch but it was a game for the ages.  Facing a team that they’d already lost to by 35 points this season, they dominated the Nebraska Cornhuskers in an old-school defensive performance.  Actually, the Husky football team hasn’t lost since the 6th of November.
  • The Huskies basketball team hadn’t lost a game in over a month.  Since losing to Texas A&M on December 11th, the Huskies went on to win 6 in a row, including two tough games against USC and UCLA.  That ended against Stanford on last Thursday but they quickly got back on track on Sunday against Cal.

18 days.  For 18 days everything went right for a sports town that many have called the worst in the country.  Now, in the midst of a Milton Bradley arrest, a UW basketball police investigation, and an off-season of uncertainty for the Seahawks, things appear to be headed back to normal.

Then again, maybe not.  Maybe it’ll be good for the Mariners to rid themselves of Bradley.  Maybe the police investigation will blow over and maybe the Seahawks will improve just like they did last off-season.

Seattle has gotten a bad sports reputation for the better part of this decade and will always be an afterthought in places like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.  But, in those 18 days we were better than everyone.  Things are looking up and there’s hope that maybe it’ll last for more than 18 days in the future.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew

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National Championship Poll

Bob Condotta has this same poll on his blog, so I thought I’d throw it on here.  Tonight’s championship should be a pretty entertaining game, but it contains two fairly unlikeable teams, at least in my opinion.  Usually, cheering for a team from your conference is the way to go, but usually that team isn’t Oregon. 

So, the question is, do you want to see Oregon win a national championship or not?  I’m sure not all reading this are Husky fans, but Oregon isn’t exactly widely liked throughout the rest of the northwest, or the Pac-10, for that matter.  Some positives of the Ducks winning:

  • Helps with the perception of the Pac-10, which is always good.
  • Hopefully would shut up the SEC people a bit, who might be even more annoying than Oregon fans.

Negatives:

  • It’s Oregon trying to win the national championship.

Ultimately, I don’t care too much, but for the record, I’m picking Oregon 52-41.

-Matthew

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A New Husky

The Huskies picked up a new commitment this morning from safety James Sample out of California.  He announced during today’s Army All-American Bowl and is a pretty big pick-up.  He’s long been rumored to be coming to UW, but it’s good to hear him make it official.  Sample is a big hitter who could challenge for playing time immediately.  While a different type of safety, he’s comparable in rating and potential impact to Sean Parker in last year’s class, and that could be a great combo in a couple of years.

Sample makes three future Huskies in the game, joining previous commits Kasen Williams and Austin Seferian-Jenkins.  Unfortunately, the game is fairly unwatchable, as the teams throw like crazy but have had little time to build up any kind of rhythm.  Williams had a short catch and Sample made a nice tackle, but otherwise there hasn’t been much to see, halfway through the third.  Still, it’s good to see this many future Dawgs in this big of a game.

-Matthew

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It Keeps Getting Better

I’m excited to introduce the newest Good Guy, although this one probably won’t be writing for us anytime soon.  Dan became the proud father of Bennett Steven this morning.  His measurables were solid at 8 lbs. 6 oz and 20 inches, and I sensed Bennett’s incredible intangibles and charisma the moment I walked into the room.

After writing about lots of exciting events in the past few weeks, this is by far the best one for The Good Guys.  Congrulations Dan, and we’ll all understand if we don’t see many posts from you the rest of the year!  Continue reading

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2010 in Review

Back on February 4, 2010, The Good Guys Sports Blog was born. We are creeping up on 1 year of talking Seattle sports, and for those who care to know how year 1 shaped up, here are some stats that wordpress provided for us. For the record, us 4 good guys have had a blast doing this, and this is not a farewell post. The band is still together! There is something quite satisfying about having a place where you can spew your sports opinions, and this blog allows us to communicate with each other, and anyone else who happens to stop by. Thanks to everyone who has happened across our site, taken a look around, and supported us.

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,900 times in 2010. That’s about 17 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 379 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 148 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 9mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was March 10th with 141 views. The most popular post that day was Can You Win Me a Pennant?.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, seattlesportsinsider.com, blogsurfer.us, digg.com, and huskyhalfbrains.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for richie sexson, jake locker, world cup 2010, football world cup 2010, and jesse callier.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Can You Win Me a Pennant? February 2010
4 comments

2

Jake Locker: Football Player or Superhero? February 2010
1 comment

3

Why Cliff Lee Getting Ejected is Awesome March 2010

4

A layman’s preview of The World Cup June 2010
1 Like on WordPress.com,

5

2011 Seattle Mariners July 2010

I would also like to mention that aside from the Mariners and their 100 losses, this was a great year for Seattle sports. Husky basketball won the Pac-10 tournament and made another sweet 16 run, while UW football finished with 4 straight wins and won the Holiday Bowl. The Sounders made the playoffs for the 2nd straight year, and the fan support was once again the best in the MLS. The Seahawks are division champs, albeit at 7-9, and will host a playoff game next Saturday. The M’s sucked, but hey, 4 outta 5 ain’t bad.

Here’s to an even better 2011!

-Dan

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UW Recruiting- Wide Receiver & Tight End

Outside of Jermaine Kearse, the receiving positions lacked playmakers for the 2010 Huskies.  Luckily for the Dawgs, each position has an elite talent in this recruiting class, as the two highest rated players in the class are Kasen Williams and Austin Seferian-Jenkins.

Wide Receiver

Commits

Kasen Williams  6′ 3″ 215 lbs. Skyline HS (WA)

Josh Perkins  6′ 3″ 200 lbs. Gahr HS (Cal.)

Jamaal Jones  6’2″ 180 lbs. Graham-Kapowsin HS (WA)

Possibilities

The Huskies have a number of other offers out, but few of them seem likely to be Dawgs.  The possible exception is Marvin Hall, QB recruit Joseph Gray’s top target at Dorsey H.S.  Hall is a smaller receiver who might be a nice complement to the big guys already committed.  He’s slated to visit UW at the end of January and is planning to decide on or near signing day.

Overview

Williams is the big name here.  It’s no stretch to call him one of the greatest high school players in Washington state history.  He’s big, physical, a good route runner and tough to tackle.  Reportedly, he lacks elite speed but seems to fit that old Jerry Rice profile of never being caught from behind.  He’s probably the highest rated recruit UW has had since Reggie Williams, and definitely the most talented receiver since Reggie.  If he doesn’t receive a good chunk of playing time next year, it will be a surprise.  I don’t know much about the other two commits, but they fit the mold of big, athletic receivers that USC favored while Sarkisian was there.  This is a good group that should go a long way toward replacing Kearse and Aguilar when they graduate after next year. Continue reading

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