I’m late on this and don’t have much time so we’ll go without tthe standings. Dan is winning….
Arizona vs. Colorado
Good Guys: Arizona
ASU vs. USC
Good Guys: USC
Cal vs. Oregon
Good Guys: Oregon 😦
UCLA vs. WSU
Good Guys: UCLA
Stanford vs. Oregon State
Dan, Matthew, Andrew: Stanford
Joe: Oregon State
Go Huskies!
Andrew
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Growing up, I always heard and saw highlights of what a ‘Husky defense’ was supposed to look like. The legend of the defense was talked about with every coach who was hired, and later fired, for the past decade. Every coach wanted to restore what ‘Husky defense’ was supposed to be. Sometimes there were glimpses. The crowd would stand up, yell louder than they would for any touchdown, and the defensive ends would fire off the ball for a sack on 3rd down. We saw glimpses but hardly ever complete games.
That Was Awesome!
In 2010 the Husky defense dominated a one-dimensional Nebraska team in the Holiday Bowl. In that same year, the Husky defense kept the team in the game against Oregon State by shutting them down in the second half. In 2009, the defense played pretty well against USC, Cal, and Wazzu. We can go back farther. The 2001 Rose Bowl team had a good defense who was opportunistic and often rose to the occasion. But, as the college football game evolved, the offense has been ahead of the defense for most of the last 15 years.
Tonight the Huskies played their best defensive game since…. I don’t know. Maybe the Holiday Bowl was more impressive to you? Not to me. This effort was complete against the most physical team in the Pac-12. Stanford shoved their way to 65 yards and 6 points. Stanford didn’t score a touchdown for the first time since 2007. The Dawgs just didn’t let any plays break them. Stanford didn’t have a rush for over 7 yards. Last year, they had 10 over 15 yards.
I could throw out stats all night that show you how well the defense played but I think you get the point. This defense tackled better, pursued better, and played with more effort than I’ve ever seen. Tonight was maybe my best glimpse of what a ‘Husky defense’ is supposed to look like. Do I expect them to go into Oregon next week and shut down the Ducks. Not at all. Hardly anyone does that and it will be a different type of game. This was a giant step in the right direction though.
Later on, I (or another one of the Good Guys) will break down this game more thoroughly. Tonight is for soaking in victory though. We don’t need to think about how the offensive line can’t pass block or about the emergence of a 3rd receiver. We can focus on a defense that was nothing short of phenomenal. We can focus on a surprising running game. We can focus on the play-maker Kasen Williams is turning in to. We can focus on a quarterback who repeatedly gets taken to the ground while throwing balls on target and then gets up and smiles, no matter the outcome. Tonight we saw a team who deserved to be a top-10 team. And what do you know? They did.
Go Dawgs!
Andrew
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Andrew wrote a nice little preview about the game earlier, so I won’t go too far into it here. This game is a chance to show progress, or show that not that much has changed. No one is really expecting a win, but given the matchup and injury issues, even a close game would be a welcome sight.
Regardless of how the game goes, it’s the Blackout of the Century, so we’ve got that going for us. Those don’t happen very often. Maybe they’ll play without power.
Matthew
I want to predict a Husky win here, but they’ve given no good reason to do so. I do think they’re better than last year, and Stanford is worse, but I don’t think the gap has narrowed enough for a Husky victory. The best hope is for some big plays and turnovers. Maybe Josh Nunes will get rattled and an already weak Stanford passing attack will become non-existent. Of course, the Dawgs would still have to stop the run. They have a shot here. It would be a tough win, but it’s possible. I’m just non expecting it.
Stanford 35 – UW 24
Joe
I have been so completely engulfed in the “Golden-gate” fiasco, I haven’t paid much attention to the fact UW essentially has no offensive line and will be running with freshman running backs against the number one rushing defense in the country. So safe to say the Dawgs won’t get a running game going. Other than that negative, I actually feel good about the game. Granted Stanford is a bad match up for UW, but Stanford hasn’t blown anyone of note out this year. A seven point win over USC is nice, but how good is USC really, at this point we don’t know. So my point is this is Stanford’s first road test, so we don’t know what they’ll do. I think a blow out is very possible, but I don’t anticipate one. The Huskies will play well, I am certain of this. Stanford will too. They are coached well, always prepared. Therefore, if both teams play well, it will be close, and the home crowd will make it closer, but the visitors will win. Stanford will be too much.
Cardinal 24 – Huskies 16
Dan
Just before kickoff here at the clink, loving the energy but I can’t see home field making up for the difference between the big boys in the trenches.
Cardinal 27 – Huskies 20
Andrew
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While most of this city may still be focused on one of the crazier football games I’ve ever seen, the Good Guys think it’s time to turn the page and look at the most important game of the season for the Washington Huskies. Tomorrow the Dawgs play Stanford on national television at 6 P.M. For some reason, it is being billed as ‘The Blackout of the Century’. I guess you might as well shoot for the top.
The season for the Huskies has gone as scheduled. They won against a decent team, lost to a great team, and killed a terrible team. They’re 2-1, and the that’s the record that everyone predicted after 2 games. With that being said, there seems to be a great deal of pessimism coming from the fans. I’m guessing that it comes from the blow-out loss to LSU and the injuries. I don’t think there is an excuse for the LSU game and it’s time to put that game to bed but let’s talk about the injuries for a minute.
The Huskies have suffered injuries to 3 starting offensive linemen. Three linebackers have missed games. Two running backs are out for the season. Their second and third wide receivers are either out indefinitely or have been banged up. Their starting safety played with stitches in his eye last game. There have been 9 starters who have already missed a game this season. This program is 3 and a half years removed from going 0-12. That is not enough time to bring in quality depth to fill for all of these injuries. Yes, it’s enough time to bring in good players who will top your depth chart and make you a solid team. But, it’s not enough time for a team to bring in depth to cover all of these injuries.
With that being said, the Huskies are still strong enough to compete. If they don’t, I think we, as fans, should be disappointed. There are enough good to great players on this roster to keep the Huskies in games against top-25 schools. No, I’m not as optimistic about the Huskies after these injuries than I was at the beginning of the year but I think they are still capable of handling this situation. They won’t handle it like a top-10 team, but they’ll handle it like a good team.
I guess my point and question is, should we change our expectations for this Husky season based on the injuries? I think if I had to do my pre-season prediction again I would guess for 7 wins. They already have 2, plus Colorado and WSU are on the schedule. Utah doesn’t seem to be as tough as we thought they’d be. They play Oregon State at home and California is not in a good current state. That’s 7 teams right there. Add in Arizona to that mix and 7 seems like a good expectation to have. Against the good teams I don’t think we should change our expectations. The Huskies need to compete. LSU was a disaster and that shouldn’t happen anymore.
Tomorrow the Huskies play Stanford with an injury-laden team. I don’t expect them to win, in fact I’m leaning towards the thought that they’ll get dominated. I’m sick of thinking that about my team. We have for 10 years and it needs to end, no matter the excuse. Maybe it ends tomorrow against a physical, strong Cardinal team. Probably not, but maybe.
(Some bullet holes after the jump)
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Deantre Lewis is probably not a name familiar to most Pac-12 football fans, but it very easily could have been. Lewis, an Arizona State Sun Devil, was a stray bullet away from being a star.
Lewis first started to make a name for himself in 2010 as a true freshman. The running back burst on the scene as a major playmaker, the proverbial flash to Cameron Marshall’s thunder. In his first game he scored three touchdowns and ended the year with over 500 rushing yards and another 370 yards receiving. He looked like a potential star in the conference and was poised to form a dangerous duo with Marshall on a potentially great ASU team in 2011.
That offseason, Lewis made a short trip home to visit his sister and her new baby. After commuting to a high school well out of his home neighborhood and earning his scholarship, Lewis thought he had avoided the trouble that surrounded him growing up. That short two day trip was long enough for it to find him, though, as he was shot by a stray bullet. He wasn’t involved in any kind of altercation and deserved no part of the blame. It was just terrible luck.
Lewis escaped probable death when the bullet missed an artery by three centimeters, and somehow rejoined the football team with hopes of playing in 2011. The bullet damaged his hamstring, however, and he never made it onto the field. This year, he suffered through a few injuries in training camp and found himself behind not only Marshall but also true freshman D.J. Foster on the depth chart.
I’ve been a fan of the guy since his career started, beyond just feeling bad for him and hoping he could make it back. I probably wouldn’t have known about him except for a Pac-12 fantasy league we Good Guys do. I grabbed him early in 2010 and he helped me win the league, but my enduring memory of him came before ASU’s 2010 game at UW. We have seats in the open end zone bleachers, which feel like they are almost in the end zone. The Sun Devils were warming up right in front of us, and the running backs were getting ready to go through drills when some song came on. All of the backs started dancing, which made Andrew and I crack up. Most stopped after a couple of bars, but Deantre danced for a good couple of minutes, all by himself. The guy could dance. Every time we thought he would stop, he’d bust out a new move. It was great, one of those meaningless moments that give you an idea of what type of person a player is and sets them apart as a little bit special. I don’t have any recollection of that game except for Deantre Lewis dancing. He seemed like a star.
This week news broke that he’s moving to the defensive side of the ball. Evidently, he was really pounding people on special teams, and considering his spot on the depth chart, the coaches asked if he wanted to move to defense, in a hybrid DB/LB role. He immediately said yes. He went on to tell reporters that he still has a lot of anger and that he felt playing defense would help him let some of that anger out in a positive way. I want to make clear that he didn’t sound like an angry guy. It’s easy to stereotype a football player who grew up in a bad neighborhood and think he’s just an angry guy who only wants to hit people. Deantre Lewis was shot, and it wasn’t in an altercation; it was while he was visiting his family after a life of trying to make good and stay out of trouble. He has every right to be angry.
Position changes frequently amount to nothing, but I’m hoping this one turns Lewis into the star he always looked like. We’re always in need of good stories, no matter which team they play for. I’ll be cheering for Deantre Lewis every Saturday this fall, and if the Huskies get ASU at home in the next two years, I’m hoping Deantre still feels like dancing.
-Matthew
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Before we get to the other teams in the Pac-12, I’ll get to the Husky news of the day. If you haven’t heard by now, Steve Sarkisian has decided that the U-Dub will not talk about injuries anymore. Also, reporters who are at practice can’t report on who sat out of practice or about any strategy being used. In the long-term, this isn’t a big deal. Sooner or later the NCAA will force teams to put out injury lists, like the NFL. Until then we’ll have to deal with this. In the short-term, it is irritating. No, the Huskies aren’t the first team in the conference to do this (the Ducks and Trojans came first) but I don’t support the program limiting access to reporters or fans. Tyrone Willingham treated the media poorly and the fans were closed off from the program. Closed programs are reminiscent of bad times to recent Husky fans. Anytime we hear about the football team limiting access, we shudder now. If we were Oregon, this would be okay because we’d be winning. When you aren’t a top-10 program though, the little things add up to be annoyances. Anyway, I don’t think any less of Sark but I don’t agree with him on this issue. Also, it’s bad when reporters aren’t allowed to report. It hurts what is already a declining industry. Coaching and quality players win games, not keeping injuries secret until the other team can see them during warm-ups.Anyway, on to the real point of this post! Last week was a great week for the Pac-12, even considering some terrible losses. The Pac-12 upsets outweighed the Pac-12 getting upset. This week sports a few challenging games, but also some cupcakes. Not real cupcakes, because what do cupcakes have to do with football. Also, the cupcakes have been much better across the country this year. They are banana cupcakes instead of vanilla. Away we go!
Arizona – Beat Oklahoma State 59-38 – Coming Up: vs. South Carolina State
The last of the upsets came last Saturday night when the Wildcats beat the Cowboys. I guess the cowboys weren’t very quick on their draw. In their defense, wildcats sound like a hard thing to deal with. Oh yeah, football. Arizona’s offense obviously looks explosive and they are looking like a much tougher opponent. Their defense is still in question but I wouldn’t want to face this team right now. Unfortunately for South Carolina State (something I never thought I’d type), they don’t have that luxury. Bulldogs are awesome and that is South Carolina State’s mascot. These weekly blog posts are just turning into a study on mascots.
Arizona State – Beat Illinois 45-14 – Coming Up: at Missouri
ASU winning last weekend wasn’t an upset but the way in which they won was very impressive. Then again, it was the Sun Devils against the Illini. It was sunny. What chance did Illinois really have? So far, Arizona State has been the surprise of the conference (along with Arizona and UCLA). I didn’t think their offense would put up this many points against anyone, much less against BCS conferences. This week they face a much tougher task in Missouri. While Missouri isn’t at the top of the SEC, they are a good road test for the Sun Devils. Expect a shootout and hopefully the Pac-12 can come out with another upset.
California – Beat Southern Utah 50-31 – Coming Up: at Ohio State
The Golden Bears are off to a shaky start. Cal was able to pull away from Southern Utah late in the fourth quarter last week. They had fallen behind for a while but they did rally back. This was a week after losing to Nevada. This week they play Ohio State and, while I’m usually hopeful that a Pac-12 team can pull an upset, I wouldn’t bet on Cal in this one.
Colorado – Lost to Sacramento State 30-28 – Coming Up: at Fresno State
The Buffalo have upstaged Cal in getting off to a bad start. They lost to Pac-12 killers Sacramento State and are now 0-2. Colorado had one of the easier non-conference schedules in the conference but could easily start 0-3 this week. If they don’t take advantage of playing the Bulldogs this week, it could be tough for them to find a win this season. Also, I think buffalo and bulldogs would be good friends in the wild.
Oregon – Beat Fresno State 42-25 – Coming Up: vs. Tennessee Tech
Oregon again jumped out to a large lead and then let Fresno add-on some points against their backup defense. The Ducks are surely very good but we won’t be able to see how good for a few weeks when they actually play a quality opponent. On Tennessee Tech’s home website they have a virtual admissions adviser. They named this virtual adviser ‘Awesome’. Also, this match-up is the Ducks vs. the Golden Eagles. We’ve seen golden things struggle this year in our conference but I have a hard time seeing a duck ever beating an eagle in a brawl. Too bad this is a football game that doesn’t have to do with mascots.
Oregon State – Beat Wisconsin 10-7 – Coming Up: Bye
The Beavers beat the Badgers. Again, I don’t know why everyone was so surprised. Oregon State’s defense was fast and ferocious in this game. I was thoroughly impressed and if they keep playing like that, they’ll be one of the best teams in the conference. Their offense needs to improve though. Everyone will have played 3 games after this weekend except the Beavers, who will have only played one.
Stanford – Beat Duke 50-13 – Coming Up: vs. USC
Stanford probably got sick of hearing about how close their game with San Jose State was and then thoroughly dominated Duke. Of course, Duke isn’t good and their true test comes this week against USC. Stanford probably isn’t what they used to be, but they have been playing well against USC of late. This is a game to keep an eye on.
UCLA – Beat Nebraska 36-30 – Coming Up: vs. Houston
UCLA is the darling of college football right now. They deserve it with their hot start but I’d advise people to ease off their enthusiasm. This start is reminiscent of the start Rick Neuheisal had there. This week they should improve to 3-0 though and will remain the dark horse in the Pac-12 South.
USC – Beat Syracuse 42-29 – Coming Up: at Stanford
USC let Syracuse hang around for a while before putting them away in the second half. The game had a weather delay and not a lot of rhythm if you’re looking for an excuse for the Trojans. I prefer to just wait until this week before I decide whether they are overrated. Trojans vs. Cardinal seems like a no contest because cardinal is a color and can’t fight.
Utah – Lost to Utah State 27-20 (OT) – Coming Up: vs. BYU
In my opinion, Utah had the worst loss of last week. Colorado’s was terrible but no one really cares about Colorado. The Huskies was ugly, but a loss was expected. Utah was supposed to challenge for the Pac-12 South but losing to a below-average team isn’t something champions do. Utah could rebound, they remind me of those mid-2000’s Mike Riley Beaver teams that always started slow but this is definitely a bump in the road. Utah plays an interesting game this week
Hey Reb!
and could really help themselves with a victory. BYU proved to be a pretty good team against the Cougars. Then again, Cougars.
WSU – Beat Eastern Washington 28-24 – Coming Up: at UNLV (Friday)
Wazzu got a victory, and that’s about all you can say. Eastern is a fine program (as Husky fans found out last year) but WSU should have won this game easily. It was fairly similar to the Washington-Eastern game last year. Now the Cougars go on the road to face those rebels of UNLV. This should be an easy win as well but who knows. The Cougars vs. Rebels? I’d probably choose a cougar in that fight. But, it does depend on what kind of rebel we’re talking about.
Thanks for reading!
Andrew
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The first week of college football is done and over with. That’s kind of sad when you think about it, but there’s no time to reflect because we must press on. Before I move on to telling you dumb things about the rest of the Pac-12, I’ll cover just a few Husky notes. The expected news broke today that Jesse Callier and Hau’oli Jamora will be out for the rest of the season. Callier is a blow and the running back depth is very low. He was the guy with the most experience back there and one of the most talented. The true freshman, Erich Wilson, will now be the second running back and I expect him to play pretty well (he did in the opener). He could have an impact that Callier did his freshman year. The Jamora news was expected, but it’s too bad for the young man. Also, tonight Sark admitted on the radio show that he kept the offense vanilla for the opener. He said they have other running plays in their back pocket that they think will be ran effectively. I truly think you’ll see a different offense this week. Of course, the opponent is a very stiff test. Anyway, on to the rest of the Pac-12!
Arizona – Beat Toledo 24-17 OT – Coming Up: vs. Oklahoma State
Arizona’s game against Toledo wasn’t an over-inspiring opener for Rich Rodriguez. They did gain a ton of yards and would have scored a bunch of points if it weren’t for turnovers. This week, they play a team who just scored 379 points in one game (not really). Oklahoma State will test the Arizona defense and probably over-match them. The Cowboys have beat Arizona 73-24 over their last two years of playing. Good luck, Rich Rod! I can’t believe I haven’t called him that yet.
Arizona State – Beat Northern Arizona 63-6 – Coming Up: vs. Illinois
The Sun Devils played spoiler to Northern Arizona’s dreams of a perfect season. That’s a ridiculous thing to say but I bet the Northern Arizona players were dreaming of a perfect season, so stop being so disrespectful. A much stiffer test come this against Illinois. No, Illinois isn’t a top 25 team but they are a mediocre Big-10 team who could challenge for a bowl. We could learn more about Arizona State this week! Unless we don’t watch or read about them. It’s hard to learn about something without observation.
California – Lost to Nevada 24-31 – Coming Up: vs. Southern Utah
This was probably the Pac-12’s worst loss of the week. I didn’t think the Golden Bears would lose and I expected them to be in the upper-echelon of the conference. This could be a blip on the radar or it could be the beginning of the end of Jeff Tedford. This week they play Southern Utah. Southern Utah’s mascot is the Thunderbird. Cal will probably drop their wrath on the Thunderbirds. This is because Southern Utah is bad, not because a Thunderbird isn’t powerful. They sound very powerful.
Colorado – Lost to Colorado State 22-17 – Coming Up: vs. Sacramento State
Colorado had the other bad loss for the conference this week. No one expected them to be good, so it’s not surprising but it doesn’t help the Pac-12’s reputation. This week they play Sacramento State. I would make some remark about Sacramento State but they beat Oregon State last year so they’ve earned some respect. Still, this shouldn’t be much of a game as Sac. State lost to New Mexico State 49-19 last Thursday.
Oregon – Beat Arkansas State 57-34 – Coming Up: vs. Fresno State
If you hadn’t already heard this score, you’d probably think, “Wow! That’s a lot of points Oregon gave up!” It’s true that they gave up a lot of points but they were also ahead 50-3 midway through the second quarter. Good for Chip Kelly to not be like Oklahoma State and score 522 points (they didn’t really score that many). Although it is a little strange that the Duck’s backups gave up that many points. I still wouldn’t really look far into that. This week the dreadful team from Eugene continues it’s non-conference gauntlet against a mediocre at best Fresno State team. At least we’ll get to find out more about Oregon’s backups these first few weeks!
Oregon State – Postponed vs. Nicholls State – Coming Up: vs. Wisconsin
It’s amazing how quickly something can change your perception on a game. For some reason I thought that the Beavers played at Wisconsin this week. I didn’t give them a chance. Once I looked it up and saw that wasn’t the case I thought that an upset could occur. Wisconsin is a very good team who should beat Oregon State but that’s a tough place to play. Unfortunately for the Beavers, they weren’t able to get the kinks out last week because their game was postponed. An upset would be a stretch, but I’m guessing that this game might be a little closer than people think. I’m usually wrong though, so sorry Beaver fans. Some of you seem nice and I don’t mean to ruin your chances.
Stanford – Beat San Jose State 20-17 – Coming Up: vs. Duke
If you’re feeling bad about the Huskies opener, I suggest you look to northern California to feel bad. The Golden Bears lost to a team from Nevada, which shouldn’t happen and the Trees had to do everything in their might to beat a state team from a city. If you can make sense of that sentence, congratulations. Stanford looked bad in their opener. Maybe worse than everyone aside from Wazzu. I don’t expect them to be bad going forward and I think that if you survive the first week you should celebrate. Still, they have some major question marks and didn’t look like the physical team we’d grown accustomed to. This week they face off against Duke in a battle of very smart football players.
UCLA – Beat Rice 49-24 – Coming Up: vs. Nebraska
Of all the Pac-12 teams, UCLA might have had the most impressive opener. They went on the road and beat a team by 25 points. That’s not an easy thing to do, even if that team was the Rice Owls. This week they face a much stiffer test, because they’ll be sore. Wait, that’s not right. They’ll face a much stiffer test in opponent in Nebraska. I have my doubts about the Bruins putting up another 49 points against Nebraska but I don’t think a win is out of the question. UCLA has been known to surprise in their non-conference schedule. Plus, I’d take a Bruin over a Cornhusker any day.
USC – Beat Hawaii 49-10 – Coming Up: at Syracuse
USC’s first offensive play of the season was a touchdown. There will be many more of those plays coming. The Trojans are very good and look to improve as they face Syracuse in New Jersey this Saturday. This shouldn’t be much of a game, as Syracuse is about the same kind of team as Hawaii (that being mediocre). I’ve heard that Matt Barkley will stay and play for the New York Jets on Sunday, as well. Take that Tebow and Mark Sanchez fans! Are there any Mark Sanchez fans?
Utah – Beat Northern Colorado 41-0 – Coming Up: at Utah State (Friday)
Utah beat a bad team. This week they’ll play a slightly better team and will probably win, but by fewer points. How’s that for analysis? Some team’s pre-season’s just aren’t fun. I’d rather see my school play against one really good team (or at least a unique team) than a whole bunch of uninteresting team. I’ll see how I feel about this thought after LSU injures every single starting player the Huskies have.
WSU – Lost to BYU 30-6 – Coming Up: Eastern Washington
Wow, the Cougars looked bad. I didn’t expect them to have such a difficult time scoring. If the team plays like that for the rest of the season, Jeff Tuel will be injured and they’ll only win 3 or 4 games. This game is one that they will win. They should have no problem with Eastern Washington, although we’ve seen bad things happen against the Eagles. I think we’ll see improvement from the Cougars as the year goes on. I just hope it happens at a Paul Wulff improvement rate. Sorry Coug fans, I couldn’t help myself.
Over all, it was a pretty underwhelming week for the conference. There were a few close games that shouldn’t have been close and a few losses that should have been wins. The Pac-12 has a chance to make a statement this week, although week 1 didn’t boost anyone’s confidence. Here’s to a few upsets!
Thanks for reading!
Andrew
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This post is not a preview of what I think will happen this season. It is a detailed post of what could be possible. This was inspired by Jeff Sullivan of Lookout Landing.
Looking back, maybe we shouldn’t have been so surprised. We all thought this team was one year away from the big-time national scene. We could settle for another trip to the Holiday Bowl, or, dare I say it, the Sun Bowl, this year if it meant bigger things next year. Us fans knew that the Dawgs were young and expecting too much felt somewhat unreasonable. Now, we see that the phrase ‘Next year’ may be uttered far too often in Seattle sports.
Before I get too far ahead of myself though, the Alamo Bowl still isn’t out of the question. In fact, it’s a very strong possibility. Tomorrow, the 30th of November, the Huskies will play USC for the Pac-12 championship. If they lose, another trip to San Antonio is likely. If they win though… Man, if they win.
Back to the expectations at the beginning of the season. Sometimes, I don’t think we allow ourselves to dream quite enough. But, the early season didn’t give us many reasons to.
While the Huskies won fairly easily in their opener against the Aztecs, the game didn’t provide many answers to questions. The defense allowed too many yards. The running game didn’t amass as many yards as we hoped. Keith Price just made plays, which is what Keith Price does. But, one man can’t win every game and we saw that the next week. LSU brought pressure off the edge and sacked Price 6 times. The defense, while improved, just didn’t make enough stops and the SEC proved dominant, once again, as our Dawgs lost by 17. It wasn’t a catastrophe but it wasn’t the statement we wanted.
An easy win against Portland State followed but Portland isn’t even a state. Then came a Thursday night game against Stanford, who came in with a record of 2-1 (the loss being to USC). People talk about turning points in a season all the time in sports. After years of observation, I’m not a real believer in them. Sure, sometimes it feels like all momentum shifts to one team and that team is unbeatable. Remember the Mariners 8 game winning streak way back in August? But, most of the time, I think turning points are an easy way for the media to write a story. I don’t know what exactly happened on September 27th, 2012 but it changed the Huskies season.
The team had of course been blown out by Stanford the previous years and, while this game wasn’t a blow out, the Dawgs still lost. They weren’t physically dominated like before and the defense had obviously made improvements. The Huskies lost by seven but if there ever was a loss to feel good about, it was this one. Right when Husky fans had made up their minds about that, reports started to surface about yelling in the team locker room. Sark had evidently got after the team pretty good and said, “I don’t care if that’s better than we did last year! Losses aren’t acceptable. They won’t be tolerated anymore.” And then, they weren’t.
Of course, this all seemed ridiculous. It seemed like coach speak, at best. Playing at Oregon was up next on the schedule and that was followed by USC. Most fans, including myself had losses penciled in on the schedule. I don’t need to recount the Oregon game play by-play. You all have heard about it enough by now. Keith Price scrambling for a touchdown with 36 seconds remaining and Sean Parker’s clinching interception 3 plays later. Those were plays that will be held in Husky lore. Eight years of torture were ever.
USC came to town next and were ranked number one. They may not have looked as amazing as everyone thought they’d be but they still hadn’t lost a game. This was the week the Clink went from being a temporary home to a gathering pl ace. Yes, home field advantage was present in the three previous games but once the sell-out was announced on Tuesday of game week, there was a buzz in Seattle that we don’t hear unless the Seahawks are in the playoffs.
The whole game was a party. Although it was a fairly close game, it felt that the Huskies had control of it the whole way through. Winning by 14 felt easy. There were Keith Price’s 3 touchdown passes compared to Barkley’s 2. There was the defense causing 3 turnovers. There was the Josh Shirley sack on the first USC offensive play in the second half that let us know that our team wasn’t letting up. Then, there was the Shaq Thompson kickoff. For years, it has felt like USC has been having those kind of special plays against us, with their superior athletes, now it was our turn. On that day, we were better than USC. USC hasn’t lost since then and looks to claim a spot in the national championship with a win tomorrow. They’re good. But, maybe we’ll be better again.The rest of the season felt euphoric. UW – 45, Arizona – 28. UW – 49, OSU – 24.
The showdown in Berkeley on a Friday night, on national TV was another highlight. California had been talking all week long about Tosh Lupoi and how payback was going to be sweet. Shaq Thompson stuffed the box score (1 interception, 1 sack, 2 tackles for a loss, and 7 tackles total) and shut up Cal. UW- 35, Cal -17. The defense had improved emphatically. They weren’t your dad’s Huskies but they were good in a conference of bad defenses. A day later, USC beat Oregon in a barn burner.
Utah caused the biggest scare, the rest of the way. The whole game, they stuffed the run and made the Huskies one-dimensional. At this point, Sankey and Callier both had gone over 500 yards on the season and made up a balanced offensive attack. We found that Keith Price couldn’t do it all even if he had to. But, the thing about memorable teams is there’s always a unit that steps up. In this game, it was the defense. Nate Fellner and John Timu bottled up John White, thanks in large part to Danny Shelton and Semisi Tokolahi. Desmond Trufant showed why other quarterbacks never throw to his side of the field, as he collected 2, of his season total 5, interceptions. The safeties proved why they were all conference. The team held Utah to 17 points and as Keith Price took over on the Huskies 30 yard line with a 1:26 remaining, he was smiling. He marched down the field to Utah’s 12. Perfect passes to Kasen, Smith, and Mickens. Heck, even Bruns had a first down catch. That set up for Travis Coons game-winner that barely made it inside of the upright.
As the Huskies played Colorado, and proceeded to blow them out, most Dawg fans had their eyes on the Oregon-Stanford game. For once, we were all Duck fans and for once they did what we willed them to. Oregon beat Stanford easily and the Huskies controlled their own destiny in the Pac-12 North.
Wazzu was next and that didn’t prove to be much of a challenge. There was much hoopla leading up to the game but it was mostly due to the Huskies being on the verge of clinching a spot in the Pac-12 championship. While it was clear that the Cougars had improved as the year went on, their defense was put to shame by the Huskies attack and the Dawgs won 52-28. Purple flooded the field in Pullman and now we’re here. A day away from the most important Husky game in 11 years.
Sark’s boys have moved up to number 7 in the BCS. But, the rankings don’t really matter. If the Huskies win they’ll be in the Rose Bowl, if they don’t it’ll most likely be the Alamo. I don’t know what will happen. No one predicted that this was how the season would turn out so there’s not much point in predicting how tomorrow will go. Yes, we beat USC once but it will be tough to repeat the Huskies most complete performance since 1994. I hope, I pray for a win.
I guess the moral of this year is that maybe we should stop thinking about next year. Oh, next year will be great. While Price won’t likely win the Heisman this year, next year he comes in as a top 3 favorite. The defense will be one year older and only graduates 3 starters. There’s a top-15 recruiting class coming. The future is lit up, but how dumb would it be to dream of 2013 when we’re a 60 minutes away from grabbing roses. We don’t know if Justin Wilcox will be here next year. We don’t know who will be injured. So, instead of next year there’s tomorrow. Who could ask for anything more.
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