Last Week: Andrew (4-2), Dan (5-1), Joe (5-1), Matthew (5-1)
Overall: Andrew (29-5), Dan (30-4), Joe (30-4), Matthew (29-5)
Week 5:
UCLA—The Good Guys
Arizona St.—Dan, Joe; Oregon St.—Andrew, Matthew
Stanford—Andrew; Oregon—Matthew, Dan, Joe
-Dan
Filed under Pac-10 Outlook
I thought I’d add a little segment to our Husky game previews about 5 things I will be watching closely on each game. Five seems like a good, solid number. Quick, name your favorite athlete that wears the number 5! It’s harder than it should be for current athletes but Joe DiMaggio wins this game easily. Okay, here we go!
1. Jake Locker
Obviously, this is one thing to always watch if you’re a Husky fan. The team goes as Jake goes and they’re going to need him to get going on Saturday. This week is a little more intriguing though because he’s coming off the worst performance of his college career (actually, I imagine it’s his worst performance he’s ever had in any sporting event. Really). His draft stock has fallen and his team is on the brink of falling into the same terrible seasons they’ve grown accustomed to. If anyone has the talent to turn this season around in one game, it’s Jake. I’m hoping that Locker shows up and has a game we all remember, if he does the Huskies will be in good shape.
2. UW receivers vs. USC secondary
Coming into the season UW supposedly had one of the best receiving corps in the Pac-10. Through the first 3 games, that hasn’t been the case. Sure, Jermaine Kearse had a great day against Syracuse, but there hasn’t been separation downfield and they were simply awful against Nebraska. This week they play a secondary that is not near as good but still has talent. The Huskies will surely test that secondary. I’m sure the USC secondary is ready to prove themselves. Let’s hope that the Dawgs’ receivers are the ones who prove something.
3. The Special Teams
The Huskies face the best special teams unit they have faced all season and will need to show a ton of improvement. UW has been absolutely terrible on special teams. The kicker and punter have been okay. There isn’t much of a return game to speak of and the coverage units have been just about the worst in the nation. The hope is that this has improved in the bye week. If it hasn’t, the Huskies don’t stand a chance.
4. Erik Kohler
Kohler has been a bright spot in this early season so far. The true freshman has played pretty well in the last 2 games and I look forward to taking a closer look at him on TV. He’s going up against one of the better defensive lines in the country and will be matched up against Jurrell Casey, who was a pre-season All-American in some circles. This is the second time in as many games our true freshman has been matched up against an All-American candidate. I hope he holds his own and makes a little room for Chris Polk to run.
5. The Coaches
The first match-up between Lane Kiffen and Sark provides another interesting aspect to the game. Sark knows USC’s scheme and players pretty well. Does that matter? I don’t know. It might have a tiny bit last year but it wasn’t what won the Huskies the game. Both teams are close to the same schematically and there will be some mind games going on between coaching staffs. Hopefully, the Dawgs win and then Kiffen says something stupid, because you know he would. That guy drives me crazy.
-Andrew
Filed under UW Game Previews
As you’ve probably heard by now, Felix will not take the mound in the Mariners’ season finale on Sunday. After having one of the best seasons, as a pitcher, in Mariner history management has decided to shut him down a start early because of the amount of innings he’s already thrown this season. I have two thoughts on this and I’ll keep it short.
My first thought is that our management gets it. They see that downside of Felix making this final start outweighs the upside. They get that Felix is more important to next season and the future than he is right now. They understand that they have the best young pitcher in baseball and they are willing to lose a game in this lost season to decrease the chance that their best player gets hurt. Would Felix have gotten hurt if he started? No, probably not. He was just as likely to get hurt last start against Texas as he would be this one, but still it’s not worth risking your ace. You might think that this is common sense but I wonder if our prior GM’s would have got this.
On the other hand, I think it’s a shame. Obviously, Felix wants to go out there and pitch one more game. I think he’s earned the right to do that. The King has just put up the two best consecutive years of pitching in organizational history, and if he wants to go out there, gosh, dang it, he should go out there. Something tells me we’d see the best Felix possible on Sunday. Our ace pitches his best when he’s on a big stage, unfortunately, the M’s are never on a big stage because they suck. But Sunday, Felix would have been amped. When Felix is amped it’s scary for the opponents. I would have gone to the game on Sunday if Hernandez had been pitching just to give him a standing ovation, now I’ll probably just watch an inning or two from Matthew’s couch. That’s the kind of pitcher Felix is. The kind where you plan your schedule around seeing. That’s the downside of him not pitching Sunday.
So, we’ll see you in February, Felix, when you report to Spring Training. Then I’ll see you in April on opening day when you accept your Cy Young in front of 45,000 people at Safeco who don’t appreciate you enough. I hope you get a standing ovation sometime on Sunday, somehow. You deserve that. I’ll be sure to give you a proper thank you sometime soon on here but, for now, this will do. See you in a couple months, King.
On to the Trojan defense today. The Trojan defense struggled mightily the first game against Hawaii. Since then, they’ve gotten progressively better but they still have some obvious weaknesses where they haven’t put it all together. The talent is there though.
Defensive Line:
This is an area that most people regard as the strength of the defense. That much has proven true in USC’s first 4 games, although they haven’t truly been tested. Chris Polk will be the best back USC has faced this year and the Huskies offensive line might be the best they’ve faced also. That’s pretty pathetic. Anyway, the Trojans are led by Jurrell Casey. Casey is a big 305 lb. defensive tackle who was a pre-season All American in some publications. He’s perhaps the biggest reason USC is stout against the run and poses quite a few match-up problems up front. Other names to watch on the line are Armond Armstead, Nick Perry, and DaJohn Harris. Armstead and Perry have been hurt as of late but are probable for the game Saturday. If they can’t go that is obviously a big hit to the USC defense. They do have some decent depth here unless one or two more guys get hurt. The Trojans’ need to rely on their pass rush to take some of the heat off the much-aligned secondary.
Linebackers:
The Trojans have had more talent at the linebacker position in the last decade than some NFL teams. Last year, they took a little bit of a step back and it’s yet to be seen how good they are this year. Obviously, there’s talent. That goes for all of USC’s positions. USC has three players in their linebacking corps who saw quite a bit of time last year, Michael Morgan, Malcolm Smith, and Derek Kennard. Morgan has good size and is one of the fastest players on the team. Smith started all of last year at weak-side linebacker. Both Morgan and Smith are team captains. Derek Kennard takes the middle linebacker spot. He split time with Morgan last year at strong-side linebacker and now slides over. These guys deserve credit for helping shut down team’s run games but also deserves a little of the blame for not helping the young secondary.
Secondary:
On to that weak secondary I keep alluding to. Let me say that they haven’t been as bad as I might have let on. The Hawaii game was truly atrocious. The secondary was carved up the entire game and never looked that close to stopping them. They have been better since then but not entirely. Wazzu moved the ball pretty well through the air against the Trojans but couldn’t take advantage. USC does have 6 interceptions on the year, that’s pretty good but when you see the amount of passing attempts against them, it make a lot more sense. The best player in the secondary is Shareece Wright. It seems like he’s been a Trojan for forever. He’s the guy who laid the late hit on Jake in 2007 that most Husky fans count as a cheap shot. He’s also a very good cornerback. Most teams stay away from him and I imagine that the Huskies will on Saturday. USC has been breaking in a new corner and two new safeties outside of Wright. This will be the first time this unit has been really tested since Hawaii and will be a good gauge of their improvement. Thank goodness this isn’t Nebraska!
Usually I end the scouting reports here but I feel like I should add that USC’s special teams are excellent. They are the best the Huskies have faced this year. This is an obvious area of concern since the Dawgs have been terrible in special teams. So, consider yourself warned in that area. I really think that might be where this game is won, which doesn’t bode well for the Huskies.
Thanks for reading, lots more coming tomorrow!
Andrew
This is our 300th post. The 4 writers here try not to get to into numbers or stats but this seems like an appropriate time to thank you all. I’d like to think that I’d keep writing these posts if we didn’t receive any views. But, the reality is that supplying the reader is motivation to write. This year has been a great start to the blog and we owe that to you all for reading! We look forward to the next 300 (and more) posts.
Filed under Huskies Football, UW Game Previews
The Mariners just lost a game on a strikeout. A strikeout by a Ranger batter against a Mariner pitcher. Has this ever happened before in history? Wow.
-Matthew
The Mariners have 4 games left in one of the most dismal seasons in history, and no one is sad to see it go. I haven’t watched more than an a couple innings of a game in weeks. The outlook for 2011 isn’t much better, to be honest. Barring an unexpected and significant payroll increase, there’s not much room in the budget for big-ticket additions. Even if there were, it’s not a great free agent class.
Still, the Mariners need to, and will, make serious changes to the roster. Some of this will just be with playing their younger players more, but there will certainly be some moves and fresh faces as well. In an effort to get ready for the offseason, I’m going to walk through each position and see what the Mariners have, for both 2011 and the future, and what they’ll be losing. I’m not going to touch on who they might add yet. That will come later in the offseason, if at all. Frankly, there are very few people sufficiently smart and well-connected to project those kind of moves more than a few days out. Consider this series of posts something of a triage: which positions are in the worst shape going into next year, and which might be okay. It’d be too depressing to start with catcher, so we’ll look at the first basemen after the jump! Continue reading
On to Pac-10 play and teams that I know much more about! Here we go! Because of a lack of time I’m going to put these posts into 2 parts, offense and defense.
Quarterback: Matt Barkley plays the quarterback position for the Trojans. He is a True Sophomore and seems to be coming into his own this season. Plus, he’s just so gosh darn cute. The knock on him is that he’s a little bit inconsistent still. He tore apart Hawaii but didn’t look quite as good against Virginia and Minnesota. He threw the ball all over the place against Wazzu but he was also picked off twice. Barkley can force throws but he makes a good share of them. In the next 2 years Barkley will be the best quarterback in the conference but not quite yet. He’s still maturing and hopefully will go through some growing pains on Saturday. He’s enough to scare me and could pick apart the secondary. Although, the UW secondary may be the best he’s played, which is really, really pathetic.
Running Back: The Trojans have played 5 guys at this position. I’d tell you who the starter is for this week but only Kiffen knows, and I wonder if he even knows. Last week, Stanley Havili ran all over WSU. Havili is a big back, the kind that UW has had trouble with in the past. He has played fullback most of his career but is a good power runner. He’s also a good receiver out of the backfield. Marc Tyler is the Trojans leading rusher on the year. He ran for a lot of yards against Hawaii in the opener but has seen a ton of action since then. I don’t know why. Allen Bradford is back there. He’s another big power-back but not quite to the extent of Havili. He does have pretty good speed though. C.J. Gable is there to fill in the Joe McKnight role. I’d say he’s there to fill the Reggie Bush role but he’s not near the player that Bush was in college. Then, there’s true freshman Dillon Baxter. He was close to the top running back recruit in the country last year but he hasn’t really gone off yet. He’s been solid in limited playing time, but not amazing. Any 5 of these guys could kill you. Heck, they probably have someone behind these guys on the depth chart that could kill you too.
Wide Receiver/Tight End: The Trojans have many weapons here too. We’ll start with Ronald Johnson. He’s the leading receiver on the team and also the punt returner. His punt return for a touchdown against Hawaii was a thing of beauty. He has 249 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns on the year. He might be the best skill position player the Trojans have, which is obviously saying something. Robert Woods is their next guy. Woods, a freshman, has caught 13 balls for 175 yards on the year. Barkley does a nice job of spreading the ball around to other guys also. His running backs are used a ton out of the backfield. Brice Butler had a solid year last year, as a receiver, but hasn’t done a ton this year. Keep an eye on him. At tight end, USC has Rhett Ellison. He’s their 4th leading receiver and does a nice job in both aspects, blocking and receiving, of the tight end’s game.
Offensive Line: The Trojans are strong up front. They have averaged over 6 yards a carry this season and have done a pretty nice job of protecting Barkley. Led by center, Kristofer O’dowd, USC returns 3 offensive lineman from last year. This unit wasn’t as good against Virginia and Minnesota but they played really well against WSU. Maybe because it’s WSU or maybe it’s because they’re coming together as a unit. They do lack depth here as opposed to the other offensive positions, but at the moment they’re healthy.
I’ll be back with the defensive scouting in the next couple days. Thanks for reading!
Andrew
Filed under Huskies Football, UW Game Previews
As you may have noticed, the blog has switched to football mode in the last couple weeks. This was a combination of the Mariners sucking and football being a breath of fresh air. There hasn’t been anything really exciting as far as the Mariners go lately but here’s what little news there is:
That’s about all I can think of. If you have any Mariner questions let me know in the comments and I’ll try to address them.
Andrew
Andrew Long
dpscansen
Joe Loughery
Matthew
The Good Guys Sports Blog 