The Good Guys Sports Blog

Camp is starting!  The news of the day is obviously Wak getting fired but we’ll get to that later.  On to the second half of the Husky schedule!

@ Arizona

It’s easy to forget how close Arizona was to playing in the Rose Bowl last year.  If it weren’t for a ball bouncing off a receivers foot at Montlake and a last second touchdown by Oregon, Arizona would have been playing Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.  With that being said, Arizona should take a step back this year.  The offense should be okay.  They return their quarterback and running, Nick Foles and Nic Grigsby.  They also return most of a very good offensive line.  The defense is where they run into problems.  They lost 7 starters and have to totally rebuild at the linebacker spot.  Stoops is a pretty good defensive coach though.  Arizona could be a lot better than what people are saying.

Stanford

We all know what the Cardinal lost, Toby Gerhart was one of the best running backs the Pac-10 has seen.  You can’t replace a player like that.  They still have a good team though.  Andrew Luck is good, I don’t know if he’s as good as everyone says but he is good.  Their receivers are very solid and their offensive line might be the best in the Pac-10.  The defense is what stopped Stanford from winning the Pac-10 last year and it must improve if they’re going to be a good team this year.  They switched to a 3-4 defense this spring and we’ll see the results that yields.  If the defense improves Stanford could win the Pac-10…

@ Oregon

Yeah, Oregon will probably be good.  They return the most and if the defense improves there’s not much reason to think they won’t be the best team in the Pac-10.  I don’t feel like talking about how good the Ducks could be so let me point out how tough it will be to replace Masoli.  He was easily the best quarterback in the Pac-10 last year.  In the UCLA game that he was injured for, Nate Costa couldn’t get the offense to score against one of the worst defenses in the conference.  Costa doesn’t scare me at all.  Thomas is more of a threat but that offense took 3 years for Dixon to master.  It took about 2 years for Masoli to truly master.  I’m not saying the Ducks won’t be good but they might be in more trouble than what people are saying.

UCLA

This game should be fun!  Jake and Mason’s last home game, a Thursday night game, and national TV should make for a fn environment.  Much like Arizona State, we shouldn’t have lost to UCLA last year and we shouldn’t this year.  The Bruins should be improved but they have quite a few holes on the lines and still have questions about whether Kevin Prince can be a good Pac-10 quarterback.  I think he can be but he was inconsistent last year.  UCLA does have a pretty good secondary but the rest of the front 7 on defense has a few holes.  UCLA has talent but can they put it together?

@ Cal

Cal generally has the talent and will again this season.  Hopefully they once again have their late-season lapse against the Dawgs.  The Bears return most of an offense that under-achieved last year.  Cal has to fill some holes in the secondary but the rest of the defense looks okay.  Cal should be good again this year, as usual.  Not good enough to win the Pac-10 but still pretty solid.

@ WSU

We should not lose this game.  Truthfully, I think Montana St. might beat the Cougars.  Jeff Tuel is halfway decent if he doesn’t get injured by this point in the season.  James Montgomery is okay but I don’t know if he’ll be able to make it all the way back from an injury.  The receivers are okay.  The rest of the team is pretty awful and I don’t see a lot of hope in them winning more than one or two games.  In positive news for WSU fans, this should be Paul Wulff’s last game as the Cougar’s coach.

We’re 2 days away from Fall Camp starting.  Technically, the players start tomorrow but the media and fans don’t have access until Monday.  The first week of practices will be mostly non-contact workouts until the weekend.  It will be great to be able to read some actual football news instead of rumors of Wak getting fired. 

The Huskies have consistently had one of the toughest football schedules in the nation in the past decade and that doesn’t change this year.  Today, I wanted to do a quick run-down of the schedule with a little preview of the teams.  We’ll be sure to have a more complete analysis of opponents in the week before games.  Here we go!

@ BYU
The season opener is against a rebuilding team in Provo.  I would feel a lot more confident about this game if it wasn’t the season opener but at this point we have to believe that Sark will have the team ready.  BYU has lost their quarterback, leading rusher, all 3 starting linebackers and a few other players.  They do return most of a strong offensive line.  Mendenhall is a great coach and BYU always seems like a force these days.  I’d feel much better about this game if it was swapped with the Syracuse one.  But, here’s to hoping they start Jake Heaps and we come to dominate.  This one’s a toss up right now in my mind.

Syracuse
It was 5 years ago that Jake Locker debuted in Syracuse, New York.  He ran all over and the Huskies looked better than they had in a couple years.  No need to look back at much history though.  The Syracuse program has been struggling for the better part of a decade now.  They did show some signs of life last year though.  They return 18 starters from a group that went 4-8 last season.  They do have to replace their quarterback and playing your first road game at Husky Stadium is not an easy task.  This should be a victory, although it may not be as easy as some people think.  This is a possible trap game.

Nebraska
This could be awesome.  If the Dawgs start 2-0, there could be many possibilities for this game.  College Gameday would most likely be here.  The Huskies might wear black jerseys for the first time.  It could be the game that would vault them into the top 15 in the nation.  The problem is that Nebraska is good.  Really good.  They do have holes at quarterback and center but they have some talented guys at those spots with a litle experience already.  Their defense was the strength last year and will be again.  Although the Cornhuskers lost 4 of their 5 top tacklers, there’s plenty of talent.  It’s to our advantage to get them early in the season.  It’s a really interesting match-up; our explosive offense vs. their dominating defense.  Here’s to hoping both teams are 2-0 going into the game and we get a memorable game.

@USC
Let Pac-10 play begin!  And what a tough way to start it.  USC is almost as talented as they’ve ever been, although they don’t have as much depth.  They have more talent than the Huskies but that doesn’t always matter, as we saw last year with USC.  The Trojans have to replace their secondary and have some offensive line depth issues, but everywhere else looks pretty solid.  This could be a tough one to watch, but you never know.  We can play with them.

ASU
We shouldn’t have lost this game last year and we should win this year.  The Sun Devils offense shouldn’t be very good.  They were bad last year and there’s not much reason to expect a dramatic improvement.  The defense is another story.  Led by Vontaze Burfict, the defense is one of the Pac-10’s best.  They did lose 6 starters on that side of the ball but they have a solid core unit and won’t be a push over.  With that being said, this looks to be one of the easier games on the schedule.

Oregon State
OSU always seems to be good now and this year looks no different.  The key to their season is replacing Sean Canfield at quarterback.  He was great last year and will be tough to replace.  Fortunately for the Beavs, they have 4 starters back on the O-line along with the Rodgers’ brothers to make things easier for the new quarterback.  Their defense is always over-achieving and should be strong this year.  They have some holes at linebacker but all the other spots look to be sured up.  This will be a tough game, as usual.

I’ll be back with the rest of the schedule tomorrow.  Thanks for reading.  Bruce Chen is shutting down the Mariners and I wish I could say I was surprised.  Believe big!

Andrew

The Huskies will take the field for the start of Fall Camp in just six days!  Today, the subject of our Countdown to Camp is the most memorable home games.  I haven’t missed a Husky home game in roughly 7 years but that doesn’t leave me with a ton of memorable games.  Fortunately, there’s enough for a blog post.  Let’s get rockin!  (These are in no particular order).

2003:  Huskies-42 Ducks-10 

This game has always stuck with me.  The Dawgs were in the midst of a very strange season.  It was Neuheisel’s last and his team was underachieving.  Coming into the game, the Ducks players had plenty to say in the papers.  They talked about winning and then dancing on our W after the game as the Huskies walked off the field.  It was a night game at Husky Stadium, which was more of a rarity back then.  The first half was pretty close and starter Cody Pickett, was hurt.  But then Casey Paus came in wiped the Ducks off the field.  Looking back, the thought of Casey Paus beating the Ducks is one of the funnier things I can think of.  The atmosphere turned into one big party; the guy standing behind us kept his “Ducks suck!” chant going late into the night.  Along with the game being awesome, the Duck’s band seemed to be wearing bike helmets and did one of the weirdest halftime shows I’ve ever seen.  Although, you could hardly hear them over all the boos.  We haven’t beat the Ducks since this game and this has been our biggest blow out of an opponent until beating Cal by the same amount last year.

2000:  Huskies-34 Miami-29

This game would beat out any other if I had been a little bit older.  I can’t remember a ton from this game but I do remember how loud it was.  When Husky Stadium gets really loud, it starts to shake.  This is the first time I remember this happening at  a game I went to.  Also, I remember Miami fans chanting “Santana!” (for receiver Santana Moss) as he went out to return his first punt.  He fumbled that punt return and the Dawgs went on to win.  Miami’s hail mary was swatted down at the end and the band raced on to the field while playing ‘Celebrate’.  This game should be on ESPN Classic more often.

2003:  Huskies-27 Cougars-19

The Huskies upset the Cougars once again in 2003.  This victory came with the famous ‘Pickett to Williams’ play.  Corey Williams didn’t do much else in his career but he’ll always have that play.  The stadium was shaking as the Dawgs went on to win.

2000:  Huskies-33 Beavers-30

This is the game that gave the Huskies their eventual Pac-10 title.  The Oregon State kicker missed a field goal with no time left and the Huskies went on to victory.  No one knew how critical this game was until down the road.

2009: Huskies-16 USC-13; Huskies-36 Arizona-33

I put these two together because you all know what happened.  They were both miracles.  The Dawgs beat the third ranked team in the nation one week after snapping their losing streak.  I rushed the field and stood next to men much older than I who had tears rolling down their cheeks.  It was a sort of redemption for the past 6 seasons of ineptitude. 
Then the Mason Foster interception.  That was a miracle and a game that reminded me of the 2001 Michigan game. 

2009:  Huskies-30 Cougars-0; Huskies-42 Cal-10

These games weren’t very high on the dramatic scale and wouldn’t be on the list if they weren’t the last ones the Dawgs had played.  But, think about how crucial these games could be in Husky history if they go on to better things this year.  These could have been the games that made Jake stay for his senior season.  These could be the games that jump-start an offense with loads of potential.  If the Huskies return to prominence these could be the games that were the turning point.  If that’s the case, then I’d say these were as memorable as anything.

Andrew