Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
by John Berkowitz on Dec 25, 2008 8:30 AM PST
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PrintI just want to take the time this morning before things start getting crazy over here to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! This is going to be a very interesting year for Husky fans and I am glad that every single one of you come by to read and post every day.
When I started the blog three years ago we had three regular readers and I was one of them. It consisted of Hair of the Dawg, Prrbrr and myself. Now according to the meter at the bottom of the site we have anywhere between 1000-2000 readers per day which is pretty remarkable for something started by word of mouth.
The goal today is the same when it was started and that was to have an objective and respectful place to discuss Husky athletics. I think we have achieved that with the help of everyone who visits here.
Once again Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Go Dawgs!
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Thanks for doing the blog John
You managed to keep this blog from getting hysterical unlike some other place we know gets from time to time.
Merry Christmas to you and Kate as well.
Jack
Nathan
He is taking a sabatical from all things Huskies.
He should be back here in the Fall.
by John Berkowitz on Dec 25, 2008 10:16 AM PST reply actions
i never really post, but read this blog multiple times daily and love it, merry christmas to you and yours, keep up the great work!
Thanks Kurt!
Merry Christmas to you and your family too!
by John Berkowitz on Dec 25, 2008 7:50 PM PST up reply actions
Great Job for a dismal 2008
you did a great job this year and I have really enjoyed your posts. Things will be better in 2009. Our goals should be simple:
-Softball top 4 finish
-mens/womens – Crew National Championship
-Mens Basketball – one tournament win in both Pac 10 and NCAA
-Women’s Basketball – not sure where this program is going??? If Tia doesn’t generate some “buzz” by year 3 she is the wrong fit for UW
-Football – bowl game and improvement the whole season
-golf – top 10 finish
-Baseball – not sure where baseball is going. How do we have a CY Young winner and not make it to the NCAA tourney his senior year? Hope to see some improvement and at least a spot in the tournament.
-Women’s volleyball – top 8 finish
I would really like some improvement in baseball, women’s basketball, and obviously football. All of those programs are huge underacheivers in my opinion. We obviously need a new baseball stadium or something equivalent to high school baseball stadium.
John – do you agree?
I think so...
I think those are great and achievable expectations.
by John Berkowitz on Dec 25, 2008 7:49 PM PST up reply actions
Merry Christmas
Great job on this blog John!…..have enjoyed it very much since I cam across it.
Merry Christmas to all
Best Blog on the web. Great people, Great info & Great discussion. Can’t ask for anything more. Well done.
awww schucks....now I'm blushing!
I have to concur with all your statements…this blog is not only great because of the time and energy that John puts in but the people who liven up the chat rooms!
Now that Christmas is over….Get ready for an AMAZING 2009!!!!!!
2009 will NOT be Amazing
I think the best we can hope for next season is a “system in the works”. I am not going to throw out victory numbers like I did prior to this last season, yet we went 0-12 and their is undoubtedly room for improvement [understatement].
What I hope to see under coach Sark is a system that can move the ball effectively and score in the red zone. Defensively we have to win 3rd downs and for the oppostion to punt more regularly.
Hope for a minor bowl, but all I want to see is a systamtic offense that can score and get back to the nuts and bolts of our historically tough and aggressive defense.
Go Dawgs! WOOF!!!
From what we've had to endure for the past five + years...
If we can do what you say Crazi I’d consider that pretty amazing for 2009. I’m ready to climb back up the ladder to the top of the PAC-10. I think most of us relize this will take a while.
Thanks Debbie Downer!
You dream of a cup half empty and I will dream of a cup half full…there is nothing but optimism about next year. That doesnt mean 12-0 National Champs…Minor bowl game, more than enough for year one. At this point i would take a win. I believe things will be better and will make 2009 Amazing. That statement was a generalization about life in general…sports is 95% of my being but an AMAZING rest of my life would make me happy too..Yea for the 5%!
1/2 Full or 1/2 Empty- It's ALL the Same
Sorry bigdave I thought you were only referring to next season. Don’t get me wrong, I am upbeat about what we can accomplish next year. AND what is it with this half empty/half full thing? I’ve never bought into that logic- the glass is half full regardless of your wisdom, makes not sense at all!
I do think coach Sarkisian is going to be a great coach for Washington. I think as a young coach, he is going to be a “head turner”. I think he will get us back to where we all want to be by winning Pac 10 titles and Rose Bowl trophies. But to do it he is going to have to work a lot of long sleepless hours. Getting us from 0-12 back to contention for league champs is going to be a lot of work. He can do it, because at his age he has a lot of energy. But the more challenging aspect of turning this program around will be his backing by school administrators, booster, alumni, and media. If coach Sark can get all of them onboard with him, unlike Willingham- then the job of restoring the program will be so much easier.
The 2009 season for coach Sark starts moments after the 2009 Rose Bowl. We are tired of losing … it is time to put a winner on the field!
Go Dawgs! WOOF!!!
Count me among the 1/2 full crowd and I was never a Sark fan. But I think he has natural talents that fit a Head Coach better than Off. Coordinator. Sark will turn us around, I agree with John that 4-6 wins next season has to be the expectation level.
But based on Recruiting alone I know we are going to be pleasantly surprised at how quickly Sark gets the Huskies back on the map. There’s no way any USC commits should be considering the 0-12 Huskies but they are.
Also, the cupboard is not bare. The last two recruiting classes can make a huge impact with a stellar coaching staff working on them, which is why that DC coordinator hire still looms so large.
drunk post...
I can’t disagree crazi…I just hate wasting Jake while we have him, although I’m hoping with a coach that cares he’ll improve. He’s an amazing athlete. I don’t have any expectations. Whatever will be will be. I do like the enthusiasm that Sarkisian is showing though and hope he can infuse the players with it. This class will be iffy, but if they show progress and win a few games to show he’s got something going on here, it’s a nice class to build on, redshirts wasted regardless.
John, it’s been fun and I wish you could get Tequilla to post here…for the same reason I started reading your blog…respected your posts on dawgman and was very pleased, and a bit surprised, that your thoughts improved, or maybe were expanded upon, when you created the blog.
Most especially a thanks to Kate, who, for whatever reason, gives you the time to post. 3 am in Korea, my best to all of you for the new year. I’m looking forward to sharing a brew someday JB.
I backspaced approximately 200 times during this post, so cut me a little slack.
cheers,
Dick
by hairofthedawg on Dec 26, 2008 10:02 AM PST up reply actions
Jake Waisted due to Spread
One thing I do hope coach Sark brings us all is the pro-style offense. Jake Locker needs to start fundamentally learning the intracacies of this offense if he is going to be a great pro QB prospect. I would think he’d welcome the pro style.
One reason why Locker has been waisted is due to the crappy spread offense that we’ve attempted to run. The spread will work if you know how to operate it and clearly Lappano had no clue. Also it helps if you’ve got the availability of spread-style talent to run it. We didn’t! So with that said I would argue the reason why Jake got hurt early on in the season was because of the fundamentals of the spread offense we were running. I realize that Locker got hurt attempting to block down field, but why was he in that position to begin with? It’s because of the lame offense we were running. In the pro style offense very seldom will you see a QB running up field on a down field block- doesn’t happen.
The ideal situation is to keep our playmakers on the field and the spread killed our every hope last year. I want to see us running the pro next season. I want to see Jake become a gifted pocket QB, call audibles when the defense is over-reacting to something. Then if the pocket begins to collapse- I want to see Jake scramble for chuncks of yards. But keep in mind, Jake needs to play within his head as a quarterback. Too many times I’ve seen him play within his head as a runningback and too many times the kid has gotten up too slowly, didn’t get up at all, or was injured. Injuries at the QB position is something I think we can all agree on that we can’t have anymore. Jake needs to learn to “live to fight for another day”. He needs to learn when a play has been exhausted and sliding safely into a first down would essentially keep him in the game and off the stretcher.
This isn’t high school ball anymore where Jake was the biggest kid in the game and could bull his way through defenders. This is major college football where everyone is big, strong, and athletic. Jake needs to start playing the game more like a prototypical NFL QB and when the right situation calls for him to use his athletism- Go For IT! But make sure the situation calls for it.
The pro style offense will have a bigger impact on Jake staying healthy. He’s got good talent surrounding him. Keep in healthy, keep him in the game, and let him get the ball to the playmakers and see what happens. But the spread? It was so predictable because every defense knew good and well that Jake was either going to keep the ball or give the ball to the RB. Basically the oppsoing defense had to plug two holes, the one Locker was going to go thru and the one the RB was going to go thru. The pro is the way…
how much of that is attitude...
vs. the style of offfense. I personally feel that’s part of the problem. He (Jake) feels vulnerable too often and resorts to what worked in HS. He’s good enough to get away with it for a bit, but not in the long term. I agree with the pro style offense being to his benefit, takes some pressure off, but it, to me at least, seems like it’s almost a matter of trust.
I really wish Tequila would chime in here because I had a brief conversation in dm chat the other night about the positives of various styles of offenses. He knows a lot more than I do about this stuff and I had to step back and think.
I was thinking that pro style offenses were being run by the schools that got the recruits that could pull it off, which, in my mind is still true. He said the spread was more designed to isolate the superior athlete, also true. What confused me was where the dividing point was. When are you good enough. I personally feel that the pro style is safer and easier to recruit to. So, if you’re reading T…
Must have found my zone…nowhere near as many backspaces that time, although I don’t really care whether it makes more or less sense….
…hoists a Guinness toward all…
by hairofthedawg on Dec 26, 2008 11:04 AM PST up reply actions
I want Pro Style for Christmas
Actually it is fundamentally easier to recruit towards the spread offense. For starters, you don’t need to prototypical NFL QB. You can find A LOT of athletes that can play quarterback out of the spread. But get them under center and they are lost.
In the spread all you need to recruit regarding the WRs and RBs are athletes. You can plug them in just about anywhere on offense, becaue it comes down to the design of the spread. O Linemen have to be agile and not so bulky- easier to recruit.
In the pro style offense you have to have a QB that can get under center, read defenses, call audibles, and have the ability of hitting all the routes. That means you have to recruit WRs that know the position and can run precise routes. O Linemen must be fundamentally sound in technique and NFL-like size. Requires a blue chip TE, where the spread TE can be an oversized WR.
But since Oregon, Oregon State, and more or less WSU are running gimmick offenses such as the spread, fly, or no huddle. Switching to the pro style offense for UofW we be a HUGE recruiting tool. We would be able to sell the pro style to recruits, where it is THEE only offense that the NFL uses. We can tell recruits that they will learn this offense and be ready for the NFL after they’ve run it for 4 years during their college career. Oregon and Oregon State won’t be able to touch that sales pitch. It would be a nice little niche, where if you want to play in the pro style you have two options- play at either USC or Washington.
While everybody is busy recruiting towards the spread, only SC and Washington would be recruiting towards the pro style. If we make the switch I can guarrentee you that you’ll see the Pac 10 trend back to it’s pro style offenses. By then we’d already have it up and runnning, while the rest are playing catch up.
Nice post Crazi
I think the Pro Style Offense will suit us well.
by John Berkowitz on Dec 26, 2008 3:24 PM PST up reply actions
beautifully done...
my drunk posts are NO WHERE near as good…i usually end up cancelling them.
been there...
done that too, although when JB first started the blog, probably too infrequently…GO Huskies!
by hairofthedawg on Dec 26, 2008 10:48 AM PST up reply actions
love this blog
Merry Christmas John. I really appreciate your work on this blog. “Objective and respectful”: that is a great formula and you succeed at both. Other sites (including Seattle newspapers) can annoy with “sky is falling” hysteria, knee-jerk reactions to events, purple kool-aid, or lame trolls. Then I read this blog and think: dude nailed it again.
Count me among your devoted readership
Thanks for a great blog John. I enjoy the intelligent debates on this blog, there are differences of opinion but I don’t think anyone gets personal or takes it personal. There are a few zingers now & then (I’m guilty of that too) but I think its all in fun and camaraderie as Huskies.
Late holiday greetings
JohnB, sorry for the late best holiday wishes to you and Kate, but spent the Christmas times with my daughters/ sons in law in San Diego area. Learned we are going to be grandparents again, so a great holiday present.
Your site is succesful because of you and your style, I have always loved how you supported those in charge until it became obvious it was time for a change, plus keeping your blog civil amongst us posters. Agree with you on Katz (biased idiot), and that its time to look at rescheduling GU, maybe a 2 for 1 home.
I am anxiously awaiting the big announcement, and yes Woodward has made some gaffes as AD. I am surprised with his political background that he painted himself into those corners with his pronouncements, and now expects his glib toungue to bail him out. Still think that when you can someone, get him out of there.
Prrbrr
Thanks for the kind words and congratulations on the new grandchild!
As far as Woodward goes it just could just be he is learning on the job.
by John Berkowitz on Dec 27, 2008 11:30 AM PST reply actions
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