0-4 start dooms Willingham

I’m not even going to talk about the whole Ty Willingham job situation, I just want to talk about the clock management. With around 5:20 left to go in the game Stanford goes out of bounds on 2nd down. The clock in college will start running when the referee signals ready, unless there is less than 2 minutes left in the 2nd or 4th quarters. We call a timeout… why? At that point in the game it will save around 30-35 seconds because it will take a little bit of time for the ball to be spotted. After the next play we call a timeout again and have just one left with around 5 minutes to go, this time we at least saved about 40 seconds since the ball was downed in the field of play. At this point you are forcing your offense to score within 3 minutes without using a timeout or you are guaranteed to require an onside kick to have any chance at winning. This isn’t even giving your team a reasonable chance to win, the odds of recovering onsides kicks in college are low and the odds of us scoring in a minute are terrible with the way we manage the clock. Two timeouts were completely wasted at a time when they never should have been used and the 3rd was wasted because we tried to run up the middle like idiots and got stopped (twice!).

I went into the game thinking we were going to get our first win of the season. After watching the defense tonight, I’m not sure we will win until we get to WSU. Unless a team turns the ball over against us, I don’t see our defense stopping anyone. There were only a handful of drives that Stanford had 3rd and long all night. Until the defense can show that we can stop someone, I don’t see how we have a chance to win. I thought Fouch did a nice job tonight, but without getting any stops from the defense it doesn’t matter. I have given Willingam the benefit of the doubt for the last couple of years, but I don’t see how he is going to be able to turn this around. I don’t know if it is entirely his fault, but at this time, we need a change of pace. I’d like to throw my support for Kiffen. Tonight was an extremely frustrating game to watch. It is probably the cause of the 6 or 7 bourbons being consumed tonight.

judging the quality of play, the Huskies are nowhere near where they need to be. The defense has barely improved from last year’s record performance, and on the other side the plan is still praying Jake Locker is healthy enough to do everything on offense.

To be successful you first need to stop being mediocre, but Ty hasn’t even started being mediocre. They’ve just been miserable.

Oh I completely agree the time management doesn’t exist, but the decisions are such no brainers it has me ripping my hat apart in the stands. The team is playing with no emotion right now and this is going to be a long and depressing year. That sideline was dead, they just said on the honks show that Darin Harris was trying to pump up the team during the game and they just ignored him. I don’t think a change during the season will help much but something needs to happen to help the recruiting because this year will be a disaster on every level if the recruiting struggles. Kudos to all the other fans at the game tonight that place was pretty loud the first half but in the second half it died instantly.

I graduated in ‘91, so I have seen the UW at the top. What I am seeing right now is very disappointing. At this point, I don’t see how Willingham can be the coach in the future. I don’t know that a change right now is possible, but something has to happen. If Willingham were fired tomorrow, I wouldn’t be disappointed. I don’t blame him necessarily because of the situation he was put in, but it is obvious at this point that he is not the guy to get the job done. He has given us a pretty decent base to go forward to the future, but I do not trust that he is the guy to get us to the top of the Pac-10. It’s not as if he hasn’t been compensated for what he has or hasn’t done. I just hope the next coach (Pinkel) can understand that special teams are as important as the rest of the team.

In reading your post again, I have to take exception to your take on Locker. I thought the same thing about the tobacco, but after looking at the shot I couldn’t be sure if he had a plug in his cheek or not. Every additional shot didn’t confirm the tobacco thing, so I forgot about it until you brought it up. When I saw him on the sideline with a smile on his face, I didn’t think he was giving up, but thought he was trying to be positive to his teammates. I may be naiive about all of this, but I was more concerned about the defense instead of what Locker was doing on the sidelines. I also thought he may have had some pain medication, which may explain his giddiness.

Ty had winning records at both of the major schools before the UW – maybe he was stuck in a monumental hole that even the best coaches couldn’t dig outta of. I am beginning to think that no coach can save us. We claim that were a major football school and I am starting to question that theory.

At the end of this season, we will look back and ask ourselves, “Is this team any better off then it was four years ago?” If you’re answer is Yes, you’ll have to explain how — and there are plausible ways. If it’s No… wow.

I’m getting out of the “Is this the worst Husky football moment ever?” business. Is this worse than Oregon this year? Worse than Stanford two years ago? Worse than 1-10? Followed by 2-9? I really don’t know. We’ve endured a long string of insults, of which this is simply one more example. I’m starting to get used to it. In fact, I’m finding myself almost in Cougar mode. I have a morbid curiosity: How bad can things actually get? Will we lose every game? Will we set another school record for defensive ineptitude? Will we give up 70 points to somebody? Will we extend Willingham’s contract? Just exactly how bad can it get before it starts to get better? Can we please have just an average team for a year? No? Okay, how about merely competitive? No? Huh. All right.

Yesterday was pathetic. It was disrespectful of Husky fans, who paid hard-earned money and dedicated hours of their lives to come watch and cheer for this team. I wish I’d just watched Georgia-Alabama instead; the Husky game was a waste of time. At least the clock rules shortened it a bit.

but the record is starting to look like it may match the great Gilby campaign of 2004. I agree that this years class of freshmen appears to have a great deal of talent. The problem is that Ty Willie doesn’t seem to have the ability to mold players and maximize their potential. Time for a change and a “for sale” sign in front of Ty’s house.

If the problem were really “dead wood” left over from Neuheisel and Gilbertson, wouldn’t Willingham at least have filled his scholarship limits? He’s hasn’t. Not once. I’m not saying the team was stocked with talent (it wasn’t), but the inability to cull the herd was not the cause.

For what it’s worth, I believe Willingham’s recruiting has been decent. As we were warned by Notre Dame fans when he came here, it’s on Saturday when Willingham falls short.