Phil Steele on the Dawgs
by volk on Jun 8, 2009 2:18 PM PDT
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PrintPhil Steele's college football preview came out last week. I think he does the best work of any of the college football previews. You can find his website at philsteele.com.
Phil had the following to say about the upcoming season, "While UW had the worst record in the Pac-10 , they were not really the wort team as their -170.6 yards per game was 102.1 ypg better than WSU. There are plenty of positives heading into '09. UW had 3 net close losses, was -17 in TO's, had horrible yards per point on both offense and defense and was #2 in the FBS in starts lost to injury (50). It appears that Steve Sarkisian is going to look like a genius in his first year. While UW did not make my Most Improved List (teams I expect to go from losing records to bowl eligibility), it was mostly due to their schedule (#16) as they draw LSU and ND in non-conf games but Washington is arguably the Most Improved Team in the country."
Phil projects UW to have -40 yards per game this year a huge improvement over the -170.6 from last season. With a little luck a -40 ypg team can end up with the 6 wins necessary to go bowling. I wanted to share a little positive with you guys considering the recruiting bummers of the past week. If Steele's projections for the upcoming season are accurate I am confident Sark will bring in an outstanding class next year and the disappointments of this last week will be long forgotten.
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I think it’s clear that this team had a lot more talent than 0-12 suggested – they got off to a bad start last year and the team essentially gave up on Ty, especially after Jake got hurt. With Jake, I think they had a decent shot at beating Stanford, and definitely would’ve beaten WSU; it’s also possible they could’ve beaten UCLA and given Notre Dame a good game too.
Subtract very little in terms of productive Seniors lost (a gimpy and far from 100% Garcia was the biggest loss), add E.J. Savannah back into the mix and potentially some immediate contributors from our J.C. recruits, and I think it’s not a big stretch to say that this team could go bowling. Obviously the game against LSU is a tough one, and while Notre Dame is over rated they should be improved this year with nearly everyone back and a year older so the out of conference schedule is once again not a place to get some easy wins and some confidence, but I think if Sarkisian is as good a coach as we think/hope he is, 5 wins should be a good bar for him to reach, with 6 an outside possibility if things break our way.
Now, this team is still vulnerable – if Jake gets hurt again, wins will be hard to come by. But I do think this team is better than most outside observers think, and a lot of that will come simply from a better attitude under Sarkisian.
Good Post
Great post kirkd…captured pretty much what I’ve been thinking for some time. Let’s see too how the new JVs fit in during fall camp. A little help here for a couple of key new kids could help your scenario that much more.
My gut — or is it just pure hope? — says the a 4 win season is too low a prediction on the downside. I’m going with a 5 to 7 win season.
After reading John’s “LSU Preview” I thought: my god we actually have a chance in this game. We’re the underdawgs to be sure, but it not inconceivable we could pull that one out. If Sark does, on national TV, the coverage will be…priceless.
And recruits will take notice the rebuild is definitely in progress.
Off season
Let’s hope the guys carry over, what appeared to be, a great spring. It’s the work in the summer that can make a huge difference.
Washington Husky Football-1991 National Champions
Is that the same guy that called us the...
…Washington State Huskies?
Washington Husky Football-1991 National Champions
Interesting Review...
…and it IS nice to read something positive.
Washington Husky Football-1991 National Champions
conditioning and depth
are the intangibles that will determine how the second half of the season goes.
ivan should have these guys improved dramatically from last year and it sounds the team are gym rats now. this will surely keep us competitive in the 4th quarter.
injuries will kill us as we are so thin everywhere.
this is when we really need to stay healthy for my trip to notre dame.
btw anyone else going? doing any of the organized trips?
ucla and oregon if we are healthy and the team begins to gel, we should be competitive.
i know oregon is still way ahead of us but these kids have to be like most of us with a fire in the belly to take them down a couple notches.
Not Disappointed Here!
What was so dam disappointing last week John? Was it Jake Heaps decision to sign w/ BYU? If so, then don’t fret.
From the sounds of it, Heaps was schooled in Skyline’s spread offense. From what I’ve seen running the spread vs. running the pro is like polar oposites. To run the pro you’ve got to have great QB fundamentals and great footwork. Not so in the spread- all you need is accuracy and arm strength.
I’m looking at Heap’s decision positively. He wants to go to BYU, let him. We need kids that understand the pro style offense a little prior to arrival. Sark is a QB coach in nature, he see’s the goods and maybe to Sark, Heaps was merely window dressing. I honestly believe that Sark has been targeting Montana and Scroggins. And I am also convinced that Sark knew deep down that Heaps had already made up his mind to sign w/ BYU prior to Sark arriving at UDub, yet like any great recruiter would do, he did manage to stay in the Heaps sweepstakes until the very end. Heaps was never the target. Either he was already heading to BYU and Sark knew it or Heaps is NOT the guy to run his pro style offense.
Sark is a QB guru- one of the very best in the entire landscape of college football. BELIEVE ME, we are going to have great QB prospects surrounding this program for as long as Sark daddy is around.
My only concern is the “soft verbal” I see over at Scout behind Sione Potoae’s name. Like I’ve said before, our No.1 priorities in terms of recruiting should be centered on O Linemen and D Linemen. I sure as hell don’t want to lose that talented lineman to freakin’ SC. Holt needs to get in his ear and tell him everything that you saw at SC is coming to Washington BABY!
Go Dawgs! WOOF!!!
All I saw was purple
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