Reasons to be concerned about WSU
by kirkd on Nov 28, 2010 4:19 PM PST
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PrintSo here we are, looking ahead to the Apple Cup with a bowl berth - potentially a bowl as good as the Holiday Bowl - on the line for the Huskies. Before the season, we all figured this was a near-certain win. Now though, there are reasons to be concerned by this game:
- Cougs are improving: It was easy to think after the first few games of the season which included blowout losses to Oklahoma State and USC and the last second win over FCS team Montana State that this was another lost season of horrible results for the Cougs and Wulff was doomed to be fired. But rather than fold their tents and give up, they have indeed improved over the course of the season and even notched a road win at Oregon State. Players are improving and the results are improving. The Cougs have some skill talent in Tuel, Karstetter and Wilson, and some promising defensive players in Mizell and Buchanon.
Now, all that said, the Huskies are the more talented and accomplished team and should win the game. WSU's defense is improved, but they're still among the very worst defenses in the country in all categories - rush yardage allowed, pass efficiency defense, total yards allowed, points allowed. Even a beat up Locker and a questionable offensive line should be able to roll up points on the Cougs. Polk and Callier should be able to replicate their success against the Bruins, taking pressure off of Jake and setting up play-action passes. The Coug run game is awful (though they did well against OSU) putting most of the pressure on Tuel and their passing game. If Q can continue his strong recent play and Tru recovers his mojo, the Husky defense could have a 3rd straight good showing. Plus, the Huskies have a lot more motivation.
Still, this is far from a gimme. I'm sure the team knows it and will react accordingly (but hopefully not by playing too stiff), but I've seen too many Apple Cups where inferior Coug teams beat the Huskies and take away a Rose Bowl to be over-confident about this one (and to be fair, the Huskies have done the same to the Cougs).
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Agree
I agree this will be a tough game. I watched WSU-OSU game – WSU QB looked very good passing and running something we have not seen the last two weeks. I thought WSU looked better in their win against OSU then we did in our win against OSU plus WSU won at OSU not an easy feat. I hope we do not lay an Arizona or ASU egg and come in flat after an emotional win.
Kirk, yes this is in no way a gimme.
I started toward that conclusion about halfway through the season when the cougs did indeed show improvement. Tuel’s mobility and passing accuracy also concern me, as does the relative health (good) of the cougs and ours (bad) esp in the O Line and punter, Jake etc. I will say what I said before we started this need to win series, I think the dawgs will come out victorious. Reasons, this TEAM has heart and passion, and can sense the carrot at the end of the stick. I think/ hope the cougs will be rusty in game day speed after 21 days off between games.
Good point
Hope their is a lot of rust and that the huskies play fast but not in a hurry. GO dawgs.
by lorenzothedog on Nov 28, 2010 6:15 PM PST up reply actions
Any chance Moos can lure Bellotti to Pullman
Rumor is Wazzu has been quietly calling around for a couple of weeks now and Wulff is out after the season.
How was their working relationship at Oregon? Do they remain in contact? Any chance of this happening at all?
doubtful
belotti already turned down colorado- isn’t that a much better job than wsu?? my guess is ucla or usc when one of those jobs becomes available
I just listen to the rumors and I'm just shooting my mouth of here (and there, and everywhere)
but CU is pretty strapped for ca$h. I don’t know what’s what at WSU, but they may very well be able to pay him more.
If MB really wants to come back out of vengeance, WSU would put him in the North Division, where he can mess with Chippy and his ducking football team each and every year.
It seems to me that Belotti pulled out of discussions with CU awful early. And it also seems like he’s the kind of guy who is missing it too much to wait for the canning of Kiffykins or the Weasel or our good buddy at ASU who, vote of confidence or no, has Sparky’s glowing pitchfork warming his behind. All of these jobs, remember, are at “Southern” schools now.
Alternately, he could be waiting for Harbaugh to bolt for Ann Arbor. Imagine how much fun MB taking over at Stanford would be.
but CU is pretty strapped for ca$h. I don’t know what’s what at WSU, but they may very well be able to pay him more.
wsu pays wulff 600k per year, least of any coach in the pac 10. how much more would they be able to pay bellotti?
money
It’s more than money – why would Bellotti want to coach WSU? He’ll have better options than that. Hell, Colorado was a better option and he turned that one down.
A guy like Bellotti who is considered a proven winning coach and who is about to turn 60 isn’t going to go to a major rebuilding project at a place like WSU. He’s far more likely to have his eyes on a place with greater potential like UCLA or ASU (if those jobs come open). It’s not inconceivable that the USC job could open up in a few years, and I’d bet he’d jump all over that one.
agreed
i’m just pointing out that even if wsu were a great opportunity to build a winner, they wouldn’t be able to pay bellotti the type of money he demands
need more money for Pullman
If (and I acknowledge it’s a big “if”) Bellotti had an eye on the UCLA job, he’d have to accept the fact that the Bruins don’t pay the going rate for good coaches either. Certainly more than WSU pays, but behind USC, UW, Cal, Oregon and possibly Stanford, ASU and Arizona.
I think we’re on the same point here – Bellotti would need a lot of money to overcome the downsides of WSU, and WSU simply doesn’t have that kind of money.
yep
I see Bellotti waiting for a better job to open up than WSU. If Neuheisel doesn’t get things going at UCLA next year, I’d have to think they’d strongly consider dumping him, especially if Iron Mike was interested in the job. The Bruins don’t pay very well, but it’s a sleeping giant of a program with the right coach in place.
Colorado has other Athletic Department issues.
ALL of the assistant coaches are hired month to month, leaving them with absolutely zero job security (sorry, don’t have a link, but I’ve read that two different places).
They also have not been investing in their facilities, and apparently don’t have any immediate plans to.
by TiltingRight on Nov 29, 2010 1:33 AM PST up reply actions
only way we lose
is if we don’t show up
we simply have more talent across the board. despite wsu’s improvement and win at osu, they are still the worst team on our schedule. i think if we come out ready to play, we should win by a comfortable margin. if we don’t stay focused this week, wsu could steal it
+1
As of November 27:
Sagarin’s rating on WSU’s schedule: 2
Sagarin’s rating on BYU’s schedule: 52
Take a wild guess who’s number one . . . .
and it was pretty clear we were not mentally prepared for that game
things just weren’t clicking offensively
While I cite past upset losses to the Cougs, those were Husky teams that were really good teams that could be excused somewhat for looking past the Cougs. This team has no such excuse – they can’t take anything for granted. It’s for this reason that I’m optimistic that the Huskies will take care of business.
Cougs are hot garbage.
Dawgs win 89 to -7
"We just had a near life experience."
Semper Fi' (Now a proud member of Couch Company, 1st Civ Div.)
Pain don't hurt...
89-7
I took a break. How did they get seven points?
Biggest margin since i got snockered in the club car on the way to Spokane.
Support our student athletes, have faith in the coaches! "...it's how you play the game!"
you miss read it or I miss typed it
that’s negative 7
-7
"We just had a near life experience."
Semper Fi' (Now a proud member of Couch Company, 1st Civ Div.)
Pain don't hurt...
But otherwise are not a good running team at all.
This game is the opposite of both cal and UCLA in that the Cougs have competent weapons in the passing game – mostly high risk bombs to Wilson – but are really strapped with a challenged o-line and underachieving RBs. They only won at OSU because they established a run game (a lot of it Tuel). In fact, their passing game was off in that win.
Make them one dimensional by taking away the run, make Tuel a passer, and capitalize on the mistakes they are bound to make. Conservative offensive game plan that focuses on pounding their thin front 7 will wear them out. Nothing fancy, just execution. That’s the plan.
Damn, my eyeball tastes good.
OSU - WSU observation
WSU gained yardage when the pocket collapsed as the WSU linemen were pushed backwards, the pass rush didn’t grab Tuel and he rumbled forward into empty space. Credit to Tuel for the heads up gains, but I don’t see that as a viable strategy for future games.
This is true
A big part of our success in that Game was Tuel scrambling when the pass plays broke down. Every few games, Tuel seems to have an uncanny ability to find yards like that. However, this is not something to expect.
by spencer peaty on Nov 29, 2010 3:48 PM PST up reply actions
Youtube
Did you guys check out that last fabulous drive?!
Washington Husky Football-"Hear the bark, feel the bite!"
Best part of that drive?
Sylvester meeting Mychal Kendricks on the 3 yard line and pushing him backwards 11 feet to open the lane for Polk. To use a JB-ism; MK got Clownstomped!
I think Sark will have the Huskies rivoted!
But yes, we need to proceed with caution while looking at WSU. The Cougs win over OSU was a monsterous victory that they desperately needed. However, do you think WSU got Oregon State’s A game? I doubt it, they seemed to have mailed it in, they didn’t look focused, and no one made a play. Sounds a lot like the USC defeat of Notre Dame.
I think we can squash WSU’s hopes and dreams of winning this game, if we come out focused and flying to the ball. Execution has to be crisp early and often. We know what’s at stake. I think we worry about what we do and put less emphasis on what WSU does.
All I saw was purple
The Coug win over OSU...
…is just like the Husky win over Cal in 2007.
Both games were anomolies in what the winning team did, which was use a never before seen power running game against a team in the midst of a significant slide.
Prior to the OSU game, WSU hadn’t put up 300 yards of total offense since they managed to put up 21 meaningless 4th quarter points (and 245 yards) against Stanford on October 23rd. At home against Cal, they couldn’t even manage 200.
WSU’s improvement has been fairly steadily upward this season, but with the exception of one single game, the trajectory has been pretty flat. And the starting point was pretty low. Yes, the Cougars will be healthy, and confident. That one game has created a lot of false hope, though.
I’m not saying this game is a given by any means, and I certainly don’t expect a blowout. But I’m confident that the Dawgs will win as long as they don’t beat themselves. I expect WSU’s defense to come out extremely fired up and energized, and I won’t be the least bit surprised if the Huskies fall behind early. Maybe even trail at the half. Stick to the run, though, and grind this one out. That’s the (bowl) ticket on Saturday.
hopefully the players are
It’s when the Dawgs have gone into Apple Cups cocky and over-confident that they’ve been brought (painfully) down to earth. The UW is not so much better than the Cougs that they can just show up and win – they have to take the game seriously. I have little doubt they will given the situation and given what’s at stake, but the players can’t take the Cougs lightly.
last year
we were extremely cocky going into the game (remember middleton talking about a 50 point win?) and we won 30-0. i think it’s ok to be confident, but focused on the game at hand. wsu is at home, and while still a bad team, a little better than it was a year ago
Last year the Cougs
had 12 scholarship athletes healthy enough to play on Defense by the Apple Cup, and were down to 3rd and 4th string (walk on) QBs.
by TiltingRight on Nov 30, 2010 2:02 PM PST up reply actions
I wouldn't take the Cougs lightly
I imagine that the entire UW football program understands what’s on the line. I expect a good game. If I could choose an offensive mantra for UW going into this one, it would be “run Polk”.
oh god,
…. here come the “cougs were hurt” arguments again. I would point out that they only got down to their third and fourth QBs after their first two were knocked out of the game.
Damn, my eyeball tastes good.
Tuel
Tuel was out for that game, which is kind of like UCLA being without Prince – down a decent QB with an OK backup, but little quality behind him.
Okay, okay, okay....
You’re right. Not being able to fill out a two deep on one side of the ball had no affect on the score or outcome….
I guess I won’t mention the 257 lb true freshman we had to enlist at left tackle, either…. No affect….. Especially with sending us to our 2nd string, walk-on punter to QB…. Nope… Nothing to see here…..
This year will clearly go the same way.
confident is good
You just don’t want them overlooking the opponent and taking them lightly. I definitely want our guys to feel like they can beat the Cougs handily, but to realize that they still need to put forward a good effort.
I'll be interested to see how the Husky D looks against a competent quarterback.
Something they haven’t seen since the trip to Eugene.
"If you want your dreams to come true, don't sleep in."
yep
Need to get some pass rush going, but also keep contain up the middle – Tuel is a pretty good scrambler. I like that Q has been playing much better lately – we’ll need him and Trufant to keep Wilson and Karstetter from doing a lot of damage.
Speaking of the pass rush.
Jamora (sp) vs. Fullington will also be interesting two true freshman going at it at very important positions.
"If you want your dreams to come true, don't sleep in."
Jamora
I like Jamora’s potential, but he hasn’t really proven to be a big threat as a pass-rusher – yet. If the Huskies are getting pressure on Tuel, it’s more often going to come on blitzes.
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