The Monday Morning Wash

by John Berkowitz on Jul 11, 2011 7:35 AM PDT

The last few weeks have been dominated by the Oregon street agent scandal. Our good friend Nestor at the UCLA blog provided us with an unexpected shot across the bow/distraction to take our minds off the Ducks this past weekend. A big thanks goes out to Gecko for posting about it.

Breaking it all down - the point is Sark and Neu have almost identical records from a percentage standpoint yet one is on the extreme hot seat and the other is viewed as an up and coming savior. Nestor thinks the biggest difference has been the "All World" talent at QB that Sark inherited from the previous regime.

My view is that neither of these guys has ever built or rebuilt a football program before. Neu inherited a lot of talent at Colorado and Washington. His teams did extremely well initially until they began to fade once the majority of the players were his.

Two years of Sarkisian at Washington has produced a lot of stability. Three years of Neuheisel at UCLA has produced the opposite. I think it will be very interesting to watch and compare both programs this season which is pretty much the crux of Nestors article.

Taking Washington out of the equation - the only way Neuheisel survives is if he can somehow get an improved performance out of his offense. Being in the South division this season is a blessing that he needs to take advantage of.

Huskies added to award watch lists

Alameda Ta'amu has been added to the Nagurski and Outland trophy watch lists.

The Bronko Nagurski Award is given annually to the best defensive player in college football. The Football Writers Association and the Charlotte Touchdown Club are responsible for the voting.

The Outland Trophy is given annually to the nation's best interior linemen on both sides of the ball. Ta'amu is one of 65 players to watch for the prestigious award, the third oldest trophy in college football.

Kicker Erik Folk was added to the Groza watch list which picks the nations top kicker.

Chris Polk is on the Maxwell Award list which picks the nations best overall player. Expect him to make about every available list before the season starts. Chris is a shoe in for the Doak Walker and Heisman Trophy lists too.

Jermaine Kearse is on the Biletnikoff Award list which picks the nations best wide receiver.

Taking a LEAP

Almost everyone in the 2011 recruiting class is expected to be enrolled the LEAP program which begins today. CB Antavius Sims is still working on his AA degree. Sims is expected to be here by the time drills start in August.

The summer LEAP program is a six college credit class that talks place five hours-per-day, Monday-Friday for four weeks. The class provides an opportunity for participants to become acclimated to the university experience without the pressures of athletic participation. The students also get an opportunity to bond with other student-athletes and become more acquainted with the University of Washington.

The basketball team also participates in the LEAP program and Percy Allen of the Seattle Times shares his impressions of the incoming frosh in his blog.

Brent Williams finds a home

Former UW recruit Brent Williams has found a home at Colorado State. Williams was a DE that was impossible to block in camps that had trouble putting on enough weight to play at this level. Williams who is now listed at 6'4 215 was released from his LOI by Washington after being asked to grey shirt.

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Neuheisel versus Sarkisian

The Nestor post at the UCLA blog does make some good points about whether its reasonable to judge Neuheisel harshly at this point. Frankly, judging coaches is difficult business – the sample size is too small and it’s confounded by exogeous effects. Injuries, past coaches’ recruiting, schedule, etc.

It seems like Nestor is missing the reason Husky fans are so high on Coach Sarkisian, though. It’s not because he’s 12-13. It’s because we can see that the team is playing better. We see better tackling. We see a better offense. We see rising up to win close games against superior teams. (Does Nestor think UCLA would have beaten USC if Aaron Corp had started? Please.)

And we see the recruiting.

I’m willing to say Neuheisel deserves a break in LA. That’s fine. But he doesn’t deserve it just because his record is about the same as Sarkisian’s. That’s nonsense.

by djohnson on Jul 11, 2011 9:42 AM PDT reply actions

Agree on your Neuheisel take

But his track record at other schools (Colorado & Washington) do paint a good picture of what he brings to the table. He is a great coach if he inherits a good program with stocked talent. Yet he has shown many times that he cannot maintain it. Rick has to win this next season or Ucla will be finding another coach. You can’t be a sub par team in LA while USC is on probation.

All I saw was purple

by crazidawg on Jul 11, 2011 10:15 AM PDT up reply actions

That's a lot like Willingham's track record too, isn't it?

by The Ancient Mariner on Jul 11, 2011 2:21 PM PDT up reply actions

I agree as well

Neuheisel has a track record that has to be taken into account. You can’t simply look at the 3 years at UCLA in a vacuum, and his history at CU and UW can’t inspire a lot of confidence. Sark has the benefit of being the new flavor for coaching. He doesn’t have a track record and as such there is a belief that he will continue to get better. His teams for two years played better at the end of the year.

Nestor has interesting points, but conveniently ignores the elephant in the room. Neuheisel took a team that wasn’t great, wasn’t bad and kept them there. Sark took a team that was bad but has talent and has shown improvement to date. However, if UW goes 4-8 this year, look for the shine to come off Sark.

Benno

by Benno on Jul 11, 2011 8:50 PM PDT up reply actions

message to PK and Lariviere

Winning at all costs costs $330 dollars per hour.

Support our student athletes, have faith in the coaches! "...it's how you play the game!"

by Purpledawg on Jul 11, 2011 9:45 AM PDT reply actions

Garnett & Banner

Did you guys see this? Some interesting things here.
I’ve read the same school thing before, but other quotes are new to me…. and interesting.

http://washington.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1239241

Mush you Huskies!!! GO DAWGS!!!

Expect to Win!!!

by OLDDOG on Jul 11, 2011 7:33 PM PDT reply actions

Package Deal?

I would think that if they decide to go to school together (and I have no idea if they would or wouldn’t) that it would be to Washington. That would be HUGE

Washington Husky Football-"Hear the bark, feel the bite!"

by dawgfan22 on Jul 12, 2011 8:15 PM PDT up reply actions

Disagree

I disagree with a number of points made by Nestor and I would post them to that blog if I didn’t have to wait two days for access…:
1) Let’s start with the fact that UW was 5-7 Sarkisian’s first year, not 4-8.
2) As pointed out by others the 1 extra season Neuheisel has had at UCLA – IS A BIG DIFFERENCE! – Maybe they were at a similar place after two years, but Neuheisel had a regression and a losing season in his 3rd year.
3) Huskies were 0-12 when Sark showed up, he could only improve, but he improved big.
4) Having Jake was a big advantage and he definitely won games for us, however aside from the QB position I think overall UCLA may have been better positioned talent wise. I believe this is borne out by the number of all Pac10 players and NFL draft picks they have had in that period of time. I think it could be argued that Sark did more with less.
5) the 3-6 start this year and fans calling for Sark’s head is a bit overblown in this post… everyone was frustrated, but most reasonable, educated fans weren’t that fickle. We just had to face the fact that we didn’t have the depth yet and most people realized it would tough to beat teams like Oregon and Stanford.
6) The Holiday Bowl win against Nebraska is a way bigger deal than some over there seem to think… Nebraska was a top 25 team and finished 10-4 even if they weren’t motivated. Huskies avenged an embarrassing loss and won in a dominant fashion. For extra points – they won with defense and a punishing running game… not directly b/c of Jake Locker.
7) We did not “scrape out a win” against UCLA. I remember the Huskies winning that game pretty handily.

I liked Neuheisel as a coach and maybe he deserves a break at UCLA – Frankly I don’t care what they decide. I just don’t think the way the comparison done is really accurate or justified.

by swdawg on Jul 12, 2011 8:56 PM PDT reply actions