UW Dawg Pound: FanPosts

UW got a better draw than Cal or Gonzaga

2010-03-16T19:58:34Z

UW is finally living up to their potential, which makes them a very dangerous #11 seed. I feel bad for Marquette. Look at some of the other 11 seeds. UW is one of the hottest teams in the nation and gets to stay close to home (San Jose). If they can get past Marquette, I'm sure they can beat New Mexico as well.
Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter form one of the most potent 1-2 punches in the nation, but if they don't get help from someone else it will be hard to advance.

theleftcoastbias.com breaks down UW's chances and the other teams from the west.

http://theleftcoastbias.com/?p=1751

It's a down year for the Pac-10 but the West still has many teams dancing, can't wait for it all to unfold. Who do you guy think has the best chance to make it to the final four? New Mexico? BYU? or the Dawgs?

See you in 2011, Masoli. Well, maybe. Thoughts on Masoli's suspension and Sark.

2010-03-13T22:35:30Z

Masoli suspended for the year by Chip Kelly.

Am I the only one who feels like Sark would absolutely not put up with this kind of stuff and would nip it in the bud before UW has a multitude of issues in a short period of time?

Maybe that's me being a UW fan, so I'm looking with purple tinted glasses. I feel a little like Sark is a cut above the Lane Kiffen type up-and-coming coaches from an integrity standpoint, and I hope I'm not wrong on that.

We know he didn't appear to even consider the USC job, and if he didn't take USC when the opportunity arises, what job would come along to make a guy want to leave UW? Maybe NFL, but I don't see that happening for a few years yet, if it does happen.

I'm honestly more concerned about his in game management than off the field issues or recruiting. We've got a top notch recruiter, that much we know. What we don't know is if these issues Oregon is experiencing is a thing of the future for us, or something we can avoid entirely with Sark.

We also don't know if his in game management will improve. There are some good signs. He takes blame and seems to reflect appropriately in his post-game commentary, but still it does concern me.

All in all, there isn't another coach I would prefer to see leading UW football. Thoughts?

SB Nation's Pac-10 Tournament Preview

2010-03-10T20:33:43Z

In case you're interested, I wanted to pass this along to you guys. I've written the SB Nation Pac-10 Tournament preview for the SBNation.com mothership, and I'm hoping many of your will take a few moments to check it out -- for a couple of reasons.

First off, you might learn something. But since I'm aware that you might not, since a lot of you are pretty darn smart and knowledgeable, you should go over there anyway just to see the cool stuff we're doing as a network.

The preview is actually the lead story for what's called a "StoryStream." I'll be continuously updating the stream with posts as the tournament advances, meaning it'll be your one-stop shop for everything related to the conference tournament, including tidbits, game recaps, video, etc.

Updates are shown chronologically, with the most recent ones at the top. (You can also toggle it to show the oldest posts first, because hey, we're like Burger King -- have it your way.) Additionally, you can help me out by clicking the "submit your post" button on the stream to pass tips my way if you find things that you think could be included on the stream.

The best feature, I think, is this: If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to the stream here. The feed will deliver each update I post directly to your reader over the next four days. Pretty cool.

And if you dig it, take a look around the SBNation.com site -- I think you'll especially appreciate the college basketball page.

VOTE on SB Nation's Pac-10 all-conference awards!

2010-03-06T03:54:16Z

Last year, we CougCenter.com authors put together our inaugural Pac-10 all-conference awards. As we were working on this year's edition, a thought hit us.

What if we did a fan vote across all the SB Nation Pac-10 sites?

Here's your chance to get your voice heard. After the text is a link to a form you can fill out to submit your votes. It's pretty lengthy, but you have to fill the whole thing out for your vote to be counted.

Just a few points of clarification.

We're asking for your home blog because it might be interesting to see how certain fan bases vote.
We're asking for your SB Nation user name because it will hopefully help keep us from getting spammed. Don't worry, we won't share how you voted, unless ...
If you leave a comment and we use it on the results post, we'll attribute it to your user name. If you don't want that to happen, don't leave any comments.
Base your selections on performance in conference, not the whole year.
This is an all-conference team, therefore, you are asked to select players who would actually comprise a basketball team. None of this wishy-washy, best five or 10 players regardless of position crap the actual conference does.

That's about it. We'll post the results on our site next week.

VOTE HERE NOW.

UW makes best in the west rankings

2010-03-01T23:14:46Z

Theleftcoastbias.com came out with their weekly best in the west rankings today.

http://theleftcoastbias.com/?p=1312

It's hard to argue with New Mexico at the top spot especially after they beat BYU on the road. That BYU loss allowed for both Gonzaga and Cal to move up. Many of the west teams are still on the bubble, but hopefully the left coast comes to play in their post season conference tournaments. UW also made the rankings after being absent for the last two weeks.

Donald Butler

2010-03-01T17:20:33Z

You think that the lifting program at Washington is lacking discipline? Donald Butler got 35 reps at 225 which was the most of any LB. Not to take anything away from Donald because that is a show of his dedication to the weight room but a good portion is also the mindset that he gained at UW. Very interesting to see where he was before Ivan compared to now. Congrats D Butler, and knock'em dead March 10th!!!

Hey Quacks, it isn't just us in the PNW that are seeing your program as outlaw...

2010-02-21T21:17:01Z

Today, Deadspin.com said Oregon is "turning into an outlaw program right before our eyes."

Not sure if the facebook postings of a WR is new news here, but the overall issues going on in Eugene are nearing the type of thing that brings the dreaded terminology of "lack of institutional control."

You can complain that it is just UW fans making noise, but take a bigger look, it is not just us. The rest of the nation is starting to take notice as well... Love the headline of that article, by the way: "Oregon Pretty Much Imploding Before Our Very Eyes."

Duck football-- your problems are now fodder for deadspin, your travails are now officially an amusement for sports fans nationwide.

Another Oregon player in trouble. . . .

2010-02-21T08:19:07Z

I'm a little surprised that nobody has reported on today's news from Oregon. There is only a small tidbit from an article on Yahoo sports, the article is dated today (2/20) and was updated this evening:

6:35 p.m. ET: Add another name to the list: Redshirt freshman linebacker Kiko Alonso, who was charged with driving drunk early this morning.)

So here is my question that I just can't get over, how on God's green earth does this happen just DAYS after LaMichael James gets thrown in jail?? Wouldn't the coaches have sat the whole team down and made it quite clear that this type of behavior can't be tolerated, especially now that Oregon is in the spot light for possibly being a program out of control? If you're an Oregon player, don't you think NOW would be a really good time NOT to do anything stupid??

I'm not surprised that yet another Oregon player is in trouble, but I am very surprised that the coaching staff hasn't screamed bloody murder and threatened the very lives of any student athlete that so much as j-walks!! I'm just as surprise that players could be so stupid as to drive drunk while the program is under such scrutiny!

Come on Oregon, get your head out of your backside, you are embarrassing the PAC10!!!!!

Huskies Impressive on Gameday

2010-02-20T17:07:02Z

Just watched, and tried to listen, to ESPN Gameday live from HecEd. I say try to listen because Harry and the UW band had a huge crowd, expecially considering the UCLA game is not this afternoon, it is tonight, in prime form the whole hour. Deafening all morning long!

All conference rivalries aside, in a year the Pac-10 hasn't gotten a lot of love nationally, this Beaver congratulates the Huskies for a great job this morning.

walk-on QB Taylor Bean leaves the program

2010-02-19T22:03:14Z

Bob Condotta is reporting that walk-on QB Taylor Bean is leaving the team. While not a disaster, it does put more pressure on the limited depth at the position. Going into Spring Ball, there will only be 3 QB's (assuming Montana is able to enroll early). Not ideal from a practice standpoint, and if Montana needs some time to become college ready I think the coaches might have preferred to use Bean in an emergency and keep Montana's redshirt if disaster were to strike.

Sark will be looking for a new walk-on QB or two, and Condotta is also reporting that there may be a guy targeted as a replacement walk-on - Josh Yoder of Canby H.S. in Oregon.

The Blind Side

2010-02-12T19:26:59Z

I just got back from vacation, spent 7 days in Palm Springs and 3 days at Disneyland and I really enjoyed wearing my Husky gear in Southern Cal!! While on the trip I read "The Blind Side", the book that became the movie about Michael Oher. Needless to say, I loved it. It is a must see for football fans, and it has a great story so your wives will like it too!

Now that the blog has quieted down for the LONG winter stretch between signing day and spring practice and I'm back in the office (meaning I have time to kill), I thought it would be a good time to discuss our offensive line. Lucky for Jake we've got a lot of starters returning, only losing Ossai from last season, which IMHO, isn't a big loss. If the line remains the same as last season our starting 5 would be (from LT - RT) Schaefer, Christine, Tolar, Kelemete, and Habben. But, I find it unlikely for it to be that simple. Kirkd mentioned on another post that he had heard rumors on dawgman that our line could look more like:

LT: Kelemete, LG: Tolar, C: Ikehara, but watch out for Porter, RG: Christine, but watch out for Kohler, RT: Schaefer, with Kohler a possibility here too

Here's my take, you've got to start with the most important position on the line, left tackle. Ideally you want a big, athletic, freak of nature to protect Jake's blind side. We have athletic (Kelemete), but I don't see anybody that is big AND athletic. I'm going to agree that Kelemete is probably the best fit, with a lot of time in the weight room he could become a very good LT.

Next on my list is center, IMO it's the next position that has the least flexibility, in other words not every linemen can snap the ball and block. Tolar did a very good job last year, but you always want the top 5 guys on the field. That being said, I see Ikehara taking over at center. We've heard coaches say great things about him, unfortunately last year was a waste due to an illness that caused him to lose weight and strength. He performed very well filling in for Tolar at the end of 2009 and I expect him to be a rising star in 2010.

IMO, Tolar is the best all around linemen we have returning, lucky for us he is an experienced guard that can fill in at center if need be. I believe he used to be left guard, so I'll plug him back in their, giving us Kelemete and Tolar on the left side with Ikehara at center.

Right Tackle should belong to Habben, but he's coming off shoulder surgery and could get some stiff competition from Schaefer. Right Guard will be the big question mark, you've got a returning starter in Christine, but a lot of potential with Kohler and Porter.

All of that being said, here's my guess/prediction on what our 2010 offensive line will look like:

LT - Kelemete, backed up by Schaefer

LG - Tolar, backed up by Wood or Porter or Kohler

C - Ikehara, backed up by Tolar

RG - Christine, backed up by Wood or Porter or Kohler

RT - Habben, backed up by Schaefer

The best part is the flexibility that should be available to the coaches, we have a few experienced backups, a lot of potential from incoming freshmen, and that's not mentioning guys who missed last year due to injury. If one or two guys like Wood, Fancher, Armelin or Shugert have a break out off season, it could add more depth to what looks like a very promising starting lineup.

I didn't mean for this to get so length, but hopefully it will give us something to chat about for awhile. GO DAWGS!

Enes Kanter Decommits

2010-02-09T21:09:49Z

Scout is reporting that Kanter is now going to look at a few other schools including Florida State, Kentucky and Syracuse, but is still interested in the UW. I don't have a subscription so I don't know the details, but he's no longer listed as a verbal. If anyone knows more please add info.

http://washington.scout.com/a.z?s=147&p=2&c=945219&ssf=1&RequestedURL=http://washington.scout.com/2/945219.html

UW Signing Day event

2010-02-04T22:09:36Z

Went to the Signing Day Celebration last night at the Don James center. The place was packed - definitely a great buzz around the program still. Coaches were mingling with the crowd prior to the event during the silent auction phase, saw quite a few former players - Andre Riley, Elliott Silvers, Marques Tuiasosopo, Hugh Millen off the top of my head. Coach Lambo and Coach Baird were there as well.

While the event itself - the coaches discussing their players, watching the video highlights - was fine (I'd love to hear coaches say "Well, the kid's OK if he works at it - really we're just taking a flier on him and hope he does something"), the really interesting thing is just watching and listening to the coaches themselves. If seeing these guys in person doesn't get you fired up, there's no hope for you.

Sark really has that "it" factor. He's got a sense of humor, but he's also got a grit that a guy like Neuheisel will never project. He's clearly a fierce competitor. Really impressive face for the program. I was amused to see him call out Softy Mahler at one point for texting on his phone while Sark was on stage speaking, laughing at how he reminded him of his players.

Holt is a character as we all know. The guy has intensity, but also a good sense of humor.

Nansen is clearly a key guy for recruiting. Intense, relentless. He makes a great face for us in interfacing with the Poly community, and as long as he's on staff we should do very well in Hawai'i. Had a great story about him and Sark during a home visit in the islands getting talked into getting out of their nice clothes and going for a swim with a recruit, and then trying to figure out where to change back and present themselves for their next home visit...

Martin is another key recruiting guy, someone that can really relate to the kids he's recruiting. Got the energy level of the room up by leading some chants before talking about his CB recruit. He's clearly a key guy for us in recruiting SoCal.

Cozetto was funnier than I'd expected. He's salty and pretty clearly amused by the characters around him on this staff. He had some funny lines for Coach Lambo, reminiscing about the days he was with Cal back in '91.

Cox is another funny character - he was joking about getting duped by the rest of the staff on how to dress for events in the past, showing up in casual clothes while everyone else was dressed up. So last night he wore a blazer, shirt and tie and commented how only he, Sark and Daugherty were wearing ties, saying Sark had to as the head coach and Daugherty was just trying to impress his girlfriend he'd flown in for the event.

Daugherty is another guy like Martin that can obviously really relate to the kids he's recruiting, and he has just the right amount of cockiness to him.

Nussmeier projects well, and I can easily see him running his own program at some point.

Mills has some swagger to him and was clearly excited about landing Parker.

Thomas is another guy that got the crowd fired up, and I can see where he'd be an intense guy to have coaching you, but in a good way.

Some interesting tidbits:

- Sark thinks if us fans do our part with noise in the stadium, we can go undefeated at home next year;

- Sark singled out UCLA as a team he really wants to beat, though he didn't elaborate his reasons why (though he made it clear he had his reasons).

- Holt said of Potoae, "If we don't screw up as coaches, this kid will be in the NFL in 3 years"

- Sark said one of the things he sold Locker on is the thought of standing on the 50 yard line of the Rose Bowl after beating Michigan

- Sark reiterated he doesn't think it will "take long" before the program is again competing for Rose Bowls and National Championships

- Nansen said they already have 35 offers out to kids in the 2011 class

Hello: Sean Parker

2010-02-04T02:00:09Z

Tim Sullivan of MGoBlog.com here. When we thought Parker was likely to end up in Blue, I did some research on him for our site. Hope you guys find this useful, and congrats on landing Sean.

GURU RATINGS

Scout	Rivals	ESPN
4*, #6 S	4*, #21 S	4*, 82, #5 S

Parker is a consensus 4* recruit, and Rivals is the slight outlier calling him just the 21st-best safety in the country, with both Scout and ESPN putting him in the top six at the position. ESPN's evaluation:

Parker is an exceptional athlete that can play a multiple number of positions. He is especially impressive as a safety and return specialist. Even though he lacks ideal size, he is extremely active and is a big play maker both sides of the football and on special teams. A very aggressive safety that reads and reacts very well and isn't afraid of contact. Although he is a little high at times, he really likes to unload on ball carriers and receivers.

I think that's a pretty good summary of Parker's game: very instinctive, loves to hit, but doesn't yet have the body of a top-flight college safety. If he was more of a workout warrior, there's a good chance that Parker would be a 5-star (at least to Scout, which gives out that distinction to the most prospects and had him rated as a 5-star prospect earlier in the year).

For someone as high-profile as Parker, there are surprisingly few evaluations of his talent. ESPN gives the following report on his game from the Nike camp at USC last spring:

Sean Parker (Harbor City, Calif./Narbonne) came in with a big reputation, but he didn't stand out as much as we have seen from him in the past. Parker is one of the hardest-hitting safeties around, and obviously that talent won't come through in a camp setting. Also, there's no doubt he deserves to be mentioned among the best in the area. He displayed very good footwork in drills.

His style of game (big hitter) doesn't come across in camp settings, which generally are non-contact affairs. For lack of better options, GBMW evaluates him based on Youtube Highlights:

CoachBt / ErocWolverine quick comments: He is a very good safety prospect and excellent special team player. He is a physical tackler who is equally good against run or pass. Can be over aggressive and give up outside leverage and does lunge when tackling at times.

Notre Dame recruiting expert Mike Frank thinks he's got the skills to play a number of positions at the next level:

"He'll probably play free safety because of how well he can run. He could play corner, but he's a big body, too," Frank said. "He's a tremendous talent and I think he's one of the very top players in the country. He's as elite as you're going to get."

Parker is a multi-dimensional player as well, playing receiver, running back, safety, punt returner and even linebacker for Narbonne this season. Before the 2009 season, he was considered "arguably the top safety in the West."

OFFERS

Parker had offers from just about everybody who's anybody, including the in-state USC Trojans who, though they aren't the recruiting juggernaut this year (that honor goes to Florida and Texas this year), can be verry selective with who they offer nonetheless. The Trojans and Washington were Parker's other finalists, though he had favored Notre Dame and Penn State very early in the process.

He also racked up offers from the likes of everyone else in the PAC-10, along with Notre Dame, Tennessee, Alabama, Colorado, Minnesota, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Penn State, North Carolina, South Carolina, and the list goes on. Seriously, basically everybody except ~~Florida~~ (wait yes they did) and Texas offered this kid. He's a big get.

The only schools of note that seemed not to offer are LSU and Texas, which oh well, they're the only two (and they don't need to leave their state very much to recruit top players).

STATS

Junior stats:

Parker could be the top safety in the state next year. He totaled 68 tackles and six picks to earn first team all-city, all-area and first team all-state underclass by CalHiSports.com

That earned him pre-season All-State first team honors going into his senior year. As a senior, he was named his league's All-Purpose Player of the year and first-team All-City on defense His final stats are tough to find, but he had at least 9 receiving touchdowns, a couple rushing touchdowns, and at least 3 interceptions defensively, one of which was returned for 73 yards to the house. He also returned kicks for Narbonne, taking at least one back 99 yards for a touchdown.

FAKE 40 TIME

Rivals reports a 4.55-second 40 yard dash time for Parker, and neither of the other services has a time. For a safety prospect who isn't that big yet, and has the speed to apparently play corner, that not FAKE at all. I miss the good ol' days of 4.3-second reports for linebackers. One FAKE out of five.

VIDEO

The next two sections are not going to be relevant, since he didn't end up in Ann Arbor. Hope the rest was of some value to you guys

-Tim Sullivan, mgoblog.com.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

With Michigan's need for immediate help, and Parker's aptitude for the game, he should be able to step in and contribute immediately. Unfortunately, he's the type of guy who needs a bit more physical development, and would have been very well-served by enrolling early, and getting into the offseason weight-training program.

Still, there's almost no chance that Parker redshirts, unless there's a JT Turner-esque snafu and he doesn't arrive in Ann Arbor until fall camp is well underway. He has a chance to challenge for a starting safety position as a true freshman, or at least a key backup role. With his talent, freshman All-conference honors aren't out of the question.

It's after his freshman year, however, that Parker will probably blow up. With a year in the system under his belt, and a chance to hit the weights full time in the off-season, he can be transformed into an all-purpose machine of destruction going into his sophomore year, and hopefully be an All-American candidate as a junior and senior.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Parker's commitment was somewhat expected, and it's one of the last in the class. It won't change the coaches' pursuit of Demar Dorsey or Rashad Knight, and has more effect on next year's recruiting class numbers.

Nike Basketball Internship Opportunity

2010-01-29T16:13:00Z

Attn: University of Washington Students. Nike Basketball and Dime Magazine are looking for a student or two to take part in our Ballers Network Brand Ambassador Program. If you are a student or know a student who plays a lot of basketball on campus (intramurals and pick up), contact me immediately for more information.

We need to lock someone into the position by the end of the weekend (1/31/10), so please contact me asap.

Contact: Alex Hughes

Email: ahughes@94by50.com

Trouble Brewing in Eugene, theft charges pending for.....

2010-01-25T05:00:52Z

Masoli and another football player as reports on twitter have them stealing 2 lao tops a guitar and other items. as well. Suppossedly the thefts were in retaliation for Masoli's friend being kicked out of a party at the frat house where this alledged theft took place. I wonder if theft gets yiu more or less of a suspension than assaulting an opposing

player , and others in National TV. My real guess is there will be a suspension when the schedule is favorable. No matter how this plays out it is yet another crack in the armour in Eugene.

http://www.ducksportsnews.com/blog/2010/01/robbery-involving-oregon-football-players/

More Kiffin

2010-01-21T16:56:55Z

Really - you can't make this stuff up.

I love southern politics.

Knoxville attorney Drew McElroy has filed paperwork with the Knoxville City Council's Public Properties and Facilities Naming Committee to rename a waste water treatment plant the “Lane Kiffin Sewage Center,” according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

McElroy told the newspaper: “It dawned on me -- Lane Kiffin told us that he hoped the fans would understand. I thought 'Well, naming the wastewater plant for him would let him know, I think very clearly, we do understand. We want to memorialize his stay here, and I think this would be doing it appropriately.”

Link to John Canzano Blog

Episode 3 of 18 And Life now live, featuring BBP's John Gasaway

2010-01-12T23:25:27Z

People seemed to enjoy the first couple of episodes, so I just wanted to let you know that the third episode of 18 And Life, the Pac-10 hoops podcast, is live. You can find it by clicking here.

Storming The Floor west coast editor Seth Kolloen and I start off discussing the crazy closeness of the conference race, Arizona State's resurrection from the dead, and Washington's precipitous fall from grace. We also spend some time honoring the best 6th Men in the conference -- Venoy Overton gets lots of love from Seth -- and wrap up by looking at the three most interesting games of the weekend. One of them is Cal's visit to Seattle on Saturday.

Perhaps the coolest part of the podcast is our interview with Basketball Prospectus author John Gasaway, who explains the unique way he looks at the game of basketball, whether down cycles in conferences are inevitable, and who some of the up and comers in the Pac-10 are. It's good stuff!

You can listen to the episode via streaming here, or you can visit our site for myriad subscription options. We're also in the iTunes directory -- just search "eighteenandlife" in the iTunes store -- or simply click this link to subscribe in iTunes.

This is probably the last time I'll promote the show through a FanPost; after this, I'll just drop a link in the FanShots every Tuesday when the new episode is live. Thanks for listening.

USC Team Doctors Writing (illegal ?) Pain Killer Prescriptions for Players and Coaches

2010-01-12T06:42:27Z

Dave Watson, former player in the 1990's for USC and former coach for Pete Carroll at USC admitted in court that he had developed a significant addiction to painkillers since his college playing career in the 1990s and as a coach.

Watson gave the names of 12 doctors associated with the university, six of whom were team doctors for USC football. Watson had already provided the court extensive documentation of these prescriptions, including dates, drug names and pill amounts.

Dave Watson while still coaching at USC was in court for a DUI crash in a USC-provided Jeep. The police after a search of his vehicle found four bottles of prescription pills, including one written for 90 tablets of a Vicodin-like painkiller called Norco that had been filled that morning. Except now there were only 83 pills left. Watson would later admit having taken three Soma pills (a prescription muscle relaxer) prior to the crash.

Eight months after the accident, following which Watson was charged with DUI and pleaded no contest in exchange for three years' probation.

Watson was fired by USC coach Pete Carroll. The reason cited by Carroll: Watson was too hard on his players.

Dave Watson filed a civil suit against USC for wrongful termination. Indicating that he didn't accept the explanation Carroll had given him as the truth.

It would seem Carroll knew about his addiction and nonetheless continued to allow Dave Watson to use the USC-provided Jeep when he was still a fooball coach at USC .

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/football/ncaa/01/11/usc.watson/index.html?eref=twitter_feed

Jim Mora with Huskies?

2010-01-11T05:55:25Z

Now that Jim Mora Jr. is out of a job, what do you think of him maybe coming to coach for the Huskies? He obviously wouldn't be the HC or DC, but maybe a secondary coach? Mora is a defensive specialist so I don't think he would be in the running for any offensive positions.

If Mora bought a house in Seattle (which would be likely because he was given a big contract with the Seahawks), I think he might be inclined to stay in the area. He was quoted as saying that coaching for the Huskies would be, "his dream job." I know he wouldn't get the position he wants most (HC), but staying in Seattle might sound pretty appealing to him.

Thoughts, anyone?