Once a week Nathan Ware of the Seattle PI Dawg Blog and I get together to discuss Husky football. It hasn't been an easy season and our readers asked the question isn't there a single positive thing going on right now?
Nathan and I couldn't seem to find one this week. The rest of the media was no different if you take a quick look at what is in the fish wrappers today.
John: Should Willingham have played Dailey and Bruns against Arizona?
Nathan: What a bad decision. People are up in arms about Bruns but I wonder if Dailey isn't the bigger issue. Looking at him, he doesn't look physically ready. From what we've heard, Dailey has talent and is doing some good things in practice but that doesn't mean that he's ready to accept the pounding that a Pac-10 running back takes. His body looks like it needs more time and we just wasted a year of that development. He's the perfect example of a player that could be great when he's 22 but he'll be graduated by then.
We are playing a lot of freshmen because we are a bad team with a coach that hasn't developed the older players that he has. Of the true freshmen who have played so far, who were truly ready to play? For example, let's say this same class of players enrolled at Oregon State, which ones would have played on a mid-level team like the Beavs?
Art Thiel of ths Seattle PI puts in his two cents on what is happeneing at Montlake. He even thinks the new Husky mascot replacing Spirit should be named - WaMu!
Turner and Willingham took jobs few among their top contemporaries wanted and did well in diminishing scandal, criminality and mockery at one of the most woebegone operations in Division I sports. But consecutive seasons of 2-9, 5-7, 4-9 and now 0-5 -- preceded by seasons of 6-6 and 1-10 under Keith Gilbertson -- did nothing to resolve the issue that concerned most people most of the time.
Molly Yanity of the Seattle PI talks about coaching candidates.
"Considering Pinkel has a history at UW, it's a logical name," ESPN college football reporter Joe Schad said. "Considering he has built Missouri into a national power, it's not likely he'd leave for Washington -- but he'd have to listen and be at the top of any wish list." "If I'm the Washington president, my first call is to Gary Pinkel," said rivals.com college football senior writer Tom Dienhart. "I don't think he'd go, but you've got to make him say no."
Jim Moore of the Seattle PI makes a mockery as usual of the situation.
"You called me up here for that?" Woodward asks. "I thought you wanted to talk about the mess you put us in with our football coach. If you had fired him last year and didn't let Turner talk you out of it, we'd be one year into the rebuild. What a monumental gaffe. I can't believe you're the fourth-highest paid university president in the country."
Bud Withers of the Seattle Times chats with Jim Lambright about the Huskies defensive woes.
So here's what Lambright would do: Crowd the line of scrimmage, just as his defenses used to. Try to overload a side with one more defender than the line can block. Jam the receivers. Punish the quarterback for all these offensive pyrotechnics. In other words, dictate.
Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times talks about the Huskies current recruiting challenges.
"It's very difficult right now," said Greg Biggins, a recruiting analyst for ESPN.com. "As they say in recruiting circles, the rumor or threat of a coaching change is more damaging than the coaching change itself. Right now, you have to understand Washington is being negatively recruited like crazy by other schools ... 'if you go to Washington, welcome to the hot seat, the coaches are not going to last the year.' The players are hearing that.