Dot...Dot...Dawg (6/2)

These aren't the Dots you are looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.

• The spirit of Johnie Kirton continues to resonate throughout locker rooms in the AFL and in the minds of those who got to know him. I remember when Gilby got Kirton to commit to UW and how optimistic I was about what a beast he was going to be. Johnie was never handled well under Ty's regime ... being moved from fullback to tight end to defensive end. Still, he did so with a commitment to the team. This dedication and commitment continued to shine through as he entered the early part of his professional career and culminated in the birth of his daugter, JJ, now 2 years old. It is such a sad story to lose someone so young. A scholarship fund has been set up for little J.J. This is a non-withdrawal account, so it seems legit.
• The Tosh Lupoi secondary violations caught some attention because, well, it's Tosh. Scott Woodward isn't too concerned.
• Because it includes three teams (two on the road) who figure to be pre-season top 5, Bruce Feldman thinks the UW's schedule is the second toughest in the nation. Notre Dame fits first on his list despite the fact that it includes just one top 5 team total.
  
• I'm sure many of you saw this, but Kevin "Mr. Stanford" Gemmell calls Oregon UW's most important game in 2012. I'm sure his first instinct was to call Stanford the most important game (which it is), but he's probably getting sensitive to being perceived as a Stanford homer. In reality, the Oregon game is no more or less important than the LSU game in terms of impact on UW as a program. Both are top 5. Both are on the road. Both would be huge upsets. In reality, the Stanford game is the one where we have the opportunity to show that the rest of the Pac 12 North lines up behind UW and Oregon if we can win it.
• For a guy that was supposedly "dropping" in the NFL draft, it is amazing how much attention Alameda Ta'amu is getting now. Rob Rang thinks that him starting by the end of 2012 is not unreasonable.
• Will Chris Polk shock the world in 2012? The B/R thinks so.
• Jake Locker and Matt Hasselbeck are going to split snaps 50-50 in camp this year. Matt had an interesting take on things noting that he doesn't really compete with the back up QB, but that, in fact, he competes with just about every other QB out there who might come in and take his job. When looked through that lens, the competition is really about the QB vs the field versus the QB vs another man.
• Scott Wolf thinks that Sarkisian wants to be USC's head coach. No real insight here - just some rumor mongering. The funniest part of this is the comments that follow the post - it turns into an anti-Oregon rant pretty quickly. On the topic of Sark, I'm not sure that I see him ending up at USC even if he'd love to deep down inside. If things go well at UW, he'll likely end up on the NFL radar and put himself in a legacy building position in Seattle ala Don James. If things go poorly, it is unlikely that USC alum will ever see him as a replacement to Kiffin ... even if Kiffin ends up sucking wind. It would take a remarkable set of circumstances to occur simultaneously for Sark to be viewed as the best option at USC and for him to be in a position to want to take it.
• Apparently, Steve Sarkisian is a candidate in the Arkansas football coach search. I find this highly unlikely.
• The Husky Haul has a nice piece on the collateral impact of the Nigel Williams-Goss commitment to UW. The big insight here is that Nigel was considered by many to be the "student recruiter" for Findlay Prep (Vegas) and may do so for the UW.
• Despite playing well, UW Men's Golf failed to make it out of the quarterfinals of match play in the NCAAs falling to #1 Texas. It was a great season for UW and will definitely amp the interest in Men's Golf heading into next year.

That's it, Dawgfans. Sorry about my absence last week. I travel for my job and, occasionally, I end up in places with just my iPhone as my connection source. Dots don't work so well on iPhones.