Dots: Everyone Loves Pete

Have some Dots. You know you want them.

• Hey, what do you know, everyone all of a sudden loves roses for Washington:

SI Bowl Projections: Ohio St vs UW

ESPN: (Bonagura) Ohio St vs UW | (Sherman) Ohio St vs UW

Sporting News: Michigan vs UW

CBS: Michigan vs UW

SB Nation: Michigan vs UW

• Adam Jude breaks down the defensive strategy that UW employed in once again shutting down the Cougar Air Raid.
• Because of the short week, Chris Petersen held his weekly press conference on Sunday. Here it is in its entirety:

• ICYMI, Jon Wilner shared his thoughts on the Apple Cup in his Friday Night special PAC 12 Hotline. In it, he observes that the PAC 12 administration avoided a nightmare scenario had WSU won. His point being that the replay controversy that resulted in a no-call on the Minshew targeting could easily have been the difference between a one-loss, out of the Playoff WSU team and an undefeated, for-sure Playoff team. That situation would have been a major factor in the theoretical Playoff committee evaluation had WSU won the Apple Cup - a situation that Larry Scott would rue.
  While I understand the sentiment, I think that the issue stands regardless of whether or not WSU won the Apple Cup. They still should be a one-loss team right now and still in the thick of the deliberation given that their one loss would have been to a top 15 team in a game played in a blizzard. But that is just me.
• Tis the season for coaches to jump into their annual beauty contest known simply as “the Carousel”. However, it is looking more and more likely that the only significant opening in the PAC 12 might be the Colorado job. That is because USC AD Lynn Swann, the very man who just gave his coach a contract extension back in February, gave Clay Helton the dreaded “vote of confidence” and assured that Helton will be back in 2019. While this will undoubtedly assuage many of the players who support Helton, including WR Amon-ra St. Brown and QB JT Daniels, it essentially places an ultimatum on next season.

There will be, obviously, many unhappy fans. That would include those responsible for flying this banner over the Coliseum during the Notre Dame game last weekend:

• It is, in fact, looking like a very slow start to the annual killing season for coaches across the country. As of right now, the only significant jobs to come open as of last weekend were North Carolina (which has already made the eye-popping decision to hire Mack Brown in place of Larry Fedora) and Kliff Kingsbury’s job with Texas Tech. It would seem based on how the open positions are laying out right now that only Oregon’s Jim Leavitt from among the pool of PAC 12 candidates might even be on the radar for an open job (and, no, Mike Leach is not going back to Texas Tech ... no matter if SB Nation thinks it may not be that crazy of an idea).
• Despite their regular season close-out loss to WSU, Washington Volleyball is headed to the the NCAA tournament and the brackets are set. If you happen to be in Nebraska on Friday, check it out:

• Missy Peterson tallied a career high in scoring with 18 points in UW’s loss to Michigan in the Gulf Coast Showcase.

• And, remember, ‘tis the season. Dawgs love snow.