Huskies Host LSU in 2009

Those of you hoping for a let up in the schedule may have been pretty surprised today to read that the Huskies will open the 2009 season against LSU. Other non conference games that season will be Notre Dame, and Idaho.

I am all for big non conference games, but feel one per year is enough at this time when you consider the current state of the program. Even in good years playing Notre Dame who we have never beaten, and LSU is like penciling in a couple of losses in advance.

In a year with ND already schedules I would prefer to then play a WAC, and a MWC opponent to balance things out.

A Little Vacation

I am taking a little time off this week for vacation. My wife and I are kicking back over in Maui getting some beach, and pool time.

As far as Husky news goes not much going on this week so far.

The AD search has been quiet, and we don't expect word on a decision till sometime in late June.

Husky assistant Paul Fortier is under consideration for a head coaching job at Brown.

Franklin HS standout Peyton Siva is headed to Louisville rather than UW.

Aloha!

Husky Poll Question

Last week we asked this question?

Which Husky Sport is your favorite following football, and basketball?

Crew 31% (14 votes)
Baseball 27% (12 votes)
Women's Basketball 4% (2 votes)
Softball 4% (2 votes)
Track and Field 7% (3 votes)
Golf 0% (0 votes)
Gymnastics 0% (0 votes)
Swimming 0% (0 votes)
Tennis 2% (1 votes)
Cross Country 0% (0 votes)
Soccer 11% (5 votes)
Volleyball 11% (5 votes)
Other: 2% (1 votes)

Crew and Baseball were the overwhelming picks in this one, and I would have to say they are my top two with Crew getting the nod.

This weeks question is:

How many yards per game will the Husky Defense give up in 2008?

Interesting question, and probably one of the biggest keys to success in the 2008 season.

2007 TOTAL DEFENSE

1. USC - 273.22.
2. Oregon State - 306.23.
3. UCLA - 343.24.
4. Arizona State - 345.25.
5. Arizona - 372.26.
6. California - 378.8
7. Oregon - 382.08.
8. Washington State - 421.19.
9. Stanford - 435.510.
10. Washington - 446.4

Pac Ten Alley

We start off with a new article from Seattle PI Husky Football Beat Writer Molly Yanity. She reviews the QB's the Huskies will face in 2008.

While the Washington spring football game might have revealed an improved -- but untested -- defense, the images of last year's second-half defensive meltdowns still haunt the Huskies.
How did Todd Boeckman hit Brian Robiskie for a 68-yard touchdown pass to change the tenor of the Huskies' dogfight with Ohio State? How did Oregon's Dennis Dixon mess up the Huskies so much they allowed 465 yards on the ground? How did Arizona's Willie Tuitama transform into a Heisman Trophy contender? And how did Colt Brennan of Hawaii erase a 21-point Huskies lead in the season finale?

I think most of us think Washington will average 30-35 points per game next season on offense even though the Huskies will have a green receiving corps, and a trio of young running backs. That is asking a lot, and once again seems to put a lot of the burden of success squarely on the shoulders of sophomore QB Jake Locker.

Defensively everyone expects the performance to improve because Ed Donatell has taken over at DC. We saw glimpses this Spring that we are going to enjoy the way he uses his schemes in 2008. We are finally going to mix it up, and dump the ten yard cushion as our basic defensive backfield alignment.

I saw a lot of improvement in the defensive backfield this Spring, but the big question mark for me is at the line of scrimmage. Will they be able to get improved interior line play out of Elisara, Matthews, Kirton, or any of the newcomers?

Washington needs to lop off around 125 or more yards per game in total defense before they can hope to contend, or stay around late in the fourth quarter. You do that by playing physical, and getting a good rush on the passer. The best pass defense is an opposing QB on his back clutching the ball, and hearing the phone ring in his head.

If a team is scoring 30-35 points per game they can win some football games with an average defense. I don't expect our defense to be great, but if we were rated in the middle of the league which is very doable, we should win enough games to become bowl eligible. Can we hold opposing teams under 30 points, and 400 yards per game?

Shouldn't we be able to do that?

If you start taking away those big plays from 2007, and start creating some of your own you should be able to do that.

Marcel Reese

Marcel impressed the Raiders enough at their Mini Camp to get offered a contract which is a bit of a surprise. Good going Marcel! A guy that big, and that fast should be able to find a place in the NFL.

Pac Ten Alley

Let's take a walk down the coast to see what the neighbors are up to.

Oregon's Patrick Chung is up for honors in 2008.

The Football Writers Association of America named Oregon seniors Nick Reed and Patrick Chung to the watch list for the 2008 Bronko Nagurski Trophy. It is awarded to the best defensive player in college football and sponsored by the Charlotte Touchdown Club.

We all know there is no real Stanford Blog, but Jon Wilner always has news about the Bay Area Pac Ten Teams.

It’s sure to be the most-anticipated Bay Area college basketball game of the 2008-09 season, maybe the most-anticipated Bay Area college basketball game in many seasons:
Mike Montgomery, back in Maples Pavilion as the enemy coach — as the Cal coach.

The Wildcats pick up a good looking LB.

Four-star linebacker Trevor Erno left Tucson last night for a flight back to the Los Angeles area, but not before committing to the University of Arizona football team. “He liked what he saw there and he seemed really excited when he called,” said Tina Erno, Trevor’s mom who confirmed his pledge to the Wildcats.

the Bears and Tedford looking for a better year in 2008.

UC Berkeley football coach Jeff Tedford had a good year in 2007 — a very good year. Sure, the Bears finished the regular season with a dismal 6-6 record and an invitation to the insignificant Armed Forces Bowl, where they barely beat Air Force, 42-36. But Tedford collected as much money in that one year as many of us will earn in a lifetime — $2.8 million.

Jake at the Oregon State Blog has done a wonderful job as usual this year covering Pac Ten baseball.

Here's where the Beavers stand after the series with UCLA. It should be noted that the Beavers already have more conference wins (11) than they did all of last season (10). But last year, the non-conference record was much more impressive.

Jon Wilner has this take on USC's OJ Mayo.

For the purposes of this Hotline item, let’s assume the allegations on “Outside the Lines” are true and O.J. Mayo did indeed take ten of thousands of dollars from a “promoter” while in high school and during his freshman year at USC.

ASU is playing Notre Dame in Dallas for some strange reason in 2013.

In case you haven't heard by now, we're playing against Notre Dame at the Cowboys new facility, in 2013 .The good news is, Brock Osweiler could be our starting quarterback at the time. I just hope Dennis Erickson isn't on the Notre Dame sidelines by that time.

UCLA picks up a basketball recruit.

Sources told FOXSports.com that new LSU coach Trent Johnson plans to honor signee J'Mison Morgan's request and will release the senior big man from his letter-of-intent on Tuesday afternoon, effectively paving the way for Morgan to land at UCLA.The 6-foot-10, 270-pound Morgan signed with former LSU coach John Brady and appeared to stick with his decision even after Trent Johnson was announced as the Tigers new coach on April 10. However, the family had a change of heart last week and asked for his release.

The Cougar Blog examines Oklahoma State, the first team that WSU will lose to this year.

As the opener is a mere 110 days away(!), what better time than to start looking ahead? Today we'll examine our first opponent, Oklahoma State, in their post-spring state, to get an idea of what we're in for August 30th.Last year - The 'Boys finished 7-6, culminating with a big 49-33 win over Indiana in the Insight Bowl. QB Zac Robinson capped his breakthrough season with 5 TD's as the Okies rolled up over 500 yards of total offense in the blowout win.

The Monday Morning Wash

I was looking at the conceptual plans for the new Oregon baseball stadium that is going to cost in the neighborhood of $15 million. Pretty nice digs for a school that hasn't had a baseball team since 1981. The new stadium is the latest development for a department that is undergoing a tremendous growth spurt: It's added two sports, renovated Hayward Field, pushed forward the plans to build a new basketball arena, and intends to build a stadium for its new baseball team.

While most of us aren't Duck fans it is pretty hard not to be impressed with what continues to happen at both Oregon, and Oregon State. This isn't all about Bill Knight, this is about a state coming together over the last 15 years and supporting intercollegiate sports. While Knight has spent a lot of his own money, he has also been the catalyst at both schools for other alumni and boosters to start contributing.

I remember going to Eugene in the 60's, 70's, and 80's to see games and it seemed like a hopeless proposition as far as turning around those overall programs go. They didn't have the population base, they didn't have the attendance, and both schools lacked support from the state of Oregon legislature.

Washington has all of that, and we will always have as many, and as more resources available as any school in the conference. What we lack at this point is passion, and the unifying presence to pull it all together.

The Husky Baseball team is enjoying a good season and is currently third in the conference playing in the worst facility in the Pac Ten. The Huskies new baseball facility remains 1/3 built stalled by a lack of donations. The actual diamond, and outfield are fine, but permanent stands, locker rooms, dugouts etc... were never built.

Washington has been falling behind for almost a decade despite the Olympic sports facility improvements made under Barbara Hedges. A lack of leadership, winning, and the general lethargy created by a lack of stability at the school need to be reversed immediately by the new athletic director.

The question of course is who that new AD is going to be. The two most discussed names out there are Bob Stull from UTEP, and Bill Moos formerly of Oregon. Both have considerable interest in the job, both have Washington roots, and both have the ability to get the job done.

Both Moos, and Stull are older than you would like which means if they are picked they will probably have tenures of around five years which may not be enough to get it all turned around. Make no mistake, this is a major reconstruction job similar to when Washington hired Mike Lude. A tenure of ten years seems to be the ideal they are looking for. Todd Turner of course fell under that type of guideline, so maybe possible length of tenure is not the most important thing.

Look for UW to have a new AD hired in time for the start of football season. Look for the new AD to have a background in football, and building new facilities.

UW needs to hire a charismatic leader with the right type of experience to pull it all together.

Reece Gets Another Shot

Former UW receiver Marcel Reece, cut earlier this week by the Dolphins, is now in mini-camp with the Oakland Raiders. Reece won a shiny new helmet as the offensive MVP of the Raiders three-day rookie mini camp Sunday. At 6-foot-3, 240 pounds, Reece was second in receiving at the University of Washington with 39 receptions for 761 yards and eight touchdowns, averaging 19.5 yards per reception. Reece had a big gainer during practice Sunday when quarterback Jeff Otis play-faked to Michael Bush and hit him in stride with a reverse roll.

Ex Huskies looking for Gold

World champion Brad Walker, a former Washington Huskies standout, won the pole vault at the Osaka Grand Prix meet Saturday in Japan. Walker cleared 17 feet, 8 ½ inches in the rain and cold while fellow American Russ Buller was second at 17-4 ½. "In an Olympic year, you want to jump as high as possible to give yourself confidence," the 26-year-old Walker said. "But with the conditions today, I decided it was best not to push things." Another ex-Husky, Aretha Thurmond, 31, was third in the discus at 196-10. Song Aimin of China won the event with a throw of 198-1.

Web Cams and Recruiting

A look at some major colleges football programs' takes on the new technique of head coaches using Web cams to talk to recruits, which is allowed by the NCAA: -LSU's Les Miles, Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer and Alabama's Nick Saban have begun using Web cams following a new NCAA rule that keeps head coaches from visiting high school campuses during the spring.

USC Keeps Giving Back to It's Athletes

Former USC basketball player O.J. Mayo, a projected lottery pick in this year's NBA draft, received thousands of dollars in cash, clothes and other benefits in apparent violation of NCAA rules while he was still in high school and during his one year in college, a former Mayo associate told ESPN's "Outside the Lines."

WSU's Roof Caves In

Pullman police have recommended that one second-degree assault charge and five fourth-degree assault charges be filed against Washington State defensive tackle Andy Roof. Bill Druffel, senior deputy prosecutor in the Whitman County prosecutor's office, said Thursday that the decision on what charges will be filed will be made next week after a review of the evidence. Roof didn't play last season because his three alcohol-related arrests resulted in suspension from the team. Roof returned to WSU for spring semester and was moved from offensive line to defensive line for spring drills.

Baseball

Jayson Miller fell one strike short of pitching a shutout as Washington State stopped No. 30 Washington's five-game win streak 5-1 Saturday in a Pac-10 baseball game at Husky Ballpark.
The Huskies (30-17 overall, 9-8 Pac-10) dropped to fourth place with the loss to WSU (27-21, 6-11).

Nick Haughian struck out 11 in a complete-game victory, and Kyle Conley hit a pair of two-run homers as the Washington baseball team defeated Washington State 5-1 Sunday at Husky Ballpark. The victory gave the Huskies (31-17, 10-8 Pac-10) a 2-1 win in the Apple Cup series and, coupled with a California loss to Stanford, put them back in third place in the conference.

Softball

Senior Cambria Miranda hit her 10th home run of the season in the bottom of the seventh, leading Oregon State to a 3-2 win over No. 24 Washington Thursday in Corvallis, Ore.
Washington (26-22-1, 5-13 in the Pac-10) got seven hits, including two singles by sophomore Amanda Fleischman.

The University of Washington softball team was selected on Sunday night for their 15th-straight postseason appearance and will head to the Houston, Texas regional where they will face Texas this Friday. Washington and Texas are joined by Delaware State and host Houston. Games will be played May 16-18 at Cougar Softball Stadium on the campus of the University of Houston.
The Huskies, ranked 24th in the last USA Today/NFCA Coaches Top 25 Poll, finished tied for fifth in the Pac-10 this season with a 7-14 record, and finished 28-23-1 overall. This is their 15th-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, which is tied with Oklahoma for the fifth-most consecutive appearances.

Tennis

The Washington men's tennis team had its season come to a close today as the 32nd-ranked Huskies fell to No. 33 Wisconsin, 4-1, in the first round of the NCAA Championships. The loss followed a familiar and painful script for the Huskies, who lost to the Badgers in the first round last year as well, despite winning the doubles point in each match. Wisconsin moves on to face UCLA in the second round tomorrow at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The match came down to the third and fourth singles positions, which Wisconsin pulled out in tight third sets. Had the match continued, UW was on the verge of winning at No. 5 singles, and was early in a third set at No. 2 singles as well.

Golf

Washington women's golf shot a second-round score of 22-over 310 to remain in 18th place at the NCAA Central Regional Championship at the University of Texas Golf Club, Friday.
The Huskies improved upon their first round score by two strokes and will enter Saturday's final round at 46-over 622. Washington is two shots behind 25th-ranked Notre Dame and six shots behind Texas State. Top-seeded UCLA remains the team leader at even-par 576. For the second-straight day, sophomore Molly Aronsson and freshman Karinn Dickinson fired the low rounds for the Huskies. Both carded second-round scores of 4-over 76. After turning in scores of 3-over 75 in the first round, the UW duo is tied for 37th on the individual leaderboard at 7-over 151.

The NCAA West Regional will be one of three regional tournaments conducted to determine the 30 teams and six individuals not on a qualifying team that will compete in the 2008 NCAA Div. I Men's Golf Championship, May 28-31 at Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind.

Track

Senior Carl Moe authored a rousing end to the 2008 Washington track and field home season this evening, flying around Husky Stadium in 4:01.53 to win the mile run in his last appearance in front of the Husky faithful.

The Dardanelles

The University of Washington is offering $1,000 and a place in history to someone who can come up with a new school anthem.

The alma mater, or anthem is different of course than the fight song which also has a few oblique references that many people have trouble referring to today.

"I think most people know the very beginning, 'Bow Down to Washington,' but after that it becomes a lot of 'Watermelon, watermelon, watermelon,' " McDavid said. "Most students today don't know what the Dardanelles are."

I can understand what McDavid is saying, but why adjust it every twenty years so it is more relative with the times? Why not take the time to explain the nature of the fight song and the history behind it to incoming students each year?

As for the Alma Mater a catchy new tune by Bill Conti is just fine since the old Alma Mater or Anthem really never has caught on.

Whatever you do, don't ever touch Bow Down to Washington!

As my wife who went to Boston College says....Bow Down to Washington sound sounds like this.

We're coming to kick your ass......we're coming to kick your ass!

I like the ring of that.

A friend of mine who went to Michigan said that Bow Down to Washington was the most condescending fight song he had ever heard.

I like that too, because we're coming to kick you ass, or at least we did till 2001.

Bow Down To Washington

Bow down to Washington,
Bow down to Washington,
Mighty are the men
Who wear the purple and the gold,
Joyfully we welcome them
Within the victors fold.
We will carve their names (names!)
In the Hall of Fame (fame!)
To preserve the memory of our devotion.
So heaven help the foes of Washington;
They're trembling at the feet
Of mighty Washington,
Our boys are there with bells (bells!),
Their fighting blood excels (excels!),
It's harder to push them over the line
Than pass the Dardanelles.
So victory's the cry of Washington
Our leather lungs together
With a Rah! Rah! Rah!
And o'er the land
The loyal band
Will sing the glory
Of Washington forever.

In recent years, some fans have been heard replacing "with a rah! rah! rah!" with "with a 'F*ck Wazzu!'"--a jab at UW's biggest rival, Washington State University. It is also common to replace the line "It's harder to push them over the line than pass the Dardanelles" with "If you don't go to Washington, then you can go to hell."

The original words to Bow Down to Washington included "Dobie, Dobie, pride of Washington! They’re trembling at the feet of mighty Washington!” in respect of the football head coach Gil Dobie.

Pac Ten Alley

I did a pretty thorough wrap up on Monday of what has been going on in Huskyland. One new piece of information is that are sports programs are doing well academically and will not face sanctions like WSU, and Idaho.

Just like any NCAA rule this one is beating up on the have nots, and not the haves. Taking scholarships away from WSU, and Idaho solves nothing at all. Do you really think athletes at Tennessee, and Georgia are taking academics more seriously than athletes at WSU and Idaho?

Pac Ten Alley

It is tough to be a Cougar fan today because they are losing eight football scholarships because of NCAA academic sanctions. This isn't exactly what Paul Wulff needs to start rebuilding the program.

Afternoon update - We're now out EIGHT scholarships. 22 for next year's signing class, 77 total. That makes us the worst in the BCS. Good thing we have so much outstanding depth, isn't it?? Looks like Idaho took stupid pills too, as they are also out eight scholies. WONDERFUL.

Ivan Maisel takes a look at the Bruins new coaching staff.

All Chow brought upstairs was a mechanical pencil and a handful of play sheets. He grabbed a Diet Coke from the little refrigerator in the booth when he arrived. In the two chairs to the left of Chow sat coaching interns Jake Peetz and Pat Girardi. To his right sat David Raih, who charted the play calls. Peetz and Raih are former walk-ons at Nebraska and Iowa, respectively. Girardi is a former co-captain at Columbia.The logistics of a new staff working in a new press box illustrate all the moving parts in a football team's engine. Coaches take for granted that the communication will go smoothly from press box to sideline. It's spring practice for the headsets, too. UCLA has new audio equipment. Chow couldn't hear the sideline. Then Girardi informed Chow that he and offensive line coach Bob Palcic were on different channels. Chow didn't take it well.

Washington has pulled ahead of Oregon State and is now nationally ranked and in the Pac Ten top three.

Recapping the Spring Game is still on the to-do list, but that will have to wait for now. After all, the countdown to football season is still in three figures. We'll have plenty of time to talk about the pigskin between Omaha and August 2. Heading into Pullman, the Beavers knew that the Cougars were a sweepable team. In other words, if OSU won series' against Arizona State and Arizona, a sweep against WSU couldn't be so hard. But that's when the game of baseball caught up to the back to back National Champions. After the Beavers dropped two games to Gonzaga earlier in the week, they dropped two straight to the Cougs- in blowout fashion. The Beavs lost 10-3 on Saturday, and 11-4 on Sunday. They salvaged a win on Monday, bombarding the Cougars with 19 runs on 17 hits for a final score of 19-9.

Nate Longshore is pencilled in as Cal's starting QB....but.... .

Nate Long-Shot? ... While Jeff Tedford continues to stress that incumbent Nate Longshore is his quarterback, a pec injury that curtailed his spring hasn't helped in his fight to hold off Kevin Riley. Riley moves better than Longshore and was flawless in his last game, a comeback win over Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. Don't buy Tedford's smokescreen. Riley is closing the gap on Longshore all the time and might be ready to surpass him in August.

Jon Wilner takes a look at Stanford and the rest of the Pac Ten after Spring football.

If I could take one sentences to state the ridiculously obvious: The Pac-10 is a quarterback’s conference — always has been and always will be. When it has a first-rate array of quarterbacks, as it did in ‘07, the Pac-10 is one of the top conferences in the country. When it doesn’t have a first-rate array of quarterbacks, well, it’s a second-rate league (within the BCS grouping). And based on winter/spring developments from Tucson to Pullman, that very well might be the case in ‘08.

Scott Wolf inside USC.

USC lost four starters on its offensive line, but that's really not quite as dramatic as it sounds. Center Kris O'Dowd started the first three games as a true freshman until he injured his knee. Tackle Butch Lewis started in place of All-American Sam Baker and played respectable. Guard Zack Heberer started two games and tackle Charles Brown started one.

UA baseball is in contention

The University of Arizona baseball team is hoping to not only make a late push for a Pac-10 title, but to host a regional. The Wildcats could do both still. It will take a lot more wins down the stretch, and a few more fans coming out to the ballpark for a team that has won 12 straight to accomplish both.

The Ducks pick up a JC QB late which tells you that they are having a problem replacing Dixon.

Prize JC quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was snagged by the Ducks yesterday. He played for City College of San Francisco last year and led them to the junior college national title.

Pitchfork Nation has a nice lineup of everything going on Sun Devil this week.

Baseball dropped a game on the road to a mediocre Kansas State team last night. They try to rebound against a very formidable Wichita State team, who is looking for a big win to secure a spot hosting a regional.

Spring Round Up for BYU

BYU starting spring practice on March 17th and the Cougars who had consecutive 11-2 seasons and back to back Mountain West Conference titles, and now the Cougars are looking to make it to the BCS in 2008. The Cougars do not lose much offensively with frosh All-American Harvey Unga and QB Max Hall, plus multiple other key positions. The things that BYU needs to figure out in this spring ball is to find replacements for Bryan Kehl and Kelly Popinga at the linebacker position and also they need to find more depth and improve the secondary overall. The should be fine, because of the amazing job the coaching staff did when injuries really hurt that position with the Cougars playing 2nd and 3rd string players and still able to defeat Utah and UCLA.

Oklahoma fans are looking ahead to UW game.

Television and the kick-off time has been set for Oklahoma's trip to Seattle to play the Washington Huskies on September 13th. The game will air on ESPN and will kick-off, in prime time, at 6:45 PM. It will be the Sooners third game of the season and barring tragedy they should go into that game with a 2-0 record and ranked in the Top 10. An impressive performance on national television against the Pac 10 and the ESPN Hype Machine will be rolling in the Sooners' favor.

Recap of the Notre Dame Spring Game

You’ll notice we didn’t have a lot of (any) coverage of spring practices this year, including limited mention of Saturday’s Blue-Gold game. The main reason for this is that there was a lot of other stuff going on (March Madness, Frozen Four, weather getting nicer) and a ton of other sites covering the twenty minutes of practice that were open each day. If you’d like me to try and prognosticate on the upcoming season due to how well someone there said Duval Kamara was stretching, I can try, but it would be a waste of everyone’s time. As Pat at BGS said, there were just an obscene amount of outlets covering the goings-on that there was a very limited amount of what we could have added to the conversation.