Coach Baird on Husky Football

   Let’s get this straight, in the UW vs UCLA match-up, both teams are 3 and 5 and in desperate need of a win.  With only 4 games to play, each must win this game to have any chance of finishing out of the bottom tier of the Pac-10.  Washington has not won a game on the road this year or the past two years for that matter.  They have not won on grass either and in fact don’t even have a grass field to practice on. 

     Going back to the 2002 season when Rick Neuheisel was still the Coach at Washington the Huskies are something like 34 losses and only 7 wins when playing away from Husky Stadium. WAshington has also not won in the Rose Bowl since 1995 except when they won the 2001 Rose Bowl itself.  Its time to win a road game and they may as well do it in LA. 

    With a week off however, the Huskies might just be catching a team that has more self doubts then they do.  After opening up 3-0 including an impressive win over Tennessee, the Bruins have proceeded to drop 5 straight conference games. Washington has two unbelievable wins over USC and Arizona but has lost, like UCLA has, to both Oregon and Stanford.  If comparable opponent scores mean anything then the Bruins have been closer to both of those teams than the Huskies, losing only 24-10 to the Ducks and 24-16 to the Cardinal while the Dogs went down big to both.

     The Bruins are unsettled at quarterback and the Huskies are waiting for a monster game out of theirs.  Washington needs to have Jake Locker healthy and running if they are to win this game.  He and Chris Polk should be able to rush for enough to open up the passing game and that just wasn’t there against Oregon in their last game.  Oregon is proving a running quarterback can create havoc in this league and Locker needs to carry the football at least 10-12 times for the Huskies .

    The Bruins quarterback, Kevin Prince actually committed to come to Washington and had he done so then he would be sitting on the bench behind Locker.  That is the truth and that is the difference in this game. Washington has the better quarterback and now he needs to prove it.

     Because the Bruins have been playing 3 quarterbacks this season they have struggled on that side of the ball but do have two really big, as in 6-4 and 6-5, wide receivers and that could present a size match up problem for the Huskies on defense. Their receivers have dropped quite a few balls this year though and that has really hurt them offensively. Hopefully they can keep it up against Washington.The Bruins also have a really quick running back in Jonathon Franklin who a darter type runner. Washington needs to crowd the line of scrimmage and stop the run and bring the heat at Prince when its time to pass. UCLA likes to run quick slants and screens as a way to counter pressure so the Huskies may need to use some man to man coverages.

    The Huskies have also had two weeks to shore up the holes in their kicking game and just in time because UCLA has the best kickers in the conference.  Their punter, Jeff Locke, averages close to 45 yards per punt and also kicks off well into the end zone.  Locke is left footed so that puts an opposite spin on the ball for returners. Their kicker, Kai Forbath is 20 of 22 in field goals and has hit one from 53 yards out.

Their return man for all kicks is Terrance Austin and he is equally dangerous on punts and kickoffs.  Washington will need to be perfect on the road in its kicking game if they are to come home a winner. 

    It doesn ‘t really make any difference to the Husky team if Rick Neuheisel
is coaching the Bruins.  None of them played for him or were recruited by him so beating him will only please us fans.  They simply need to go out on the road and win a game. Doing so in Southern California would really help them as that is one of their main recruiting hotbeds.  There will be close to a dozen kids from that area who could end up as Huskies with many already committed.

     A win here would simply be huge for the program and its probably going to be like all the others, close and hard fought all the way to the finish with the Huskies winning on their last possession. I’ll take it by 1.

eff Locke

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm by huskyfootball and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.