Coach Baird on Husky Football

    Jake Locker is going to play and he will play well and the Huskies are going to win their first road game in years.  That is the key to the game.  Now of course no drops will help, and no missed tackles will help, and no missed scoring opportunities will help, and not fumbling or throwing interceptions will help.  Other than that Jake Locker will be the difference and the Huskies will win by 4 points. If not, so what.

     Seriously, if the Huskies can just not hurt themsleves, they stand an excellent chance to defeat the Rick Neuheisel coached UCLA Bruins.  It’s liable to be another back and forth struggle with field position being critical and long drives necessary.

     Defensively, this is going to be really interesting because I think you may see as many as 5 freshmen playing at the same time for the Dawgs. One the backend or secondary alone there are 3 freshmen starters in corners, Desmont Trufant and Adam Long, and safety, Nate Fellner.  Then they are also working defensive ends Andru Pulu from Federal Way and Talia Crichton with the starters as well.

    That is a lot of youth in one unit and they will make some rookie mistakes but the reality is, defensive coordinator Nick Holt, is playing who he has.  A neck injury to Cameron Elisara as well as a few dings to some other players has let the Huskies short handed in the defenisve front and they may be forced to move some kids around and use Daniel Teo Nesheim a little bit more inside at tackle.

    Having youth limits what you can do.  Plus the speed of the game and all the thinking on each play with regard to not only your allignment and assignment but also the tips to help you get to the play and then how to perform once you get there.  Still, young kids sometimes play a little scared and that tends to help them.

    Whatever, if there is any place on this Husky team where there is an obvious shortage of quality players, it might be in the lines and particularly in the defensive line.  That is why you use true freshmen, because you have to.  Coach James always used a good quote that “the best time to play a freshman is when he’s a junior.”

    Therefore, how the youth on the defensive side of the ball performs could also be a key to the game but Washington needs to win this game and probably the remaining games with their offense. Jake Locker and his youth corp of skill players like backs, Chris Polk, freshman, Johri Fogerson, sophomore and Dimitrius Bronson, freshman.

    Those backs have to have their best games running, blocking and catching. They will be better simply by not making mistakes. They will be better because they have fresh legs.  Washington needs to run the ball effectively to win this game and for me that means running it in the second half when you have a lead. Just keep moving the chains and try to keep your defense on the sidelines. That is also a key.

     Then when  defense is on the field they can try to get some stops by creating some turnovers and attacking the Bruins quarterback, Kevin Prince.  He is also a freshman and that’s what you do to freshmen quarterbacks, you go after them so they have to hurry their decisions and hurry their throws. Play aggressively on defense and see what happens.

    The Bruins have lost 5 in a row and obviously have some doubts but they are still really talented and can fire if they get the lead.  If Washington could start early, take the lead, and play from the front, they will probably have a better chance of getting a win.  Even though the Bruins have an excellent punter and field goal kicker, as long as the Huskies don’t lose the kicking game they will be alright.  No blocks and no significant returns will really help them and no misses by the Husky kickers would be great.  So, there you have it, the keys to beating UCLA  just happen to be the same keys to beating anyone; don’t hurt yourself with turnovers, play good defense, run the ball, and don’t lose the kicking game.  A very simple formula for successful football.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 8:37 am 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.