Coach Baird on Husky Football

   It looks like we’re going to find out after this weekend who the odds on favorite will be to win the Pac-10 and an invitation to the Rose Bowl.  Stanford and Oregon join USC and Arizona as the only unbeaten conference teams.  The Cardinal and the Ducks are probably the two best teams right now and their Saturday night contest is clearly the feature game as eight of the ten teams launch full speed into conference play. The four undefeated teams are also all 1-0 in league.

  Arizona doesn’t play this weekend and USC is ineligible so the bird battle in Eugene takes center stage. ( I know it’s not the bird but rather the color, and that’s so Stanford) I actually liked it when they were the Indians. ASU visits Oregon State in another Dennis Erickson returns home game.  Of course, Dennis has lots of those because he’s coached everywhere. The Sun Devils did a marvelous job last weekend of slowing down the vaunted Duck option game but still lost 42-31. Their match up with the Beavers will likely be decided at the quarterback position where neither school is really very good.  I like the home team Beavs to win a close one.

   The Huskies and the Cougars both travel to LA in an unusual twist of scheduling fate. Both are decided underdogs and both are meeting teams coming off impressive wins.  The Huskies face a Trojan team that simply throttled the Cougars 50-16 in Pullman and were gracious in doing so.  Lane Kiffin obviously pulled off the troops for the whole fourth quarter while the Cougars simply tried to save their equipment.

     The Cougs will be across town taking on Rick Neuheisel’s surprising Bruins who shocked the football world with their rout of Texas.  I have always considered Coach Neuheisel to be a good game management head coach. He adjusts well and really pulled off a big one with his 34-12 victory over the Longhorns.  That may have been the biggest Pac-10 out of conference win this year.

   I saw the talent level of the Cougars first hand last weekend and they will be clearly outmanned by the Bruins.  As long as I coached at Washington, I always felt UCLA year in and year out had as good of players as anyone we played. The Cougar receivers will be hard pressed by the Bruin secondary and they are easily the best part of Cougar football right now. I can’t believe that UCLA won’t win this one easily.

    Cal, like Arizona, has a bye and is waiting for UCLA  while Arizona gets the Beavers after the Sun Devils.

   The Stanford/Duck game matches the two best running teams in the league. Stanford pounds it with powers, blasts, and regular lead dives while Oregon spreads it out and runs their read/zone option game.  Of course the Ducks can also throw it and had to last weekend when ASU held them to 145 yards on the ground.  I can’t pick the Ducks, and my friend Randy Hart coaches with Stanford, so my pick is Stanford.  They have an outstanding quarterback in Andrew Luck and Stanford’s win  over Notre Dame means more to me than Oregon beating Portland State and New Mexico by a combined score of 141 to 0.  Are you kidding me? That’s 141 points for Oregon and zero for two other whole teams? That’s obscene, no, that’s poor sportsmanship.  It’s also unclassy because it’s totally unnecessary to embarass someone else just to make yourself look better.  You can’t tell me they couldn’t have stopped scoring at least at the speed limit of 55. Then it would only have been 110-0.  Doesn’t that sound a lot better? not really.

    It’s just when you schedule a Portland State or New Mexico or someone like that and you pay them four hundred thousand or whatever, then you are expecting to win.  Those schools are so far below the Pac-10 level that it is almost unfair to the kids playing there.  They know they are going to get beaten up and they are going to lose just so their schools can get a pay check. I think what goes around comes around and Stanford pounds Oregon but basically, I just don’t like the Ducks.

   Washington is in tough vs.USC.  I think the Huskies have a better quarterback and that Jake Locker will come up big, and the Dawgs will win a close one. I think the Trojan secondary has some holes in it and I just think Jake will rebound with his best effort. He knows his team was better than they showed against Nebraska and he knows what it will take to rebound.  I expect to see him running and throwing at his very best on Saturday and he gives Erik Folk another chance to win it at the buzzer. I can’t wait because it will be another signature win for Coach Sarkisian and it will also be tremendous for the program.  If not, you move on to the next game.

    It can be done and Coach Sarkisian should be at his best in this game as well.  To win will take a lot of luck but I’m convinced USC is not as good as they’ve been in the past.  They do have better players than Washington but are not necessarily a better team. Win the turnover battle by +3 or more, play good defense against the run, no breakdowns in the kicking game, and Jake Locker throws for over 300 yards and runs for another 100.  If these things happen they win.

   I think Washington can pass to set up the run and then turn around and run play action pass off the run look.  I want them to be able to run the ball in the second half rather than the first half, but above all I hope they respond to adversity.  When something happens negatively, and it will, answer with something positive.  Turn the momentum immediately back. Treat anything negative as a temporary setback and play with more resolve when it does.   Washington wins in an upset!

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   There are already critics who are chipping away at Steve Sarkisian especially about him being the play caller on offense.  Get a life.  The guy is a proven offensive mind who has called plays for years including on lots of championship teams.  He knows offensive football and those who thinks it distracts from his game day responsibilities as a head coach simply don’t understand the game.

    First of all he is the general in charge and what don’t they understand about chain of command?  It’s real simple, everything is his decision and if he decides to run the special teams or the offense then it’s his right to do so. Doing so keeps his head in the game and having an offensive coordinator like Doug Nussmeier only makes  him better. Doug is on the phone with him the whole game and there is no way they havn’t already formulated a game plan for potential calls before a call is even made. He’s on the head set anyway so what’s the difference if it’s his call or Doug’s.

    What do these critics think a head coach does in a game anyway? Every single call in football goes thru the head coach’s headset.  If he doesn’t like any call during a game he has the right to change it and it doesn’t make any difference if you’re on offense, defense, or in the kicking game. Mike Holmgren called the plays  when he coached the Seahawks and Pete Carroll called the defenses when he was at USC.  Dennis Erickson has called plays at every school he’s ever coached at , and that’s a lot. Steve Sarkisian calls plays because he likes the strategy and chess match that is involved.  He also keeps the blame on himself because everyone questions the offensive play caller.

    People will always have an opinion about offense but no one ever questions defensive calls.  They’ll be quick to blame the coaches for missed tackles and wide open receivers but few fans even know what defenses are called, what secondary coverage is called, what kind of blitz or pressure is used, or even what personnel groupings are being employed. But, on offense they are all experts because every one knows if a play works or doesn’t because it’s easy to just follow the ball.

      Whenever Jake Locker Locker hooks up with Jermaine Kearse someone has made that call but you never hear people credit the play caller.  That’s just the nature of the game and Steve Sarkisian fully understands that.  He also understands his offense better than anyone else because he has that ultimate authority over it.

   That’s what anyone with a military background understands.  There is a chain of command and you might not agree with the general or admiral but you never question their authority. It’s exactly the same in sports, it’s just that major college football is a big time entertainment industry and it’s the right of fans to criticize. Especially if you’re a paying season ticket holder or booster. If you have purchased a ticket then you have your right to complain and be an expert. Everyone has a right to their opinion including believing that they could do things better. It doesn’t matter if they are a baker, construction worker, or lawyer, by being a fan they exercise their right to to complain about defeats.  Nobody likes to lose but as soon as you do then the critics become even louder.

     Sports teams are always subject to scrutiny and second guessing. It just comes with the territory. Steve Sarkisian knows more about his team, his offense, and his players than anyone.  I’m proud we have a coach who calls his own plays and always felt Jim Lambright should have kept calling defenses himself when he became the head coach years ago.  He was a master at calling defenses and when he decided to pass that responsibility on I thought it was a mistake because he went away from his own strength. Of course understanding my place I never questioned the chain of command. I think if you ask him today he would admit that I am probably right.

     What is important to understand is that all the planning and coordinating of one side of the ball is done well before the game. Choosing the right play on either side of the ball is hard and you really only have about 10-15 seconds to make a decision.  Remember that the next time you think you could call a better play.  The only difference is you won’t be critqued in the media on the air or in public.

   Football is a very complex game yet still it is very basic. The head coach who calls plays is really into the game more than one who doesn’t. The coaches I don’t understand are the ones who are never on the headset in the first place.  They are telling you they are not involved in any decision making during the game and therefore not responsibile for any call. That’s a copout. Steve Sarkisian will not instantly become a better coach once he stops calling offenses. He will become a better coach when he gets better players.  I don’t hear anyone saying he should keep his nose out of recruiting and believe me he is the best recruiting head coach we have ever had at Washington. 

    Playing against USC is big. Beating them is even bigger. Steve Sarkisian knows this and if he wants to make any call at all in this coming game then it is his right to do so. End of discussion.

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  I went down to the field in Martin Stadium last Saturday in Pullman to compare the USC Trojans with the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  That’s right, the Cornhuskers, because I already knew the Trojans looked better than the Cougars because that was obvious in warm-ups.  The Cornhuskers look the way elite teams are suppose to look and they showed that last Saturday when they ran right thru the Huskies.

  After giving the men of Troy my private “eye test” it was obvous to me that the Cornhuskers were the better looking team. They were bigger and they looked more fit than USC. The Trojans have better backs than Nebraska does and their receivers aren’t as big but Robert Johnson, the Trojan’s 6 ft, 185 lb. senior is probably going to play on Sundays and he is backed up by 6-2, 215 lb. Markeith Ambles and 6-4 235 lb. David Ausberry who can’t even beat out a true freshman speedster sensation named Robert Woods, who is so fast, he has already taken a kickoff back 97 yards for a touchdown. He is the smallest of the group at 6-1 and 185 or about the same size as the Huskies’ Jermaine Kearse who is the largest Husky receiver. That size was too much for the Cougars to contend with and will present a problem to the Huskies’ corners as well this coming Saturday in LA.

    So, the Trojans were good at wide receiver but so were the Cougars.  I thought it was the best unit on their team. Jared Karstetter leads a veteran group that also includes Jeffrey Solomon, Gino Simone, David Blackedge and a great looking 6-3 freshman named Marquess Wilson.  Coached by long time Cougar assistant, Mike Levenseller, it is the one position where you can see the Cougars can be competitive at the Pac-10 level.  Otherwise, the Cougs are still talent deficient at just about every position on their team. That is meaningless to the Huskies because they will have their own hands full with the Toejams and they don’t play the Cougs until December.

   The Trojans are keeping alive their philosophy of running back by committee playing no less than 4 different players starting with 235 lb Allen Bradford then spelling him with 230 lb. Marc Tyler before going to what might be their best one in freshman, Dillon Baxter and leaving their senior, C.J. Gable, on fourth string. Those big backs take turns pounding you then Baxter comes in the game and just floats to open holes.  He was considered the plum of their recruiting class and this kid out of San Diego is as good as advertised. He has wonderful vision and seems to glide along and then justs bursts. I think he is going to a be big time back before he is done at USC.

    The running backs and the USC rushing attack will have to be stopped for Washington to win but it was the fullback, Stanley Havili, who did the Cougars in.  Going into the WSU game Havili had only carried the ball 1 time for 7 yards.  That was in 3 games.  On the first play from scrimmage after the Cougars had driven right down the field to score, he answered taking a dive off zone blocking 59 yards to the house. (1 play, 1 score) Havili had only caught 5 passes coming into the game but caught 5 for 107 yards and a touchdown against the Cougs.  He ended up averaging 20 yards a carry on the day and had to be the player of the game.  The Cougs weren’t ready to stop the fullback and literally bounced off him all day. Missed tackles plagued the Cougars all afternoon but none were worse than on Havili’s first run where three Cougs literally wiffed trying to tackle him.

   The Trojan quarterback, Matt Barkley, runs hot and cold, and unfortunately for the Huskies he tends to be more hot at home.  He is averaging 65% completions on the season and has thrown 12 touchdowns.  He was really effective in the play action pass game and is good at game management. He was careless with many throws and has thrown 4 interceptions in the last 2 games. He should have been picked off a couple of more times but the Cougar secondary defenders had bad hands to go with their bad tackling.

   Those are some good offensive weapons for the Huskies to contend with and the Trojan offensive line, although as tall as Nebraska’s, were are not nearly as physical. They are very similar to the Huskies in appearance and are very athletic.  The Trojans on offense have such a nice mix to their game in that they keep you off balance with boots, screens, dumps to the backs, and an occassional shot down field. All the time pounding you with the run.

   I think the Husky defense will be much improved since the Nebraska game and will hold up better than did the Cougars simply because they have better players.  Not as many as USC has defensively but the gap is not as wide as it was for Cougar players. The Huskies will need  to get four turnovers if they expect to win this game and at the same time not turnover anything themselves. A plus 4 i n the turnover battle will even up the home field advantage.  Then it gets down to establishing the run, stopping the run on defense, and not losing the kicking game.  Of course, Jake Locker will have to be the best player on the field and he will have to play his best game of the season for Washington to be successful.  It might be time to pull the wraps off his running and let his feet become a factor. Whatever, so goes your quarterback, so goes your team. Washington will win if Locker comes up big.

   Somehow, someway Washington has got to find a way to repeat it’s big win of last season.  The Trojans are also one of the most penalized teams in the country and although they only got flagged 5 times in Pullman, they do hold and that was obvious in both their run and pass game.  That’s by my eyes, of course, but they are sloppy and will get personal fouls trying to rough you up, that hasn’t changed.

   I just don’t think the Trojans are as good defensively as they have been.  They have good enough athletes but don’t seem to be as in sync in coverage all the time. Even though they can go man to man and blitz, they regularly left some holes in  their coverage. If Washington’s defense can hold the score down and give their offense the ball then I think the Dawgs can move the ball against this defense.  They may have to throw to set up the run but I think the Huskies could do well with draws and options after they back them off with the pass.

    The Trojans have good linebackers but not great ones like they had a couple of years ago.  They were giving up 291 yds. per game passing going into the WSU game and the Cougs gained 256 yds. with 2 TD’s, including a reverse one pass for a touchdown on their opening drive.

    Driving all the way to Pullman on the Huskies’ bye weekend was a questionable endeavor in the first place. Why did I want to punish myself with more losing especially after the Nebraska blowout?  Well, besides scouting the Dawg’s next opponent, I did it because my college roomate for two years at WSU was turning 65 on that Friday. Considering he lives in Costa Rica and he had decided that what he really wanted for his birthday was to fly all day to Seattle then drive all day the next day to Pullman, how could I say no?  Both of us knew full well what the outcome was liable to be. There were no expectation of winning and that reminded me of the Willingham era in  Seattle.  The Cougars were playing not to lose and despite a great start were totally outclassed.

    It ended up being the first time in 30 years that I felt any welcome there as I got to spend some quality time with Bob Robertson, Jack Thompson, and Bill Moos. Three men that I have a lot of admiration for and all three were quick to excuse me for going over to the dark side and becoming a Husky.  Thompson even took off his Cougar hat and put it on my head asking me to wear it for at least the day.  It was my honor because having been elected team captain my senior year remains one of the greatest  things of my football career. I wore the hat in defeat then gave it to my friend, Al, who was overwhelmed with hat of the “Throwin Samoan”. (One of the all time great nicknames in football.)

     I had just worked so long in Seattle for Coach James and Coach Lambright (15 years)that I now considered myself a Husky and besides when I became a “Husky Honk” on the radio, it put me into the “most hated” catagory of the Cougar nation. I think it’s the Benedict Arnold syndrome.  Moos told me  fully understood because he too had been a turncoat Duck before returning as the Cougar AD this last year. Bob Robertson called my games when I played there over 40 years ago and he too had switched back and forth doing radio for both the Cougars then the Huskies and then back to the Cougars. I had coached against Jack when he was in high school and we have always been friends. I told him I would be a Coug-for-a-day but it was really hard to root for them because after their first drive there was not much to root for. They’re just not a very good football team in so many ways that it was hard to tell just how good the Trojans were or how bad the Cougars were. I think it was a bit of both.

    What many people don’t realize is that the Cougars were recently penalized something like 9 scholarships a while ago because of academic problems having to do with graduation.  They couldn’t afford to lose 1 scholarship and besides experiencing a coaching change they have been saddled with these penalties. It looks like Coach Wulff has brought in some good looking freshmen but like Washington is already having to play them.  I watched the young man from North Mason, John Fullington, who despite only being 18years old was playing right offensive tackle against the USC Trojans three months after he had graduated from high school. Because I knew he was from Belfair, I watched closely for a series and he was good for a couple of plays and then on a third and long literally got run over with a bull rush where the Trojan defender went right thru him for a sack. He is going to be a really good player down the road but it’s almost unfair to put such an inexperience kid out there against such a veteran team. The point is they don’t have a choice.  He might only be a freshman but he’s the best they’ve got.  I’m afraid Coach Wulff could be staring at another winless season in the Pac-10 with the talent he has. It is not my place to ever speculate about a coach’s future because I’ve been there and I’ve been fired.  Bill Moos knows football and fully understands their problems but he has to take a look at the big financial picture.  They only had 24,000 fans in attendance and most left as soon as the Cougars fell behind. This was the USC Trojans for cripes sake and nobody even wanted to go to the game. It was sad but right now they are not a Pac-10 level team and are trying to win with a lot of young kids and they are paying the price.  Are they better? I think yes, can they compete and win in this league, I don’t think so unless they could bring in about 30 more kids immediately, which they can’t.  All they can do is keep working on their blocking and tackling and keep recruiting hard.  Those are the basic ingredients to becoming a good football team. I know their coaches are working hard and recruiting hard but they can’t fully develop their team because they never go to bowls so they never get the extra 15 practices to become better. It’s a vicious cycle that they and the Huskies have caught themselves in. Unfortunately, there is a short leash for losing and the first people who are blamed are always the coaches.  In the game I saw Saturday the coaches with the best players won. That was obvious.

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   There is only one sure non loser this weekend in the Pac-10 and that is the Washington Huskies who host BYE.  Three teams are still involved in out of league contests as Oregon State visits Boise State, Stanford visits ND, and UCLA travels to Texas. Yikes!

   I give Stanford the best chance of the three and would be surprized to see either the Beavers or Bruins come home victorious.  Of course, I thought the Huskies had a chance against Nebraska, which they did for a half. Then again, you’ll never hear me saying the Huskies are going to lose, because I can’t even consider it. I refuse to think negatively going into any game and believe if you’re into coaching as a profession then that is the only way you can think. Of course, I’m not into coaching anymore, but after 42 years in the game, my mind still works with positive expectations for winning.

   UCLA looks to be in over it’s head vs. the Longhorns and Oregon State is likewise in tough against a Boise team that has a lot to prove. I’d love to see the Beavs win one for the league but then again what does that prove? They certainly have the speed to compete with the Broncos but I’ve always liked Kellen Moore, the BSU quarterback from Prosser, and think they really have the edge at that position.  I think the only Pac-10 team that will win on the road out of conference will be Stanford against Notre Dame.

    That game has my interest because of my long time friendship with Randy Hart who just this off-season switched from Notre Dame to Stanford and now coaches the Cardinal’s defensive line.  Randy is one of the great grinders in college football and has already made an impact with the Stanford front line. He is the perfect fit for Coach Harbaugh’s hard nosed approach to football.  I like Stanford to beat the Irish in Southbend.

   Six conference teams square off against other Pac-10 teams with California visiting Arizona, Oregon visiting ASU, and the Trojans visiting the Cougars. Right now you’d have to think that the Ducks along with Arizona and Stanford are the class of the conference simply because USC is ineligible for the next three years.

    California is probably the biggest question mark of any of the conference teams because they run so hot and cold.  One week they are blowing someone out and the next week they are getting blown out themselves. Arizona is always good on defense and has one of the top quarterbacks in the conference this year so I like their chances of beating the Bears.

     Oregon goes into the the desert to face Dennis Erickson’s team and that game should show if the Ducks are as good as their first three games would indicate.  They have thrown up some ungodly stats in those games averaging 63 points per game, 611 yards, 380 yards rushing, and holding their opponents to 4.3 points per game. Are you kidding me? Those kinds of stats would indicate they are playing weak teams but Tennessee is no creampuff. It’s obvious Chip Kelly, the Ducks coach, has no qualms about smashing anyone no matter who they are. Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary to run up the score on anyone just to pad your stats.  That’s precisely what Oregon has been doing and now the conference stats are so miscued that they will be meaningless for staistical comparisons. (They should separate non-conference stats from conference ones)

   When I was coaching with Don James he would never let us score over the 50′s.  He would shut it down and clear the bench as soon as we hit the speed limit of 55.  He cared too much about the guys standing on the other sideline and felt it was more professional to back off the excellerator rather than pour it on.( Like Nebraska did against Washington last weekend.) They played lots of kids and once they had the game in hand they put away their playbook.

    Because the Trojans of USC are the Huskies next opponent, I’m leaving tommorrow for Pullman to see them play the Cougars. I think USC easily wins the game but remember they only beat the Cougs 27-6 last year after waxing them 69-0 in  2008. (inexcusable score).  The historical matchup between these two schools is so lopsided it’s almost unreal. Since 1921, the Trojans are 57-8-4 for a .855 winning percentage against the Cougs. The Cougars may have added another victory from the Reggie Bush scandal but really, 57 and 8.

    I know I contributed to the 57 because my senior season at WSU we opened our season in LA and got beat 49-0.  I was a the defensive captain that day and believe me I saw a lot of empty faces in the huddle. I still have the distinction of being the first person to tackle O.J. Simpson in college football when I tackled him for no gain on the first play of the game. Their team was loaded with NFL draft choises that year so after 43 years, things really haven’t changed. They still have better talent than the Cougars and always will have.  That is a reality that will never change.

    That said, the Cougars can still measure themsleves and an upset would fill the field with their fans after the game, but don’t count on it. I’m interested in seeing any improvement on the Cougars side and if they could somehow stay in the game it would be really positive for their kids.  It will be hard to see them slow down the Trojan’s stable of running backs that features 235 lb. Allen Bradford, 230 lb. Marc Tyler, and a speedy freshman sensation in Dylan Baxter. They also have an NFL level receiver in Ronald Johnson and another great freshman wideout in Robert Woods who is said to be the fastest kid on their team. Woods has also been terrific returning kicks and took a kickoff back for a TD against Minnesota. Combine that kind of skill with their quarterback, Matt Barkley, and you probably have too much for the Cougar defense to handle.

    On the other side of the ball however, the Trojans have not been that stout, giving up 36 points to Hawaii, only beating Virginia 17-14, and having to come back from behind to beat Minnesota 32-21, a team that had been clobbered the week before.

   USC, at 3-0 and WSU, at 1-2 both would like to start off conference play with a win and it would be nothing short of the biggest upset in college football if it were to be the Cougars. It probably won’t happen, but the Cougar players at least need to dream it otherwise they’ll never have a chance, which they probably don’t anyway.

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   So, Colorado bought their freedom from the Big-12/Big-8/SouthWest Conference/Texas is theKingpin League, or what ever it will be called now that Colorado followed Nebraska who jumped to the Big-10, that was really 11, and next fall will be Something Big, that is now 12, or maybe even just “The Big”  Conference. The Pac-10 thus becomes the Pac-12 that geographically dominates the whole of the United States from the Rockies to the Pacific. Both Colorado and Utah, being academic research institutions fit better than either BYU or Boise State did,whose academic rankings are not nearly as high.

  With the Colorado’s ransom paid, an immediate meeting has been set for next month by all 12 Pac AD’s to decide the logistics and also decide on how to share the loot.  The LA schools aren’t particularily fond of profit sharing because they have the biggest draws in the biggest media market.  This is the same problem that drove Nebraska out of the Big-12, Texas has the population so therefore it always kept it’s own share of media money based on attendance and the number of TV’s. The Pac-10 is currently like the Big-10 in that they have profit sharing which really helps the small town schools to survive.

    Well, I guess it’s good for the Pac-10 and creates a two division football league that in turn creates a league championship game and that in turn goes into to the big pot of TV money which in turn is now divided twelve ways rather than ten.

   Denver and Salt Lake City, two of the biggest media markets in Rocky Mountain states, are easy to get into and out of and that is important for all the other sports as well. It’s a win win for whole the conference and could even be called “The Big Western” Conference. That sounds big. I think it’s the Pac-12 for a while anyway.

    So let’s get right to the football part and I threw out last year the natural north/south divisions with the 2 Wash. schools, the 2 Oregon schools, and the 2 Bay area schools in the north and throw Colorado and Utah in with the 2 LA schools and the 2 Arizona schools. Obviously, you could leave all four California schools with the 2 Arizona schools and move the 2 new guys, Colorado and Utah, into a Northwest division.

    Now I have also heard suggestions of splitting up all the natural rivals and dividing the conference that way.  You could have 2-year cycles mixing everyone but really, each team is still going to play 9 conference games anyway but only 5 will be in your division. You could weigh division games higher and everyone would still be guaranteed they would  be playing their state rivalry game.

   I say have a blind draw.  Put all 12 schools in a hamper and pull two sets of 6 and go with it.  Kind of like the NBA draft.  The Cougars and Huskies would still be playing eachother but may or may not be in the same division. I believe that these divisions are only going to impact the sport of football because basketball naturally play every other school twice.

    Speaking of conference play, the Huskies will complete their morning workouts Thursday and take the weekend off before they begin working their game plan for USC on Monday. This game is the most important game of the season.  Number one because it is the next game and no game is bigger than your next one. At 1-2 on the season the Huskies can ill afford to go down 1-3 and not realize that it will become that much harder to earn bowl eligiblity. They need to go at least 6-6 and that will give them another game and the 15 extra practices that go with it.  Those extra opportunities to develop your system are just as critical as your 15 days in the spring. Remember that Washington hasn’t gone to a bowl for 7 years.  That means they have missed 105 practice chances to get better.  Think about what that has done to the Oregon schools in their competition with the Huskies and the Cougars for that matter. Both are better programs right now recordwise than either of the Washington schools simply because they schedule better and have had those extra 100 plus days to further develop their systems.

    To put that in perspective the NCAA allows you 29 practices of fall camp before you play your first game and then starting in Sept. thru Dec. you only get 5 practices plus a game per week or 20 practices per month or 80 per season. That means  the Ducks and Beavers and every other team that has gone to a bowl every year have played an extra year of practices and that’s a lot more football than either of the Washington schools have played.

  I’ve always felt league games should be more important than in those in your non-confernce schedule.  To gain bowl eligibility you want to schedule an A, a B, and a C team.  This means scheduling one real good team (like Nebraska was), one mid-level BCS team, and one team you should beat such as a lower division team like Portland State, Eastern Washington, or Montana. That way you are at least 2-1 going into your 9 conference games meaning you only need to win four and you’re still eligible. This program will only turn the corner once they go to 2-3 bowls in a row. That’s how you develop a college football team and that can only be done through intense recruiting.

   I’m heading to Pullman Friday for the WSU/USC game and will give you my scouting report on the Trojans after this weekend. Old School. May have a good time.

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   There was an obvious edge to practice today as the Huskies began to regroup, reevaluate, and reconcentrate on those two things that they know the program depends on.  One is to go back to the little technique things called fundamentals and the other is to head back out on the road recruiting. The first is intended to have immediate results and the latter intended to continue to add pieces for the future.

      Fundamental breakdowns were as much the cause for losing to Nebraska as was  the obvious difference in the level of mature talent.  Nebraska had bigger and faster and what appeared to be older kids.  Washington’s tight ends looked like Nebraska’s wide receivers. Their secondary looked really fast to the ball and Washington’s didn’t, or couldn’t tackle once they got there.

   This group of Husky coaches know what they’re doing and they are demanding it’s done properly.  There was a lot of yelling which I consider “emphasizing” and some of the youngsters did’nt exactly understand the importance of going hard all the time. Hustle is damn important in football and there is no excuse for allowing it if you are an observing coach.  The coaches had an obvious intend of stepping up the tempo of practice and of the team.

    Washington, like all teams, has it’s share of nicks and bruises that have obviously effected their depth.  They’ve already lost two really good players in punter, Will Mahan and running back, Deontae Cooper.  Both suffered ACL damage that required surgery. Back up running back, Johri Forgerson, has been hobbled with a hamstring or quad injury, and middle linebacker, Cort Dennison, who has been out with a concussion and outside linebacker, Victor Aiyewa, were both rehabbing and conditioning through out practice. That gave the youngsters all the reps at linebacker and it was obvious to me that the coaches were looking at different kids in different positions trying to answer some of their personnel problems.

   Up front defensively is where the Huskies are still unsettled.  They have been unable to get a pass rush without using 5 or 6 guys,  so I wouldn’t be surprized to see them  move Cameron Elisara back outside where he played in the spring.  I thought the Huskies had a difficult time of setting the edge on their defenses and that is basically because none of their defensive ends are really fast. Elisara is quicker but not the biggest inside player.  They were also taking a long look at Josh Shirley and Andrew Hudson, two true freshmen defenisve ends who have yet to play. If either plays from now on then they will burn their year of eligibility even if it is only a few plays.  Both are faster than the others but still young freshmen.

   Another true freshman, Erik Kohler, was getting all the reps at left tackle on offense while starter Senio Kelemete also sat out with an injury.  I could see him ending up there either now or in the future with Kelemete moving back inside where he is bettered sized and experienced. Offensive line coach, Dan Cozzetto, was on his charges throughout practice and his intensity was infectious. He has a whole class of 5 kids who are red-shirting and developing in the wings but he was driving his starters and I though they were working really hard. That’s all you can ask.

   I’ll leave Jake out of my comments simply because he knows more about what he’s doing or not doing than I do. He will play better and that’s obvious because he couldn’t play worse. All players at every position have off games, it’s just that at quarterback it’s so magnified because they have the ball all the time. Believe me there were Huskies out there Saturday who played a lot worse at their position than Jake Locker did at his.

    I talked with Kiel Rasp, who is one of the real feel good stories surrounding this team.  Here is a guy who wasn’t even included on the fall roster but got invited to come back when another walk-on punter showed up injured.  When Rasp was called he actually hesitated about rejoining the team because he had already started to move on in his life without football. He came back and as fate would have it he is now the starting punter and was the best player on his team at his position against Nebraska.

     When you play a really good program like Nebraska they can really expose you in terms of personnel comparisons.  Nebraska and Washington were close with 5 minutes to go in the first half. It was a one score game and the Huskies had pretty much taken the Nebraska quarterback, Taylor Martinez, out of the game. (He finished the first half with 25 yards on 11 carries for a 2.3 yard average.) That’s when the Cornhuskers started running straight downhill and that set the tempo for the rest of the game. The Huskies got stuck on blocks and it was almost like Nebraska was running dives. They took control of the line of scrimmage and with it took hold of the game.

   The problems are easy to identify and point out to the kids by watching the tapes. The answer to the difference in talent is always in recruiting and that might be the strength of Sarkisian’s staff.  The assistants will be heading out into their recruiting areas on Thursday and be watching games and visiting schools on Friday and Saturday before returning for practice on Monday.

   The players will be given the weekend off but I’d be surprized if they didn’t continue training, lifting and watching tape on USC. I would guess that most of the team will tune in and watch the USC/WSU game and learn as much as they can about their conference opener. 

   I’ve watched two of USC’s games and they have obvious talent and will be heavily favored over Washington.  I do think Washington can play with them and if they do it right by protecting the football and not hurting themselves then they have an honest shot at pulling an upset.  They merely need hang around and give themselves a chance to steal it at the end.  Just like they did last year. You gotta believe.

   Dennison is by far the most important because the Huskies were forced to play a true freshman right in the middle of the defense. Dennison, who I think is a lot like James Clifford who played for the Huskies back in the 90′s, is their brains in the middle and regularly sets the defense, makes all the calls, and has a great knack of getting to the ball.  The coaches never mentioned it but that was a major missing ingredient last Saturday.  We played David Rill, out of Port Orchard, back with the Orange Bowl team when he was a true freshman but that was at the end of the season and not against a team like Nebraska in his third game.

    Garrett Gilliland, an 18 year old only three months out of high school, was the starting middle linebacker for the Huskies against the Cornhuskers.  Yikes! That was a pretty heavy assignment for one of the last kids they took in their 2010 recruiting class. Mike Cox, the Huskies’ linebacker coach told me, “He wasn’t intimidated at all, didn’t phase him a bit because, like Cort, he’s a thinker”.

   I watched him quite a bit during the game myself and saw he made a number of nice plays but in his defense the defensive line was getting pushed into his face.

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   We should’ve known it wouldn’t last.  What were the chances of the Huskies, the Seahawks, and the Cougars all winning on the same weekend like they did only a week ago? Pretty rare I’d guess because the very next weekend all three got clobbered.  Well at least the Huskies and Seahawks did but the Cougs still completed the triclobber by also losing to SMU making this past weekend a royal flush of our three football teams.

    Although I didn’t get to watch the Cougs, evidently they played a solid game gaining 350 yards on offense and not turning the ball over against SMU.  Although they only gained 66 yards rushing, they were very much in the game behind the passing of Jeff Tuel and won the time of possession. The Cougar defense registered 4 sacks but unfortunately so did their offense.  The saddest stat was the 18,184 fans who took time to go to this game.  At the college level that is a pathetic total considering that there were high schools nearby in Texas who drew more.

   That certainly wasn’t the case in Husky Stadium where a full house of 72,876 showed up on a perfect fall day for football.  Unfortunately, many of those fans were wearing red rather than purple and the red team so thoroughly dismantled the home team that by the end of the game they were the majority in the half empty stadium.

    The Big Red dominated a rebuilding Husky team with their standard smash mouth football. Although the Huskies fought hard and actually had closed the game to 21-14 with 5 minutes left in the first half, the Cornhuskers then proceeded to cram it right down the Huskies’ throat and push the score back to 28-14 by half.  In the third quarter Nebraska scored 3 more touchdowns and it was basically game over.

   As disapointing as the thrashing was  it was easy to see that Nebraska is a big powerful and fast football team.  Their secondary was super and continually closed to the ball knocking away most of Jake Locker passes besides intercepting him twice.  It should’ve been three picks but they committed a penalty on the third thereby negating it.

    Nebraska probably did Washington a favor by ending all the Heismen Trophy speculation that was swirling around Jake Locker.  Now maybe he can just settle down and play like he is capable, something that we really didn’t see against either BYU or Nebraska. Jake’s stats of 4 for 20 passing with two interceptions pretty much ended the premature Heismen campaign launched on his behalf. He will play better and when he does the Huskies will win.

   The most obvious difference between the Huskies and Cornhuskers was noticed as soon as both teams came out of the tunnel. I had scored two sideline passes for my wife and I and we had a close up experience.  I can honestly say the Nebraska’s kids not only looked bigger, faster, and stronger, they were. Once the game started the atmosphere was almost electric on the sidelines but little did I know that the jet fly over was to be my highlite of the afternoon.

    The Husky defense worked hard to keep the Cornhusker quarterback in check and at half he had carried the ball 11 times for only 25 yards. The defense, however, missed too many tackles for the Huskies to stay in the game.  After watching the game on tape I noticed that on almost every scoring or big play by Nebraska there had been a missed tackle.  That can be worked on in practice and must if the Dawgs are to beat USC in their conference opener.

   Much of the defensive struggle though can be traced back to the Husky defensive front that was consistantly knocked off the ball.  That too must change before they play the Trojans. It was also obvious that the Huskies really missed Cort Dennison at middle linebacker.  Cort had suffered a concussion in practice and was held out of the game. They had to play a true freshman in Garrett Gilliland who was simply not ready to play in a game of this magnitude. He will be fine but to start your first game against a team of this calibar, he was struggling at best. The Huskies gave up 383 yards rushing and you don’t win many games doing that.

    Going into the game one of the biggest concerns for the Huskies was their punter, Kiel Rasp, who was not even on the camp roster when practices started in August. He had struggled in his first game against Syracuse but he was the player of the game against Nebraska.  Rasp was asked to punt 9 times and averaged 48.7, including one of 59 yards and 2 being downed inside the 20. He had some towering kicks that gave his coverage team plenty of time to get down field.

   Unfortunately, their kickoff coverage was not as good as their punt and the Huskies gave up returns of 36 and 39 yards resulting in giving Nebraska great field position and short drives.  That to can be corrected and addressed in practice.

   Offensively, the Huskies were held to only 13 first downs and even though they ran for 175 yards they only had one pass completion of any significance and that was a touchdown throw from Locker to Jermaine Kearse that traveled 45 yards.  Considering that Jake only threw for 71 yards total, it was the one good play on the day and cut the Nebraska lead to only 2 scores. The Huskies were still in it but not for long. It was to be their only score of the second half.

    Losing 56-21 is embarassing and humbling at the same time. They need to regroup and not let this loss smother their belief and optimism.  Washington can still win some games and they need to put this debacle behind them and move on.  Certainly beating USC again will do a lot to rekindle their chances of having a winning season.

   Certainly, the disappointing performance by Jake Locker was the hardest thing to accept on the day.  Maybe there is too much being placed on this kid to expect him to perform like the best in America, but considering all the NFL projections, we all forget he is still learning a new system and still becoming comfortable as a drop back passer. Maybe if they got him out of the pocket more and let him use a run-pass option it would better suit his strengths.  Whatever, if Washington is to have a winning season then Jake Locker has to immediately become a better and more efficient passer.

   Having spent 30 years in coaching I know that these sorts of games come along and when they do you simply have to go back to the fundamentals that hurt you and readjust your schemes to your personnel.  My last year of coaching at Washington we too got crushed by Nebraska 55-7 and came home to lose in the last second to Arizona.  We played hard in the wake of a  blowout but still lost. Although we then won 3 in a row and got into a bowl we still lost to Arizona as a hangover from Nebraska. Fortunately, these Huskies have a bye this coming weekend and have two weeks to get ready for the Trojans. Hopefully they can put together and execute a game plan that will give them a chance to win.

   Of course they will have to get a different performance out of Jake Locker but he’s done it before against USC and who knows what will happen with two weeks to prepare. He will have to improve considerably for this team to have any chance at a winning season.

    If my football weekend wasn’t already ruined the Seahawks made sure of it with their loss in Denver where they literally gave a game away by a similar poor performance at the quarterback position. Of course fumbling a punt didn’t help but spotting a pro team two touchdowns on the road is almost an impossible thing to overcome. The Seahawks dug themselves a hole they simply couldn’t climb out of.

    Although they battled back their early mistakes proved costly and too much to overcome. So, all three football programs go down in defeat on the same weekend. It’s tough to figure out if any of them are going to rebound.  WSU hosts USC and for the bye weekend I’ve decided to make the trek to the Palouse and root for the Cougs. It will give me a scouting report for the Huskies but also a trip back to my college days.

   Although I’m usually not well received in Pullman, mostly because I’m a Husky Honk and therefore the greatest turncoat ever in Cougar history, I’m still proud to have been the captain of my Cougar team back in 1967 and go back with fond memories of my years there. Maybe they can give the Trojans a scare and make it a good game but after the way the Seahawks played I’m afraid the only sure bet this coming weekend is Washington vs. Bye.

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   There have been a lot of people seeing red in Seattle this week and it’s not from embarassment.  It’s the Nebraskan invasion and they go everywhere their football team does. This trip to the northwest has been on all of their schedules for years and hopefully the rain quits long enough for they to see our beautiful area of the country.

    They like their Cornhuskers and they follow them anywhere and this week there is an estimate of 15-20,000 of them in Seattle. For a football game! They traveled all the way from the midlands with many driving just to root for their team.  Many of them were here back in 1997 and some were even here in 1992. Their whole fall calandar is build around cheering for the Big Red and they love their football.

    Football is king in Nebraska.  There is no other sport and no other team that captures the attention of people there. They only see red and they spare no expense in building their football team.  The Huskies have one indoor practice facility.  The Cornhuskers have 4.  They have the best training table in college sports.  They have the 3 of the best weight rooms,  every kid gets a computer, and all their programs are funded by football. Their football teams in the 80′s and 90′s often had as many as 175-200 kids in uniform.  They were an army and they had county scholarships to take care of all the kids who didn’t get an NCAA full ride. They spare no expense when it comes to football.  Private jets, you got it.  Matching sports jackets, you got it. Travel luggage and warm-ups, included.

    Their team is always good but this year it is hard to get a read on them simply because they played Western Kentucky and Idaho, beating both handily and showing little of their package in doing so. They showed all their base things on offense and defense and the Huskies know they will be seeing a version of Oregon’s spread read-zone option as well as a full compliment of good old smash mouth 2 back football.

    Defensively they are called “The Black Shirts” but they didn’t do a lot of blitzing in their first two games.  That doesn’t mean they won’t come after Jake Locker but I see them doing more secondary disquising to try to fool Jake rather than trying to sack him. They don’t give up a lot of points so every score will be important. If Washington can score 4 touchdowns and end up in the 30′s points wise then I think they have a shot at an upset.

   Avoiding big runs will be huge for the Huskies.  Keep tackling and getting them on the ground and play for the fumbles.  Make their speedy quarterback, Taylor Martinez, beat you with his arm not his feet. Oh, and break even in the kicking game. At least eliminate any kicking game mistakes along with fumbles and interceptions and give yourself a chance by simply not giving the game away.  Make em earn it.

    The Huskies will be hard pressed to get this win but at least now they think they can.  It hasn’t been like that here in about 8 years or so. The Huskies have been playing not to lose for so long that they forgot about playing to win.  They could be outmanned but they won’t be outwilled and Husky Stadium is a special place for them.  I think the crowd wins the game game for the home team.  Wouldn’t that be cool? Beating Nebraska and then using the momentum from that game and take two weeks and go to LA and beat USC. That would be really cool.

    The rest of the Pac-10 is also playing out of league so Stanford stays in first place based upon their win last week over UCLA.  They play Wake Forrest and should win again.  Cal should best Nevada, USC should hammer Minnesota, Oregon State should beat Louisville, but I like Iowa over Arizona (I just don’t like Arizona) and I’m afraid SMU might beat WSU.  I watched the Cougs against Montana State and the Grizzlies really had them beat but let it get away right at the end.  Montana State should have won that game but I was happy they didn’t. I want the Cougs to beat SMU but I don’t feel good about it. The Cougs are probably still a couple of solid recruiting classes away from becoming competitive in this conference again.  Either that or another Jason Gesser or Drew Bledsoe.

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    Went to practice again yesterday with a purpose of looking for any signs that might show me this team is ready to take a step onto the big stage and upset a nationally ranked team.  Practice was sharp and the kids were engaged early but as always happens they began to fade as the session wore on. What was noticable is they were having a good time at playing football. They bantered back and forth and there were smiles and even laughter. They were serious but they were having fun.

    Don’t even begin to kid yourself,  Nebraska will come out of the Husky tunnel and they will look different than BYU or Syracuse did. They will look like Oklahoma did when it played here a few years ago, or Ohio State, or USC, or LSU.  Big time teams have a big time look to them.  They carry themselves differently and are different in size, speed, and overall physical impression. You will see the difference in size.

   Nebraska enters Husky Stadium as a decided favorite on the road.  That tells you the gamblers think Nebraska has too much for Washington to handle.  They might be right and I also think that from the personnel perspective Washington is still probably one more good recruiting class from returning to it’s contending days. However, none of that matters if Washington somehow finds more points than the Cornhuskers do.

    Very simple task at hand.  End up with at least one more point than they do.  Start by not giving them anything cheap.  Be solid and protect the football.  No fumbles and no interceptions, no blocks or returns in the kicking game, and no stupid penalties will go a long way towards winning the game.  Then plan on them fumbling because that is probably the biggest downside of option football.  You’re handling the ball extra times which increases the fumbles opportunities. 

    Nebraska comes in with a red-shirt frershman quarterback, Taylor Martinez, who has already fumbled at least a half dozen times in two games and lost 3 fumbles and threw one interception in their last game against Idaho. If he does that again then Washington has a great chance of winning right there.

    In fact, Idaho really gave Nebraska the game by throwing 5 interceptions and giving up 7 sacks.  The game was really close until midway thru the 2nd quarter when Nebraska broke 2 long runs for scores and then returned 2 interceptions for touchdowns.  They then shut it down and cruised to a 38-17 win, which if you throw out the two picks for six, makes it a 24-17 game. Against Idaho.

   Next to turnovers the best way to stop Nebraska’s option offense is to keep their offense on the sidelines.  That means the Huskies maintaining ball possession and moving the chains. That means Jake Locker has to play a game like he did at this time last year against USC.  It was the third game of the year last year that Washington shocked the Trojans behind a great performance by their quarterback.

   Jake will probably need to pass for 300 yards and 2 touchdowns for Washington to win this game.  He’ll need to run better than he has in the first two games.  He will need to be the best player on the field and have a big game for Washington.  This is the big time and he is a big time player.  If you’re going to beat a team like Nebraska you have to have great play at the quarterback position.

   They will come after Jake and he will get pressure.  Their problem will be that if they miss he could be out the gate and gone.  They will want to stay in their rush lanes and stalk him otherwise this could be his most explosive running game of the year. Whatever, when you play big games then your big time players need to step up and that means Jake Locker, Jermaine Kearse, and Chris Polk all have to have big games.  The stars must shine so to speak but it will require something big from the rest of their supporting cast so look for something big out of Devin Aguilar, Cody Bruns, Kevin Smith, or Jesse Callier. Any of these skill players could come up big.

   Next is to anticipate and be prepared to cover all three phases of the option on every play.  Even if it’s a passing situation the Huskies need to look for the option.  That means getting off a block and then covering your part of the option. Obviously, if Washington can take the Nebraska quarterback out of the running game they will really help themselves. This may require them to play more man to man coverage in the secondary and so their corners will need to have solid games as well.  Look for the Huskies to maybe play 3 and even 4 corners all at the same time for that purpose.

   Regardless, for Washington to win the game they don’t have to stop the, they merely have to slow it down.  Make Nebraska work hard for their yards by making them play the long field. Keep changing up how you will attack the quarterback but always have him accounted for.

    Because field position will be so critical that means Washington’s special teams are going to be challenged.  The punter, Kiel Rasp, should be better than he was in their last game.  I visited with him briefly and he smiled about getting the Syracuse game behind him.  He has now been under fire and is working hard to get his punts off quickly and consistently.  If he can average a net 38-40 yards on each punt and have no blocks, shanks, or returns then that is a great day and he will be one of the heroes at the end of the game. What a great story that would be.

   Punting isn’t the only aspect of kicking that Washington needs to be solid in.  Kick protection for field goals and punts along with coverage for both punts and kickoffs are all potential area where Washington could gain an edge.  If they could return a kick for a touchdown or block one and score it would also be huge. They don’t have to win the kicking game though, they just can’t lose it.

   So those are all football ways to help themselves win but the best thing this Husky team has going is that they are thinking right.  They expect to win this game. They know they will have to play their collective best to do so.  They think they can and are no longer “hoping” to win but “expecting” to win. They want to play the score and just hang around to the fourth quarter and give themselves a chance to win it.

   How the Huskies handle adversity will also go a long way towards victory.  When something happens bad, like a long run or pass for a touchdown, they must respond. They must “answer” to adversity.  Don’t let two bad things in a row happen and play momentum themselves.  If something good happens, follow it up immediately and get the crowd rocking. A loud Husky Stadium could certainly be the equilizer.  If Nebraska can’t hear themselves they could jump offsides or be unable to audibilize at the line and that creates confusion on their part. Washington will need to ride big”Mo” when she appears and conversely not let her work in favor of Big Red.

    On paper Nebraska should win.  In Vegas, Nebraska should win.  Athlete wise Nebraska should win.  Washington is the one good opponent they are playing out of conference and then they should dominate their division of their conference because outside of Missouri they have Kansas State, Colorado, Iowa State, and Kansas in their division.  Those are not very good teams and Nebraska is almost a shoe-in to their league championship game.  Until they meet the Huskies that is. Washington could put a major chink in the Big Red armour if they were to lose in Seattle.

   This is it.  This is the big time. Now is when you step up and play with the bigboys. Now is the time to pull that marque upset that defines your team and sets the table for a run at the Pac-10.  This will be fun.  Bring it on.

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   When the Nebraska Cornhuskers roll into town they will be bringing back the good old option football game.  For years the Huskers pounded you with a 2 back approach that always featured a battering ram fullback and a belly option that gave every one fits.  They got away from option football and went to the wide open passing game for a while but now they’re back to making you try and figure out who has the ball.

    The belly option, dive option, counter option, wishbone option, split option, and pitch option have all been tried through out the years but now the craze is the read-zone option out of shotgun. It’s called the Wildcat, the gun option, and the read option but it puts stress on your defense mostly because you don’t see it much.

    The military acadamies have been using it because it fits their kids and their philosophy of mechanics and angles in warfare. Years ago though lots of teams ran option in college football so your kids played against it all the time in practice. Lately everyone got hung up on spreading the field and stressing coverages with 4 and 5 receiver patterns. Now it’s swinging back to a blend of the two and whaala you have the Ducks.

    Oregon’s offense was only slowed down a couple of times last year and that was by teams who had a long time to prepare for them. They lost their first and last games because Boise State had all summer to prepare and Ohio State had a whole month because it was in a bowl.  Face it, from a Husky fan’s perspective, beating Oregon has now become an obsession. If I could pick one win this year for Washington it would be going into Eugene and beating the Ducks. Nebraska gives the Huskies an extra week of working on stopping the read-zone option out of shotgun.

    Nebraska also helps us by bringing in a similar offense with just as an exciting quarterback as Jeremiah Masoli was. Taylor Martinez is not as thick as the Duck QB but he’s even faster.  He is the Cornhuskers leading rusher, averaging 142 yards a game.  I’d say the Huskies better stop the quarterback on the option and they’d better communicate either verbally or thru signals who has who for option responsibility and they need to do it every play.

   We used to teach each kid to repeat his option responsibility to himself before each snap.  Take a quick look at the formation and then do a quick visualization of the phase you’re responsible for.

   Then we would mix it up by switching the responsibilities or calling “zap” which to us told the end man on the line to attack the quarterback with your outside arm striking thru his pitch arm but whatever “zap” the quarterback with the best hit you have. We figured that if he pitched the ball then we at least knew where it was and everyone can take the correct angle and rally to it.

    Whatever, when a team does something unique either offensively or defensively, it requires you to practice against it. Unfortunately, you can never really duplicate the speed level of the opponent becasue they do it every day. You can use a fast kid at quarterback but he will never be a slick as a kid who does it every day.

   It’s the deception that gets you.  You think because the line is all blocking in the same direction that the ball is going that way, but the back, if he is given the ball in the first place, is often cutting back with the zone blocking going the other way.  It puts those who have “dive” in a bind because they are getting off a block then finding the back to tackle him and often times he doesn’t even have the ball. That’s exactly what the quarterback wants and that is for your defense to all react and attack the back then he quickly pulls the ball out and sprints to open ground himself.

    It requires you to play assignment football and you absolutely never leave your spot until you’re absolutely sure your man isn’t getting the ball. If the back is going away from you and you have “keep” then you’d better check out that quarterback everytime for the ball before you start your pursuit. It is amazing how just moving their hands together looks like they still have the ball when you’re trying to get off a block.

    So, if Washington’s defense can at least slow down Nebraska’s option and run game, which is 3rd in the nation at 324.5 yards per game, and hold them to say, 200-250 yards rushing, then they will have a much better chance of winning this game. The best way to do that is to keep their offense on the sideline by ball controlling with your own offense. Washington actually runs the read-zone option themselves but not to the degree that Nebraska or Oregon does.

   What Husky fans must recognize is that Nebraska is really a big time football program and it will be very difficult to beat them even if you are playing them at home.  They are simply huge up front on both sides of the ball and are way faster than either BYU or Syracuse were.  Their offensive tackles are in the 6-6 to 6-7 range and 32o pounders.  Their receivers are 6-1, 6-3, and 6-5 and the tight end is 6-6 and 255. The also use a hybrid TE/FB they call a Zebra and he’s even 6-4 and 235.

   I say this about their size because their backs get lost behind these big bodies and it’s tough to see who has the ball making the deception  of the option even harder to recognize.

   This game will be partially decided by how quickly the Husky defenders can recognize the option and maintain their responsibilities. They are not going to stop it but if they can make them work a whole field then sooner or later the option will reward you with a fumble.  That has always been one of the most negative aspects of option football.  There are way more chances to drop the football and Martinez did in fact fumble 4 times in the Cornhuskers win over Idaho.  He also had a pick and if the Huskies can get 5 turnovers then they will win this game.  Of course, they don’t want any turnovers themselves which would give them a plus 5 on the day and most certainly the victory.  Besides, it helps them beat Oregon in an in-direct way.

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