I also hope that you have been enjoying SeanHawk’s one-of-a-kind fishwraps. As I’ve said here before over the years, I truly believe that his previews are as good as you will find anywhere. And this year the work seems to be on an a different level—particularly with the inclusion of all of those You-tube clips. Very nice. Look for them to pick back up in the coming days.
However, in an effort to tear down the credibility that Hawk, Lucas Coug, and Longball are building for this blog, I thought it high time to bring us back to the type of idiocy from which I am most famous. The topic of my “take:” The first quarter of the 2010 season. Read on, won’t you?……
Followers, during the summer of last year, we here at this little ‘ol blog preached and preached and preached and preached the importance of a fast start. The reason: when you’re trying to build efficacy and a general change of direction in a football program, the best way to do that is to build a sense of competence and confidence from the get go. So, it followed that had last year’s team been able to win games against Hawaii and SMU last year to start 2-1, that we might have found some way to get to a 4-8 type season that would have taken the heat off everyone affiliated with the program.
But alas, it was not meant to be. And we know how the season went after that dreadful 1-2 (should have been 0-3) start.
Now, this year, we find ourselves in the same predicament. We still have an incredibly young team. And of course, we still have the huge psychological burden of being true conference “doormats”. And because of our now-established futility, not only is the pressure on the kids to build some sort of momentum early, there is also HUGE pressure on the coaching staff to show some sort of measurable progress throughout the season.
Unfortunately, when you look at the first quarter of the season—a potential cupcake game against Montana State bookended by tilts @ Clay Bennett State and SMU—starting the season 2-1 or better looks like a daunting prospect. And accordingly, it becomes real easy to look beyond the first few games to try to find a few “surprise wins” that could get this program moving in the right direction for Paul Wulff and company heading into 2011-2012.
So, in this post, I ask the following question: If all teams on our schedule were in our conference, how would the first quarter of the season stack up in terms of difficulty?
With that question in mind, I thought it appropriate to use my pea, albeit cosmic, brain to provide my pre-pre-season ranking of what we can all call “The Mythical Pac-13.” No, this has absolutely nothing to do with the hot topic du jour, ala Pac-10 expansion. But keep in mind that these rankings reflect how teams would stack up based on their readiness to play (and win) in Week One (with the @ symbol serving as a reminder of which games WSU will play on the road).
1) @Stanford
2) Oregon
3) USC
4) Washington
5) @Oregon State
6) CAL
7) @UCLA
8) Arizona
9) @Clay Bennett State
10) @SMU
11) @Arizona Sate
12) WSU
13) Montana State
As you may gather from my rankings, the Trees and the Puppies rank high in my Week One list because of their returning prowess at the quarterback and receiver position. Oregon and USC rank in the top four because of their speed and overall returning talent. And Oregon State is up there simply because they have a bunch of playmakers (and depth), even if they don’t tend to start very fast.
From there, the bottom half of my rankings are based on the numerous question marks that the rest of the teams have on both sides of the ball. Clay Bennett State may rank much higher as we move toward the season’s middle third, but the sheer volume of inexperience that they bring to the early half of the season ranks them low in what should be as deep of a Crap-10 as we have seen in a long time. And yes, I give SMU a nod over Arizona State simply because they have a much more potent offensive returning talent compared to what the Sun Devils will muster at any time of the year.
So, if you happen to believe that this list sniffs any level of credence, then you can see that the “difficult” start that we are facing may not be at that difficult—at least relative to our schedule the rest of the way. And of course, what makes things worse is that four of our six most winnable games are on the road—a place where we haven’t found success since (gulp!) 2007.
Therefore, just like last year, a fast and/or highly respectable start is needed for this group once again. And, given the heat that is on Coach Paul and the rest of the staff, it is also reasonable to see how an early season suck-fest could be particularly disastrous for the program and the considerable progress we have made over the past few years on the recruiting front.
As a result, while I happen to be smoking JUST enough to believe that we can steal the SMU game if we can stay healthy through weeks one and two, a 1-2 start really paves the way for yet another 1-11 type campaign.
And for that reason, I beseech you once again, Mr. Moos. Let’s head into that Clay Bennett game with the announcement our football program needs more than ever before:
GIVE A ROCK-SOLID GUARANTEE THAT PAUL WULFF WILL GET HIS FIFTH YEAR BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS.
Cuz after the first quarter of this year’s campaign, it sure doesn’t get any easier.
Enjoy the rest your week.
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