Happy Friday Cougs, and finally, we come to the end of the road for these horrible spring fish wraps. Yes, UW is the 12th and final opponent on the upcoming schedule for WSU, and we are finally at the finish line (you can see the prior 2011 fish wraps here, now with 11 of these things in the can).
As mentioned before in this space, UW is always a difficult one for me personally. Family and friends up and down the map are part of Husky Nation, including my lovely wife, and that’s just the way it is. This is always a tough day at this here blog, just because of the, uh, “polarizing” nature that is UW football in Coug country. I get it, I understand the angst. But we’ve come this far together, so we might as well trudge through opponent #12, finish the job and cross the line with no regrets!
So. Here. We. Go…..
So, how about that rebuilding job going on over in Montlake?? Take off the Coug hat and sunglasses, forget about the rivlaries ‘n’ such, and seriously think about it for a moment. In two years time, they have gone from this….
To this….
That’s Steve Sarkisian taking the Gatorade shower after UW humbled Nebraska 19-7 in the Holiday Bowl. That’s right, they won the HOLIDAY BOWL two years after going 0-12 under Ty Willie. Even I will admit it, it’s simply amazing the shift from that fateful November day in 2008 when WSU won in OT, to just two years later in December of 2010 with UW owning Nebraska on a neutral field.
It’s happened so fast, and it is remarkable how far and how quickly the culture has flipped at UW. But it begs the question, just how in the world did this happen this fast? As we have learned the very difficult way in the Paul Wulff era, the turnarounds just aren’t usually this quick. Often times it can take three, four, sometimes even five years before a team can rise from the dead. But to compare WSU’s situation(predicament?) to UW just isn’t fair, nor has it ever been fair for so many years before 2010. Why? Because Dawgs and Cats are just, well, different. Eastern Washington to Western Washington, small school atmosphere to big city, snow and cold to rain, it just doesn’t get much different in terms of in-state rivalries. Apples and oranges, right?
But aside from all that, it is hard to pinpoint just exactly how and why today, UW is the defending Holiday Bowl champs. Well, maybe there are a few key reasons? Consider:
1) Health. Even though Jake Locker suffered through a rib injury for the second half of the season last year, really, UW didn’t lose any of their top-shelf guys to injury last year. Locker did miss the Oregon game, but that was more than likely going to be a lost cause anyway (and seriously, holding him out at Oregon and getting him rested and ready for the final stretch of 2010 turned out to be an excellent decision). But Chris Polk, Jermaine Kearse, Senio Kelemente on offense, and guys like Mason Foster, Nate Williams, Nate Fellner, Desmond Trufant, etc, all were guys who were on the field for the vast majority of the 2010 season. And overall, per PhilSteele.com, UW had just 10 total starts lost for the year, one of the better marks in the country in terms of starters lost due to injury.
2) Bigger, Stronger, Deeper Up Front. In ’08, UW was a mess, no doubt. But aside from players just giving up on Willingham, they played a ton of youth all over the place, including the offensive and defensive lines. But last year, things started to settle in a bit more up front on both the O and the D lines. For example, Senio Kelemente started every game at left tackle as a junior, while Drew Schaefer moved around a bit between center and right tackle. Plus they had Ryan Tolar start 12 games last year, a big, experienced senior who was able to rotate between right and left guard as necessary. There were also some talented young linemen coming up in the program in Colin Porter and Erik Kohler, two frosh who made an impact right out of the gates. But defensively they also had some consistency up front as well, with Everrette Thompson and Alameda Ta’amu making every start at end and tackle respectively, while some depth started to emerge in youngsters like Hau’oli Jamora and Sione Potoa’e. Overall, there was more strength, size, depth and experience on both sides of the lines, and that’s something they haven’t had in quite a while.
3) Bark for Sark. Aside from searching for the little things, sometimes it’s the bigger picture that has all the answers. And there is no question that Steve Sarkisian has come in and completely flipped the look and “feel” of UW football. From a defeated, mess of a team two years ago to where they stand now, one can look through the little things to try and figure it out, or you can look to the top and see what the man in charge is doing.
What’s interesting is that in both of his years at UW, the Huskies looked like they were done towards the end of their seasons, only to come out swinging when everyone seemed to give up in message-board land. In ’09, they were sitting there at 3-7 and looked awful losing at Oregon State. But they fought and scratched out two wins to close the year, ending with a feel-good blowout over a ranked Cal team and suddenly feeling good at 5-7. Then last year happened, where once again it looked bleak. They were 3-6 coming off a blowout loss to the Ducks, but after a bye, they circled the wagons and won four straight. To see them turn it around at the tipping point of the season is a huge sign that the kids have simply bought in, at a time when kids who give up typically check out!
One big thing in UW’s favor is that for the third straight year, the coaching staff remains intact. No new offensive or defensive coordinators, no new position coaches to try and pick things up on the fly. It’s the same faces for the third year in a row, and with that consistency in the coaching staff breeds familiarity and, ultimately, confidence amongst the players. That kind of thing cannot be understated, in comparison to programs that are constantly bringing in new faces and forced to forge new relationships. But whatever he’s done and however he’s gone about it, Sarkisian has turned this sucker around in a heartbeat.
2010: 7-6, 5-4 in the Pac-10. A season that looked like it would be left for dead after a blowout loss to Oregon, dropping UW to 3-6, the Huskies circled the wagons and won out, including the Holiday Bowl domination of Nebraska. A complete roller coaster of a year that saw some huge losses (56-21 to Nebraska early in the year, plus losses by 30 or more points vs. Arizona, Stanford and Oregon) but strong performances vs. Syracuse, USC and Oregon State, they were a hard team to figure out!
LAST TIME vs. WSU: A wild, entertaining game that was one of the better Apple Cups in a while (at least since 2007?), UW topped the Cougs with a TD in the final minute, winning 35-28.
Chris Polk would run wild with an amazing 284 yards rushing, one of the best rushing days in school history, but many will remember this one as Jake Locker leading the team for the winning score in the final minute of the game, hitting Jermaine Kearse in the corner of the endzone from 27 yards out for the win.
2010 OFFENSIVE RATINGS:
RUSHING OFFENSE: 172.2 ypg, #5 in the Pac-10/38th in the country
PASSING OFFENSE: 190.4 ypg, #8 in the Pac-10/84th in the country
TOTAL OFFENSE: 362.5 ypg, #6 in the Pac-10/76th in the country
SCORING OFFENSE: 21.9 ppg, #8 in the Pac-10/96th in the country
2011 RETURNING STARTERS – OFFENSE: Depending on where you look, it appears up to seven starters are back on offense (four offensive linemen – Kelemente, Schaefer, Kohler and Porter, plus Devin Aguilar and Jermaine Kearse at WR’s, and finally, Chris Polk at running back).
TOP RETURNING OFFENSIVE PLAYER: While it’s tempting to pick Kearse, who had a 1,000+ yard, 12-td season in 2010 and will be a focal point of the passing game in 2011, we pretty much have to go with Chris Polk as the top guy back on offense.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEafHF0IwqU&w=425&h=349]
As the video clearly shows, Polk gets it done with quickness, decent breakaway speed, and is tough as hell to bring down. Best of all about Polk, if you watch some of his runs, you’ll notice one key thing – he ALWAYS seems to be running down hill! There isn’t a ton of dancing or hesitation, in that he hits it hard and doesn’t go down without a fight. But not only does he not go down easily, even when he is going down, he seems to get an extra yard or so with forward momentum. With Locker moving on and a new QB who will have to learn on the fly, and even with improved depth at running back with Jesse Callier and Deontae Cooper behind him, you better believe this is still Polk’s show, and he is going to get his touches in 2011.
2010 DEFENSIVE RATINGS:
RUSHING DEFENSE: 190.5 ypg, 8th in the Pac-10/97th in the country
PASSING DEFENSE: 194.4 ypg, 2nd in the Pac-10/27th in the country
TOTAL DEFENSE: 384.9 ypg, 6th in the Pac-10/70th in the country
SCORING DEFENSE: 29.3 ppg, 8th in the Pac-10/80th in the country
2011 RETURNING STARTERS – DEFENSE: UW welcomes back up to seven starters on defense, including three defensive linemen (Thompson, Ta’amu, Jamora), one linebacker (Cort Dennison) and three defensive backs (Desmond Trufant, Quinton Richardson and Nate Fellner).
TOP RETURNING DEFENSIVE PLAYER: Some really good defensive players have left the program, including Mason Foster, Nate Williams and Victor Aiyewa. But of all the starters coming back on D, it looks like Cort Dennison is the top returner on D for 2011.
After filling in here and there the first couple of years in the program, Dennison really came through last year, with 93 tackles, 6.5 for loss, and 2 sacks in 2010. Dennison is the leading tackler coming back, and as the lone returning starter at linebacker, will be looked upon early and often as the glue guy in the middle of the defense.
TOP POST SPRING BALL QUESTIONS:
1) IS THE PRICE RIGHT? The biggest (and most obvious) question coming into spring ball anyway is what will life be like after #10 has finally left the building?
Locker moves on to the NFL, so, now what? At least, that WAS the question heading into spring ball. But coming out of spring, there seems to be very little doubt that Keith Price has distanced himself at the QB spot from Nick Montana, and is the choice to take the torch and keep things moving into a new era at UW. Price has started to generate some positive buzz, not just for a guy who looks like he’s the complete package with a decent arm and good feet, but there seems to be some good vibes about him, that he has “IT” (whatever “IT” might be?).
I heard a story from someone close to the UW program who was on the sidelines for the game at USC last fall. In that game, Locker was banged up by the SC defense and actually had to come out of the game, and Keith Price was summoned from the bench to continue a UW drive deep in SC territory. He came into the game and threw just one pass, but it was for a TD early in the fourth quarter, giving UW the lead. Locker would come back in and lead the Huskies on a game-winning drive to beat USC for the second year in a row. But instead of being anxious or looking nervous, the word was that Price was just as cool as can be on the sidelines, before and after that moment, and clearly acted like someone who had been there before. Price would get a start in place of Locker last year, on the road at Oregon. While UW was blown out on the scoreboard, Price actually had UW hanging around into the second half of the game, as a TD pass from Price to D’Andre Goodwin made it a 5-point game early in the third quarter. Oregon would explode from there and run away with things in the 53-16 final, but Price showed a lot on the field to be excited about in that lone start.
Now, obviously being the backup and being THE MAN as a starter can be a completely different thing. There wasn’t any tape on Price last year, nobody had really seen him do anything, so Oregon wasn’t sure what they were going to get. Defensive coordinators are going to come after him, as they should when dealing with a first-time starter. But at least if you buy in to the early buzz, Price should be able to handle the pressure that comes with being the starter.
2) All THE DEFENSIVE STARTERS BACK ARE NICE, BUT….While they are happy with the amount of experience coming back on defense, there has to be some concern that three of the top four tacklers are gone in Mason Foster, Nate Williams and Victor Aiyewa. Those three players combined for an unbelievable 349 tackles last year(!), as well as 14.5 sacks. Foster especially will be missed, with his 161 tackles and dominating presence at linebacker. Not only was he all over the field, but he brought an attitude and intensity, an intimidating player who set the tone for the defense. And Victor Aiyewa and his ridiculous 21 TACKLES FOR LOSS (seriously, I had to check that number like five times!), some serious big-play ability and explosiveness has moved on. But this wasn’t exactly a top-shelf defense last year either, and while they were improved overall, they still finished in the bottom half of the conference in total defense and scoring defense. There is some excitement about young guys like Garret Gilliland and Thomas Tutogi, but those two projected starters at linebacker flanking Cort Dennison have a COMBINED 6 tackles at the D-1 level.
On the plus side of things, the defensive line should be strong, and UCLA transfer Josh Shirley has a lot of buzz as a rush end to help improve the pass rush. And UW welcomes back three out of four starters in a secondary with three upper classmen, plus Sean Parker, a highly touted safety who was one of the top recruits by Sarkisian in the class of 2010. But it will be very interesting to see how they go about replacing some serious production on D in 2011.
3) AND THE SCHEDULE QUESTION? Once again it looks like UW will have one of the more difficult schedules in the country. While they do open with EWU and Hawaii, they have to go to Nebraska on 9/17, a game that amounts to a rubber game of a three game “series” after playing twice in 2010. They do get five Pac-12 home games this year, but they do have to go to Stanford and go back to USC for the second year in a row (part of the whole promise of an LA game for the Pac-12 north schools). UW does miss UCLA and ASU, the latter of which is one of the top contenders in the Pac-12 south.
POST SPRING RAMBLINGS, DOT-DOT-DOT STYLE.….One reason teams can bounce back quickly is often due to turnover ratio. Two years ago, when UW was 0-12, they were a whopping MINUS-17 in turnover ratio. In 2010 they improved all the way to +4 in turnover ratio, and that positive number continued last year, where they came in at +2. Under Sarkisian, they are now +6 overall in two seasons……Even after 7-6 last year, the first winning season since 2002, UW is still just 45-76 in the last 10 years. But UW is getting it done at home, as they have now won 8 games at Husky Stadium under Sarkisian. From 2004-2008, UW won only 7 home games in five years!…..Jake Locker went #8 to Tennessee in the NFL draft, and Mason Foster went in the 3rd round to Tampa Bay. After not having a single player picked in ’08 or ’09, UW has now had multiple players picked in the NFL draft the last two years (Daniel Te’o-Nesheim and Donald Butler in 2010). Locker was UW’s first 1st rounder since Reggie Williams went in the top 10 by Jacksonville back in 2004…..Sarkisian contiunes to recruit well. After an underwhelming first class in which he had a couple of months to put it together, Sarkisian has now signed the #11 and #21 rated classes in the country in the last two full years of recruiting. Sarkisian’s second class was the #11 class in the country for 2010, good for 3rd in the Pac-10 behind SC and UCLA, and they finished #5 in the Pac-12 this spring…..As part of the improvement in turnover ratio, pressure up front goes a long way to forcing mistakes and turnovers. And with that, sacks are getting better for the Husky defense. After just 16 sacks in 2008, they have now totaled 57 sacks in just the last two seasons alone (29 in ’09, 28 in ’10)……Some of the top stops on the UW web universe are Bob Condotta’s Seattle Times blog, easily the best source for all things UW; Dawgman.com, part of the Scout.com network; UWDawgpound.com, run by John Berkowitz over at SB Nation; and Realdawg.com, which is usually up on all things recruiting.
SO that’s it. I hope you enjoyed this year’s version of the fish wraps, now four years in the books of looking at upcoming WSU opponents.
I can say it now that it’s all over, but this is the LAST YEAR we will be doing these types of previews. It’s been a good four-year run, and it is always a good exercise to take a deeper look at what’s to come from upcoming WSU opponents. But I think these things have run their course, and it’s time for them to be put to bed.
Have a great Father’s Day weekend, and as always, GO COUGS!
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