New Sponsor! Well…”Sponsor”.
Good morning, Cougs! Welcome to another exciting edition of Hump Day With Huddy, sponsored by Bridgeport Brewing! (Editor’s note: Bridgeport Brewing is not actually sponsoring “Hump Day with Huddy. Huddy is simply trying to get free beer. We’re pretty sure this isn’t legal, but is certainly worth a shot. Besides, it’s been a while since we’ve received a cease and desist letter to the WSU Football Blog offices.) (Editor’s note, Part 2: There are no WSU Football Blog offices, nor is there an editor, unless you count spell check.) Read on for this week’s marginally coherent and rarely related ramblings…
What a crazy few days, huh? I can’t say that there are many among us that saw that coming. I mean, Robin spurning Barney after they’d agreed to give it a go? When they’ve built up the season so far to them getting back together? That’s just nuts, right?! OK, I’m not actually going to keep going pretending that the big surprise that’s on all your minds involved “How I Met Your Mother” (but feel free to discuss in comments!). Of course, the real big surprise of the week was the record shattering performance of Connor Halliday. Whatever happens with the rest of the kid’s career, he permanently cemented his name into Cougar lore with that performance on Saturday. It also further cemented 2011 as the Year of the Red-Headed Quarterback. Somewhere, Dan McGwire and Todd Marinovich are solemnly shaking their heads at missing out on the revolution.
There was another thing cemented this week: I have mystical powers. I’ve come to realize that no matter what I think will happen when the Cougs play, the exact opposite of my belief will happen. Let’s recap the season so far. I thought against Idaho State, we’d struggle out of the gates, but win. We scored early and often. UNLV was the closest I’ve been to being right, but 59-7?! Nope. I thought we’d beat SDSU. We did not. I correctly picked a split of the Colorado-UCLA games. Of course, I got them backwards. I expected the Oregon and Stanford games to be bloodbaths and they were spirited-but-not-enough efforts by the Cougs. We all know how my predicted wins against Cal and OSU turned out. Then, I predict us to get steamrolled against the Sun Devils and a tiny little miracle happened. So what have we learned? One could take that to mean that I just don’t know what I’m talking about (probably true) or you could choose to believe that I am cosmically tied to the Football Gods and they enjoy messing with me (definitely true). Either way, if you’re a gambler, fade me and enjoy the piles of money you’ll be Scrooge McDucking in for years to come. If you’re a Cougar fan (which stands to reason given your readership), watch my prediction closely tomorrow and hope that I’m feeling especially pessimistic.
College football’s postseason awards are trimming their lists of candidates to semifinalists and I’ve got a couple bones to pick. First and foremost, to the nerds that run the Biletnikoff Award, how do you leave Marquess Wilson off the list of the ten best wide receivers in the country? For the record, if you’re wondering why I suppose there are nerds behind the Fred Biletnikoff award, do you remember what Fred Biletnikoff looked like? I remember being shocked as a kid when I saw a Biletnikoff football card, then I saw what Cris Collinsworth looked like and thought I might be an NFL receiver someday, but I digress. The other beef I have with the awards lists? Vontaze Burifct is a semifinalist for the Bednarik and Butkus awards. I’ve now seen the better part of four ASU games and don’t recall Burfict having made a play of major significance. Am I missing something or is this dude just getting by on name recognition? From where I sat (or paced as the case may have been) on Saturday night, Alex Hoffman-Ellis was the impact linebacker on the field. I’m not saying that AH-E should be on those awards lists, but for that night at least, he outclassed the big name player.
One of my favorite moments from Saturday’s game, among many favorite moments, was Marshall Lobbestael’s reaction to Halliday’s first touchdown pass. It was as if the Lobster had thrown it himself. Combined with the quotes leading up to Jeff Tuel’s failed return to action, it’s clear that Lobbestael’s focus truly is on the success of the team and the program. Say what you will about his limitations as a quarterback, but he surprised a lot of us with some terrific performances early in the season and has clearly played an important role in the continued development of two more talented players that happened to come into the program after he did. No, he won’t be starting on his Senior Day, but he will still be honored and rightfully so.
Some quick hoops thoughts before I go. The Gonzaga game was an up and down effort, but for a team in transition playing in a tough environment against a good team, I was pleasantly surprised. I was disappointed that the known quantities still are what they thought they were (Reggie Moore is inconsistent, Faisal Aden takes bad shots and appears to consider defense optional and Charlie Enquist is Charlie Enquist). On the other hand, Brock Motum showed further improvement and perhaps more importantly a little more bulk on his frame. DaVonte Lacy and Michael Ladd each showed flashes and certainly more importantly terrific energy on the defensive end. DJ Shelton showed that same energy on defensive, exclusively. Hopefully his offensive skills will come around like we saw with DeAngelo Casto. I wasn’t really sure where my expectations were for this team, but I think after one performance, they’re probably slightly better than what I thought. Coach Bone will need to figure out his rotation with some new tools at his disposal and he’ll have to find some clever ways to scheme ourselves out of deficiencies, notably in the post at both ends. To the former, I say to please bring Aden off the bench in a Microwave Vinnie Johnson type of role. To the latter, I say good luck. It should be interesting to watch as the sample size gets bigger against some cupcakes leading up to conference play.
That’s all for this week. Sorry for the long paragraphs. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. Go Cougs.
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