Happy Sunday morning Cougs! Here's hoping you have all enjoyed the bye week. I know I sure did, taking some down time and not thinking a ton about the Cougs. From the tone of the blog from this week, you can probably see that. But it's always good to step back, take a breath and look around and see what else is out there, isn't it? Just got back from a jog with the dog, taking advantage of the 40-minute break between rain showers to get that wild animal some exercise. A 1-year old golden retriever who doesn't get out for a few days, then you take him for a run? More like he took ME for the run. Jeesh. But he's a good "pace car" and keeps me going up the hills, whether I want to or not!
Anyway, as with the morning jog, a lot of thoughts go racing through the mind. Here's just a few:
1) How about that UW-ASU game? Entertaining to say the least. But wow, I mean HOW IN THE WORLD did Chris McGaha get so flippin' wide open?
I know the quotes from Sarkisian after the game said that the safety bit on the out route and/or they were doubling the outside receiver, but holy moly was that a breakdown or what!? You know what I thought the first second that happened? We've NEVER seen that before....
Anyway, as with the morning jog, a lot of thoughts go racing through the mind. Here's just a few:
1) How about that UW-ASU game? Entertaining to say the least. But wow, I mean HOW IN THE WORLD did Chris McGaha get so flippin' wide open?
I know the quotes from Sarkisian after the game said that the safety bit on the out route and/or they were doubling the outside receiver, but holy moly was that a breakdown or what!? You know what I thought the first second that happened? We've NEVER seen that before....
Too easy, right? Remember Alex Brink's Final Chapter, where Brandon Gibson got behind the UW defense, all alone....after the UW secondary "bit" on the out route, letting Gibby run free? Here'a a quick Youtube reminder, if you want to go back to that crazy night in 2007.
Amazing. It was even the same FSN broadcast crew of Barry Tompkins and Petros Papadakis(spelling??).
That said, the end of game management by UW leaves a lot to be desired. Sark and Holt are the kings of high energy and are fantastic recruiters, but this is still Sark's first year as a head coach. They are going to make mistakes during games, no matter how prepared they think they might be going in. It's part of the growing process. But why they elected to throw it on 3rd down with less than a minute left deep in their own territory, stopping the clock on the incompletion? That was really weird. And of course, the breakdown in coverage at the absolute worst possible time. Somone mentioned in comments last night about the message boards at Dawgman.com, but nah, I don't even want to go there. What's the point? We don't have anything to add to the conversation, and they sure don't want to hear it. So just let 'em stew as they start to get worried about how in the world they are going to hang with the Ducks next Saturday.
Now I don't want to go all schadenfreude on UW right now, as I'm sure they are down in the dumps or whatever. And by the way, schadenfreude: Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others......uh huh.....but isn't this just a "return of balance to the force" or however you want to call it? After last week's shoe-turf TD where they had one miracle go their way, doesn't this just correct things in the football universe a week later? But things just seem, I don't know, right again.
2) What about the USC - ND game? TWO final plays, and the Irish couldn't pull it off. I think we thought that was going to happen with Clausen, that you just can't keep going to the well for the miracle finish. Eventually the luck runs out. But they sure hung in there and fought, didn't they?
I thought that sucker was over when it was 34-14 in the fourth quarter, but Clausen kept bringing 'em down the field, and USC also seemed to kinda/sorta stop playing on offense? Still though, what an entertaining game. And Matt Barkley, WOW. 380 yards passing in only his fifth start as a true frosh? What a special, special QB he is turning into.
Grippi had a good comment today, about how "football isn't as fun anymore" with all the ref involvment in the games, the replay reverals and all that. But did anyone see the flag-happy PAC-10 ref penalize USC DE Everson Griffen for flexing his arms after a QB sack?
Amazing. It was even the same FSN broadcast crew of Barry Tompkins and Petros Papadakis(spelling??).
That said, the end of game management by UW leaves a lot to be desired. Sark and Holt are the kings of high energy and are fantastic recruiters, but this is still Sark's first year as a head coach. They are going to make mistakes during games, no matter how prepared they think they might be going in. It's part of the growing process. But why they elected to throw it on 3rd down with less than a minute left deep in their own territory, stopping the clock on the incompletion? That was really weird. And of course, the breakdown in coverage at the absolute worst possible time. Somone mentioned in comments last night about the message boards at Dawgman.com, but nah, I don't even want to go there. What's the point? We don't have anything to add to the conversation, and they sure don't want to hear it. So just let 'em stew as they start to get worried about how in the world they are going to hang with the Ducks next Saturday.
Now I don't want to go all schadenfreude on UW right now, as I'm sure they are down in the dumps or whatever. And by the way, schadenfreude: Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others......uh huh.....but isn't this just a "return of balance to the force" or however you want to call it? After last week's shoe-turf TD where they had one miracle go their way, doesn't this just correct things in the football universe a week later? But things just seem, I don't know, right again.
2) What about the USC - ND game? TWO final plays, and the Irish couldn't pull it off. I think we thought that was going to happen with Clausen, that you just can't keep going to the well for the miracle finish. Eventually the luck runs out. But they sure hung in there and fought, didn't they?
I thought that sucker was over when it was 34-14 in the fourth quarter, but Clausen kept bringing 'em down the field, and USC also seemed to kinda/sorta stop playing on offense? Still though, what an entertaining game. And Matt Barkley, WOW. 380 yards passing in only his fifth start as a true frosh? What a special, special QB he is turning into.
Grippi had a good comment today, about how "football isn't as fun anymore" with all the ref involvment in the games, the replay reverals and all that. But did anyone see the flag-happy PAC-10 ref penalize USC DE Everson Griffen for flexing his arms after a QB sack?
Of all the football I watched yesterday, it was one of the least-offensive celebratory things I saw, but yet the official had to run around and throw the flag. I saw several things a lot worse in that USC - ND game alone that weren't called, including at least a 30-second celebration after a Golden Tate TD late in the game, with all sorts of antics and gestures. But that personal foul penalty on Griffin, that turned out to be a big penalty as instead of 3rd and long, it gave Notre Dame an automatic first down, and they would eventually score a TD on that drive. And again, it was a PAC-10 crew doing the USC - Notre Dame game yesterday. Ugh.
I guess refs are supposed to be like writers? You know, how they ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE STORY!!? Oh well.
3) Is Cal back? We'll find out next week, but wow, almost 500 total yards and 45 points at UCLA, one of the best defenses in the conference? Yikes. Kevin Riley didn't screw it up, throwing for 205 yards, 3 TD's and zero picks. That's the Berkeley Bears we thought we would see this year, the one where their fans are super-cocky about. Still, I like the WSU defense in the match-up, simply because of the way they will sit back in zone coverage and make the QB beat them with accuracy. We saw that against ASU, and we'll likely see the same thing next week, rushing three and dropping seven or eight into coverage, trying to keep the game in front of them.
4) So how about those Mildcats? Down 15, they would pull it out in a wild 43-38 win vs. Stanford. And what a wild one, over 1,100 total yards combined by both offenses! Andrew Luck was amazing, 21-for-35 for 423 yards and 3 TD's, but they just couldn't stop Arizona. That AZ QB, Nick Foles, was even better, going an unreal 40-for-51 for 415 yards and 3 TD's. FORTY COMPLETIONS!?! That's XBox 360 type numbers, not real life. But Foles completed 39 passes vs. UW the week before, and now has completed 72% of his passes for 1152 yards and 9 TD's with just 2 INT's, all in THREE starts!?? Looks like AZ has a rising star in the sophomore Foles.
5) Finally, congrats to Robb Akey. 6-1 after their win over Hawaii, and certainly appearing like they are headed for postseason play. Nice to see the bowling ball, DeMaundray Woolridge, take FOUR, count 'em, FOUR runs to the house for TD's!? Now, before we all go nuts over Akey, let's at least consider the situation. This is Akey's THIRD season in Moscow, so please remember that. He won a combined three games his first two years, and they were regarded as one of the worst teams around in his first few years. But now in year three, with Akey's system firmly in place, all the bad apples have been weeded out, etc, hey, he's building up something nice over there. But let's not call Akey some kind of God or anything, at least not yet. He wasn't anything special his first two years, dealing with a ton of crap left over by none other than Nick Holt and then Dennis Erickson's 10-month bailout. Did he suddenly figure out how to be a head coach? Maybe, sure, it's very likely he's grown a ton in the last few years. But isn't it also more helpful/likely that the players he started playing a couple of years ago, like QB Nathan Enderle, are now upper-classmen? You hate to make direct comparison's to our situation, but it does seem at least a little similar in that the coach was brought in to clean up a mess, and after a couple of years of pain and suffering, they are starting to get some reward for the struggles?
That's it for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and as always, GO COUGS!
I guess refs are supposed to be like writers? You know, how they ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE STORY!!? Oh well.
3) Is Cal back? We'll find out next week, but wow, almost 500 total yards and 45 points at UCLA, one of the best defenses in the conference? Yikes. Kevin Riley didn't screw it up, throwing for 205 yards, 3 TD's and zero picks. That's the Berkeley Bears we thought we would see this year, the one where their fans are super-cocky about. Still, I like the WSU defense in the match-up, simply because of the way they will sit back in zone coverage and make the QB beat them with accuracy. We saw that against ASU, and we'll likely see the same thing next week, rushing three and dropping seven or eight into coverage, trying to keep the game in front of them.
4) So how about those Mildcats? Down 15, they would pull it out in a wild 43-38 win vs. Stanford. And what a wild one, over 1,100 total yards combined by both offenses! Andrew Luck was amazing, 21-for-35 for 423 yards and 3 TD's, but they just couldn't stop Arizona. That AZ QB, Nick Foles, was even better, going an unreal 40-for-51 for 415 yards and 3 TD's. FORTY COMPLETIONS!?! That's XBox 360 type numbers, not real life. But Foles completed 39 passes vs. UW the week before, and now has completed 72% of his passes for 1152 yards and 9 TD's with just 2 INT's, all in THREE starts!?? Looks like AZ has a rising star in the sophomore Foles.
5) Finally, congrats to Robb Akey. 6-1 after their win over Hawaii, and certainly appearing like they are headed for postseason play. Nice to see the bowling ball, DeMaundray Woolridge, take FOUR, count 'em, FOUR runs to the house for TD's!? Now, before we all go nuts over Akey, let's at least consider the situation. This is Akey's THIRD season in Moscow, so please remember that. He won a combined three games his first two years, and they were regarded as one of the worst teams around in his first few years. But now in year three, with Akey's system firmly in place, all the bad apples have been weeded out, etc, hey, he's building up something nice over there. But let's not call Akey some kind of God or anything, at least not yet. He wasn't anything special his first two years, dealing with a ton of crap left over by none other than Nick Holt and then Dennis Erickson's 10-month bailout. Did he suddenly figure out how to be a head coach? Maybe, sure, it's very likely he's grown a ton in the last few years. But isn't it also more helpful/likely that the players he started playing a couple of years ago, like QB Nathan Enderle, are now upper-classmen? You hate to make direct comparison's to our situation, but it does seem at least a little similar in that the coach was brought in to clean up a mess, and after a couple of years of pain and suffering, they are starting to get some reward for the struggles?
That's it for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and as always, GO COUGS!
...There's ALWAYS a flag to spot! Big thanks to Will Walker for the screen cap. I don't know if you've checked out the show this AM or not, but an AMAZING job on getting the double-crimson flags prominently flying in the breeze. Right behind Fowler and Herbstreit's mugs as well! Nice work by the crimson soldiers on the ground out there!
So, the bye week. What will YOU watch/do today? I'm intrigued by the Red River game, simply for the rivalry and tradition of it all. Oklahoma could really screw up Texas and their bid for the BCS title game.
The BCS standings will be revealed tomorrow, and there is some speculation out there that if Florida and 'Bama win out, they not only would play each other in the SEC Title game, but would be assured to meet in the BCS title game as well!?! That's kind of a downer if you ask me. I would much prefer to see two teams from different conferences play for the whole thing, wouldn't you? I mean OK, if Florida and Alabama are the two best teams in the country and everyone says so, then yeah, I guess they should play for the whole thing. But if they are playing for the SEC title, isn't that enough? Anyway, you glance at Florida and 'Bama's schedules? The whole idea doesn't seem so far-fetched. 'Bama only has two road games left, and they get South Carolina at home tonight, and LSU in Tuscaloosa two weeks after that. Florida has to go to Miss State and South Carolina, but still, not anything they can't take care of (most likely?). So it may not matter what happens to Texas today.
And of course, PAC-10 wise I am going to be checking out USC-Notre Dame. That comeback act has been impressive by Clausen and company this season, but USC is playing like the "real thing" all of a sudden. They are such a different animal with Matt Barkley at QB. But we'll see! That, my friends, is why they play this here game.
ENJOY YOUR BYE WEEKEND, and as always, GO COUGS!
So, the bye week. What will YOU watch/do today? I'm intrigued by the Red River game, simply for the rivalry and tradition of it all. Oklahoma could really screw up Texas and their bid for the BCS title game.
The BCS standings will be revealed tomorrow, and there is some speculation out there that if Florida and 'Bama win out, they not only would play each other in the SEC Title game, but would be assured to meet in the BCS title game as well!?! That's kind of a downer if you ask me. I would much prefer to see two teams from different conferences play for the whole thing, wouldn't you? I mean OK, if Florida and Alabama are the two best teams in the country and everyone says so, then yeah, I guess they should play for the whole thing. But if they are playing for the SEC title, isn't that enough? Anyway, you glance at Florida and 'Bama's schedules? The whole idea doesn't seem so far-fetched. 'Bama only has two road games left, and they get South Carolina at home tonight, and LSU in Tuscaloosa two weeks after that. Florida has to go to Miss State and South Carolina, but still, not anything they can't take care of (most likely?). So it may not matter what happens to Texas today.
And of course, PAC-10 wise I am going to be checking out USC-Notre Dame. That comeback act has been impressive by Clausen and company this season, but USC is playing like the "real thing" all of a sudden. They are such a different animal with Matt Barkley at QB. But we'll see! That, my friends, is why they play this here game.
ENJOY YOUR BYE WEEKEND, and as always, GO COUGS!
Greetings Coug Nation. Happy Football Friday! Here's hoping you have all enjoyed the bye week and all that goes with it (read: not much.). As you can see from the pic above, Martin Stadium is empty as we play with ourselves this week. We haven't exactly taken the week off around here, but it's been pretty light in the blogosphere.
So honestly, could the bye week have come at a better time? I actually think it came a couple of weeks too late if you want to know the truth. After the USC game would have been early, yes, but maybe an extra week off there could have helped heal some of the battered-n-bruised? But whatever, it's the situation we're in and we'll make the best of it. Thus far, some of the injury reports are positive, and they may get back some capable bodies up front by next Saturday's tilt vs. Cal?
Anyway, since it's the bye week and all, we thought it would be a good idea to take a look back at the first half, and take a look forward as well. And we are TRYING to go with "happy thoughts!" So here we go....
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So honestly, could the bye week have come at a better time? I actually think it came a couple of weeks too late if you want to know the truth. After the USC game would have been early, yes, but maybe an extra week off there could have helped heal some of the battered-n-bruised? But whatever, it's the situation we're in and we'll make the best of it. Thus far, some of the injury reports are positive, and they may get back some capable bodies up front by next Saturday's tilt vs. Cal?
Anyway, since it's the bye week and all, we thought it would be a good idea to take a look back at the first half, and take a look forward as well. And we are TRYING to go with "happy thoughts!" So here we go....
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Good afternoon Cougs. There's a lot of good video out there this week, from KXLY and otherwise. But here's something else to add, just a quick-ripped video from the trusty DVR. This is from the all-access show last night, with some good sideline audio. Maybe most of you have seen this already, but if you haven't, check it out:
Oh, and for those of you who think Wulff is a little "stoic" on the sidelines? Think that maybe he doesn't get fired up enough, doesn't yell or carry on or get in anyone's face? Check him out around the 5-minute mark. Maybe those on the inside of the program see it more than we do, but whoa, I don't think we've seen that side of him a whole lot, have we?! I like it.
Enjoy the rest of your day, and GO COUGS!
no commentsOh, and for those of you who think Wulff is a little "stoic" on the sidelines? Think that maybe he doesn't get fired up enough, doesn't yell or carry on or get in anyone's face? Check him out around the 5-minute mark. Maybe those on the inside of the program see it more than we do, but whoa, I don't think we've seen that side of him a whole lot, have we?! I like it.
Enjoy the rest of your day, and GO COUGS!
Hello Followers. Hope you are having great week.
As for me, well, lets just say that I'm looking forward to greener pastures.
And, unfortunately, the same can be said for our beloved Washington State Cougars.
For this reason, I began to think about a few policy changes that the NCAA might employ to help out programs in similar predicaments as ours.
So, if you're interested in how the NCAA might work to create NFL-type parity in College Football, Read on..
