The Husky Football team needs to the fans now more than ever.
Everyone knows that the Twitters-phere needs to be renamed the Haters-phere or the I-want-to-one-up-you’s-phere. About 60% of people who complain about Husky football don’t even go to the games, others aren’t even real true Husky fans — and the rest are just piler-on’ers.
You see Don James’ name come up all the time — but it took a long time for Don James to build a national championship-caliber team.
In 1989 the great Coach James, himself, went 6-5 and 3-5 in the Pac-10. All the Seattle newspapers (Seattle Times, Seattle P-I, and even the News Tribune) were asking the question: “Is it time for Coach James to step down?”
The other headlining questions were “Has the game passed him by?”.
Yes, for you younger Husky fans who weren’t born yet — this really happened under the legendary Dawgfather.
In his third year, Chris Petersen won the Pac-12 and got his team to the National Championship semi-final. But the thing about that team is that the expectations weren’t extremely high in the pre-season and there wasn’t an enormous amount of pressure.
The Cal nightmare
What I’ve seen this year is a team that has not handled the pre-season hype and pressure very well. But let’s look at the continuity in key places…like the offensive line, for one.
Myles Gaskin being out yesterday was a huge problem for the Husky offense. He is by far the most experienced and best running back on the team. Salvon Ahmed is probably the most gifted, but Gaskin is a four-year starter and this offensive line knows what he’s going to and what his needs are in terms of blocking for him.
Yesterday Cal did the same type of thing Utah did in terms of defending the run, the only difference is that Myles Gaskin wasn’t in the game. Cal used the blitz package and took away the run game. It’s not that UW’s running backs aren’t good, but they’re not all Myles Gaskin.
The message boards are full of fans and posters who have a lot of good insight and observations, and one of our subscribers brought up the fact that the offense did lose Chico McClatcher this week. McClatcher was loved by his team..his teammates felt his absence — and offense is such a cerebral game.
All those little things that were off yesterday were mental, without question. Dropped balls, missed blocks, Ahmed getting tackled by a finger tip instead of running through it…all those little details added up to a completely stifled offense.
Even Ryan Leaf on the Pac-12 replay said that Jake Browning didn’t have time to throw the ball — he had no protection.
There’s very few quarterbacks who can overcome a bad offensive line (one of them is Russell Wilson). And it’s not that they’re “bad”, per se, they’re just inconsistant and much of it has to do with so many injuires and rotation issues.
The senior right tackle had two false starts called on him — and the crowd wasn’t exactly deafening at Memorial Stadium.
The fans
Everyone wants top recruits. Fans talk a big game when it comes to this — and so why not go out to Husky Stadium and be electric this coming weekend? Bru McCoy may be in town, for one thing.
Before the “12th Man” came to Seattle, the University of Washington set the record for the loudest stadium in the country. And I do believe that Washington has some of the greatest and most classy fans in the country. I believe that if they bring their vocal cords on Saturday, Washington can beat Stanford.
(That record still stands, by the way)
It’s real easy to be a fan when they’re winning. It’s real easy to wave your flag when they’re winning.
My husband has a Husky flag that flies 365 days a year. We lived over here during the Willingham era and my husband still flew that flag. My neighbors here are mostly Cougar fans. They just now put their flags out — that’s called “fair-weather” fans.
Don’t be a fair-weather fan. Don’t be like Cougar fans. These Huskies do need the fan’s help this weekend.
New coordinators
I believe that the combo of Lake and Hamdan in the coordinator ranks are two of the most up-and-coming guys in college football.
I know — many of you are mad at Hamdan right now, and it’s always easy to blame play-calling when plays aren’t being executed properly. But to be fair to Hamdan, Jonathan Smith had Jake Browning for three years. He knew all of Browning’s tendencies and even what he dreamed about. These two were tight as ticks.
Oregon’s collapse
I look more at execution than play-calling. And I’m not being an apologist here — I know fans have opinions and I get that, but look at Oregon…the top quarterback in the Pac-12 (according to the pundits) and yet Justin Herbert has looked completely brutal in the past two games. He didn’t even really have a very good game against Washington.
What changed?
Offensive line injuries, for one. And they are starting to get little dings and little dents — death by a thousand paper cuts. And when you don’t have great depth yet then this catches up with you.
(The Huskies were on their third string left tackle last night — and this isn’t Bama or Clemson or Ohio State who have several four and five-star backups ready to go at any moment)
The Cougars
Washington State, however, is healthy. They don’t have all those stars on their roster, but they’re winning. Being healthy is a huge deal at this point in the season. The year they went to the Rose Bowl with Ryan Leaf they started the same front five every single game.
Football isn’t just about how good you are, it’s also about just old-fashioned luck.
So now, the Cougars will be playing with more pressure and will have a big bulls-eye on their backs — let’s see how long that “luck” holds out for them.
The last word
This article isn’t for all the negative naysayers, this is directed to Husky fans who are ready to stand behind their team. The fans who went through the best of times and the worst of times in the past 30-40 years. If the fans rock the stadium on Saturday night, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Huskies win this game.
And what a great way to go into the bye week.
If they can get healthy with Gaskin, Bryant, and Adams, they can still win the Pac-12. They still control their own destiny. And all you fans who all want to get the big time recruits, how loud can you get?
Lastly, no matter what people think about Jake Browning and this senior class — they deserve your support.
Show up, be loud, wear purple.
