Ground control to Husky Nation: Welcome back to earth.

Well, I like the conference rating as a whole, I would still put the Huskies below UCLA because we havent beaten them(yet?). I knew this overhyping of Washington/Pac 10 would come back and haunt us....altho I do like that we have 4 pretty solid teams with ASU in there at number 5. Its too bad we had such a bad last weekend of OOC play, since that will be the view for the conference as a whole till around bowl season.

As for Washington, we still lack:
any pressure on the QB
weak secondary
cant stop the run
cant run(not counting locker)
too many dropped passes
no verticle passing game

As a whole i really believe this weekend is HUGE for the dawgs, lose at UCLA and getting a winning record in the end gets pretty hard.
If you project losses against USC, CAL, ASU..and project wins against OSU, AZ, Stan..that leaves us at 5-4 with swing games against OR, UCLA, Wazzu and Hawaii.
Theres still A LONG way to go if washington wants to get back to elite. If you beleive TW is the guy, they HAVE to win at UCLA this week.

Keep up the great work Bob!

I was lucky enough to go to the game Saturday. The crowd did its best to help the mutts in the third quarter...OSU is a solid defensive team...probably the best we'll see this year...the dogs went toe to toe with them for two quarters and had it not been for that penalty on the punt, I think the dogs could have had a different result...that was the play of the game...not to mention the huge turnovers, but that run into the punter penalty really hurt...great game to watch...well coached teams...lots of exciting Saturdays ahead for the mutts...Jake can not throw the verticle ball to stretch the defense...he has lots of success with receivers coming back to him and OSU knew that...I was impressed with the dogs' "D" linemen...they played hard nose football...I would expect the team to grow a lot from this experience and it should help them in conference play...looking forward to next week.

Hadn't Wyoming just gone in and beaten Virginia the weak before? I don't know, I still think Boise is legit (obviously not what they were last year) and that was a legit win.

On the whole, I think 2-1 against our first 3 was as good as we could realistically expect, and if we're 3-2 after our first 5 I'll be totally stoked. Better have the chinstraps on tight against a mad UCLA team this week.

"week"

although come to think of it, maybe Virginia is "weak" too

Wyoming's okay --- It beat Virginia at home 23-3 and Utah State 32-18 before losing to Boise State. Not really top caliber but all right, I guess. Not trying to say the Boise win isn't legit, just that there's more evidence that Boise isn't quite what it was a year ago. Wyoming held Boise State to 121 yards rushing on 50 attempts, comporable to what the Huskies did a week ago.

What we have learned from the first three weeks is that USC is on another level,LSU and Flordia are strong at home. After that Imo on neutral fields all the conferences are just about even.

Although Locker usually looks/acts unbeatable...I'm afraid the true value of the Syracuse - Boise State wins are becoming more apparent. Although...compared to ND you're all world-beaters. Which raises an interesting question... which would you rather be? A University of Washington fan at 2-1 with top 45 recruiting levels for the last 3 years (Rivals.com) ...or an ND fan at an embarrassing 0-3 with top 10 recruiting for the last 3 years (#1 in 2008)?

While Weis is playing a majority of Willingham's 5th year seniors, seniors and juniors (66% started in the Georgia Tech game)...Willingham is playing (besides the excellent true freshman QB Locker) previous coach Gilbertson's 5th year seniors, seniors and juniors. In three years at ND Weis has recruited 18 Top 100 HS players (Rivals.com). In three years at UW Willingham has recruited 1 Top 100 HS player (Locker). And...in three years at ND...Willingham recruited 3 Top 100 players... none in the year he was fired.

Just wondering...I know y'all will let me know...

Rather be us. And you're still pathetic.

This was a very promising game. Usually I would leave a game like this because and be upset and almost depressed. But i thought to myself we played a good first half and was leading The Ohio State Unitversity. We stuck with them. This game showed me that the talent diferece is not that much different between the two schools. What we have seen the past few years. Second 4 mistakes made all by freshman that cost us 28pts. Look this was a promising game if you are a husky. Yes there were a few bad calls and yes we droppe some interceptions but we were still in it.

Side note it seems that in big games Roy Lewis always seems to drop the interception. 2 today and I remeber last year him dropping a huge one at the end of the USC game.

Now vote with your heads...and not with your hearts, boys and girls.

I live in Boise and watched the BSU-Wyoming game on TV. The final score was much closer than the game really was. WY scored late, BSU thoroughly wupped them most of the night, esp. the Defense.

I'm still in recovery mode. My wounded heart is mending a bit today. Trying to see the positive. I'll be ready to rumble by Monday night and getting focused on UCLA. I'm beginning to think about the keys to the game . . . getting there, but not quite recovered from Saturday's loss yet.
Malibu

Bob, sorry to keep harping on this point, and nobody read into this, because as I've state over and over, Ohio State beat us, not the officials. But I'm as down as ever on Pac 10 officiating, and I think this game a prime example that backs up my point. Missed calls and inconsistency that is all to common in Pac 10 games. Yes, the missed fumple/incomplete pass call sucked, but I can live with that. It was an unfortanute mistake, and officials are human. I was more disturbed by the blatant blow to the head on Locker in the first half (obvious roughing the passer call) and the goon, to steal a previous blogger's term, who tried to rip Jake's facemask off on his 4th down QB sneak. Both of those events occured right in front of the official, and I see no excuses for them not throwing flags. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because I'd imagine the Pac 10 reviews the officiating of every game after the fact. Assuming this is the case, do they ever release their findings, or admit to and point out the missed calls? If so, I'd be curious to find out what they say. And again, I can't emphasize enough, that didn't cost us the game IMO, the better team cost us the game (and our own mistakes). Also, to be fair, overall I believe we did come out on the short end of the stick in terms of calls, but I also thought we got the benefit of the doubt on a few more than generous spots, especially on a third down conversion on our first drive, so the inconsistency goes both ways (to an extent, anyway).

JH, I think if you go back and look at UW's recruiting history, you'll find that the most successful years have been with classes that have been less regarded. 91, 97, 2000 were some senior classes that I believe weren't rated high, yet were impressive in on field performance or NFL recruits. In contrast, the 01 recruiting class was one of the best ever (I believe #2 or #3 depending on which site you went to). That class resulted in 1-10 and 2-9 seasons by their senior years. I may speak for myself here, but I don't think you'll find Husky fans putting as much stock into recruiting rankings as other schools. (Please, someone correct me if I'm remembering wrong about the recruiting stuff)

What I would be worried about for ND, is that this year becomes so lost, that the program loses that certain intangible in knowing how to win games (sadly, I don't think you can blame that on TW). If that's the case, ND will just be a bunch of highly recruited players that play football much similar to the way UW presented themselves yesterday. Hey at least there's no option of whether Weiss is the right guy....

I hear 'ya. I wish I could make the observation that the "lightly regarded" (# 42 to #48 Rival's.com) recruiting classes of TW's in 2003, 2004 and 2005 were successful. Unfortunately they were regarded - and proved to be - the worst in the last 55 years of the University. But...if Bush thinks that his "legacy" will prove positive...maybe TW will have a chance also. My feeling is that past is prologue...Ty's recruiting has torpedoed the Stanford and ND programs...I feel he's doing the same at UW. We'll see.

Is jh talking about Charlie the tuna Weiss and Notre Damn? According to the paper today they haven't started their season yet. The Tuna is starting training camp today. So we should see their first game in about two months. I think it's against Navy. In the meantime have fun with those great recruits The Tuna has brought in.

As an anti-Ty guy, I'll give him some credit when it's due. Our team has improved every year he has been here. Ohio State's defense was better than advertised and their offense surprised us all. As in the previous games they played close in the 1st half and then just wore out their opponents. Next week is a must win for a bowl appearance. After watching this game I still think we lose to USC, Cal, Oregon, ASU, and Hawaii. 7-6 this year will be a great season against our remaining schedule.

Bob I'm sorry but to give Locker a B- is just not fair. Nobody else on the offense is making plays? How are you supposed to score points against such a good defense if your receivers can't catch and your RB can't run? Locker single-handedly took them down the field time after time. Laurenitis' pick over the middle was simply a great play on D because it looked like he was blitzing. Ohio State had brought the house 3 a bunch on 3rd, and it certainly looked like they were again. Also, had Reece caught the pass on the play before, they wouldn't even have been in the situation.

The shovel INT was just a flukey play IMO. The terribly conservative coaching in the red zone was not Jake's fault. There's no way you could say Jake played a B- game unless you are just going by the passing stas.

The guy played a B+ or A- game but got no help, and suffered from bad play-calling in the red zone. Give the guy a break!!!

There shouldn't be a "?" after the "nobody else on the offense is making plays" quote but in my post, but I can't edit it.

Your team is as much TW's team as ND's is Weis' team. Have you boys voted yet? See 11:48 AM.

I'm with Brian...BOB.

JH, I would clearly rather be in UW's situation right now because they are heading in the right direction. The only bowl the Irish are heading for is the toilet bowl. And like the guy on ESPN.com said, I would take Locker over Jimmy.

I know I'd take UW's (Gilbertson's) offensive line over ND's!

3 of our 5 starting offensive linemen on Saturday were TW recruits.

pdxdawg-

Do you watch games that don't involve Pac-10 refs? There are plenty of bad blown calls all over the country. The Pac-10 officials are just in a bright spotlight right now because of the UO-OU game. There have always been bad calls everywhere. It is just that every once in a while there is on that shines like no other and then that conference has "horrible officiating" and no other conference seems as bad. Don't forget that it was the Big 12 conference that had the famous 5th down play.

I saw plenty of facemasks and other personal fouls all over the country that didn't get called

jh, I'd rather stop watching football than root for ND, ever, against anyone. The only time I root for Michigan is when they play ND, and I hate Michigan, so my vote doesn't count for much, but I'll take the UW team, bad recruiting classes and all. CW's recruits are already baling on him. He'll probably retire due to health reasons at the end of the season, so he and the school can avoid the embarassment of canning him.

Of course I watch games involving other conferences. Would you argue that our officials' reputations aren't below average? And yes, I realize there are blown calls and poorly officiated games in other conferences. But is that inconsistency as prominent and happen with as much regularity as it does in the Pac 10? I think not, and I think anyone would have a difficult time coming up with an argument against that. And I don't think it looks good when other conferences use refs from visiting teams conferences, but the Pac 10 is the only one that insists on using exclusively their own officials. Especailly after recent events in those situations (the Ok-Ore game is just one of several examples, just ask Boise State who visited Corvallis several years back, Fresno State when they played at Autzen in 2002, I think it was, I could go on and on). Plus it seems to me that when mistakes are made, the commisioner just kind of shrugs it off and gives a half-assed apology, but doesn't recognize it to be an ongoing problem. And it's not just in games against other conferences. The inconsitency is very prevalent in games involving Pac 10 teams as well. Anyway, we're all entitled to our opinions, but I know a lot of media around the country has been more than harsh regarding this issue as well. Apparently your take is different though, so I'll agree to disagree with you.

Re: ND, I'd rather be us, for tons of reasons most of which are irrelevant to this blog... but I'd rather be us in football too.

Re: OL, whoops jh, our best OLs are all TW recruits except for Garcia (who was a Neuheisel recruit, not a Gilby recruit).

re: recruiting rankings, they are meaningful as a general indicator, but they aren't the be-all and end-all as many many examples prove (Boise '06, WSU Rose Bowl teams, etc.) Also, recruiting rankings don't take into account attrition and transfers. For example, ND's recent recruiting rankings still give Weis credit for at least two hyped QB recruits who have already quit the team.

Unless you're counting the beatdown to Houston's mascot, Oregon's only outscored it's THREE foes 139-55.

My comments should never be construed as UW vs, ND. I have the utmost respect for both school's traditions. My comments are meant to warn the UW fan base that the Stanford and ND fan base were lulled into thinking that we had a viable coach, when in reality, the coach wasn't effectively recruiting for a long-term relationship with the school. Unfortunately, based on Willingham's recruiting record over the past 3 years...he's doing the same thing at UW. Wake up! You don't produce consistent winning programs with recruitment records in the 20s, 30s and 40s.

...sincerely, the Wisconsin Badgers, winners of 38 games in the past 4 seasons and currently in the top 10, who have cracked Scout.com's top 35 recruiting rankings once (at #35) in the last five years.

You must subscribe to the exception being the rule. Check the recruiting list over the last 6-7 years for SC, Florida, LSU, Cal, etc., etc., etc. Suit yourself...if you think willingham should recruit from the bottom of the barrell...he already is. We'll see...

I subscribe to the Huskies being a lot closer to six wins than 2, Jim. And by the way, I checked "the bottom of the barrell" and found ND's offense there.

Couldn't agree more...although this thread was concerning past recruiting. And yes...I've increased my projection of UW wins this year to 4. Willingham will need one more than that to keep his career W-L % above .500.