Rain...the last refuge of a poor coaching job.

I'll say it again...Unfortunately, boys and girls...getting the best players on the field starts 2-3 years before their first college game. If you ignore this obvious key to winning in college...then I'm sure you won't have any problem with the Seahawks skipping the NFL draft and signing the remaining dregs after the fact.

There is no dishonor at honoring the UW football team while questioning why the head coach has not had a representative (adequate/effective) recruitment period in over 8-years.
If you feel this position would be traitorous to your team...you might want to re-think where your team will be in 2-3 years.

The 1977 game, which the Huskies won 28-10, was played in quite a bit of rain. I remember sitting under a tarp.

Amen jh

Matt is right. It rained during most of the 77 game. It also rained a lot during the 81 game. And Bob the Huskies beat USC in 1975 8-7. Someone in USC needs to do a better job checking their notes.
RD

Already had some e-mails questioning my above item. I simply repeated a stat that's presented in the USC media notes this week. Those are the games USC classifies as having been played in the rain "during a major portion.'' Obviously that definition is open to interpretation.

JH, and his alter ego (this time pjs1967) you are getting tiring. I make the mistake of reading a post before seeing the signature...you must be one unhappy puppy.

I, too, was at the 1981 game. That was awesome Husky weather. Anytime USC comes to town, that should be the forecast!

So...I take it, Al T, that you're pleased with Willingham's recruiting?

although rain is part of our everday lives here in seattle, i simply cant remember the last time it rained during a home game here (admittedly i don't remember alot from most home games). oregon 3 years ago comes to mind, but other than that i don't remember it raining much in the recent past. my point is that i don't know if our players are even used to playing in the rain and don't really think it gives us an advantage. bob, do you have any stats on how many times its rained during recent home games?

I am. You do nothing for your credibility when you display so obviously that you are mentally disturbed, jh.

I usually don't feed the trolls, but jh actually had a worthwhile post at 8:04 pm yesterday (9/27), wrt ND game times. But, he's reverted to his banalism.
Bob, six months ago, I asked if the blogs could possibly be reconfigured to put the poster's handle as the top line, so we could skip over those we know are worthless? Sure would be nice.

You're happy with an average recruiting rating of 45 over the last three years? My...how UW expectations have fallen from days gone past...

With Carroll's teams, the rain hasn't meant much. If they have to run the ball because of a downpour, obviously they have the offense to do it this season. Pray for rain if you have to I guess.

It used to rain quite a bit more than it has in recent years. Maybe it's global warming, maybe it's just a statistical blip. It sure rained in that '81 SC game no matter what their media notes show. All those people weren't wearing plastic bags just for the hell of it.

I think it's sad,people feel they need to count on rain, heat,or what not,so their team might
have a chance to win a game! That's saying, GOD HELP US,we're bad, help!
So with that said, I want to be the frist to say about tomorrows game, embarrassing, wholly crap, great googly moogly, fire the coach, fire the team! Have a nice day!

Bob, was it raining in the 1981 USC game? We had too large a group that day for our block of 10 seats, so two of us volunteered to buy general admission seats. The seats ended up being in the east end bleachers. Not only was it raining heavily at the beginning of the game but the wind was gusting off the lake from behind us and throwing buckets of puddled water up from underneath. It was like sitting in a dishwasher rack with cold water flying from every direction. Sean Salisbury (USC QB and current ESPN analyst) was running for his life most of the game repeatedly getting sacked or throwing 30-yard passes that only traveled about 10 yards and died. The ball was wet, the field was wet and the players were wet. When Danny Green cut loose on that kickoff return for a TD right before halftime, to my recollection, there had been no scoring in the game. Even though it was only a touchdown, it was a death blow. In the second half, the soaking wet Trojan players were on the sidelines to our left huddled on their bench trying to stay warm under blankets and jackets. The rain subsided in the second half, but not the wind. By that time, everybody was soaked and all the USC players could think about was getting home. It was one of the happiest and Huskiest days ever. I've never been so wet in my life, and hardly noticed it until I was walking on the Burke Gillman trail back to the car. My jeans stuck to my legs so that walking was an effort. I wonder what Sean Salisbury remembers about that game?

Pray for rain! What a joke! Pray for better recruiting...know that makes since.

Recruiting has, to date, not been a notable weakness of TW's efforts at UW. He was hired to take over what was then the worst BCS program in America (painful truth) and his "hastily" assembled class of 2005 was mostly composed of unknowns. I doubt that many other coaches could've done significantly better if handed that situation.

The following year (if you believe in the idea that recruiting classes can be finely distinguished) he recruited the Pac-10's 6th best class to a 2-9, 9th place team. Then the year after that (that is, this year's new freshmen) he recruited the Pac-10's 4th best class to a 9th place team. Again all this is if you believe those things can be finely ranked. Or if you're like me, you just look at the reported data on the guys' physical attributes, and look at who else was recruiting them, and come to some very rough estimate of what kind of prospect they likely are. Either way it is pretty clear that 2007>2006>2005.

Our problem to date has not been the recruiting relative to reasonable expectations. We've had several games over the last three years that were there for the taking, regardless of how many "gold stars" or "hit points" or whatever bogus quantifier people want to assign to a high school prospect, we had. We've taken some of them, and dropped some of them. We need to take more of them or TW will be gone. Whoever is coaching the Huskies in 2009, though, will have all the material he needs in terms of players if we get equal or slightly better classes to this last one.

Michigans's Search to UW per Realdawg!!!!

i agree, Dave...but "slightly better"? As in 39th or 37th?

That's all I'll say today about coaches and recruiting. Best of luck against SC.

JH, how are all those blue chippers working out for you over at Notre Dame?

And how in the world do Wisconsin and West Virginia keep winining football games? Not with stellar recruiting.

Go away troll. Only Notre Dame trolls believe that their fake recruiting stars are going to win them any football games.

0-4.

Sure. Equal or slightly better classes would have one Napoleon Kaufman/Reggie Williams/Jake Locker/Kavario Middleton type prospect, surrounded by 15-20 players who have the right size/speed attributes to be developed into solid Pac-10 guys. That's pretty much all we've ever historically gotten, and it's been enough when the in season coaching has been right, regardless of how the recruiting services have "ranked" us.

All of this talk about rain is ridiculous. Both teams have to play in the same conditions. And it is no advantage to UW unless they have been actually practicing in it for the last couple of weeks. The only weather advantage may be wind conditions for which the Dawgs can observe for days prior to the game and know what they can and cannot do relative to the wind patterns on game day.

I am not a newer bandwagon Husky fan. I remember the 8-7 USC game in 1975. I have not missed a Husky game in person or on TV or on the radio for over 30 years. That being said, we can win this game because on any goven day, anything can happen. However, the recent track record leads me to believe this will be a savage beat down, 56-17. I hope that on Sunday morning, every person on this blog can say what an idiot Topdawg was/is. This team is going in the right direction, you simply cannot go from the worst BCS team in the nation to National Champs over night.

One final thought for tomorrows game. I will quote from the movie Miracle and Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) - "I have been going through it in my mind; Johnson of Mikalov, Silk of Petrov, McClanahan on whoeverov; Patty we just don't match up". Miracles can happen, I just don't think that Saturday is the day they will.

Who needs recruiting when you can beat 'em with rain? Here's a little Eric Clapton for you on a Friday morning:

Let it rain, let it rain,
Let your love rain down on me.
Let it rain, let it rain,
Let it rain, rain, rain.

Sing it, boys

I agree with Dave's last comment.

Even during the Don James era we never out-recruited USC or UCLA. We'd get a few top notch guys from California and stack the rest of the team with blue collar, right size and shape guys who wanted to work their a** off and become great football players.

I'd also say no one can rank a recruiting class until they hit the field.

jh, the average fan here doesn't base his entire life (i.e. YOU) on recruiting rankings. You're a broken record. Find a new tune.

The Husky classes in the 80s and early 90s were never ranked that high, yet, we were one of the best teams in the nation/Pac 10. Washington (especially Eastern Washington) prospects have historically never gotten much coverage, and because of that our recruiting rankings have never looked that great. I really, really wish you'd just go away. Seriously. You add NOTHING to the discussions and you personally ruin many people's time on this blog (including me). I'm sick of it.

See you Sunday morning, OlyDawg...when I'm sure you'll be feeling much better...

I truly hope I don't see you here Sunday.

I'm sure you don't...

uw dude the last true rain game at husky stadium was during the 2005 season vs. Oregon State. Alexis Serna single handedly beat us 18-10 with 6 field goals.

I agree with those who say that preseason polls, recruiting class rankings, odds-making, and all such minutiae are what some do when they don't have a real life.

Bottom line? Players play. Coaches coach. Trolls troll. And Huskies win when it rains. Go Dawgs!

Yum...your optimism is infectious!

I lost my urge to even consider the impact of recruiting when the Oakland Raiders had something like 5-7 Heisman winners on their team and couldn't make it to the playoffs year after year with different coaching staffs. Look it up jh! You can take a mid-level recruiting class that will work hard, play hard, develop as a true TEAM, know their assignments and go win (e.g. Boise State). All the five star recuits in the world will not make up for the players pushing one another and playing together. That's why in the Pac-10 anyone can beat anybody on any given day. I said it before on this blog - one of my buddies is a top scout for the Yankees. He watches the young recruiters come with their computers statistically analyzing every aspect of prospect's play, and then they rank them. My buddy does none of that. He looks for general talent and ability in a player and then he looks them square in the eye to measure their desire. If he likes what he sees in their eyes and attitude, he takes them. He doesn't even consider how many stars or ratings they have because he knows the system can mold them into what the team needs. He's been one of the top scouts for years and he would be there in the Yankees organization if his way of recruiting didn't work. The same recruiting system can work for football. Take your stars and ratings and go home!

Let's see, jh, Weiss' five-stars are worse than Ty's 3-stars....certainly slower. And, the 3-stars Ty has at Washington can certainly beat Weiss' all-americas right now.

ND two scoring drives on the season....one of the two was 9 yards.

Credibility is certainly not an issue with jh....just keeps up the obsessive diatribe. Even his plastic "wife" has become disgusted and has gone, leaving him feeling "deflated ."

I have it on no authority, 5 of this season's recruits have decided to decomit; and others will follow.

Can't count on a Trojan to do anything correct so no surprise their media guide is full of s***.
it poured in 1977.
it blew like crazy in 81, wind was the big factor, if it rained it didn't rain much.
I also think it rained in '63 (UW 22 SC 7)

More significantly, though, all those games were in November when the pansy Trojans shivered on the sidelines, anxious to go home. Lately they have been successful in making sure they play here in September or early October when they're merely a little cold.

god, it would be great to send them home with a loss. probably won't happen but let's go early and yell loud

I don't know why any of us bother to repond to anyone with jh's obviously superior intelect. He keeps riding the class rankings of TW and what else is there to say? Since he is so much smarter than the rest of us and keeps referring to our glorious past classes and how the mighty have fallen. Maybe he can tell us all about those past class rankings that led to a national championship. I would be very interested in someone of his extreme intelect elabortaing on how our mighty Huskies have fallen so far with TW at the helm. And then I would like him to compare for us other D1 teams that had such poor records and how their new coaches came in and put together top 10 recruiting classes immediatley. So jh, please enlighten the rest of us ignorant human beings.

Hahaha. Couldn't have put it better myself.

I know the 1975, 1977, and 1983 USC-UW games had rain.

In 1981 we had winds that closed the 520 bridge. Marcus Allen was basically the USC team. When Fred Small got his touchdown to wrap up the game hundreds of garbage sacks used as rain gear floated out of the stadium from the wind.

Also it was the 1983 game that had Ron Holmes sacking Sean Salisbury and Danny Greene's punt return.

We won all four of those games but we also beat USC here in 1990 when it was 90+ degrees.

How many of the players on either team were born the last time it rained during a UW-USC Seattle game? Doubt even they know, or even care. What is important now is playing four quarters of football - enough of these three and outs; defense cannot continue to hold the fort - we need the offense to get serious and move the ball in the second half.