Husky Football Blog

What's most surprising to me is that UCLA is known to be cheap with head coaches and assistants yet they paid their DC $150k more than the UW last year. Either way, Walker would be a nice get (assuming that the Orgeron "guarantee" isn't real...).

To contrast Bob's link, here is one from a group of UCLA alumni favoring Neuheisel:

http://www.bruinsnation.com/story/2007/12/27/1114/4058

I had heard from a few that there was pressure from some boosters in favor of Neuheisel, and this seems to echo that.

washington has made all the right moves since the season ended starting with keeping ty and losing todd and kent

walker could be the next great move

Getting rid of Baer was not the right decision. Why? Oh, well let me tell you...

Why doesn't Kent Baer get the same excuses that Willingham did? He's only been here 3 years, why didn't HE get the chance to implement HIS system? He needs STABILITY.

Baer and Simmons were the scapegoats. To make excuses for Ty but not for them is to have a complete double standard. Willingham has a proven mediocre track record. If he wins 8 next year, you'll all be proclaiming that he needs an extension. Then, when he starts winning 6-7 games a year again, you'll be fine with it.

Welcome to the New Husky Football: please check your high expectations at the door and accept mediocrity.

11-25 Overall
6-20 vs Pac-10
1-8 vs NW Schools

The buck stops with Ty.

Congratulations to Jellodog (12:03)! You are now the official counterpoint to Meathead on the basketball blog! You offer nothing, say nothing of use, and insult UW, us, and most of all your own intelligence!
So, congratulations, as I'm sure all of that is by your design. Success!

MelloDawg,

Take a look at Frank Beamer's record the last 15 years at Va. Tech.: 15 straight bowl games. This year, his 21st, they go to the Orange Bowl with #6 national ranking. Now take a look at Beamer's record his first six seasons and compare that to Ty. Beamer's first 3 years were no better than Ty. Beamers next 3 actually got worse. You would have Beamer fired after his 3rd year. We can speculate on whether another coach would have achieved the same success (I personally doubt it) but we do know for a fact that allowing Beamer the time to build a program has paid off immensely. You might also compare the head coaching debut of Steve Spurrier at Duke with that of Ty at Stanford. Bottom line: Ty Willingham is a great coach who could have gone anywhere but he came into a horrible situation (and his coaching record suffers as a result of that fact, and that fact alone), and he is turning it around. I for one am extremely grateful for what the man has done for my alma mater. By the way, where did you go to college?

Everett fan, how is MelloDawg having a different opinion and pointing out a different point of view being insulting?
I too, agree that it is somewhat odd(firing a DC and STC w/out getting much of a chance to get correct players, etc for the system), but maybe the U is looking to try and get better rather than stand pat.
Besides, the DC and STC don't have multi-year contracts like the head coach do they? Who knows, maybe since next season is Ty's final in his contract, maybe the U will let him go, and try and get better.

Word is Walker's contract may be worth 1.2 mill. Wow Emmert is really giving TW everything he wants. 600,000 a yr? He's getting paid like an NFL coordinator. Good job by the TW and the University. Lets see if UCLA panics and hires Walker.

Missoulamarinerfan,

The problem with Mellodog is that he is repeatedly disingenuous (he doesn't REALLY think Baer should not have been fired). So his opinion is not to be as respected.

-Bread

Mellodawg, you are obviously NOT a Husky fan. If you honestly believe what you write, you are probably the most uninformed, idiotic "fan" that I know. Have you ever followed college football, EVER? Look at almost every school and you will find that at least some point in time, Head Coaches have fired assistants for lack of production and performance. As leader of the team/organization, the head coach is ultimately to blame for the short comings of the team. If there is an area of obvious lack the head coach is responsible for correcting that issue. To fire an assistant for a lack of production in an area that the assistant is responsible is very logical. Why else have specific position coaches and coordinators. According to your logic or lack thereof, you just need 1 coach for the whole team. I mean assistant coaches are not the head coach so they should not be held to a different standard, right? I mean if they fail heck its the head coaches fault not mine even though I can't coach. This is your lame logic. Plus head coaches, believe it or not, do have other responsibilities such as handling recruiting, boosters, compliance issues, facilities, interviews, speaking engagements, fundraising, academic progress, personal player issues, parents of players and oh wait, coaching!

Baer obviously was not the right fit even though he may or may not be a good coach. 2 out of 3 of his defenses ranked #1 & #2 worse is UW history. If Ty did NOT fire Baer, he would not be doing his job right and not making the best decisions for all the stakeholders of the UW program. Without any bias, the special teams were awful and so was the lack of TE production. This was another obvious area of concern. Both troubled areas can be attributed to one coach (Simmons) so he was also let go. This is just how it works.

Bellotti had great success at Oregon when he had Tedford. When Tedford left for Cal, he hired another O-Coordinator and his wins went down and Oregon had a losing season. Bellotti eventually fired that O-Coordinator after a believe 2 years and hired Gary Crowton, who turned them around before the bolted for Lsu after 1 year. But Bellotti made a hire that didn't work and it hurt his teams production. Should he have fired himself and the O-Coordinator after that losing season. Using your logic, it was Bellotti's fault and not his ineffective O-Coordinator, right?? Instead being an effective leader he made a tough decision to fire the O-Coordinator and hired another one that did work.

ucla would hire walker as hc because they don't want the huskies to have him. with the talent we are bringing in now and with a real d-coord,we will be battling usc for pac-10 championships. i hope the bruins go with sentiment and hire ricky.

Before I jump on the Walker bandwagon, please give me some reasons why he is the guy. What have his defenses at UCLA done? I can't recall any powerhouse bruin defenses in th elast few years, and they clearly have a recruiting advantage. Any stat guys that can show me th enumbers? I didn't realize how bad Baer was until I saw the data. Just concerned that we are goiong with Baer-lite.

At first, I was dreading having to see R.N. on the sidelines for UCLA, and having to play him every year. But now, the trade off is worth it--I hope he goes to UCLA and we get Walker. I think Walker will be a huge get for us.

And as far as paying Lappano the equivalent, that would be absurd. Some questionable play calling last year, but looked better than '06 due to Locker making things happen with his legs. In 2006, I was the largest proponent of getting rid of Timmy. At this point, he is paid very fairly. Shouldn't get a dime more.

Here is to hoping we continue our off the field successes--Letting go the A.D. and the D-Coordinator/ST Coaches, getting solid recruiting, and adding Walker would be the cherry on the Sundae!

Eugene Husky

i would say the positives of walker are as follows:

he has strong ties in cali, will be great for recruiting

watching him on the sidelines at the bowl game he appears to be a firey coach, the opposite of ty, which i think will be great to have one of each

he knows the pac 10 already, so he wont have to adapt to it

he knows ucla, which will be a plus for the next 3 years

he has put together a couple of great years at ucla, really hard to judge this year b/c of the horrendous offense they had with a fourth string qb for uch of the year, along with other offensive injuries

after watching the BYU game i thought the UCLA defense had what i wished washington had which was confidence, attitude, and just a little cockyness.

the UCLA defense played to get a 3 and out or a turnover while the washington D played to not let them score which the opponnet did so often

I'm not a fan of acting like an insider. But I know for a fact that TW has hired Alex Wood as the new TEs coach. I'm not sure if he's also going to do STs. But he will be in charge of the TEs. I believe he is currently on the Arkansas staff and will be joining Washington after their bowl game.

To me, Tight end upgrade is crucial to the success of our team. There were so many times that Jake could have dumped off quick to a tight end over the middle and that would have slowed down the blitz. As for Kirton, I think the only guy that has been a bigger disappointment recently was Chambers. He just doesn't seem to have the work ethic to get the job done. It's a shame to see someone with his athletic ability waste it.

The last time that tight ends were Alex Woods responsibility was twenty years ago at WSU. It looks like he followed Erickson around for awhile and spent most of his career as an offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator. Very interesting for Lappano's career maybe.

Thanks bob to the powder blue blog.
they sound a million times more desparate than we did after the arizona game. physically threatening each other. and they are clueless. not happy with neuweasel or walker. they think the search should be opened up to the mater dei h.s. coach! or gary barnett?!?
wow. more money than sense for that crew.
what i'm feeling good about is leadership at the top. president emmert is pulling the right strings. offering walker two years knowing ucla only gives one year contracts for assistants.
this shaping up for a perfect storm to benefit uw. if the ucla ad succumbs to allumni pressure and hire rick, walker is ours and hopefully brings their rb coach and a couple recruits. which is also working against ucla by not finding a coach before the loi date.
there was a repeated comment about a decision to be made by orgeron tomorrow. any word on this bob?

If Walker doesn't work out, how about an ex-Husky - Duane Akina? Co-defensive coordinator at Texas. I was just noticing him during the Holiday Bowl........http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com/pages/staff/akina_bio.html

Texas gave up a school-record in total yards this season. There is talk of Akina being fired. Do you really want him here? Sounds exactly like the guy UW just fired

If Walker stays at UCLA, either as the HC or DC, what about Duane Akina, Texas' co-defensive coordinator as a candidate for our DC job? He played QB at UW, so there's a strong link here.

duane akina was an asshole when he was here, didn't speak a whit of English, 2nd-grade quarterback, and he's not done a very good job at Texas this year.

Ron English or DeWayne Walker are was better choices than DA.

Seems like we have all made our mind up. Why not
talk with the top five DC in the country, interview the ones we can , if we have the money
that we are talking about steal them away. Works
all the time.

Brad,
Good catch on Texas total D. I saw the rushing D stats looked good but missed the total which was not so good. Back to the drawing board!