3 quarterbacks is not enough. Anyone remember 06'? Stanback, Bonnell and Durocher all injured and it resulted in the most humiliating defeat in our history (Stanford). Oregon is going to be head hunting Jake, and Fouch could go down at any moment if he's put in.
There's not much we can do about it but worry though.

..."with Demitrius Bronson unable to enroll at the moment"...

...moment?...how about 6-months from now...if then...

Bob, I thought Blackman, Noble, and Bronson were the only ones with enrollment issues right now. From your post, it sounds like there are a total of five (?). Who are the other two?

A person in my neighborhood has a little dog that yaps at anything. He is very annoying. I don't know his name, but I think I will call him "jh".

27 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, nevermind. Mangum and Polk are the two. Read your post wrong. Got it.

Oregon must be crushed!!! Just so your yappy neighbor dog jh will CHILL!!! There is a real possibility that next year the Huskies will have the experience and talent to challenge for the league if we can just have a decent season.

Bob, Thanks for the Sunday updates

Looking forward to your updates and stories to keep us posted as practice gets underway. Hopefully being granted full access at day one is a sign that TW is changing a few things for the better.

Will you have much access to interview players during the next 3 weeks? I think it would be great to hear from more and more of them about who they are connecting with and what their personal goals are. It also gives them a nice shout out in the paper which they can take pride in.

Anyway, I'll bide my time by watching Puma's Youtube vids until gameday. Oregon is about to get put in their place.

I guess I will be eating crow. Not ocunting Aguilar and Boyles as they were signed with the prior class, in this class I figured we would only see 3 or maybe 4 guys play. I was think Polk, Middleton, 1 DL (either Noble or the RB guy...looks not like Noble at this point) and maybe, just maybe, 1 other guy.

Looks like I was way off. Too bad. It would be nice to redshirt as many of these guys as possible.

The Real question is, when will the Huskies have another winning season? Or go to a bowl game?.......Not for a very long time!! You will be playing Wazzu for the Pac 10 cellar every year!!

I will be shocked, and I mean SHOCKED, if any of the incoming freshmen outside of Polk (and only because I think he's gone in two years) play this year, they are just not prepared for this level.

Besides, if we don't have enough quality people to play with our Sr. Jr. So. and RS Fr. currently on the roster and an incoming HS Sr. is better than anyone we already have - then I say that we are all blowing smoke out our asses when we predict 6-9 wins.

Reggie Bush's just don't fall out of the tree every year and they sure as heck haven't been falling in Seattle for the past 7 years!!

"They are just not prepared for this level."

Says who? You? Believe it or not when players step on the field they don't wear their age on their back. They either step up and make plays or they don't. The ones who do should play, the ones who don't should redshirt.

Freshmen make an impact in the Pac-10 every year. Heck the nation's leading receiver was a freshman, Reggie Bush, DeSean Jackson, Brent Price (UCLA DT), Alteraun Verneur, Taylor Mays, Michael Bumpus, Omar Bolden, Willie Tuitama -- the list goes on and on.

bainbridge---what the heck kind of comment is "and Fouch could go down at any moment if he's put in." Gee, with an attitude like that why should anyone play this great game at all. Fouch is ready to play and I can't wait to watch him. None of our Huskies bow down to anyone! These young men know the risks and are prepared for battle. Have a great season Dawgs!

Neuheisel got ripped to no end for his 7 receiver class. Now look what Tyrone is leaving for the next coach:

Logan
Boyles
Aguilar
Polk
Kearse
Bruns

6 receivers likely to be in the same class. Thanks Tyrone. The new coach will be saddled with your recruiting errors for the next 4 years.

WhyDoYouHateFreshmen -

Sorry to imply that I don't like freshmen, I was one on a couple of occassions (HS and College) - so no, thats not the case.

You made my point well though using the examples of Bush, Mays, Jackson. I said we havn't seen those type of players in Seattle in a LONG time. We could have in Mays but he chose to go to USC.

I recognized that Polk would probably play as a freshman, but I also believe that he will be gone before his Sr. year too. It is just my opinion that we won't see any of the other freshmen "playing".

Yes, two years ago, Jake was suited and ready to go, but Ty did not let him burn his RS year for one game. If he resisted doing that with an athlete as good as Jake, I sure as heck don't see him changing his routine for any one else.

That's just my opinion.

John Q, the 6 WRs you listed were divided between two classes, not one. Even though Boyles and Logan didn't make it in until last winter, the intention was still to spread them out. They are still an extra year removed from high school and practiced for spring ball. Polk was also in for spring ball so he actually counts against the 2007 class.

Boyles (2007/2008)
Logan (2007)
Aguilar (2007/2008)
Kearse (2008)
Polk (2007-counts against 2007 class b/c he enrolled early)
Bruns (2008)

Please know what you're talking about before you criticize. Many thanks in advance.

john Q, don't be a shmuck. The Weasel didn't get slammed for recruiting 7 receivers in 1 class. He got slammed for not recruiting linemen, focusing on recruiting skilled players, and letting the NW talent go to other schools. I also like how you threw Boyles and Agular in your list to distort the recruiting list. You know as well as everybody else on this board that both were recruited and signed in '07, not '08.

I was thinking about Chris Polk.

Anyone on here remember the circumstances about how Jacques Robinson ended up as our starting RB as a freshman? If I recall, he was not very high on the depth chart at the start of fall practice that year. Also, was he a true freshman or a RS that year?

I am getting excited about the season. Although I am not looking forward to all the Ty Haters telling how we should have fired him two years ago.

I know exactly which classes all of these guys are in brickman and Fan.

They didn't all come in together, but it looks like they will all end up playing this year as Freshman (yes, some are RS, some are straight out of HS, and some are true freshman an extra year removed from HS).

The point is, why in the world is there not a single scholarship WR or RB who is a Jr. or Sr. ?

Oh wait. Yes, there is former walk on Charles Hawkins who may be on scholarship as a WR, but he is not expected to really play.

So there you go. All freshmen and sophomores at the WR and RB positons in year 4 of a rebuild.

John Q, that is your point? not much of one at all. Feel free to actually address Rick was criticized rather than going on your 6 and 7 receiver trip (which is fallacious anyways). I'll remind you:

He got slammed for not recruiting linemen, focusing on recruiting skilled players, and letting the NW talent go to other schools.

You can try to argue that the class is young, but you can't argue that it lacks balance. Balance is the key difference between Ty and the Weasel. It took Ty 3 years to get the Oline back to recovery, which was much bigger issue than recruiting sufficient WRs. But now he has plenty of those as well.

To change the subject for a moment. I wonder why UW hasn't offered a scholarship to Eric Smiley? He seems like a natural fit for the Huskies on the defensive line.

As practice starts today, I can see this team going 8-4, or 4-8.

I see this team going anywhere between 2-1 to 0-3 in the first 3 games, with 1-2 or 0-3 obviously being most likely.

Obviously it would be hard to get to better than 6-6 if we start 0-3.

But with my imperfect memory, I think back to the 1989 team a lot when I think about this team. That team, I thought, was young and going through a lot of growing pains. It was a team coming off the first non-bowl trip for UW since the late 1970s, but was still full of a lot higher rated recruiting classes than this one. And when all was said and done, that team was full of defensive studs who went on to dominate by the end of the season and the following two seasons. (I don't think this team is full of such defensive studs).

But that team started 1-4 apparently. They finished with a 6 game winning streak. They dominated UF in ther bowl game, holding Emmit Smith to under 30 yards.

The growing pains they were going through included changing defensive schemes and trying to revamp the roster with a different sort of player - mainly smaller and faster on defense. It was a bit of an identity change, and a team that was stepping all over itself trying to find itself the first 5 games of the season.

This team, I think is poised to do the same. Obviously there is no guarantee they are going to grow into themselves and be scaring the crap out of their opponents by the halfway point of the season.

But I have seen it before and if we are competitive (but still winless) by week 4 with this schedule, I don't think it is time to throw in the towel.

Two things.

First of all Ducks will win,

If you think that Washington will not be one of the top 3 teams in the conference next year you're crazy. And I don't care who the coach is. If you look at how young we are at several different positions I think you will see how many returning starters we are going to have next year. In comparison teams like USC and your team are going to have heavy losses to graduation. I mention this because the opportunity for Oregon to win something in the PAC-10 was last year and this year. You didn't do it last year and I think it will be very difficult for you to win it this year with USC being what they are. In short, your team did what it always does. Comes close in October but doesn't win anything meaningful by the end of the season.

NC Husky,

I couldn't agree more. And the thing I am really not looking forward to is the very real possibility that we start 0-3. There are going to be so many people screaming for Ty's head if that is the case. But I also think that after starting 0-3 we could very well be 4-3. I think to make any type of statement before week 7 about the direction of the program would be a premature. Even if we start 3-0 or 0-3. But I know there are going to be a ton of people who are going to anyway.

Listening to Ty haters, and Ty's blind disciples sucks equally. One's not better than the other. Most of us are somewhere in between. The others don't matter.

I'm thinking the dawgs will start 1 - 2. They will probably lose to Oklahoma and Oregon, but beat up on BYU. If either the Ducks and/or the Sooners aren't prepared, I could see the dawgs taking them down as well.

But going 1 - 2 into Stanford and AZ is not a bad place to be, and those two games could set up the rest of the season nicely for UW.

BT, I hear you on that, but I just despise it when people try to make something an issue that shouldn't be one.

The Senior class was actually signed by Gilby. Willingham was at ND at the time yet he did bring in Hawkins who is a RS-SR now and he won a scholarship.

The JR class was Willingham's very abbreviated 2005 class. It was small and I imagine WIllingham/staff didn't feel in the less than two months they had before signing day that there was a WR they could sign who merited an offer.

The 2006 class has D'Andre Goodwin, a RS-Soph. He could be a JR if they had decided not to RS him. Willingham/staff actually signed two WRs as the 2nd one was JC Marcel Reece.

John Q, you can make a stink about Baer or the 2nd half issues but don't blame Willingham the many WRs in the 2007 and 2008 class.

clinton, weren't you talking yesterday about Oregon getting punked? Now you say it is a probable loss?

I liked the punked thought a lot more.

I'm with you on that HFNY. I'm just a little bit irritated with both factions. For me it's not about TW. The program is what's important, not TW. When the disciples come in and try to pretend that they're better than the haters, it just makes me want to slap them both.

On to football. I am excited about the young receivers. I think the first few games could be difficult for them, but I think they'll come around very quickly. Just a shot in the dark (cause like you guys , I haven't seen these guys play either) I'm looking for Bruns, and Kearse to be early contributers. I guess I see those guys as the solid, dependable ones. I'm expecting Gottlieb to get the start (TE) at UO, but I think he'll be challenged by the time we get to game three. The way Lappano was mentioning the new RB's didn't say much for Yak, and Griffin. That was kind of puzzling to me. He thought 3 QB's were sufficient, but BJ, Yak, and Griffin at RB aren't sufficient? Did you guys read that the same way I did?

Don't count the Huskies out yet. With such low expectations around them from fans, and nothing to lose, they may pull together an unexpectedly good season. They are going to lose some games. But if they pull together and don't give up, they can still salvage a winning season while laying more than a foundation for change.

Well Molly Yanity said that Brandon Yakabowski is looking good and maybe he'll be the #2 back (she also said that some in the program think Brandon Johnson should've worked harder in the off-season though).

Don't sleep on Michael Gottlieb. TEs are WRs too and he's a RS-SR who caught 12 balls last year and that should go up. Plus, Homer is now a true JR and a vet.

The experience of our WRs isn't ideal but at least we have experience at TE and FB to help in the short and intermediate passing game.

I know I said earlier that I did not think we'd see true Fr. playing this year but I may have been wrong. Doesn't this statement scare the hell out of anyone else but me when Lappano says:

"It's absolutely critical that we don't waste a day of practice with this many kids we are counting on to play for us...''

"the learning curve is going to be night and day for all of these freshmen compared to what it's been in high school.''

They are COUNTING on MANY Freshmen playing this year for them. I am a Dawg Lover, but I did not see that statement coming. Please excuse me for backpeddling, but if that is truly the case, I want to offically change my prediction of 7-8 wins th 4-6 wins.

We might have gotten away with sprinkling the field a couple of Fr. on a few plays a game, but "counting on many" of them? - Yikes!!

At the end of last season while listening to Husky Honks, I heard, Hugh Millen talk about a new rb recruit who had committed to the UW. Hugh spoke glowingly about this kid saying things like; man among boys, we have on one like him, runs downhill etc. Does anyone remember who he was talking about?

BT,

Yes I am surprised about the incoming FS RBs getting such a strong look in Lappano's eye in today's story. But I think that in Saturday's story Bob projected Yak and Griffin to make pushes for a fair amount of playing time.

I know you and 206dogg have spoken highly of Yak on this board before, and i was impressed by Griffin in the spring game, so I was thinking we would see and hear a lot about them in the next few weeks.

So yes, I noticed.

By the way, I like your term Ty-disciple to describe "blind supporters." I wonder if that is to signify that there are only 12 left?

..."The program is what's important, not TW."...

...then why have a head coach at all?...oh, you don't...

id say ATLEAST 5 freshman will get plenty of PT. were to thin in areas for them not to play and id assume that was a major factor in them choosing the udub

I saw Molly's comment on BJ. A little disappointing to hear. I hope he turns out to be as good as he thinks he is, but he still has a lot to prove. Hope he can get it done.

I really like Gottlieb. I thought he showed some good things last year. I just think that by game three, the competition at that position is going to be fierce. Gottlieb, Izbicki, Savant, and Middleton. That would be fun to watch.

Onewood, I don't see anyway around playing the true freshmen this year. I think if Jake, and the O-line are strong, the receivers, and RB's will be fine after they figure out what's going on. It'll take a while as you know, but they'll get there. I like Lappano's enthusiasm when it comes to the talent of the young guys.

FG, my comments on Yak came from the fact that he was the guy the coaches seemed to be impressed with early last fall. After following the comments over the last year, it seemed that what they were talking about with Yak, may have been that he was more of a complete back at that time. Lappano said that he might have the best hands on the team. Not the best hands of the RB's, but on the team. They may also have been talking about his willingness to block. Anyhow, I hope he's healthy, and we get a chance to see what he can do.

matysimone-

From reading Lappano's article above, that number could be much higher. That's alot of freshmen. That is really not something I was expecting to hear, excluding Polk (just because I don't think we'll see him after his Jr. year).

Freshmen (Rookies) hardly ever make that big of an impact at any level; HS, College or Pro.
"Counting" on "Many" Freshmen this season is of GREAT concern to me.

My preseason prediction of 7-8 wins was based on the returning players we had. I was hoping for 12-0, expecting 7-5 or 8-4, but my expectations have just dropped significantly. I'm still rooting for 12-0 but am now expecting 4-8 to 6-6.

AudieDawg:

Since nobobdy answered your question about Jacque - he was a true freshman, running with the scout team. DJ (watching from his tower) felt he should be given a chance to compete based on how he'd been practicing.

FG:
The '89 team you mentioned actually started 2-0 and then lost three straight, before recovering and winning 6 of their last 7. It was during the BYE week following a lost at home to ASU that the Huskies made the decision to become more of an attacking defense.

mfsthorn,

Thanks. That's sort of what I remembered but I'm getting old and my memory isn't what it was once upon a time.

Wasn't he playing a USC tailback on those sweeps (stiudent body left and student body right) and our first team defense couldn't stop him?

Would it not be terrific if some of these freshmen can step up like that for us this year?

MFS --- Good answers. Jacque actually barely played at all until late in the season, when he kind of took over the job, Cookie Jackson was also a TB on those teams and had a big game in the Apple Cup that secured the Rose Bowl for that team.

And you are right on about what happened in 1989.