Saturday, June 13, 2009

HISTORY ON DAWG'S SIDE - Huskies will turn tide on Cougars


With the signing of Nick Montana (Joe's son) by the Washington Husky football team and then the arrest of two Washington State football players last week, we once again see the Huskies sitting on top and the Cougars in the dawg house. The Huskies were the worst team in college football last year and the Cougars were a close second, but with this major signing and two major arrests we see one programing getting better and the other...well as Husky fans would put it, they are "Couging it". As we have seen throughout history, the Washington State football will always live in the shadow of the Huskies. Yeah they will have a few winning seasons but overall the Huskies will always prevail. The Huskies seem to tease Cougar fans like Lucy teases Charlie Brown, they think maybe this is our time. Yes, I know the cougars have won four of the last five Apple Cups but the tide is once again turning and history will once again repeat itself. Watch out cougars because you have had your 15 minutes of fame.

8 Historical Reasons Why Husky Football Will Once Again Outshine Cougar Football

1. 64 Apple Cup Wins
Cougar fans want to look at a piece of the pie as opposed to looking at the whole pie. The Huskies have dominated the Apple Cup series throughout history. In Fact in every decade the Huskies have won more Apple Cup games then the Cougars.

2. Streaks of 8 Consecutive Wins In The Apple Cup
The Huskies have won 8 consecutive Apple cups two times in history while the Cougars have never won more than two games in a row. So expect 2010 to be another Husky win and a Coug streak stopper.

3. Coaching History
The Huskies come from a long line of winning coaches. The late Jim Owens and Don James set a high standard for Husky football winning over 70 percent of their games. No Cougar football coach since 1950 has been over 55 percent. Winning is expected at Washington. In fact even the slickest Husky coach won games, tell that to Paul Wulff.

4. Lean Years Not That Lean
Even in the years since Don James (1992-present) retired, the Huskies have still won over 50 percent of their games. In these "lean years" the Huskies also won a National title and went 10-7 in Apple Cups. The cougar lean years...well...2009 was not unusual.

5. Recruiting
As the Nick Montana signing shows, the Huskies have always been able to out recruit the Cougars. Historically it was a no brainer where the top recruits would go on the West Coast, USC, UCLA and Washington. Washington State picked up the left overs and those from Eastern Washington. Even in the last 10 years the Huskies have out recruited the Cougs. According to Scout.com since 2002, Washington's recruiting class has ranked 4.7 in the Pac-10 and WSU has ranked a measly 7.7. The Huskies in fact have ranked at least 3rd in the Pac-10 5 times over that period while WSU only once. Just face it Cougar fans you can't out recruit the Huskies unless of course if you somehow move out of Pullman.

6. Academics
The Huskies have set a high academic standard that ranks fourth in the PAC-10 in the APR (Academic Progress Rate). The Cougars on the other hand rank last and have had sanctions placed against them. This definitely has played into the off field troubles that the Cougars have gotten into in the last few years (at least 25 players have been arrested or charged with offenses that carry possible jail time, court records show). History shows that for the most part Huskies stay out of trouble and graduate.

7. Titles
Huskies have won 15 Pac-10 titles and 1 National Championship. The Cougars have won only 4 total titles. So the odds and history tell us that the Huskies will win another title before the Cougs.

8. Understanding Success
Even the best Cougar team could not beat the Huskies. The 3rd ranked Cougs of 2003 lost the Apple Cup to an average UW team. The Cougars just don't understand how to handle success like the Huskies do. For example the best Husky team of 1991 demolished the Cougars 56 to 21. The Huskies know how to win and are use to being on top, they have won 653 games, 200 more than the Cougars.

If history is any indication of future success then the Washington Huskies will once again be on top of the Pac-10 and the Cougars..well, just watch a few reruns of Charlie Brown.

12 comments:

  1. Sigh...as usual, a delusional Husky has: Overlooked key facts; Given factually incorrect information to support his case; Let unreasonable and unfounded arrogance shine through. Let's take these one by one.

    1) Overlooked Key facts: The Huskies have won 25, count them 25 games since the beginning of the 2002 season. That's when this next school year's seniors were in the 5th grade. So, to kids around the country, the UW is a school that has won 25 games (fewer than most of these kids HS teams win their JR and SR years combined) since they were 11...not the foundation of showing recruits blinding success. Yes, they are having some success this year, but, MOST of said success is coming with recruits from the greater Seattle-Tacoma area. The UW will always be the big school in Western Washington, and will therefore pull the majority of the college-bound football players from that area. But, beyond that, past UW success means little to nothing to these seniors. Newsflash...none of these kids were even born when the Huskies had their glory days in the early 90s. As for recruiting success...and I quote "According to Scout.com since 2002, Washington's recruiting class has ranked 4.7 in the Pac-10 and WSU has ranked a measly 7.7"...and yet the Cougs have had a better record EVERY season in that time.

    More to come...

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  2. Huskies outrecruit the Cougs almost every year and will continue to outrecruit the Cougs. That being said...you mention that during that time the Cougs had a better record which is true but lets just take a look at how much better they were in the Pac-10:

    2008 UW 0-9 WSU 1-8 (1 game, both bad)
    2007 UW 2-7 WSU 3-6 (1 game, both bad)
    2006 UW 3-6 WSU 4-5 (1 game, both bad)
    2005 UW 1-7 WSU 1-7 (tie, both bad)
    2004 UW 0-8 WSU 3-6 (3 games, both bad)

    So you see WSU won only 5 more games in 5 years and never won more than 4 games in the Pac-10. Plus 3 of those 5 years the Cougs slighly out recruited the Huskies. So in the years that the Cougs out recruit the Huskies (which we know is few and far between) they can't even finish in the top half of the Pac-10 and barley beat the Huskies. So you might say that even the BEST class of Cougars still have trouble winning and barley beating the Huskies.

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  3. Continued from earlier...

    2) Given factually incorrect information: The Huskies won their title in 1991, not 1992. The 3rd ranked Cougs lost in 2002, not 2003. And, by saying 2010 will be a streak stopper, does Coach concede the 2009 AC to the Cougs...sweet! Ahem--try doing a little bit better research next time, Mr. Blog starter. And finally, the biggie...

    3) Let unreasonable and unfounded arrogance to shine through. Where to begin with this one..?

    Nick Montana- If his last name was Smith he would be the 40th ranked QB in what is a universally agreed by analysts to be a very weak QB class. His arm strength is average at best, his mobility, and overall athleticism likewise. Where he shines through is in his intelligence and "intangibles". Well, his intangibles ‘are’ his last name, and as for his intelligence...let's just see how intelligent he is when a 240 lb linebacker is coming at him with the intention of ripping his head off at the next level. Methinks these might take a hit (literally) at the next level.

    The Past- I like that this was posted on the retro blog, very symbolic...cuz that's all Huskies have. The past decade has not been kind to the UW, so as the typical Husky you dwell on successes nearly 20 years old. The Husky success of the 2000's? After the graduation of Marques Tuiasosopo it came on a couple of Saturdays playing the Cougs. Playing an entire season for one game...AWESOME! And, re: the Husky success in the Don James era; that is what I like to refer to in History (funny that word keeps coming up when referring to the UW) class, it was the result of the proverbial perfect storm. USC was down, and James & the Tyee crowd took full advantage in helping their professional--er, sorry-- their amateur players out of all sorts of problems...be they financial, legal, whatever. Point: It wasn't the cleanest program that was having success in the early 90s. Which makes it even sadder that you brought up:

    Arrests- Rape/murder and burying thereof in the early '00s trump alleged bike stealing, so let's not bring up the criminal rate of both programs for your sake.

    Overall Husky mentality- The UW-WSU rivalry is the biggest in college football when it comes to income disparity (and it aint even close). The UW has twice the resources than WSU at it's disposal, it had better see more overall success. With these resources, I hope the Huskies have bigger aspirations than simply overtaking the Cougs. With the available resources, there is no excuse-none- for the Huskies to not be a year-in year-out contender for the Pac 10. So, will the Huskies stay down where they are forever? Probably not. They are in too big of a city and have too many resources at their disposal for that to likely happen. But, will they ever reach their early 90’s success? Well, let me answer that question with a question: Has Notre Dame ever reached their success celebrated in the 1970s? No…and UW is no Notre Dame. And, I will finish with this...three years ago when thinking about the UW’s future I said they would never become a perennial bottom dweller; now I am saying it probably won't happen.

    In the end, I don’t know why I took the time to fill out this extended response, as it will undoubtedly fall on deaf ears as that is the Husky way: Block out any facts that might possibly suggest we are not the greatest institution in the history of the world.

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  4. Coach- I like how you conveniently omitted 2002 and 2003, but I'll play it your way, we'll just talk about the years you listed:

    1.5 games a year better in the Pac 10 is significant when considering the inherent advantages the UW has... and also remember that you are the one that brought up the fact that the Huskies get better talent. It was a bad argument. Plus, a W is a W in college football, so let's look beyond the Pac 10 for wins each program was able to produce...

    2004- WSU 1 more OOC win= 4 more total wins
    2005- WSU 2 more OOC wins= 2 more total wins
    2006- tied at 2-1 OOC record= 1 more total win
    2007- WSU 1 more OOC win= 1 more total win (Huskies even played more games...sigh)
    2008- 1 more OOC win--against the mighty Vikings of Portland State--2 more total wins

    The only year in that span that UW had a tougher OOC schedule was 2008. Otherwise, WSU played a schedule similar to UW to the tune of 10 more total wins...with state inferior talent. Is this the part where you blame Ty Willy?

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  5. All right..so first off before you start to question my information you better check your facts (In my original post I mention the title team as the 1991 Huskies not 92' as you claim), but regardless lets clarify why I chose certain years. I chose the cutoff at 2004 because I didn't want to open a can of worms. I chose it because those would have been the guys responsible for the next 5 years and to be fair I wanted to look at periods not including when each had their best team. But since you brought it up lets go back a bit further shall we.

    First off lets throw out out of conference schedules because we know that everyone schedules a couple of puff cakes and the Huskies out of conference schedule is most years tougher. So lets stick with the common games of both teams...I think that is fair. So here is how it would break down:

    Pac-10 Wins
    2008-2003 WSU 18 wins UW 10 wins (not good for both teams)
    2004-2000 UW 21 wins WSU 21 wins (The huskies were equal to the Cougs even when we include WSU's BEST team EVER)

    now lets go back to 1992 (just a year after the Huskies National Title, we won't include the best Husky team like we did for the Cougs earlier):

    1999-1992 UW 43 wins WSU 26 wins

    If keep going back it gets worse. So my point is that even in the down years the Huskies are still not that much worse then the Cougs but in the good years they are MUCH better then the below average Coug teams. History will show that again here in a few years.

    Okay now in regards to your comments on the off field trouble. I must say 27 incidents over the past 2 years (not including the Wulff sanctions) is something to worry about and I would love for you to point out 27 violations this DECADE that were committed by Huskies.

    About Montana, he could have gone anywhere. In fact he could have gone to a better passing school but he chose the UW. He will play in the NFL and I am not sure when the next WSU qb will.

    Cougar fans need to quit crying about resource, you are in the Pac-10 with the big boys...maybe the Cougars would be better suited for the D-II or D-III. I am sure the Cougs would be more competitive.

    thanks for your comments Pritch. always fun to beat up on a Coug...lol

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  6. OOC DO matter, and from ’04-’08 the two schools have actually had very comparable OOC schedules. I’m not going to go through team-by-team (again…did it and it was deleted), but I’m sure you will look it up and disagree. When you do, then I’ll go through it team-by-team and argue it with you.


    Crimes- Kids in college do really dumb things. If you took a random sample of 100 college kids and tracked them over a 3-year period, I’m guessing you would see about 15-20 offenses among that group with similar offenses to what the Cougar football players have been doing. Besides, these misdemeanors pale in comparison to the shenanigans under James and Neuweasel.


    Montana- If he makes the NFL, it will be as a third-stringer. In fact, I really like the guy the Cougs got last year, Jeff Tuel, and am betting he will have the better college career


    Resources- Wasn’t whining about the Cougs resources, was laughing at what the UW does (or lack-thereof) with theirs.

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  7. Yo coach!

    I'm loving this stuff once again. But where is the love for my Dawg hoops? I mean, I know its a few months away still, but there is always something to talk about when it comes to college hoops.

    Say, what sport do you coach anyways, coach?

    -Lorenzo

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  8. I coach basketball and football. In fact our high school team is playing in the UW basketball camp this weekend so I will try to get some scoop to post. Thanks for reading I will do more basketball as the year goes on because basketball and football are top on my list.

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  9. Oh great, you're going to be at our UW shootout? I always have a lot of fun seeing a bunch of teams from the area. If you want, come say hi to Coach Ro this weekend and we can talk some hoops.

    -Lorenzo

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  10. lol...I will, maybe I can give a few pointers to Brockman (he really needs to develop a jumper). Also I would like to talk to you about your zone defense, it is not very productive and I have a few ideas that may help.

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  11. Didn't see you tonight, Coach. Come say hi tomorrow, I'm always open to a few pointers.

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  12. You really don't remember us talking? That hurts...not a very good way to recruit players from the area (which the Dawgs need to do a better job of by the way).

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