Huskyfan1997

For the record, that was not from the fanbase. That was a direct line from the MSU team itself, according to Chris Simms who was color commentary during the game. My only point was that every team, no matter how good or bad, thinks they are going to beat us in the trenches. No doubt, some teams have. But during the biggest of games, our line has stepped up their level of play.

For the record, I am not claiming that will happen. Just genuinely curious if you guys think that it will be a close game if it does happen, otherwise you guys should win reasonably comfortably? The only thing that gives me hope against your DL is that we don't really run a traditional run game at the interior line. Our rushing attack is more schemed (e.g. 49ers) and likely will not test your interior DL unless we've schemed to put them in a bad position. And I totally agree that the UT offense vs the UW defense is greatly underestimated. I have zero confidence we can get many stops of that offense. Worthy plays way faster on the field than any of our players.

Question: If UT is not able to bully around the offensive line of UW and Dillon Johnson runs for 100+ yards, what percentage chance do you give UT of winning? Only reason I'm asking is because I just rewatched the Michigan State game and Chris Simms said MSU told him going into that game that they felt they could bully us on the lines. That is a recurring theme amongst all our opponents, no matter how bad they are (and MSU was awful). They all think they will push around our lines. 35-0, Penix with 375 yards passing and 4 TD ... at halftime vs a Power 5 school. MSU had to be one of the worst teams around and even they thought they could beat us in the trenches. UW/Pac-12 line play must have the worst reputation nationwide. Please don't take this a trash talking. Just genuinely curious as to how big that assumption is to your confidence level in winning the game. There is no doubt that it is very possible that UT could bully us in the trenches.

There's a site called realdawg. It's a premium pay only site, which I don't pay for. I don't believe in paying for forums to read and participate in pointless circle jerks haha. So I don't know how troll-ish that board is either. Regarding safety impact, sorry but I have to reference Oregon games again. There is no denying that they are the most complete and therefore closest comparison to Texas that we have. 1st game, we gave up over 200 yards rushing and couldn't get off the field on 3rd downs. 2nd game with our safeties healthy, we gave up 60 yards to their running backs. Nix had a 60 yard broken play scamper that skewed those stats. But if Ewers runs 60 yard scampers against us, then just go ahead and give you guys trophy haha. And we were way better on 3rd downs. Herbstreit said in the game that our safeties recognition of plays was the difference.

IMO, I agree with this take. Odunze supposedly runs a 4.3, but I don't really see that on the field. The guy is an absolute beast overall, but doesn't seem like he plays at that speed. Polk is supposed to be the 2nd fastest, but I don't see a ton of YAC from him. McMillan is definitely the shiftiest one of the 3 and seems to play the fastest on the field to my eyes. All in all, hopefully this will be an entertaining game. I'm guessing it just comes down to who makes the untimely penalties and mistakes. Whichever team wins, I'm rooting to win it all because screw Michigan and Alabama.

Our backup is a 6'0" guy who's currently in the portal named Dylan Morris. He was the QB of the 4-8 team before the new coaching staff. He was unbearable to watch as a husky fan. Worst deep ball passer I've ever seen. Behind him is a 17yo freshman named Austin Mack. 6'6" dude who supposedly has a rocket arm and is decently mobile for his size. Probably Justin Herbert mobility. Don't like his chances as a 17yo playing in a playoff game.

Totally agree with you here. Many UW fans are delusional to think that UW is a final destination target for great coaches. And in retrospect, it worked out well for both sides in the long run. Although it was rough for Sark at first, in the end he's a much better coach and in position to have a long successful run like Mack Brown had at UT and Pete Carroll did at USC. And UW got Chris Petersen who took them a step higher to 10+ wins per year and a playoff, instead of 8 wins per year. And now we have Kalen DeBoer, who imo, makes me more hopeful than any coach of any sports team I've ever rooted for. He's 67-4 after his 1st year at every place he's been. It's hard to express how much hope and confidence this guy gives us fans. And I was one of those guys who said "Who the F?!" when we hired him. But from what I'm hearing, he's a master delegator and overseer, not the one doing the X's and O's. Which means if we lose coordinators, we must depend on his ability to find good ones. And I know that his name will be attached to virtually every job opening from here on out.

IMO, it's so difficult to compare these teams based on results. The top 10 passing offenses in the country is littered with a bunch of Pac 12 teams. So all these metrics and stats are skewed and difficult to read anything into them. Regarding injuries, MacMillan was a huge difference maker. He was out after game 3 I think and didn't really get back until the Pac 12 championship game. He is a problem for defenses when all 3 are healthy. They still beat Oregon in the first game, but most people will say the UO outplayed UW that game. But nobody says that in the last game. But this was my original point on this board. Depth is a huge advantage for Texas since you have a bunch of 5 stars waiting their turn for when an injury happens. UW has no depth, especially on defense. And our 2 safeties were out for most of those middle games. When everybody is healthy, they can play competently and decently. Definitely not elite, but enough for their offense to win games still, usually.

The collective IQ used to be higher until those damn ducks flooded the boards with nothing but trolls. So all the high IQ's left leaving it to be trolls vs trolls haha. Ducks are the worst. They got a sugar daddy paying for the implants and butt lifts and giving them shiny new cars. And for that they got some major attitude.

Definitely a big chip on shoulder up here due to lack of national respect ("south Alaska", etc). Couple that with past glories 30 years ago and you have the cauldron that is that board. They think UW is still some powerhouse like in the early 90's. Which we aren't. I mean many of our current players lost to Montana 2 years ago. That's like losing to a peewee team. Honestly don't know why all the hate for Sark. Sark brought us back from the dead. But he realized he could never consistently get 5 star recruits like USC can. I don't blame him for going to USC. You pair his play calling with 5 star talent and you get what Texas is now (minus the alcoholism). I won't blame Deboer for jumping ship, but like I said before I hope it's to an NFL team. I already hear rumors that the Chargers want him. What he's done in 2 years with this team is nothing short of a miracle.

Ok, back by popular demand. And DaHobbs, I've just read your interactions on Hardcore Husky. You've been treated way worse than I have here. To answer the question about how much people care up in Seattle ... Seattle is a very bandwagon-ish town. Back in the 90's when the Seahawks sucked, they couldn't even sell out the 60K seats in the old Kingdome. Yet the Husky football team easily sold out its 70K stadium with long season ticket waiting lists. Huskies are a big deal especially when they are good. I've seen many national analysts comment that the Oregon vs UW game up here was the loudest stadium they've ever been to. Seahawks > Huskies > Mariners > Kraken > Sounders > Storm Sonics would be 3rd if stupid Oklahomans didn't steal them.

lol, fine ok. This will be my last post. You guys obviously don't want me here. Not sure what week 16 means and why you need to call me an idiot, but oh well. I was just trying to have some productive discussions about this interesting game coming up. The video was just supposed to provide some good insight into what a competent defense can do to Penix. I think he was 10-22 passing at one point. Good luck fellas. Sorry I couldn't be more friendly apparently.

This is week 10 UW vs Utah. Utah was top 10 defense in the country at the time. #1 in 3rd down defense. #1 across the board in Pac 12 defense (not hard I know). They pressured Penix all game and his stats sucked in this game. I know UT is way better than Utah, but it should give you guys an idea of what's possible. https://youtu.be/pmzxeulBypA?si=thNWxy2cUF7PIanX

This UW team is really hard to figure out. They basically play barely good enough to win, regardless of how good or bad the opponent is. I think a lot of this depends on just how good Oregon really is. If Oregon truly is as good as all their so-called advanced metrics say they are, then this UW team must be pretty good. Even Booger said himself that UW dominated on both lines in the Pac-12 championship game. But then he later said UW does not play big boy football. So doesn't sound like he even listens to himself talk. If Oregon is grossly overrated, then Texas will have an easy game.

Definitely an unknown about how Deboer recruits. You'd think that they'd have QB's and WR's clamoring to be part of their program at this point, since they would have highly inflated stats if they came here. But no, we are not in the running for any top portal players. The fact is that neither Deboer, nor the Husky brand are a big draw for big-time recruits at this point. Honestly I don't know if it's more Deboer or more Ryan Grubb that is the brains behind our offense. And imo, that 2016 husky team definitely had talent, but there was no doubt that Alabama still looked bigger, faster, and deeper at all positions than that husky team. To my untrained eye, UW clearly looked inferior talent wise. The defense had some talent, holding them to only 24 points. But that offense looked like JV vs varsity.

Also keep in mind that UW pass game is not like receivers are running wide open all the time. Basically Penix is good at throwing into congestion but placing it where his receivers have the better chance of catching it. And the receivers are really good at contested catches. I think the actual stats are that they catch 70% of contested passes (or so called 50/50 passes) I guess that's the sort of thing that works until it doesn't. All of the remaining playoff teams have the athletes to make it not work.

Stopping the run is definitely conventional wisdom, but this husky team seems to defy logic. At the beginning of the year when they were healthy, they avoided running the ball like I avoid vegetables. But when Penix was struggling (maybe due to rib injury), they started implementing the run game and got decently good at it in a short period of time, but it'd definitely not their strong suit. So, my limited brain would tend to think that the real key is focusing on preventing the pass game somehow and forcing them to run. They can't score nearly as fast then.

Texas may very well stop the Husky offense. It's all about specific matchups. But I wouldn't make the assumption based on rankings. Oregon came in with a top 5 3rd down defense and a top 3 3rd down offense. In the pac-12 championship game: UO 3rd down offense: 3 for 10 UW 3rd down offense: 10 for 15 I fully expect that UT will likely go up multiple scores on UW at some point. The only reason why I think we have a punchers chance now is that this team can score faster than any previous Husky team ever. It took only 2 plays for them to score on Oregon with 2 minutes left in their first game this year.

Not sure how long we can keep Deboer. There is no doubt he will get a ton of job offers and money thrown at him. He's from the Michigan area, so fans are most worried about Harbaugh leaving. Frankly, if Deboer leaves us, I hope it's for the NFL. I'd love to see what he can do there. He's succeeded at every level and it'd be cool to see a guy go from winning at Sioux Falls to winning in the NFL.

That was a brutal drop by Stanford. You guys will probably disagree, but I think the Pac-12 cellar can still play decently better than most conference's cellar dwellers. Just ask Deion Sanders. Darlings of the nation, started 4-0 and winless against Pac-12 teams. And they supposedly have a future top 10 NFL Draft Pick at QB, which I find hard to believe. But still see it projected everywhere on draft boards.

Our team is loaded with 5th and 6th year guys. So yeah, I expect a big drop off. We will see how good the coaching staff is next year if they don't find a portal QB at the same level as Penix. I think Penix was rated as the 11th best QB in the portal that year. We were 4-8 before Penix and this coaching staff. So maybe they find a way. But even now, if you follow Husky recruiting, even with our success of the last 2 years, we are not in the running for the best portal players. It's always Oregon, Texas, USC, Michigan, and the SEC schools. I think Will Rogers is the best QB we are in the running for and he's also outside the top 10 QB portal rankings.

It's funny how much past experiences cause PTSD for each fanbase. I didn't know that recruiting talent was such a sore subject with UT fans. But from the UW perspective, it's pretty much the exact opposite. Chris Petersen took mostly Sark's recruits in 2016 to the CFP playoff. Alabama's athletes clearly outclassed UW that year and we had no chance in that playoff. Petersen could not parlay that appearance into anything better than a top 25 recruiting class the next year. Petersen saw the writing on the wall that he'd never be able to recruit like Alabama at UW, so he retired. Why deal with the Playoff expectations every year when you can't recruit the athletes to compete if you get there. Admittedly though, we fans are way more optimistic about having a puncher's chance this year. Even though we still don't have the same level of talent of other playoff teams, we have explosive and innovative abilities to score, unlike that 2016 team.

Yeah, I can't imagine Oregon was that good in pass defense. I think Herbstreit was saying they don't have the athletes to match up with UW receivers, but I also think he said nobody does. The most fascinating matchup to me in this game is the duel of the OC's. Both guys were offered jobs by Nick Saban. Still can't believe Grubb did not take that job offer after last year. Give both Sark and Grubb a month to prepare and it's fascinating to me who will prevail in that chess match. If nothing else, it should be fun watching the creative play calling during the game. But in another advantage to you guys, the Huskies are pretty terrible overall in tackling. So Grubb by default has to call a better game than Sark in order to win. Regarding pressure on the QB's, we all know that is the key question. UW ranks #5 in total sacks allowed, which is impressive with how often they pass. Like many things with this UW team, it does not make much sense. Our center is pretty grossly undersized, yet we are mostly a pocket passing team.

Ah thanks for the rivalry education. I get it now. And El Gaucho ranks 2nd on my list. John Howie, El Gaucho, The Metropolitan Grill, Ascend, Daniel's Broiler are my personal top 5. I'm talking pure steak review. Overall review, I don't know. I don't eat vegetables and don't care about ambiance.

Listening to Oregon fans, statistically speaking, UO is the greatest team in the history of the earth on both offense and defense, haha. I think UO fans said they were top 5 in the country in both offense and defense before that game. #2 or #3 rushing defense. I don't know but I do know that we pretty much ran over them. Not sure how much of that was scheme. One thing about UW is they set everyone in motion pre-snap to force defenses to show how they're defending that play. One thing is for sure, if UW ends up winning the championship, UO will claim they had the 2nd best team in the nation haha. We hate UO as much as you guys hate the Aggies.