Sonics_1993

I keep seeing the Alamo bowl being referenced. You guys do realize this is the playoffs and not a shit tier bowl game, right? Nobody will be sitting out getting ready for the NFL combine in this game. Of course several players from both teams played in that game last year, but neither team will be exactly the same for this one. I'm primarily here trying to get information from people more knowledgeable about UT than I am, which will help me contextualize what I'm seeing when the game comes. I don't care about the Alamo Bowl by itself for the reasons you laid out. Neither team really wanted to be there (UT had played in a gillion Alamo Bowls recently and had a bunch of opt outs, UW thought it should've had a chance to play for the conference title but got boxed out by weird tie-breaker rules and ended up without a shot at a NY6 bowl). My question was in response to a specific statement about limited rushing success this year against Texas meaning UW would have limited success as well. Since it seemed that last year had the same narrative with a different result, I was genuinely just curious what some of the differences might be to drive a different outcome.

One of those runs was for 44 yards by Bo Nix. The other 19 runs went for 80 yards (4.2 ypc). There's been discussion elsewhere in this thread that one or two big runs don't matter if the run game in general struggles. I believe that to be true, and that was what happened in Vegas. Furthermore, Oregon had a really hard time getting YAC on passes short passes out in space, which was due to better coverage from UW. Oregon adjusted and got the offense moving, just like Texas will adjust to whatever UW does, but I wouldn't assume that UW will be shellshocked by the UT offense. Also, the change in third down conversion rate by Oregon is an argument in favor of UW's defensive improvement. Oregon wasn't lined up against an empty field.

I don't agree that a 100 yard rushing attack is necessary to avoid UT having a reasonably comfortable win. There are plenty of ways to get the type of benefit a run game provides without having to do it all on the ground. We've seen tunnel screens to Odunze, slants to McMillan, and quick hit contested passes to the one-on-one receiver on the outside (whether that be Odunze or Polk) be really effective when teams try to sell out against the pass. I agree that if UT can get consistent pressure with 4 linemen, then UW is in trouble. I feel comfortable that the OL and Penix can avoid that, so the next issue is whether Grubb can be effective at keeping the LBs from being able to sell out on the pass consistently. It'd be nice if Johnson could get good yardage on the ground for that purpose, but it's not the only way to skin a cat. I have plenty of confidence that UW can get stops on UT, just like I think UT is going to get more stops than it seems people are giving credit for against UW. The last game UW played was against an Oregon team that has a lot of talent (over the last 5 classes, Oregon = ~9th vs. Texas ~7th in 247 composite rankings). UW's defense was extremely disruptive against an offense that was blowing people out regularly coming into the game (UW was a 9.5 point underdog in Vegas for the game). Beyond that, even with injuries, UW has been really hard to score on in the 2nd half and has given up more than 7 points in the 4th quarter only once all year (13 in garbage time against Cal). I don't think UW is going to blow UT out or vice versa. It should be a close game, but I don't think UW needs to change its identity to win any more than I think UT does. Whoever executes better (especially when it comes to penalties and turnovers) will probably win.

Wasn't that also true last year? UT allowed 1 100-yd rusher, and even Alabama wasn't able to hit that mark. UW still had a 100 yd back in the Alamo Bowl getting 7.7 ypc. Instead of framing it in terms of hopeless optimism, a different question might be this "if UW beats the trend against UT this year by a similar proportion by which it beat the trend last year, how do you see the game going?"

I think you're reading my opinion on PNW culture more broadly than I intended it. Outwardly expressing genuine hope and excitement about something is weird there. Expressing pessimism and cynicism is much more normal. In my opinion, that accounts for a lot of why a board populated by people from the PNW tends toward cynical trolling of outsiders. It doesn't mean people in the PNW don't feel hope and excitement, it just means that it tends to be expressed in private or among close friends. When you--as a Longhorn fan--want to talk about the Husky game with them, they're going to avoid engaging in that discussion in an honest way, because it risks requiring a public expression of hope and excitement, which is taboo. The substantive nature of the expression of trolling is not what I'm describing as endemic to PNW culture (there are, for example, homophobic posts by UT fans in this very thread. I wouldn't call that substance to be endemic to UT fans either).

I'm not from there, just went to school at UW, so I'm also bringing my non-PNW opinion on this. I seriously doubt that they'd describe themselves that way. Every region has its own shortcomings and benefits. Texas ain't perfect either, and every place has internet trolls.

Yeah. I'm not saying you shouldn't want to talk to the other team's fans about the game. That obviously is what I'm doing. I was just answering the question with my honest opinion.

One can follow different paths to the same destination.

If you go to those boards exclusively to talk about an upcoming game where your team is playing UW, then yes. If you're there to simply be a poster for the long term, then no. There are fans of plenty of other teams who post there regularly and it goes fine (still juvenile trolling, but also good discussion as well). There's also just genuinely a cultural difference between PNW and Texas, even in a national culture that's getting more homogenous, and I don't mean that one is normatively better than the other. If you're used to the PNW culture, some of the stuff that will rub an outsider the wrong way isn't as bothersome, and vice versa.

The other board is the Dawgman 247 board. It is emphatically not going to give you what you want. In fairness, the gripes the HH board has with Dawgman are largely legit. The HH board has educated, reasonable husky fans. They just don't behave that way to people outside the circle of trust. I don't have a great suggestion for you on public boards to have a sober-minded football talk with Husky fans as a Longhorn fan. For the safeties, they are Asa Turner and Kam Fabiculanan. I'm not going to claim that they're hidden all-conference gems or something (Turner is sometimes maddening with his tackling). Instead, their value is that (a) they make sure the defense is lined up properly and is reading the offense properly pre-snap, (b) they execute well to where totally busted coverage over the top is rare with them playing, and (c) (and most importantly) when those two aren't playing then other guys have to play out of position. Jabbar Muhammad has had to slide out of his primary CB slot and Meesh Powell has had to leave Nickel to make up for Turner and Fabiculanan being out. That causes problems of pre-snap line ups and bad CB play, which you'll see when you watch game tape on UW this year. To get a sense of how things change with them in, watch the Pac12 championship game film. Oregon's offense is predicated on getting really talented guys out in space where pre-snap lineup issues and missed tackles lead to YAC. Fabiculanan has some huge hits on Oregon's TEs. Coverage was really tight (even Oregon's TDs were mostly really impressive throws/catches against good coverage). UT's offense has elements of Oregon (short depth throws to get guys in space/scheming people into wide open space). Having Turner/KamFab healthy at the same time gives UW a much better chance of matching up against that than it has had for the vast majority of the season.

I'd say this pretty accurately describes UW, too. UW is mentally and physically tough. UW won a variety of ways this year: ASU was a hideous game all around with UW's only TD coming on a pick-6. USC held UW under 300 yards passing and got a pick (though Penix was efficient), but Dillon Johnson ran for 256 yds. OSU was played in a ridiculous rainstorm and Penix had <200 yds passing. Wazzu held Penix to ~54% completions & 200 yds passing. Physically, Dillon Johnson has been hurt most of the year. Odunze suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung against Arizona and didn't miss a game. All teams play guys hurt, so I'm sure UT has its own version of this, but I wouldn't describe UW as fragile by any definition of that term. UW doesn't get rattled and finds ways to win when things look really bleak. It's fair to criticize them for putting themselves in the bleak situation to start with, but if you're a team that has to go into a hostile environment in the Sugar Bowl (presumably it'll be 2/3 UT fans at least) against a really good team, that mental toughness is pretty important.

To the penalty issue, Washington is 131st in penalty yards against this year (out of 133 teams). To me, that's one of the biggest keys of the game. If the crowd can get UW to commit a bunch of penalties that kill drives (which has happened a lot this year), it'll be really hard for UW to win. If they play a clean (by their standards) game, they're gonna score a lot of points.

Husky Explainer: What's up with hardcorehusky.com? It's a close-knit group of Husky fans who have been posting together on a progression of different sites for 20+ years. It isn't representative of the husky fan base in general for a bunch of reasons. It's nominally a place to talk Husky football, and the people there genuinely are fans of the team, but it is primarily a social organization for friends (and antagonists) to take pot shots at each other loosely organized around current events in Husky football. The posters there have a schtick of internet trolling, which is no doubt juvenile. They genuinely do have affection for each other, and a lot of them are knowledgeable about football, but as a cultural matter it's uncool there to be serious, genuine, and hopeful. You can be serious and genuine, but not hopeful. You can be hopeful and ironic. But genuine expressions of positive emotion read as naive and pollyannic in the Pacific Northwest, whereas genuine expressions of angst, depression, cynicism, etc. are treated almost as normative goods in their own right. If you understand that, you'll understand the HH posters coming here. They know they're being dumb. They know you think they're being dumb. They know it's a waste of time. They know it shouldn't be funny. They still think it's funny. Why do UW fans hate Sark? Short version is that they don't, but it is genuinely true that Sark was an alcoholic serial adulterer during his time at UW, though his true sin from Husky perspective is that he let his vices impact his coaching. However much better he was than Ty Willingham, that's a remarkably low bar to clear and it is indisputable that his drinking and cavorting hurt the team's performance. Still, most Husky fans recognize him as a step on the path to a better future. The hate toward Sark tends to come primarily from the Hardcore Husky board, which as noted above is distinct from the broader Husky fan base. Part of that has to do with the fact that HH's existence stems from a break with a different Husky message board during the Sark era at UW, and the people in charge at that board were adamantly pro-Sark folks who shut down criticism of Sark. To this day, there is bad blood between the HH folks and that other board, and Sark becoming a good coach who has reformed himself would mean HH is open to a victory dance from that other board's leadership, which is intolerable to the HH group. Why do people think UW is good enough to beat UT? To start with, it's true. UT is also good enough to beat UW. UT's d-line will probably be stouter than any UW has faced. UW's offense will be more potent and creative than any UT has faced. They're aren't perfect comps for either team on the other's schedule this year, which is good because that's the fun of the playoffs. If you want a read on what makes UW a tough matchup, it obviously starts with Penix. He's got a huge arm, he makes decisions fast, he doesn't get rattled, he's really good when the team is behind the sticks, and he is really hard to sack. To that point, he's a pocket passer who throws a ton, and he's taken very few sacks this year. Same was true last year. UT will get its pressures, but it would be a very big win for UT if the horns can actually get a bunch of sacks. Beyond Penix, UW has really good skill guys. It's not just hard to cover the wideouts, but they're very tough in contested catches. Dillon Johnson is a 1,000 yard rusher on a team that doesn't try to run first. UW isn't going to run up the gut against UT, but something it does well against tough D-lines is use the whole field in the passing game with few substitutions to get the big guys tired, and then run opportunistically. Doesn't mean UW is going to be dominant on the ground, but don't expect them to try to run between the tackles and then abandon the run entirely. If you want to understand the optimism of general Husky fans, it mostly stems from weird quirks in the season. UW's offense looked great the first three games of the year. It then lost Jalen McMillan (knee), Rome Odunze (broken ribs and a collapsed lung (played through it and didn't miss time but obv. not 100%)), Penix was sick through multiple games and looked awful, Bernard and Jackson missed time being hurt, UW played a bunch of crazy weather games, etc. The defense also had tons of injuries in the secondary (particularly safety). In any event, UW won all its games but the wins were unimpressive compared against early season games, and Husky fans themselves openly questioned how good the team was. The Pac12 championship game saw all those hurt players healthy at the same time for the first time since Michigan State and the team came out and looked like its old self against Oregon, which has people feeling optimistic.