The Cougs Lost and they Won! Holy Crap, its Apple Cup Week!!!!

Okay, here's the score people. The Cougars found a way to lose again on the grid-iron, and the Basketball team surprised the hell out of at least a few of us. This is a weird time to be a Coug, at least for people such as myself. I love all things Coug, but quite frankly if you asked me how happy I was about the Women's Soccer team making the NCAA Tournament, I'd have had to tell you in the most ambivalent tone ever, that it was nice. That's about it. In many ways that is how I feel about the basketball season starting. Sure it's nice to get a Cougar victory, but it just isn't the same as getting to watch the boys in Martin go after a bowl game. As we move further into the basketball season I'm sure it will be more and more satisfying for me, just as it has been the last few years, but right now I'm just not that jacked up for anything other than football, so you'll hopefully excuse my lack of coverage of one of the most one sided victories our basketball team has ever dominated in. If you haven't heard, the Cougs on Saturday opened their regular season at home on Friel Court and dominated Mississippi Valley State University to the tune of 76-25.

All of that having been said, I won't be ignoring the Basketball team, I'm just not quite ready for football to be over yet, even though I may be the only Cougar on the planet willing to say that in public. So yeah, it is officially Apple Cup week, and as we have gotten closer and closer to the biggest pillow fight of the year it seems as though many things are conspiring to make this game at least SEEM interesting. Right now the forecast for the weather is getting increasingly more hostile. This could potentially mean snow, and for a guy like me that means that my dream of a full on SNOW GAME might finally come true. I'm running out of time as a student to get one in, and if fortune feels the need to smile upon me this once, then there is no way in hell I'm going to miss it. Couple a snow game with the possibility of Jake Locker coming back to play this week, and I think there are some things which could potentially help keep Locker winless in the AC while also allowing us to give a proper send-off to the best darn Huskies coach there has ever been. I love Tyrone Willingham, and I'm going to hate seeing him coach his last game in Washington, before getting to bow out after playing Cal the next week.

So what can us Cougs take from the game against ASU this last week? The biggest thing I take from it is the defensive performance. They held an opponent to under 400 yards of total offense, held the running game below 150 yards, and most of all kept it plenty interesting until Lopina was knocked out just before the half with yet another injury. In fact, had J.T. Levenseller actually been able to come in and rely on his offensive line, and get a decent rythym going, it stands to reason that the Cougs actually had a shot in this game. Instead he came in raw and looked like an untried freshman and unfortunately tossed a pick and fumbled, both of which some way or another led to points. Still, the defense played their guts out, and if they do to UW what they did to ASU this weekend, then the Cougs will have a hell of a chance to win the game and get their one and only Pac-10 win this year.

Now, around campus I have heard quite a few "experts" on college football proclaim that if uw quarterback Jake Locker plays, then the Cougs will stand no chance. My friends, if you believe this then feel free to don your purple on Saturday because you clearly believe in the guy just as much as the husky faithful. How anyone can believe that a guy who has missed the last 8 weeks is going to come in and just be dominant, or even effective is beyond me. He broke his thumb and had to have surgery for crying out loud, how in 8 weeks is he supposed to fully recover, rehab, and be ready to throw, much less take a hit in a game that for all intensive purposes means nothing to UW's wasted season. If our Cougars are having problems, it is because of a staff and system turnover which has gone less than smoothly. Right now UW is at the tail end of another year with Willingham, another year of dashed hopes, and another off-season sure to be riddled with chaos as the school tries to find yet another coach to hopefully pick up the mantle of the Dawg father Don James. Right now, even with his propensity for making inexplicable decisions, the last thing on Ty Willingham's mind should be endangering Locker's and the program's futures by putting him on the field when he simply isn't ready. Especially when the season is a wash and their first thought, should be towards building for next year. If Locker starts this game it will be to get him a little playing time, work through the motions, and that's it. These kids, this team, have almost nothing to play for. Their coach's fate has already been decided and handed down, they have not won anything, and have been blown out almost as frequently as our Cougs have. However, rivalry is a funny thing and it can make even the worst of teams look like champions, even if only for a day.

The Huskies are not a team that should be taken lightly, whether it is Fouch, Locker, or Ty Willingham himself under center. This team, like the Cougs, has taken its fair share of lumps this year, but unlike this team, they are going to be starting all over again next year at square one. For Paul Wulff this has been the evaluation year, the rebuilding year, the "oh my god this program is in shambles" year. The Huskies will be going through at least some of that next year, and so this year it stands to reason that they are going to try to play spoiler for as many teams as they can. Right now there are only two teams to spoil anything for, and that means that the Cougs and the Golden Bears need to watch the hell out. The Huskies as a team may not have much pride, but when seniors are playing in their last couple of games, and the title of worst team in the Pac-10 is on the line, they aren't going to go down without a fight. Couple fighting for some self respect with the notion of beating a hated rival, and officially making them the worst Pac-10 team EVER, out there and it is easy to imagine that this game is going to be intense and hard fought, and both teams are probably going to look much better than they have up to this point this season.

Coach Paul Wulff is not going to let the Cougars take this game lightly. Especially after the last couple of games when it has looked like the Cougs are about to turn a competitive corner. This is a team on the brink of competing with the big boys, maybe not as closely as they would like to, but certainly moreso than they have at any other time this year. This is not the same team that lost to Baylor. The defense against ASU showed they can contain a running game, and match up with a weak offensive front. Good news folks, UW has one of the weakest offensive fronts in the Pac 10, and their running game without Locker has been less than potent. If Locker does play I think this D can handle him. The fact is he'll be cold, both physically and mentally. He hasn't had to stand tall on the field in 8 weeks, and as such he's bound to get a little wound up, especially if the defense hassles him early. If Ronnie Fouch plays, then the Cougs will have plenty of film to study, and because of the weak front of the Huskies they should be able to make life tough on him as well. Couple a somewhat reinvigorated pass rush with the emergence of Romeo Pellum in the secondary the last couple of weeks, and it adds up to the Cougs being able to chip away at their negative turnover margin. All in all I think the recipe for success defensively this week is simple. Coach Wulff is going to tell these guys to keep doing what they've been doing and to keep improving on it with more hard work and effort. If they do that, then we Cougar fans will get to enjoy the benefits of the Paul Wulff method, in direct contrast to the Ty Willingham method on the field this Saturday.

Offensively the Cougs have more problems than they can shake a stick at. Fortunately the Husky defense is as underperforming as the Cougars offense has been all season long. In short, something's gotta give. After Kevin Lopina left the game with a concussion Saturday, we all got our first real taste of some of what J.T. Levenseller has to offer. There are some serious things in his favor. He is mobile, and behind the offensive front of the Cougs he'll need to be able to move around just to make some otherwise routine plays. He has armstrength that easily bests that of Kevin Lopina, meaning that the deep ball is more viable than it has been since Rogers went down. And finally, he is unpredictable, and the Huskies really can't scheme for him as there's almost no game footage of the guy. That unpredictability could certainly prove to be a liability as it means that his largely untested decision making may come to the fore if the Huskies can bring pressure. Of course, this is all assuming J.T. even gets the start. If Kevin Lopina is cleared to play and starts the game, then the Cougars have got to find a way to get their recievers open, or it's going to be Turnover Fest '08, again. His arm strength is lacking, more than likely because of injury, and his decision making has been questionable at best. The loss of Chantz Staden in the backfield is only going to hurt the Cougs this week as it takes away one of the more solid runners who could have actually helped take pressure off of Lopina or Levenseller. If it comes down to a gametime decision, I say go with Levy, he provides a spark this offense doesn't otherwise have, and after growing up a Husky hater, it'd be hard to believe that he wouldn't take the field without the express intention of kicking some Husky tail.

Finally, I know that I have already somewhat addressed the weather issue, but there are some other things at play here, that I believe will only help the Cougs to pull this one out. First and foremost if the weather is snowy, or even super cold and rainy, it only helps the Cougs. Sure the Huskies play in Seattle and rain is nothing new, but how many times have any of their guys had to play in the 20s or 30s when the rain is borderline snow, and numbs every bit of them it can after it starts soaking in? The answer is not many, if any. That isn't to say that the Cougs do it every week, but they can practice in it, and if it looks like the weather will be hairy, then Coach Wulff will move them out of the bubble and get them some time in the cold so that they are more prepared than the visitors. Ty Willingham has been fired, and his team has done nothing to indicate that they can or even want to rally around him and try to send him out with a bang. Ty has had some trouble in Apple Cups previously and I don't think this one will be any different. However, on the other side of the field, Coach Wulff has had his team playing hungry and ready to win the last couple of weeks, and if they smell some Husky blood, and see some heads hung low, then you had better believe they are going to "hunt and kill" just like Coach Wulff told them they would. If anything, for the Cougars this game is going to serve as the jumping off point for next season. There's a ton of injuries and adversity to overcome, but the rewards for doing so are great. The Cougars can get a Pac-10 win, put the Huskies in the cellar, and then really warm up when they travel to Hawaii the next weekend. In the end there is quite a bit of incentive for both teams to win, but the Cougars will have the coaching, the will, and the sheer determination to pull this one out. I don't know about many of you, but if I don't post again this week I'll be looking for you at the Apple Cup. Nothing could help this team more than a full Martin Stadium, ready to get loud and rowdy. By the way if you wanna say hi, or maybe criticize my blog, I'll be the guy outside the student gate at about 4:30 in the morning. See you there. GO COUGS!!!

By the way, Congratulations are due the basketball team, that really was a drubbing they handed out. Nice to see some continuity, and nice to see some talented new blood in the program. In the immortal words of one mister Homer Simpson. Woo Hoo!