Athlon hates the Huskies too.
Don't you love it when impartial outsiders
make fun of the Huskies? This months issue of Athlon just
glows with an article entitled "Has UW Football lost its
edge?" Great lines like: “Fans stand for the national anthem
and rarely get up again until its time to leave”
make me wonder if there is a Cougar on staff at Athlon.
Interestingly they constantly quote ex-husky coach
Lamb-not-so-bright (My personal favorite) maybe the worst coach
of the Huskies ever. Athlon is right, Husky stadium is not
nearly the rowdy, irritating place it used to be. I’m not sure
if its because their fans are getting too old or because very
few of the students speak English. The only thing that would
make the husky collapse complete would be losing to us once in a
while.
Startling fact: The Cougars, not the
Huskies, lead the nation with 168 Quarterback sacks in the past
4 seasons - warms my heart like warm milk chocolate! check
out all of the cougar Athlon
comments here
Athlon Sports is one of the premiere
college sports magazines. In its current Pac 10 Preview the WSU
win over Oregon (WSU 55- OREGON 16). is listed as the #4 upset
of the 2003 season.
“The Ducks were 4-0 and
feeling pretty good about themselves …..on the cover of
Sports illustrated. But the Cougs, an unknown quantity in
late September, dismantled the Ducks en route to the most
lopsided Pac-10 road win in school history.”
They also picked Coach Bill Doba as the 4th
Best new Coach in the nation for 2003:
“Washington state
rewarded Doba for his service to the program …and Doba
rewarded the school by proving to be a quality head coach
and the right man for the post-Mike Price era at Wazzu…”
You bet you’re a*s they did! It’s nice to
get props after the fact. Too bad all of these good years
still won’t get us any respect for the current year:
As expected USC is firmly ensconced as the
preseason number 1 team in the country – at least there is no
doubt whom you have to beat to win the Pac 10 this year.
Beat USC and have only one loss or less and you're in. It
might be harder to with the USC game than to win all of the
other contests combined, they way they are playing.
Pac-10 teams ranked in Athlon’s
preseason top 20:
1. USC – scary? All of
their wins last year were by 2 touchdowns or more.
Their only lost last year was to California. The loss
before that?
An overtime loss to WSU in 2002 (Yeah us!).
14.
California
22.
Oregon State
WSU not mentioned in the
Athlon first team All American list
While WSU has no players in the first team All-America Team,
they do have Will Derting (LB – Junior) listed as a second team
All-American, and nope, no one else even on the third team.
Guess you guys have something to prove this year. We can’t
wait.
Don't we get a plaque or something for
being picked 8th every year?
Once again we are expected to finish 8th in the
conference (USC#1, UW#6)
Strangely, one key early season game
pointed to as important for the Pac-10 is the September 11th
game between WSU and Colorado in Seattle.
“Win this and the Cougs
could be 6-0 for the Oct 23rd visit to OSU”
I’m wondering how a prediction like that
makes sense with a #8 finish? I guess they figure it’s
important, but we’ll lose it.
The Recruiting front
USC kicks everyone’s butt of course, with 8 of the top 18
prospects, but they do give WSU credit for landing 3 good ones;
Michael Bumpus (WR), Randy Estes (DB), and Andrew Roof (OL), and
mention Edie Vickers. In my conversation with Coach Doba the
other day He mentioned none of these guys. Want to know what we
talked about? Click here.
Best Article in the magazine? Pages
130-131 “Has UW Football lost its edge?” With great lines like
“Fans stand for the national anthem and rarely get up again
until its time to leave” I wonder if there is a Cougar on staff
at Athlon. Interestingly in this article they constantly quote
ex-husky coach Lamb-not-so-bright (My personal favorite) maybe
the worst coach of the Huskies in my lifetime. All of us Cougs
are pretty excited about Keith Gilbertson too. They are right,
Husky stadium is not nearly the rowdy, irritating place it used
to be. I’m not sure if its because their fans are getting too
old or because none of the students speak English any more. The
only thing that would make that collapse complete would be to
start losing to us once in a while. The fact that it is the
Cougars - not the Huskies - Who lead the nation with 168
Quarterback sacks in the past 4 seasons warms my heart.
Their assessment of WSU’s upcoming team and
season is not positive.
One thing they agree with Bill Doba about
is young quarterback Alex Brink, who has come in and done a
great job during spring training. Coach Doba was very
complimentary about him at the Recent Cougar Clam bake. They
like the three running backs in camp, but that really means that
there isn’t one great one, not that we have three great ones.
When you look at the Season, though, it is
designed to give the cougars time to mature. The Stiffest
competition (USC, Oregon, and Washington) are spread out, at
home, and later in the season, while they do not have to play
California, the team picked to finish 2nd in the
conference. I believe (after a couple coronas and a tin of
cougar gold) that the 76cougars will finish 4th this
year, and I’m praying for 3rd, behind USC and ASU or
UCLA.
One of the bright spots of the Spring is
this new guy, Ropati Pitoitua (add that to your “Name a day”
desktop calendar) “Cougars judge you by the names you use”.
Coach Doba said at the clam bake that Ropati looks like he’s
6’1” 230, then you realize is is 6’7” 280. This guy is huge!
Watch for him to take over the Defensive line as the season goes
on.
At linebacker Pat Bennett (our favorite
player) will get a lot more time this year, and lets hope he
continues the success he had in the Holiday Bowl last year.
Moving Derting will get his chance to play the Brian Bosworth
(The early years) Roll, The defense will depend upon him, so a
good year should really get him the national spotlight.
WSU Players in the NFL draft
Defensive back Jason David be one of the
steals of this years draft? Sure, he's not as good as
Marcus Trufant, and draft pros thought he wouldn't get picked at
all, but he's going to surprise some people. He ended up
being picked by the Indianapolis Colts in the 4th round.
With the WSU recent history at that position at least they know
that he's been taught right. I wonder what other
traditions Rick Neuheisel
brought with him from Colorado?
Where Cougars were picked:
| Name |
Position |
Round |
Team |
| Devard Darling |
WR |
3rd - 82nd |
Baltimore Ravens |
| Jason David |
DB |
4th - 125th |
Indianapolis Colts |
| Eric Coleman |
DB |
5th - 143rd |
New York Jets |
| Jonathan Smith |
RB |
7th - 214th |
Buffalo Bills |
For more information on exactly who went where
click
here
