What To Make Of Cougs And Dawgs?

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I got an email last night from Reed Hunt, who asked a good question: “Who was least impressive – the Cougs in their 24-20 win over Eastern Washington or the Dawgs in their 41-3 loss to LSU?”

Answer: I honestly don’t know.

If I’m going to be the homer Coug that I usually am, I’d say the Dawgs looked worse than we did. But consider the opponents – LSU is one of the best teams in the country; Eastern Washington is one of the best teams in the Inland Empire, and we barely beat them.

So truly, I don’t know. I’m glad we won and everything, but man, we still don’t look as improved as I thought we’d be when Mike Leach took over. Maybe we need to be more patient, but I figured this guy would have us looking better than this in the first two games.

Again, as I wrote last week at Cougfan.com, I know it’s a process. I know it’s going to take time to get that offense of Leach’s in sync. And maybe it will take more of his own recruits for Washington State to be as effective as his teams were at Texas Tech. I get all of that.

But still…

I was happy to see us gain more than 100 yards on the ground yesterday. But I admit to being surprised to see a Leach offense running the ball as much as we did.

I suppose I shouldn’t critique a win, since it’s only our ninth victory in the last 51 games, but we sure didn’t look like we could have beaten a Pac-12 team with that effort yesterday. Maybe Colorado but no one else.

I get a kick out of people who use poor judgment on Twitter, and I was guilty of it yesterday, calling for Connor Halliday to start in place of Jeff Tuel next week at UNLV. That was a dumb thing to tweet when you think about it because Tuel was actually pretty decent yesterday. And, again, we won.

But for whatever reason, maybe the great unknown, I’d still like to see Halliday get a few more reps against UNLV, maybe a series in the second quarter. I continue to think about that Arizona State game last year and how fantastic our backup QB was in that game in the snow and freezing rain. If you can throw for 500 yards in that crap, I’m guessing you can be lights out and then some in the sunshine of Las Vegas.

And before I move on to the customary Husky trashing – Gawd they make it easy – let’s tip our crimson-and-gray caps to Andrew Furney for making that 60-yard field goal at the end of the half.

As president of the Andrew Furney Fan Club, I absolutely loved that and want to remind you that we’re in the midst of a membership drive. I fully plan to hold a meeting in his hometown of Burlington in the near future. So sign up now! Sign up here in the comments section! I hope to have Furney’s mom at the meeting. She’ll tell us all about her kid. We’ll show Andrew Furney highlights. And we’ll drink a hell of a lot of beer.

Now then, the Huskies. Dawg fans wonder where I get off ripping their team when my team isn’t very good. It’s simple. It’s what I do. It’s what all Coug fans do. We rip the Huskies no matter what. Listen, you’re our biggest rival. We want you to suck at all times. We want you to lose every week. And last night you lost and sucked at the same time, so it was just a beautiful thing, thank you for that…Husky football, the gift that keeps on giving.

What a terrific effort in Baton Rouge! Good thing Coach Sark brought a tiger to practice last week or the final score might have been 81-3 instead of 41-3. That guy has every angle covered! No wonder Scott Woodward hired him!

If you’re as sick as I am, it’s pretty comical to think that the motto for the Huskies this year is “Take the Next Step.” As you’ll recall, every time the Dawgs faced a top-tier team last year, they got their doors blown off.

So LSU presented the first opportunity to show signs of progress, and boy did the Huskies take a step last night! A step in the wrong direction again! A step backward.

Someone, anyone, explain to me how Coach Sark continues to get a pass from Husky fans. He’s 20-20 and in his fourth year. You guys always talk about your tradition and how great it is, but what the heck is that? A .500 record in your fourth year? Getting your doors blown off by top-tier teams again and again and again, year in and year out?

Is there a chance that he might have been a great coach at USC simply because USC always had great players? Now that he has mostly mediocre players, is he a mediocre coach? These are fair questions at this point, especially after that absolute embarrassment last night.

Husky fans like to think their team is tough because the DawgFather’s teams were always tough. How tough were they last night? 26 rushing yards on 24 carries! LSU completely dominated the line of scrimmage.

Poor Keith Price. Love the kid, but he had no chance last night with so many white jerseys in his face. So much for the Heisman Trophy campaign…

At this point, Washington looks like a Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl team at best.