SB Nation User Blog: Lear Pilot

Quarterback U

Lear Pilot — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:25:10 -0000

I just ran across an interesting article from College Football News, they took on the old question who is the real Quarterback U. I I was well aware of the amazing streak of QB's the UW enjoyed and sent to the NFL, but I was surprised to find us ranked #4 overall. I knew they were looking over the last 40 years, but I would have thought the last 5-8 years would have knocked us down the list a bit.

Here's the link: http://cfn.scout.com/2/861180.html

Here is the part on the Huskies:

4. Washington

The Flag-Bearer – Warren Moon
The Ensemble – Mark Brunell, Chris Chandler, Marques Tuiasosopo, Sonny Sixkiller, Brock Huard, Cody Pickett, Steve Pelluer, Hugh Millen, Billy Joe Hobert, Cary Conklin, Jake Locker and Damon Huard

Amid little fanfare, Seattle has been an NFL pipeline for quarterbacks the past three decades. Washington holds the distinction of having had six alums on NFL rosters during the 1999 season.

Moon, a Hall of Famer, was a star wherever he laced up his cleats. The 1977 Pac-10 Player of the Year is the NFL’s No. 3 all-time passer and a member of the CFL Hall of Fame. Brunell and Chandler have had long and very productive pro careers, while Tuiasosopo is the best all-around quarterback the school has ever had; he’s the only man in NCAA history to pass for 300 yards and rush for 200 more in the same game. Hobert never lost a college game he played in and helped lead the school to its only national championship in 1991. Sixkiller had more than just the best surname in college football history. En route to becoming a local folk hero, he led the country in passing in 1972.

If Jake Locker turns into the NFL style QB I think he will, and Jake Heaps comes to Montlake, we could quickly return to and continue a great UW legacy.

Spring Game

Lear Pilot — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:37:13 -0000

I just got home, and had a great time watching the spring game, I'm guestimating there was a crowd of 10-15,000 people. They basically played the one's vs. the two's, with some players playing double duty. I did get to see the new uniforms, which are a nice improvement over last year. The tops are a little darker with traditional block numbers. The pants have the stripes back, two purple stripes with a center white stripe, they appear to be a little shinier, but nowhere near as much as I'd like. The color of the pants looks pretty similar, I'd really like a darker gold.

The first team offense looked great the whole game, which is to be expected going against the second team defense. The MVP of the day easily goes to Jake Locker, to everyone who has ever said he won't be a great passer, you are dead wrong. I haven't seen any stats, but he didn't have a single bad throw. His accuracy and touch were excellent, and he seemed to do a great job of going through his progressions and finding open receivers. Paul Homer had a few really nice catches that turned out to be around 10 yard gains. Willie Griffin had a great catch that he then ran in for a 20-30 yard TD. Anthony Boyles had some really nice acrobatic catches, mainly due to Fouch being under a good deal of pressure.

The running game looked far better today, some of which was the first string o-line pushing the second string d-line around, but they were pushing someone around. Chris Polk looked great, he is definitely the most athletic RB we have. His ability to juke, shift directions, and accelerate really showed on his big runs. If he stays healthy he could be fun to watch. Shaw, Bronson, and Griffin all looked very solid and made the best out of what was available. Shaw took some big hits and kept going, which is expected when Daniel Teo-Nesheim isn't getting blocked.

The first string defense looked very solid and our LB's are a bunch of studs, even with Savannah not playing. Donald Butler really stood out, making some great plays and some really nice hits. The d-line was in Ronnie's face all day, and did a really nice job of stuffing the run game. Ronnie had a tough day, looked like a flash back of last year, but when the first string defense is in your face all day what else would you expect? Brandon Huppert did a nice job of filling in for Savannah, and Matt Houston looked good with the two's, which is a relief given the lack of depth at LB.

Overall the first team offense was basically able to do whatever they wanted today, and Locker couldn't have looked any better. I can't stress enough how good he looked today, he was on FIRE! The first team defense also manhandled the two's, they really disrupted everything the two's were doing. All that being said, it was exactly what you'd expect from a game of the first string vs. the second string, had it been any different I'd be very worried right now.

Now that spring ball has wrapped up, I really like what Sark has done, especially how good Locker looked today. So far the coaches easily get an A. The real test comes in September when LSU comes to town.

GO DAWGS!!!

"The Dawgman.com Show" on KJR

Lear Pilot — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:32:37 -0000

I was lucky enough to spend a good deal of time on the road this morning and was able to catch “The Dawgman.com Show” on KJR. I had heard a quick rumor that KJR and John Clayton had a falling out, but haven’t heard anything else about it, then they were calling this morning’s show their “inaugural” show. If anybody has more details on John Clayton or “The Dawgman.com Show”, I’d love to hear about it. The show consisted of Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Ecklund, and had a nice lengthy interview with Jake Heaps.

They started the show by running down the current commits to the UW and gave their opinions on them. I know very little about individual recruits, besides what I read online, so here is what they said that I can remember:

Zach Fogerson: #1 rated fullback, should do very well as a fullback and in the hybrid position of H-back.

Sione Potoae: very athletic for a lineman, should be a very good nose guard or defensive tackle, is athletic enough to play on the o-line also.

Melvin Davis: very good player from a very good school, could be a good big RB, or could play TE.

Chris Young: “The Vicious Clown” he’s always smiling, and knows how to hit, had a lot of knock out hits last year.

Darius Waters: Don’t remember exactly what they said, but they did have a ton of praise for him, and thought he would be a real playmaker at LB.

Ben Riva: Like most college linemen, he’ll need two years to get the conditioning and strength necessary to be a solid Pac10 player. But has the athletic ability to be pretty good.

Jamaal Kearse: Makes the easy plays look really tough, and the really tough plays easy. Great size, just needs to be more consistent and he could be a big playmaker for the UW.

Later they had Jake Heaps on for an interview, and I must say, he sounded pretty darn good. The kid has got a good solid head on his shoulders, has very good priorities in life, and seems to have a lot of self generated drive which has led to a great work ethic. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of Jake Locker, he handles the pressure extremely well, he’s well grounded, and just has his stuff together. He does a much better interview than most college football players. As I am sure you’ve already heard, he has narrowed his list down to 5 schools, BYU, Cal, LSU, Tennesse, and UW. After the interview it really sounded to me like he is leaning toward BYU and UW. It sure sounds like he has all the intangibles that you need to be very high caliber QB. Whoever lands this kid is going to be in great shape for the next few years.

They also discussed the six JC players and how they were progressing with their academics to get enrolled at the UW. Overall is sounds like they are all on track to get in, they just need to pass the classes they are taking. Some guys needed extra classes to get in to the UW, they are taking those classes now. Some guys couldn't get the classes they need in time for spring, so they'll be here in the summer, and the others won't be done with school until summer anyway. All are still on schedule to be here in the fall as long as they pass their classes.

Saturday Scrimmage Report

Lear Pilot — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:29:25 -0000

I had another great day of watching Husky football. I spent the first half of practice watching from the stands, and spent the second half watching from the west endzone. There is absolutely nothing like standing at the edge of the endzone watching the offense come right at you. Two drives in a row we got to see the offense work in the redzone and score. That had to be the best way to watch college football, totally AWESOME!!!!

Locker looked good today, his accuracy seems to be continuing to improve. I was disappointed at the number of dropped balls. I saw and heard multiple WR's getting chewed out for dropping the ball. Jake had a PERFECT to Aguilar in the endzone, but Aguilar wasn't able to hold on to it. Austin Sylvester had a nice catch out of the backfield, so at least one position can catch the ball.

The offensive line looked horrible the first half of scrimmage, there were many running plays that got stuffed for little or negative yards. In the second half the offense was able to move the ball well inside the redzone on mostly running plays. They were even able to run the ball in on two plays from the five yard line. So it was good to see them have success when the defense knew runs were coming. The offense continued to improve as the day went on, Bronson looked pretty solid in the redzone.

The defense looked pretty solid. The d-line had their way with the o-line for the majority of the scrimmage. Darrion Jones and Daniel Teo-Nesheim looked really good at DE. Savannah, Foster, and Butler looked very good at LB, and Nate Williams looked very good in the secondary.

Overall I was very pleased with Locker, but am getting worried about our ability to catch the ball. The offensive line needs work, but showed they can get the job done when necessary. The defense looks like it should be the strength of the team.

I'll be out for the rest of the evening, but will try and answer questions and add more stuff as I remember.

GO DAWGS!!!

Monday Husky Practice Report

Lear Pilot — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:26:56 -0000

What a fun afternoon, great weather, a beautiful campus and HUSKY FOOTBALL!!! You can't beat it.

This was my first time attending a college football practice and my head is still spinning. There was so much going on that it's pretty hard to process it all. If you are watching Jake to see how he's doing, you probably just missed what everybody else did. I was really impressed by the coaching staff, they were EVERYWHERE and they were working their tails off. The practice was as advertised, high paced, very organized and activity everywhere. They really did a great job of optimizing the time they had on the field. I loved the energy from the coaches and especially the players. After a big play or a big hit the players are really getting excited and congratulating the player. The players REALLY seem to be enjoying the competitive atmosphere.

QB's - I love offense, passing and scoring, so I spent a lot of time watching the QB's, WR's and RB's. I especially love QB's, there's just something about the field general that sets the tone for the rest of the team.

Jake looked pretty good, Ronnie looked average and well, I hope we don't have to go deeper than that. Jake hit a few long passes, and they were placed perfectly. His short to medium range accuracy looked good, only saw one pass over thrown. He did have two passes that make you wonder what he was thinking, but from the sidelines it could easily have been a WR running the wrong route or a hundred different things. Ronnie just seemed average, some throws were great, some weren't so hot. I saw Luther Leonard throwing some long passes, and he either is working on his release or really needs to work on his arm strength if he wants to stay at QB. Either way its VERY early in practice and I expect great things out of Sark and Nuss.

WR's - I saw the play were D'Andre Goodwin caught a medium long pass over the middle and almost had everybody beat, but one guy grabbed him from behind (very similar to a horse collar tackle) and you could hear D'Andre scream and grab his hamstring. Vince Taylor made some nice catches, along with Kearse and Augilar. Boyles had some nice plays, and had a few where he got his butt chewed out. TE's looked good, Middleton had several nice catches and a very good stretched out grab, no drops from him that I saw.

RB's - Curtis Shaw will be the starting TB next season, mark my words. He had some very nice carries, one ending with him laying a HIT on the defensive player trying to stop him, by far the best offensive hit of the day. Griiffin had several good runs, one in which he juke the defender out of his shoes and then grabbed a bunch of yards after it. Bronson looked pretty solid, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets some solid playing time.

The play of the day: Cody Bruns caught a pass over the middle and immediately got his clock cleaned by Victor Aiyewa. The best part of the play, as soon as it happened the defense was all over Aiyewa celebrating the big hit. At the same moment the offense was all over Bruns celebrating the fact that he hung on to the ball. To me it really summed up what the coaches are striving for: PASSION and COMPETITION!!!

So far I really like what the coaches are doing, I even saw a few plays that will use Jakes legs, which tells me they are smart enough to use his talents. I don't want to go into details, but one play and formation will make Crazi cry. Those of you that know his likes and dislikes can figure it out.

Hopefully you guys find this info useful, I'm sure I'll pass on more as it comes back to me.

GO DAWGS!!!

Get to know your fellow bloggers

Lear Pilot — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:13:27 -0000

Lately it came to me that I really know very little about my fellow Husky bloggers. I think it would help our discussion quite a bit if we knew more about each other. For instance, age, location, how long you've been a Husky fan, and if you are willing your profession. So far, the only other blogger I have any clue about is Gekko, the numbers guy.

I'm 31 years old and have been a Husky fan my whole life, literally. I remember watching the Huskies play as far back as I can remember, my grandfather was a Husky fan, my dad was a Husky fan, and my little girl is a Husky fan, even if she doesn't know it yet. I'm an Air-ambulance pilot flying, yes you guessed it, Lear jets out of Seattle.

I hope others are interested in posting, that includes you John B., otherwise it's going to look like I want to talk about myself.

Uniform wish list

Lear Pilot — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:24:29 -0000

After reading through some comments it seems I'm not the only who wants to see some changes to the uniforms. Seen as how changes tend to happen with new coaches, I thought I'd create a place for us to create a wish list. I might even be open to sending a letter/email to Scott Woodward if any one thinks it could do some good.

What I'd like to see: Same Gold helmets, with gold pants that actually match the helmet. Enough of this tan/beige crap, I really liked how the pants looked during the Marques Tuiasopo years. The tops should be dark purple with the tradional block numbers, see Nebraska and Notre Dame. And lets stick with plain purple tops, no stripes like the late Neuheisel years. I'd also like the away pants to be the same dark purple as the home jerseys. For some reason the pants seem to be fading every year, don't we get new pants every year?

I'm looking forward to seeing what everybody else would like to see.