Coach Baird, his wife, some of his good buddies were sitting next to my wife and behind me during the game. He made some comments on the defense we saw yesterday, they played tight coverage, he said it looked much more like a Lambright defense. The tackle for loss on the bubble screen by a Husky defender was something we haven't in these parts for many years. Hopefully the days of the opposition getting 10 yards minimum every bubble screen are a thing of the past. The D clearly dominated, Sankey was the best RB out there. Coach Baird admitted to dogging a player on the honks show yesterday, when he made the comment that he wouldn't miss the drops by Kearse. My own nickname for Kearse for the last two years is "3 Drops Kearse". You could count on him for at least three drops a game.

I disliked the music playing continually throughout the game, I hope that was a screw-up. The siren was lame

Do we have a punter coming in?

The stadium announcer was lame too, IMHO. He kept saying, which ever QB, was sacked in the backfield, seems redundant to me, doesn't a sack always happen in the backfield

To all the Dawg fans that read John's blog with me and I trust Kate is recovering well from the cataract surgeries. Merry Christmas John and Kate. I'll see you in Baton Rouge.

Greetings from Yreka,CA...tonight we'll stay near Bakersfield, CA.

We (the wife, myself, the son and his bride) started our road trip to San Antonio yesterday. We're making a four day trip of it getting into San Antonio Christmas day so we can play tourista for a few days with some relatives that live down that way. Watch the game and visit with friends and relatives along the way back to Tenino.

I don't know if I can post this or not but it is very enlightening.

As an old coach... 

I went back this evening and broke down the (defensive) game play by play. I could give you, literally, a play by play analysis. However, It all came down to three basic things.  And  some of you will not agree...
Number one misconception, their line was blowing ours back. I would debate that...late in the game, maybe. But, not early.

(More after the jump)

Continue reading this post »

PORTLAND, Oregon – Goodwill Industries and The Salvation Army in
Oregon sent out plea to Oregonians today to immediately stop donations
of University of Oregon Football apparel. “We have received so many
donations of Duck-related clothing we have simply run out of storage
space,” explained Steve Farnsworth, executive Director of Goodwill
Industries in Portland. “It comes in by the carload but never seems to
go back out,” he said, adding “even the homeless refuse to wear the
gaudy and ostentatious clothing.”

The Salvation Army has also experienced record volumes of Duck apparel
donations. “We have contacted International aid organizations in
effort to unload some of this awful clothing but because of the bright
colors and horrendous logos our offers have been declined,” said
Michael Cole, Donations Manager for The Salvation Army. He went on to
say “it’s sad to see needy people choose to go without clothing rather
than wear the hideous University of Oregon shirts, shorts and
jerseys.”

Both organizations have hopes that local hospital emergency rooms will
accept some of the Duck clothing to help clean up after record numbers
of “fans” were injured while jumping, leaping and, in some cases,
hurling themselves off the University of Oregon bandwagon.

 

We got our Tyee seats on a non reallocation year on the south side. Sec. 44

That first year the seat to my right was not used until the Apple Cup then a guy in full Coug gear sits there. Can you imagine paying WSU their equivalent of Tyee dues just so you will have a great seat for the AC? I don't think so.

The next year was a reallocation year so we were moved up to our point level.   I don't if the Coug did it again or not.

Another year their was a couple next to me that the husband was always purple and gold...the wife wore neutral clothing until the Apple Cup...yep...a mixed family...she was a Coug but you see a lot of mixed couples at the Apple Cup.

I did have a woman next to me one year wore purple every game until the AC as well so she is a Coug fan abberation.

How many think the barking dog sound track they run on third downs is lame sounding. I've heard a lot nastier sounding dog barks than that during my daily walks around my neighborhood. I think they need get a barking sound track that sounds like a nasty bark. The sound track they use now is too friendly sounding, not nearly ferocious enough. A real woof or better yet the sound of a sow's bark when one of her piglets is screaming, that would really get your attention.

Seattle Blogs The Dawgs of War
Derek Johnson raises this question.

The Struggles of Woodward and Sarkisian point toward a Move to Qwest by 2013

As Scott Woodward struggles with how to run an athletic department there's a lingering unease that there will never be a renovation of Husky Stadium and Washington will be playing permanently at Qwest Field by 2013.

By now it's evident that Woodward doesn't know how to raise funds and rally support. He's a nice man, but a political operative who only knows how to go to the state legislature wagging his empty tin cup. The U-Dub has been trying raise funds for the stadium renovation since 2003 and seven years later it remains floundering. Much effort has gone into creating exciting renovation plans, but as support for the program dwindles to naught, it seems impossible that the funding will be there to break ground.

The rest here:

PI Blogs

I'm curious as to what you all think what will happen with bowl affiliations if all these teams move around as speculated.Hopefully the Rose Bowl will stay as is. Will it mean the Pac ?? will get an automatic to the Orange bowl or some other bowl besides the Rose?

How will this affect the BCS if the Big 12 is no more?

Do the remaining Big 12 teams go into the MWC or WAC or some to each?

I doubt Tom Hanson would have proposed anything like this.

What will happen to CFB tradition?

My great niece, Audrey, went to Halifax, Nova Scotia to see a Paul McCartney concert with her Grandmother (my sis Pat).

 She had a sign asking for Paul to autograph her arm so she could get a tattoo of his autograph.  

 Two videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQAS-q4MTPg  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0mTc96QAlk  

and two newspaper articles  

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1132343.html  

 http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner~y2009m7d13-EXCLUSIVE-Girl-with-the-McCartney-signature-tattoo-says-she-still-cant-believe-it    

 She now has a McCartney autograph tattooed on her arm.  

Her Mom says she told Audrey it wouldn't happen, she says she's glad to be wrong.  

Howie Stalwick, a longtime Pacific Northwest sports writer, covers Washington State and other subjects for The Olympian and various other newspapers, magazines and Web sites across the country wrote this commentary regarding Bennett taking a higher paying job (A promotion actually).

Here's a link

http://www.theolympian.com/sports/college/story/805384.html

http://www.theolympian.com/sports/college/story/805384.html

the second one should work....I used the Avant Browser to post it.

 

I hope the link works without cutting and pasting. I like the speed of Firefox but there are some things it doesn't do well.

 

 

 

 

There was a post on Dawgman wanting to know the timeline for SB 6116.

This was my response:

 

"The Senate Ways and Means committee took testimony and have made no recommendations thus far so it's "still in committee" until either they send it to the full Senate with approval recommended or it dies in committee for lack of support. Only they know how long that will be but there are other more pressing matters facing them right now. If it comes out it will probably happen toward the end of this session, there is usually a flurry of bills passed in the last couple of weeks. THe governess still has to sign it if it passes.

Cougs excluded, the testimony was favorable, the bill's two main sponsors are on the committee and the committee chair is from King County as well. The feeling I got from attending the hearing was the committee is in favor." I worked for State Printing dep't for 14 years and we printed all the bills, hearing minutes, etc. during the legislative sessions. That is the history behind my response. I watched them work, up close and personal for 14 years

AJ's Post on Dawgman

Attended the hearing in the Cherberg Building. The entire Senate Ways & Means committee was there chaired by Ms. Prentice. Also on the dais was Sen. Ed Murray from Seattle. Seemed like pretty level headed people.

I'd only been to one of these things in Olympia before but they run a pretty tight ship. They've got handouts when you first come in and then you can sign up to signify your support or opposition --- plus if you want to speak or not. I was pretty gun-shy so I just voted for it and chose not to speak.

The bill in question is Senate Bill 6116. It basically allows for many things but among them an extension of the Hotel/Restaurant Tax in King County and an extension on the Rental-Car tax. It would fund things like arts programs, heritage programs, tourism promotion, low-income housing, and financing of Public Stadiums. The Senators proposing the bill (I think Ed Murray is one) speak in support first.

When you sign up to speak you proceed to a table facing the committee, three at a time, and then talk in turn. First up were reps.from arts committees - they supported the bill. Also, the rep. from Federal Way voiced her support.

She voiced three answers for the "Why now, why this" questions:

• These are the times to fund programs contained in the bill to give citizens a positive image of state government.
• There will never be a better building bidding/contracting culture than there is now with the depressed economy and right now we have reduced prices of materials

Following were reps. from Seattle Center and the Mariners as well as another cultural advocate who spoke in support.

And then came a display I've never seen before. Three people got up. Two were Coug idiots, although they didn't immediately admit to being such.

Here we have a dignified public hearing and these folks were the biggest bunch of whiners/complainers/ and self-admitted Cougar supporters you'd ever want to see.

The first guy says he's from Bellevue and a "concerned taxpayer". Then he states why he opposes the bill:

• These taxes are set to expire. The state has to be credible with the public and let them expire.
• There are better uses for the funds -- studies show that University sports stadiums give no financial benefit to the communities they're in.
• There's been a serious lack of leadership/stewardship at UW. Why has the safety of the stadium been allowed to languish. If UW has the money to pay exorbitant salaries for Sark/Holt and others why can't they use some of that for upkeep?
• This bill is a cleverly disguised legislative mechanism to give UW a competitive advantage over its interstate rival. The guy then says "...in all of NCAA Div.1 football you would not find an instance of an instate rival allowing state funding of sports for its rival.
• UW can do what WSU is currently doing for buildings - thestudents have imposed a surcharge on themselves and they've gone to the donors for more.

During this diatribe Ed Murray interrupted and said something like "....so the only reason you're opposing this is the PAC-10 and WSU's competitiveness"? To which the guy replied that he was a concerned taxpayer and there were better uses for the money derived. Mr. Murray also said that the Performing center at WSU was built with state funds whereas BOA/Hec.Ed was renovated without them.

Nowhere did these yahoos acknowledge the tremendous job and revenue benefits the proposal would net and the other programs (like human services/culture) that would benefit. Their only opposition was the fact that it was UW and specifically that it would benefit the football program.

They also mentioned at the outset that the chairman of the committee, Sen. Prentice, had publicly said this bill was "DOA" and thanked her for that. Sen.Prentice then said that she never said that and that they were lying. Fortunately, she ran a tight meeting and wouldn't let these folks go on and on.

I don't know but I got the general feeling that these Cougies may have hurt their own cause by focusing so much of their anger at UW and only one small part of the bill.

Their issues of paying for our coaches, using part of the $2 Billion fundraising etc. are simply irrelevant. It's obvious that they were focused on harming UW only.

I also got the impression that the overall committee could see this. Sen. Prentice and Ed Murray helped tremendously and no other member of the cte. asked these people questions.

Anyway - that's about it. I had to leave after about 70 minutes. Don't know what happened after that. 

Interestingly - There was a guy there in Husky garb that looked a lot like Jim Lambright. On leaving I went up and asked him if he were Coach Lambright. The guy just shook my hand and said Go Huskies!

T-90 Dawg  added this to the thread:

Happy to have met you AJ. My mustache is bigger than Lambo's.

Nice summation. Both the Coogs that testified weren't well received IMHO.

I especially liked Senator Murray's response to the tax extension giving the UW an unfair advantage when he suggested all the current funding WSU gets from the legislature be eliminated to even the playing field. The coogs had no answer for that.

IIRC a woman representing WSU was for the bill and said the revenue sharing between Pac-10 teams helps all schools. She also said the Apple Cup being in Husky Stadium every other year nets WSU an average of $400K per year ($800K every other year), the implication was that if the game wasn't at Husky stadium WSU would lose money.

A rep from the PFD for Safeco was there in support, as well, saying they liked the continued funding support so Safeco could be maintained as time goes on instead of turning into the mess Key Arena wound up being.

The last guy to testify said he was from an organization wanting responsible use of tax money....I left

The two coogs didn't endear themselves to the committee is the impression I came away with.

Also, the city of Seattle needs some of this money to realize the $30 mill from the guy that stole the Sonics.

There was more testimony against the house version of the bill because of NO Stadium, Safeco, Key Arena or Qwest monies in that bill.

John's Take

Thanks for the recap Jack. I wrote this last night in anticipation of the coming Cougar invasion in Olympia.

Loyal Cougar fans will now regroup to storm the Cherberg Center in Olympia on Wednesday to protest the extension and use of  tourist taxes raised in King County specifically for sports venues such as Husky Stadium and Key Arena which just happen to be in King County.

The Cougars who showed up to protest came off like a bunch of idiots just like I thought they would. I am actually surprised they didn't bring bags of dog feces to throw at people which is a Martin Stadium tradition.

I don't think Cougfan opposition is an issue anymore. If you give some morons enough rope to hang themselves it is usually enough to do the trick.

Thanks for getting this posted Jack!

Go Dawgs!

 Try this link to TVW if you want to watch the hearing.

TVW Link

 You'll have to scroll down to find the Ways and Means committee video link for 3/18

 

 

Sarkisian Recruiting

Sarkisian had told reporters at Monday's news conference that one of his first tasks would be to begin recruiting. He did just that, visiting coaches at both Skyline and Bellevue High just two hours later.

Bellevue coach Butch Goncharoff said it was nice to see that kind of interest in the state high schools from UW, saying, "That hasn't maybe been that way in a while."

Said Taylor of his meeting with Sarkisian: "He was just really, really excited and talked about putting a fence around the state and wanting to make sure I knew how important it was to recruit in the state of Washington."

Said Sarkisian of the trips: "It's getting in front of them and getting a good handle to where they understand what we are trying to get done, where we are headed, and how important they are to it. We will develop a great relationship with them. They will have great access to our football offices, our practices, our game-day experience."

If this isn't the anti-Ty I don't know what is?

The Olympian ran a story today on Ron Holmes, former Husky D lineman, that also spent a few years in the league is giving back to the community. He's serving as an assistant coach at a small christian school in Lacey, WA, his home town. They prtactice at a middle school in Lacey and play their games at Rainier or Tenino high schools

http://www.theolympian.com/143/story/646246.html

 

Props to Ron Holmes