Not a lot of news on udub prior to the game

Why are they down 4 RB?

Will there QB hold out at halftime for a better deal?

You guys should smoke them, if they can’t run on you they will be easy to defend.

First off, USC should win. It wouldn’t be a huge upset if UW won but a pretty big one. While the defense has been pretty good so far, the offense is trending towards 2021 (under Lake and OC Donovan) ineptness. There are several reasons and I am not going to make excuses.

UW has 1st and 2nd year players all over the starting lineup and two deeps. Deboer was not a good recruiter. Sure, his Alabama classes have been highly rated but that is more Alabama than Deboer’s recruiting prowess. There are 0 players left from the 2022 recruiting class, 5 players left from the 2023 recruiting class (4 starters) and 7 players left from the 2024 class (2 starters). During the 2023 season, recruiting for the 2024 class was non-existent and when Deboer bolted to Alabama, the new coach had two weeks before the Feb signing day. Yes, there is the portal, but UW doesn’t have as much money to spend as many others. We have had to rely on bringing in HS players.

Why is the offense so bad? Besides the lack of experience, it all starts at the QB position. I saw a post this past summer from some rag predicting the QBs in the B1G and Demond Williams was rated the top QB. I didn’t respond because by the time I saw the post, it was many days old and buried at the bottom of the board. But what I did do was shake my head and told myself Williams was not even in the top half. Starting the last two games in 2024, he showed a lot of promise, but he simply has not gotten any better and could be argued he has regressed. Williams is not a good QB. I don’t know what LSU saw last January but he is a waste of 4M. I don’t expect him to be at UW next season. I don’t where he will end up but I hope he was wise with his 4M as he won’t command nearly that much from anyone else. He will be NFL eligible, but he is not an NFL QB.

Other reasons are the top 2 RBs were injured in game 1 and lost for the season. The next RBs up are a 1st year player and a transfer who hadn’t taken any meaningful snaps the prior two years at his previous school due to injuries. The OL hasn’t been good. Key injury to the starting C (could be back for this game), a 1st year player at LT and the player currently at the C position is a transfer who was a T and never played C before. The WRs and TEs are pretty good, albeit young.

Another reason for the offensive woes is the staff. The previous OC/OL coach was Spaulding (another great term born on this board. The term ‘tarmacked’ is used all across the country now) and the current OL coach was promoted from within. I don’t know how good or bad he is yet. But Fisch chose not to hire a new OC. Yes, he is the offensive play caller as many other HCs do that too (Sark, Steve Spurrier, Jimbo Fischer, Bobby Bowden, Mike Homgren, etc). He is a pretty good play caller, but the job of the OC is to formulate a game plan and creates a structure for the OL blocking scheme, WR routes and player positioning. If Fisch is the OC, he is not very good at it and I don’t know why he needs that on his plate to go along with his HC duties.

The defense is pretty good. Ryan Walters is a very good DC and they should keep UW in the game, but if the offense cannot generate first downs, the defense could wear down and turn ugly in the 2nd half.

Special teams have been solid. Better than it has been in years. I understand USC’s defense is not playing well so it will be strength vs strength and weakness vs weakness, but USC just has more experienced talent across the board.

In terms of Husky fans I think all you have left here is mandb these days.

Isn’t Java going to do a re-brand and a marketing blitz to get the WW site out there to other fans?

Now’s the time to do it, despite Java personally alienating good posters herein and not caring in the least.

By all means be true to yourself, Java, it’s a jungle in here for sure. If you don’t think the founder/creator/administrator of a site like this should be held to a higher standard, that’s up to you.  And if a Trojan circle-jerk is your thing, have at it.  But remember, that isn’t what made this place great.

As most of you old-timers know, the WildWest was best 15-20 years ago when we had all sorts of west-coast creatures roaming the board:  Beavers, Bears, Bruins, Devils, Huskies, ‘Cats, Ducks, etc.

Oh well…

I guess everything changes given time.