BYU @ Washington Huskies

[MLOdawgs]

What do you expect from your defense this year? How does your D match up with Locker?

If Ty had recruited much better talent and wasn't such a bad coach, Locker would have a real shot at the Heisman:

http://www.athlonsports.com/college-...ch-jake-locker


Will your Oline be the strength of your team this year?

What do I expect from our Washington Huskies you ask? It's hard for me to say, there are so many question marks on our team going into this year.

All I can do is tell you which areas I am optimistic about. I originally posted this on the Okie board, but they apparently don't like to talk football so I thought it would be easier to just copy/paste it here than re-write it again. Here is what I think about our team right now:


DEFENSE - New DC Ed Donnatell is a major upgrade over Kent Baer and already has our defense hitting hard and popping pads. Our safeties Nate Williams and Victor Aeiyewa can knock your head off but they are very inexperienced. Our corners are either mediocre upper classmen or talented but inexperienced frosh. The D-line has only one starter returning, Teo-Nesheim, and the rest will be talented but inexperienced frosh/sophomores. The strength of our defense is our Linebacker corps, even with Savannah injured. Mason Foster started last year as a true freshmen and is a total stud. Butler is big and fast and Tuiasosopo can be a fire hydrant in the middle.

OFFENSE - The strength of the team is obviously the O-line, which is pretty good even with our best lineman C Juan Garcia injured. Our two deeps at the Oline are all near or over 300 pounds. We have a talented but inexperienced RB in Sophomore Brandon Johnson and a young stable of frosh behind him. Chris Polk and Curtis Shaw will be used like Reggie Bush accordign to Lapanno and will play both RB and WR depending on the formation. We have a lot of speed at WR but inexperience everywhere as we graduated five senior WR's this year. We have a couple of really good FB's. Our TE situation last year was pathetic and should be improved this year with high profile recruit Chris Izbicki seeing the playing field. It's possible Kavario Middleton (even higher profile TE recruit) could play but I have a feeling he will redshirt unless he is just too good to leave on the bench.

Jake Locker of course. EVERYTHING relies on Jake Locker. He will be why we win or lose every game in my honest opinion UNLESS the inexperienced freshmen can step up to the plate and take the pressure off of Jake early in the season.

Jake wasn't that bad... yes he at times got too jacked up and overthrew people, but he also had below average wide receivers dropping passes left and right. Hell sometimes Jake was so excited about playing in the game that he would hold his breath and this would tend to end up with the ball sailing on him. He calmed down as the year progressed. I think you will see a major improvement in his passing game this year. He looked great in the Spring game, very accurate with his throws. He went 7 for 7 on one 80 yard TD drive. I think he finished the game 14 for 17 or something close to that.

The offense was not bad last year, we averaged 29.2 points per game. It was decent. The major problem was that our defense was the worst in our 118 year history of Washington football. I think the biggest key to the game will be if our new and revamped defense can at least slow down our opponents offense a little and hopefully give us some turnovers. A very large uphill battle for us for sure.

I don't think any of our games will be a cake walk or a blowout. But we will be the underdog or favored to lose in many of the games I suspect. Our opponents will for sure have their hands full with Jake Locker:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BMfiq9CXss8


We have a new, proven (in the NFL) defensive coordinator but that is on paper only until we play games. We all hope and are optimistic that he can pull a one year miracle out of his rear with the defense. It is the same with all the frosh at the skill positions. On paper there is a ton of talent, but it is young and inexperienced. We have at least added some burners the last couple years. Goodwin, Shaw, both Polk kids (they are cousins), etc. Shaw and J. Polk are track stars in their states, Curtis Shaw in Cali and Polk in Oregon. Shaw ran a 10.56 in the 100m dash and Polk ran it in 10.63. Jordan Polk looks like a midget in this video clip, but in the off season so far he said he has gained 15 pounds of muscle and improved his 100m time by ..05 seconds because of the all the new muscle. Loved his quote, he said "I have been working out like a dog to get ready for UW football".

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tiUNvgi4L48


Alvin Logan (big, 6-2 218) and Anthony Boyles (6-3 190) should also have big impacts as big targets in the receiving game this year. Devin Aguilar will also be in the mix.

Chris Polk on paper and in high school is an absolute stud, we stole him from USC where he was committed for 6 months. His nickname in high school is "little Bush" because his play style reminds people of Reggie (obviously). Lappanno said he plans to use C. Polk (and Shaw) just like USC used Reggie Bush.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tzs4R9xF-aw

The starting running back job should be Brandon Johnson's to lose. He has not had much game time but he did play one and a half quarters last year against Cal after Rankin got hurt. He rushed for over 100 yards against Cal in less than two quarters. You can see our RB in action here in the second half of this video clip, he is number 6, number 9 is Rankin (who graduated).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=afy44jLiqMw


The bottom line is, we have a lot of raw talent, but it is inexperienced and full of question marks. Until they PROVE they can consistently win games, I am not predicting a better record than 6-6 at best.

I hope I am wrong of course.

This is how I predict the season will go for us if I think with logic and do not take into account anything that is unknown (like impact of new coaching staff in key coordinator positions and young talent). I think our worst case scenario is 3-9, and our best case scenario is 6-6. Here is how I think the schedule will most likely play out given what we know right now:

Aug. 30 at Oregon - L
Sept. 6 BYU - L
Sept. 13 Oklahoma - L
Sept. 20 BYE - If we lose to BYE we are in serious trouble...
Sept. 27 Stanford - W
Oct. 4 at Arizona - W or L - toss up
Oct. 11 BYE
Oct. 18 Oregon State - W or L - toss up
Oct. 25 Notre Dame - W or L - toss up
Nov. 1 at USC - L
Nov. 8 Arizona State - L
Nov. 15 UCLA - W
Nov. 22 at Washington State - W
Dec. 6 at California - L

Please feel free to express and discuss your thoughts and opinions on this game.

[ChinoCoug]

thanks for the info all tidy in one place. you saved me google time.

[RockyBalboa]

Originally Posted by Adam

I think an interesting match up will be our Dline and your Oline. Our down linemen are awesome. Jan Jorgensen will be a first round NFL pick. He started as a true freshman two years ago and dominated the league last year. He will be tough to handle.

But according to Jan, he isn't the best Dlineman on the team, that honor goes to a poly beast named Russell Tialeavea who sat out last year with a knee injury that has fully healed now. Russ slimmed down from 320 to 300 this year and is stronger than he has ever been. Jan says Russell is the best lineman on either side of the ball when he steps on the field at BYU's practices. And our Oline has a first round NFL pick(Ray Feinga, 6-5, 331 lbs Sr.) So Jan has been quoted as saying that Russ is better than him or Feinga and that is saying a lot.

Jan lead the MWC in sacks last year as a nose tackle. This is amazing. I don't know how good your Oline is, but with the loss of your center, I think our Dline should be able to shut down the center of the field and put a rush up the middle on Locker. He will have to bail out of the pocket early and often I think.

Which might not be good news for us because running QBs have tended to kill us over the years.

Jan wasn't a Nose tackle. Never has been.

[Mars]

Originally Posted by MLOdawgs

Aug. 30 at Oregon - L
Sept. 6 BYU - L
Sept. 13 Oklahoma - L
Sept. 20 BYE - If we lose to BYE we are in serious trouble...
Sept. 27 Stanford - W
Oct. 4 at Arizona - W or L - toss up
Oct. 11 BYE
Oct. 18 Oregon State - W or L - toss up
Oct. 25 Notre Dame - W or L - toss up
Nov. 1 at USC - L
Nov. 8 Arizona State - L
Nov. 15 UCLA - W
Nov. 22 at Washington State - W
Dec. 6 at California - L

Aug. 30 at Oregon - L (opening game is a conference roadie? ouch)
Sept. 6 BYU - Toss Up (BYU is the better team but history is against them)
Sept. 13 Oklahoma - L (I hope you kill them)
Sept. 27 Stanford - W (though Stanford did beat USC last year)
Oct. 4 at Arizona - Toss Up (Tuitami is finally a senior right? Wildcats have the slight advantage here)
Oct. 18 Oregon State - L (Top 25 team 2 years running, but with a bunch of losses)
Oct. 25 Notre Dame - W (the Golden Domers are far from good)
Nov. 1 at USC - L (Top 5 team)
Nov. 8 Arizona State - L (Top 10 team)
Nov. 15 UCLA - L (good HC, DC, OC, probably a stiff defense, lots of unknowns)
Nov. 22 at Washington State - Toss Up (rivalry game on the road)
Dec. 6 at California - L (Cal might be down, but probably not that down)

Final Record: 3-9, 7th place in the PAC-10
Tyrone gets Canned.

P.S. That's a crazy OOC schedule for a (currently) lower-tier PAC-10 team like Washington!

[Spaz]

BYU's D will be much less experienced than a year ago, but will see an upgrade in overall athelticism & talent. You'll read about how BYU returns only 3 returning starters...but that's not entirely true:

The three returning starters tabbed as such are:
DE Jan Jorgensen (preseason watch lists for about every defensive award a lineman is capable of receiving).
DE Ian Dulan (Jr, started as a frosh & soph)
LB David Nixon (started every year at BYU, is a top-tier LB. Would start at nearly any BCS school).

Of the remaining 8, who most pubs will declare as non-starters, we have:

-Safety David Tafuna, who was slated to start last year before injury forced a RS, and who started games in 2006.
-Safety Kellen Fowler, who started 5 or 6 games last year after an injury forced the 1st-stringer out, and performed very well.
-NT Russell Tialavea, who started as a Freshman, and is highly regarded as a dominant tackle.

Of the remaining five players, we have:
-CB Brandon Howard, 2nd string last year and saw considerable playing time.
-CB Scott Johnson, a walk-on described as "just making play after play" in spring ball. (Many cougar fans expect him to be replaced by game1 by Brandon Bradley, who transferred from Louisville, is 6'2", 190#, and has legit speed.)
-LB Matt Bauman, who saw considerable minutes both on D and was the special teams MVP last season (on a special teams coverage unit that was top-20 for return yardage allowed).
-LB Shawn Doman, who has playing time, but has been hampered by injury.
-LB Vic So'Oto. He has extensive playing time, but all of it is at TE. He's an athletic freak, with size (6'3, 240 with sub-4.6 speed), speed, and a true linebacker personality.

The only truly inexperienced player is Vic, and I expect him to be one of the best players on D by the end of the year.


I fully expect BYU to continue having a top-25 defense. The scheme we run truly makes the most out of the typically meager talent BYU recruits in the backfield, and emphasizes the talent we get in the front 7.


Contrary what others may post, BYU does NOT have a tendency to "have problems" with running QB's. BYU has a tendency to cause plays to break down, and mobile QB's always have an advantage in making something out of those plays. I can list a handful of games where BYU successfully stuffed "mobile QB's" (obviously not quite at Locker's level).

Indeed, you can expect to see Locker struggle against BYU's D in the passing game and in the SET running plays. He's most likely to see success on passing plays that break down.

[OrangeUte]

sounds to me like Ty Willingham has been a good recruiter. Young and talented is what you keep referring to in your post.