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My Thoughts On The State of The 2015 Team

HFNY
HFNY Member Posts: 5,381
in Hardcore Husky Board
I had a back and forth with someone very close to the program (an "insider" if you will).

From what I gathered it was a bit of a Pac-12 wake up call for some kids (who redshirted last year or are true frosh) after playing the likes of BSU and Utah State. This person asserted, though, that the kids are playing their ass off in all 3 phases of the game....thinks they're doing quite well considering how young everyone out there is. We both agreed that Chris Strausser is the best teacher around so we should never worry about that with him...this person said they'll figure it out and in a year or two they'll dominate so we're hoping they can at least get to Pac-12 average in 2015 with their experience ramping up quickly as they get more and more bankable reps (Petersen's term).

In general, some kids are just tougher than others and some just pick things up quicker....that's why the young guys are playing over some veterans that were recruited by Sarkisian. That's all that is. Petersen / Strausser wouldn't play the young OL (Adams, McGary, Sosebee, James) if they didn't trust them get the job done and improve.

As far as Smith goes, it comes down to executing and knowing your guys. He's not a bad coordinator. But he has had his share of fuck ups. We'll see what happens with him but this person doesn't see him being around much longer.

Both of us agreed that that ASU isn't very good and Stanford had their lack of depth exposed and what happens when they have to play from behind. Be and interesting game that's for sure, especially if the run D holds up against an emerging McCaffrey.

This 2015 UW team is also a team that isn't at its best playing from behind so hopefully they start out firing on all cylinders against a suspect USC D (4 turnovers helped make the ASU game a blowout). But SC is too hot and cold for either of us to get a read....definitely a game I'm not planning on betting on since that lack of consistency is such a staple of Sloppy Steve.
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Comments

  • RoadDawg55
    RoadDawg55 Member Posts: 30,126
    Why so high on Strausser? What has he done at UW?
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  • LawDawg1
    LawDawg1 Member Posts: 3,941
    This reads less of "your thoughts" and more of "thoughts of an unknown alleged insider." Except for your last sentence.


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  • AEB
    AEB Member Posts: 2,993
    RoadDawg55 said:

    Why so high on Strausser? What has he done at UW?

    "Doing" - solid recruiting, getting true and redshirt frosh up to speed enough to start. Results aren't topend yet, but I think "what has he done..." is too harsh 15 games in. He needs more time. Smiff? Well....
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  • RoadDawg55
    RoadDawg55 Member Posts: 30,126
    AEB said:

    RoadDawg55 said:

    Why so high on Strausser? What has he done at UW?

    "Doing" - solid recruiting, getting true and redshirt frosh up to speed enough to start. Results aren't topend yet, but I think "what has he done..." is too harsh 15 games in. He needs more time. Smiff? Well....
    He's an unknown than. Not the best teacher in the biz, which is a FS comment because nobody here actually knows who 95% of the OL coaches are.
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  • RoadDawg55
    RoadDawg55 Member Posts: 30,126
    HFNY said:

    Based off his body of work at BSU and then knowing him as a coach at UW.

    The problem that has been haunting UW since the end of Neuheisel's days is that OL is hardest to rebuild. What you see on the field usually happened 3-4 years ago in terms of high school recruiting / player scouting, redshirts, S&C, and getting coached up. All of the starters last year had 3-4 years under Sarkisian, Tuff Guy Cozz, and Ivan and then they were gone. Strausser had to restart everything in 2015 (especially with no Charles) and hasn't had any of them for more than a year or two.

    Keep in mind that the two players who have started every game that aren't Strausser recruits are RS-SR Tufunga (no offers except for UW) and RS-Soph Coleman Shelton (late offer by the previous regime and whose best offer at the time was lowly Colorado). Compare that to McGary, Adams, and James' offers. Sosebee's best offer was BSU but Strausser recruited him to BSU and clearly felt he was good enough to play Pac-12 ball so he offered him again at UW. Ideally he wouldn't have to play until he was a RS-Soph instead of a RS-Frosh but it is what it is.

    RoadDawg55 said:

    Why so high on Strausser? What has he done at UW?

    I do agree that Strausser wasn't dealt a great hand and deserves more time. That said, the OL last year was pretty disappointing and while they are young this year, they still suck.
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  • Muttzen
    Muttzen Member Posts: 1,015
    HFNY said:



    As far as Smith goes, it comes down to executing and knowing your guys. He's not a bad coordinator. But he has had his share of fuck ups. We'll see what happens with him but this person doesn't see him being around much longer.

    Nice read. This part has me curious. If Smith isn't that bad, why will he not be around much longer? Will Pete be forced to fire him? Will he get hired somewhere better?

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  • HFNY
    HFNY Member Posts: 5,381
    I guess you never watch teams at least a few times, notice their OL, and then determine who their OL coaches are? That's how I found out about Strausser 7 or 8 years ago.

    Michalczik was actually a very good hire by Sarkisian when he became HC at UW but then Michalczik got a better offer and bolted. Dick Rod hired him in 2013 and he's done a solid job at Arizona. Cozzetto ended up being Sarkisian's 2nd choice (whose best days were in the late 80's and 90's) and people weren't thrilled about that hire...turned out they were right and after Sarkisian left, he didn't bring Cozzetto to USC, nor did Cozzetto get any other offers that I know of so he retired. Is that surprising after watching Cozzetto's OLs for 5 seasons?

    Steve Greatwood at Oregon is also a good one. His rep may take a hit because he went from coaching under Bellotti and Kelly to coaching under SlingBlade.

    Pat Ruel was also widely recognized as a very good OL coach in his days at USC. Carroll isn't a dummy and brought him to Seattle (though IMHO, Schneider / Carroll are aren't giving him and Cable that much to work with lately, perhaps because their faith in them are very strong).

    Are we done here?
    RoadDawg55 said:

    AEB said:

    RoadDawg55 said:

    Why so high on Strausser? What has he done at UW?

    "Doing" - solid recruiting, getting true and redshirt frosh up to speed enough to start. Results aren't topend yet, but I think "what has he done..." is too harsh 15 games in. He needs more time. Smiff? Well....
    He's an unknown than. Not the best teacher in the biz, which is a FS comment because nobody here actually knows who 95% of the OL coaches are.
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  • HuskyInAZ
    HuskyInAZ Member Posts: 1,732
    I love the "win or GTFO" crowd. WTF do you all expect with 3 FR and 1 SO starting on the OL, combined with a FR QB and 2 average (at best) SO WRs. Show me one P5 team that has that amount of youth. And if one exists/existed, I pretty certain the results of that offense sucked balls.
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  • HFNY
    HFNY Member Posts: 5,381
    Well it was a back and forth conversation so I posted with both of our thoughts mixed in....and since I greatly respect this person's football mind / experience, I agreed with some of his thoughts and they became might thoughts as well due to his involvement with the program.
    LawDawg1 said:

    This reads less of "your thoughts" and more of "thoughts of an unknown alleged insider." Except for your last sentence.


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  • HFNY
    HFNY Member Posts: 5,381
    That's Slander, Damn Slander!!!!11!!!@!!!!!

    Even though you cut me deep, yeah I don't know every OL coach by name but I know a decent amount on the West Coast since that's who I watch more.

    Coke mentioned Cavanaugh and he was a good one at Oregon State. Off the top of my head, he got Grant Enger of O'Dea to commit there (solid player for OSU) and Cozzetto couldn't sway him even though we badly needed OL in the 2009 class.

    Cavanaugh also got Harlow to flip to OSU and generally did a good job at OSU in his time there despite not having much to work with.
    RoadDawg55 said:

    HFNY said:

    I guess you never watch teams at least a few times, notice their OL, and then determine who their OL coaches are? That's how I found out about Strausser 7 or 8 years ago.

    Michalczik was actually a very good hire by Sarkisian when he became HC at UW but then Michalczik got a better offer and bolted. Dick Rod hired him in 2013 and he's done a solid job at Arizona. Cozzetto ended up being Sarkisian's 2nd choice (whose best days were in the late 80's and 90's) and people weren't thrilled about that hire...turned out they were right and after Sarkisian left, he didn't bring Cozzetto to USC, nor did Cozzetto get any other offers that I know of so he retired. Is that surprising after watching Cozzetto's OLs for 5 seasons?

    Steve Greatwood at Oregon is also a good one. His rep may take a hit because he went from coaching under Bellotti and Kelly to coaching under SlingBlade.

    Pat Ruel was also widely recognized as a very good OL coach in his days at USC. Carroll isn't a dummy and brought him to Seattle (though IMHO, Schneider / Carroll are aren't giving him and Cable that much to work with lately, perhaps because their faith in them are very strong).

    Are we done here?

    RoadDawg55 said:

    AEB said:

    RoadDawg55 said:

    Why so high on Strausser? What has he done at UW?

    "Doing" - solid recruiting, getting true and redshirt frosh up to speed enough to start. Results aren't topend yet, but I think "what has he done..." is too harsh 15 games in. He needs more time. Smiff? Well....
    He's an unknown than. Not the best teacher in the biz, which is a FS comment because nobody here actually knows who 95% of the OL coaches are.
    You couldn't name 10 OL coaches without looking it up, but okay.
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  • BallSacked
    BallSacked Member Posts: 3,279
    RoadDawg55 said:

    HFNY said:

    Based off his body of work at BSU and then knowing him as a coach at UW.

    The problem that has been haunting UW since the end of Neuheisel's days is that OL is hardest to rebuild. What you see on the field usually happened 3-4 years ago in terms of high school recruiting / player scouting, redshirts, S&C, and getting coached up. All of the starters last year had 3-4 years under Sarkisian, Tuff Guy Cozz, and Ivan and then they were gone. Strausser had to restart everything in 2015 (especially with no Charles) and hasn't had any of them for more than a year or two.

    Keep in mind that the two players who have started every game that aren't Strausser recruits are RS-SR Tufunga (no offers except for UW) and RS-Soph Coleman Shelton (late offer by the previous regime and whose best offer at the time was lowly Colorado). Compare that to McGary, Adams, and James' offers. Sosebee's best offer was BSU but Strausser recruited him to BSU and clearly felt he was good enough to play Pac-12 ball so he offered him again at UW. Ideally he wouldn't have to play until he was a RS-Soph instead of a RS-Frosh but it is what it is.

    RoadDawg55 said:

    Why so high on Strausser? What has he done at UW?

    I do agree that Strausser wasn't dealt a great hand and deserves more time. That said, the OL last year was pretty disappointing and while they are young this year, they still suck.
    I was looking at Pac12 OL stats today, UWs stats season to date are pretty bad. Worst YPC in the conference and 120th nationally. Then they are95th nationally 10th p12 in sack rate.

    SC actually is giving up a lot of sacks, and they couldn't run the ball vs ASU.
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  • HuskyInAZ
    HuskyInAZ Member Posts: 1,732
    RoadDawg55 said:

    HuskyInAZ said:

    I love the "win or GTFO" crowd. WTF do you all expect with 3 FR and 1 SO starting on the OL, combined with a FR QB and 2 average (at best) SO WRs. Show me one P5 team that has that amount of youth. And if one exists/existed, I pretty certain the results of that offense sucked balls.

    I expect to beat Cal at home.
    Expect, demand, bitch, whine and moan 'till the cows come home. It's not worth a hill of beans. Take off the entitled, purple glasses, and you'll see the overwhelming youth at nearly every position on offense is going to lead to some shitty games. I don't like it any more than anyone else on the board, but that doesn't change reality.

    However, Smith/Petersen's offense, as you've pointed out before, is entirely to cutesy. At this point, my guess is Smith is DOA, and rightly so.
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  • RoadDawg55
    RoadDawg55 Member Posts: 30,126
    CokeGreaterThanPepsi said:

    Even Petersen acknowledged that the future is NOW. UW had a chance to be 4-0 with just average offensive play and couldn't do it.

    Sofuckingirritating.gif

    I'm Cockusing this thread with so many poasts, but this. We're young. We are also losing close games to mediocre teams. It has happened way too much the past two seasons to not be sofuckingirrating.gif.
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  • HFNY
    HFNY Member Posts: 5,381
    I expected to beat Cal before the season started too.

    But then Charles had to retire and the other holdovers from the previous regime who backed up last year's OL looked pretty underwhelming so Strausser decided to blow it up and go with the young guys.

    So having 3 freshmen starting on the OL and 4 total underclassmen in front of a true frosh QB, yeah there will be some growing pains.

    Plus the Cal was favored by 4.5 to 6.5 points for much of the week going into the game and they have a top 10 QB who is going to take advantage of 5 TO's (4 by true freshmen and 1 by Dwayne Washington).
    RoadDawg55 said:

    HuskyInAZ said:

    I love the "win or GTFO" crowd. WTF do you all expect with 3 FR and 1 SO starting on the OL, combined with a FR QB and 2 average (at best) SO WRs. Show me one P5 team that has that amount of youth. And if one exists/existed, I pretty certain the results of that offense sucked balls.

    I expect to beat Cal at home.
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  • HuskyInAZ
    HuskyInAZ Member Posts: 1,732
    CokeGreaterThanPepsi said:

    Even Petersen acknowledged that the future is NOW. UW had a chance to be 4-0 with just average offensive play and couldn't do it.

    Sofuckingirritating.gif

    What would you expect Petersen to say? That this is a rebuilding year, and the fans just need to be patient? Probably not too smart for a guy who is paid a ton of money to win.

    And please don't go the "we could have been 4-0" route. You're a better poster than that.

    I'll try this one more time. Show me one P5 team that has/had our youth on offense that didn't shit the bed more often than not.
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  • pawz
    pawz Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 22,425 Founders Club
    HFNY said:

    I had a back and forth with someone very close to the program (an "insider" if you will).


    As far as Smith goes, it comes down to executing and knowing your guys. He's not a bad coordinator. But he has had his share of fuck ups. We'll see what happens with him but this person doesn't see him being around much longer.

    Dear REAL God I hope your insider is Peterman.
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  • Fire_Marshall_Bill
    Fire_Marshall_Bill Member Posts: 25,584 Standard Supporter
    I think the team will start to click around Helloween and November. That's not what people want to hear or deserve, and people have a right to impatience after one top 25 finish in 13 years, but it's just the reality of the situation.

    I've said this numerous times, but if you are expecting PC, Rural Meyer or Saban, it's unlikely. Warshington has never gone 51-9 over five years since the 20s or some ancient leather helmet time.

    If you're expecting fairly consistent top 25 finishes and a Rose Bowl every few years, that's definitely possible and failure of those objectives is grounds for termination.
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  • AEB
    AEB Member Posts: 2,993
    Strausser is least of my concerns.

    Go away:

    Smiff and Peace

    Still Open on:

    Keith B - Warsh had fumbling issues predating Keith. At some point, it's on the player. Warsh isn't Wendell Tyler, so it's hard to tolerate his fumblitits. I don't think it's on Keith. I will say, he needs to recruit a second RB this class - the position depth is decidedly mediocre excepting Gaskin.
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