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My Thoughts On The State of The 2015 Team
HFNY
Member Posts: 4,602
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.
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.
Comments
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.
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?
Strausser has recruited better than any UW OL coach I can remember and his track record at Boise is pretty impressive too. I'm good with Straus, everyone else on the offensive staff makes me sad.
Quite honestly, position coaches are for recruiting. OL coach is the most important one on the field because his unit is so important, but RB coach, WR coach, TE coach, etc. Just recruit well and be an average coach and I'll be happy.
Pease is the guy that is driving me nuts, he isn't recruiting well and his group is playing AWFUL.
Sofuckingirritating.gif
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.
SC actually is giving up a lot of sacks, and they couldn't run the ball vs ASU.