Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
Options
Alternative theory: Why was Pete hired?
RaceBannon
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 101,200
Older DAWGS should never forget the long legacy of the administration fucking up Husky Football for their own purposes. We could go back to not firing Owens but that's probably too far back.
Let's start with running off the last two coaches who won a Rose Bowl here. Let's talk about our administration basically backing Bill Walsh's thinly veiled racism when he popped off about the "type" of recruits UW was bringing in to dominate the Pac 10. The brie and wine crowd were uncomfortable at wine mixers because some players got in a little trouble here and there and were demonstrative and such on the field. Why they were almost as bad as @creepycoug 's Canes were.
James is shown the door and we get Lambo's midgets who predated Gilby's midgets. Hey look at our gritty punt returner as we go 7 and 4 again. A real coach on the field.
Lambo is shown the door and we bring in a recruiter and we all know what that means. Well Rick didn't win the right way either and days of ruin and roses came our way. The once again embarrassed administration showed him the door so we could "ask the right questions" in recruiting under Gilby. Who got fired.
So they bring in the ultimate lose the right way coach with the ultimate we don't really give a shit about football AD. Invisible progress and classroom excellence. Players with an edge or attitude were shown the door or the bench. Owen12 ensued.
Sark did not melt down here. He was at one point considered a safe hire and you just know he could suck up to the upper campus with the best of them. His foibles were not public at the time. He left on his own seeing 7 wins forever as his future as UW was finally back to 1993 Lambo levels of mediocrity .
UW got lucky in hiring a coach from Boise Idaho who could actually coach and had an affinity for try hard guys who could slay Goliath. He has improved the program in every way except in a way to garner the attention of the Upper Campus types who still hate football.
There is valid criticism of Pete's methods from us but I bet his bosses love him. Wins, but not too much and not at the expense of the yarns the administration spins
The biggest difference between UW and Oregon over 20 years is how the administrations view football. Oregon is all in. UW is not. From marketing to twitter to gameday to recruiting Oregon is serious. UW is working on an image that is not reality.
Again I agree with some or even a lot of the criticism of Pete and his selling of his program but my fear is we would only do worse on the next one. There is data to support this thought.
For a progressive campus in a progressive city UW has some demons to work out in regards to the football program and the players we recruit. If some guys fuck up and get arrested does that mitigate the guys that don't and got a way out by being given a chance? Isn't that a lot of what we are talking over each other about here?
We may disagree on a lot bu we want to win a fucking National Championship or 5. On that we agree. How do we get there.
Let's start with running off the last two coaches who won a Rose Bowl here. Let's talk about our administration basically backing Bill Walsh's thinly veiled racism when he popped off about the "type" of recruits UW was bringing in to dominate the Pac 10. The brie and wine crowd were uncomfortable at wine mixers because some players got in a little trouble here and there and were demonstrative and such on the field. Why they were almost as bad as @creepycoug 's Canes were.
James is shown the door and we get Lambo's midgets who predated Gilby's midgets. Hey look at our gritty punt returner as we go 7 and 4 again. A real coach on the field.
Lambo is shown the door and we bring in a recruiter and we all know what that means. Well Rick didn't win the right way either and days of ruin and roses came our way. The once again embarrassed administration showed him the door so we could "ask the right questions" in recruiting under Gilby. Who got fired.
So they bring in the ultimate lose the right way coach with the ultimate we don't really give a shit about football AD. Invisible progress and classroom excellence. Players with an edge or attitude were shown the door or the bench. Owen12 ensued.
Sark did not melt down here. He was at one point considered a safe hire and you just know he could suck up to the upper campus with the best of them. His foibles were not public at the time. He left on his own seeing 7 wins forever as his future as UW was finally back to 1993 Lambo levels of mediocrity .
UW got lucky in hiring a coach from Boise Idaho who could actually coach and had an affinity for try hard guys who could slay Goliath. He has improved the program in every way except in a way to garner the attention of the Upper Campus types who still hate football.
There is valid criticism of Pete's methods from us but I bet his bosses love him. Wins, but not too much and not at the expense of the yarns the administration spins
The biggest difference between UW and Oregon over 20 years is how the administrations view football. Oregon is all in. UW is not. From marketing to twitter to gameday to recruiting Oregon is serious. UW is working on an image that is not reality.
Again I agree with some or even a lot of the criticism of Pete and his selling of his program but my fear is we would only do worse on the next one. There is data to support this thought.
For a progressive campus in a progressive city UW has some demons to work out in regards to the football program and the players we recruit. If some guys fuck up and get arrested does that mitigate the guys that don't and got a way out by being given a chance? Isn't that a lot of what we are talking over each other about here?
We may disagree on a lot bu we want to win a fucking National Championship or 5. On that we agree. How do we get there.
Comments
We were in the playoffs year 3 and half the team (defense) belonged, with far less talented players.
Respectable-ish losses the past 2 years in NY6 games.
I have to believe Pete will break through eventually because I really doubt another coach is going to do better.
Pete is winning at a historic clip. He just needs to break through on the big stage. With the way recruiting is trending I have to think he will. The offense is the concern, same as it was the past 2 years.
Hurtful but true.
I liked Rick, and he's on my list at least of UW admin fuck ups. Much like Billy Joe's stupid "loan", that NCAA betting pool thing looks mighty tame and harmless in the context of the shit that happens today. That 2000 season has his fingerprints all over it. Sure he had Pharms, Tripplett, Tui, Vontoure, Stevens, etc. But the kids (I like to call them "the kids") played for him ... they bought in that he cared about them, and on some level, I think he did. Whatever else you think of Rick, there is no question that his dismissal led to some pretty fucked up dark days around Montlake. Be careful what you axe for (is that raysiss to say?)
On the necessity of tolerating some bad hombres, I go back to the infamous interview with DJ when they were axing him about some of the boys getting into trouble. You know, the famous "wild hair" quote? I believe it. You need some. Wasn't just the 2000 team. We had some dudes in the early 90s you'd want to be careful with. Trust me. I was there!
There were elements in all three losses of UW having its ass handed to it for a stretch. I gave Pete all the credit in the world for the half-tim adjustments that kept the PSU score respectable. But in all three, for a significant stretch of the game, UW looked outclassed.
You can't just concede an entire half of football to really good and athletic teams. So that's on somebody. I'll let you decide who, because I don't know.
And the other thing that provides important context is that he's winning at an historic clip in a conference that is now a shell of its former self. It is what it is; don't twist. I'm not playing the "USC is down"' or "Oregon is down" game. Most of the conference is what Oregon State and Cal used to take care of on their own.
Oh yeah. There is tons of data. Statistically the next guy is in all liklihood a failure.
UW also plays overly conservative initially which is bad coaching. The players seem intimidated.
The Pac 12 stuff is also valid.
I still dont see another alternative that has us in this position. Pete is the guy and hopefully he improves.
But your content is right in the middle of the bell curve. Not horrible, but not good at all.
Our problem will continue to be an upper campus that aspires to be more Berkeley than Austin, with a student population being imported from Beijing that doesn't know what the fuck football is (despite Larry's best efforts).
He's one of the best coaches in the country. Half-time adjustments are a hallmark of a technically sound staff. He has that.
He just seems to have some blind spots and some weird preferences. Look, nobody is perfect I guess. As you and the other old-timers know, I LOVE Jimmy Johnson, and he's the same stupid mother fucker who let Testaverde throw it four fucking times inside the 10 yard line even though Alonzo Highsmith was running on the Pedos for 10 yards a clip while signing autographs. His QB had been shit all night, 4, FOUR, picks, all of them terrible, and he put the game in his hands so he can throw #5. Literally cost Miami a national title right there. If I'm the coach for those three seconds, literally if it's just me instead of Jimmy, Miami has six titles.
But nice try. Pup is not only a legend here..but everywhere he goes...pup just has that 'it' factor;)
I believe in Pete, but coaches have to evolve and improve.
In saying that I want Pete to bring in top 10 recruiting classes and play talent, I'm not saying I want him fired. That binary is peddled by Doogs who are more afraid of failure than they want success. Pete is amazing. I love him.
I think if Pete thought long and hard about all the issues we discuss he would mostly come down on the side of the half-brains.
However, change is really hard. Pete always preaches about 'getting out of your comfort zone' - and those things are usually mantras because they are very personally important to the person espousing them. Pete has a massive comfort zone and Jen and the Cauce are NOT going to push him outside of it.
Yes it stings to lose to Ohio State, Penn State, Auburn, USC and Bama looking outclassed athletically... but dispersed over 3 years of 'we're just happy to be here' it doesn't sting that bad.
Everyone here knows at Bama you have top shelf athletes and top shelf effort and execution. At Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia and Oklahoma you have the same. What separates us from those teams is the way we carry ourselves.
Right now, Clemson is basically - if you take our program and put it through Oregon's marketing lens. I think all of us would appreciate that.
The more criticism of the program the better in my view. I'm HAPPY to trumpet our accomplishments and I think playing for Pete is most likely one of the best CFB experiences you could ever have.
But one of the failures of modern Dawg fans is to strive for being the best. Everything is about avoiding failure and everything we do is measured by how close we are to 0-12. That was true under Ty (4-9 was FOUR wins after all!) and it's true now. People want to act like things have changed, but that 'at least it's not XYZ' is still strong and alive in our fanbase. We just have new numbers to plug into the XYZ that makes the argument look better without actually being better.
The focus should always be: We are a great university in a great city with a great stadium, great tradition and a great fanbase. No one is close in the north and we should be one of the top 10 teams in the country every year.
If in the next 10 years we average being ranked 8th at season's end I can live with that.
What I can't live with is this 'IT'S BETTER THAN SARK/TY, DO YOU WANT TO GO BACK???'
Fuck that. Grab the fucking brass ring and have some fucking ambition. This is fucking America. Try to be the best or fuck off. It's one of the things our culture really got right.
I'm not here to fucking hero worship a coach. I love Pete and I personally admire him, but we need Rose Bowl wins. There is no fucking reason we shouldn't have them.
OUT OF ALL PLACES this place should know that. In the modern landscape of CFB we are set up to do GREAT things. We need to actually want them instead of being afraid it's all going to unravel.
Scared money don't make.
Everything about our BS fan base is scared money. Let's be the fucking best. The end.
And NOW is the time to make hay while the sun shines upon a shitty Pac-12