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Story Time with Uncle Stalin
DerekJohnson
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 62,537 
The year was 1985. Washington had won the Orange Bowl the year before but was struggling now with Hugh Millen at quarterback. By early November, he would be replaced by sophomore Chris Chandler. The Huskies would finish 7-5 and win the inaugural Freedom Bowl over Colorado. Tick... tick... tick. (Sorry, couldn't resist).
But the Huskies were still the Huskies. Stalin was 14 years old and went with his dad to Autzen Stadium. Walking through the parking lot, some yahoo (probably from Springfield) was driving around in his Ford truck dragging a stuffed Husky -- to the cheers of several Duck fans.
Washington and Oregon played a tough, competitive game. Washington struggled on offense but the defense was playing well.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Huskies led 19-13, but Oregon was driving. Dad and I were sitting in the end zone with 7,000 other Husky fans. Everything was unfolding right in front of us.
Chris Miller dropped back to pass and threw a nice-looking ball into the end zone. The Oregon wide receiver, I want to say his name was Verdon, had beaten his defender by two yards. But -- he never turned to look for the ball! It sailed right over his shoulder and landed incomplete. The Huskies held on to win 19-13.
Dad and I walked back to the car and then began the long drive home. We listened to the Oregon postgame show. Oregon coach Rich Brooks was in anguish, over and over he kept talking about if only had Oregon converted that play they would have beaten Washington. But they didn't convert, they botched it and lost the game.
I remember my dad saying "Wow, Rich Brooks is pretty upset." And I said "He's just upset because he's a loser."
34 years later... Last night after the game I had dinner with several HHBs. And I listened to myself complain for two hours about how pathetic Petersen was for running/allowing that Wildcat formation to be run with the game on the line without his starting QB and running back on the field. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, where you know the play's outcome even before the snap of the ball. It was like having a decent poker hand but then discarding your two best cards before all is revealed. I was, and remain, very frustrated. Nay, pissed off.
I had this notion that if we only did this and tweaked that, the Huskies beat Oregon last night and maintain a shot at playing on New Year's Day.
But we didn't do that, and you want to know why? Because as we're fond of saying on Hardcore Husky, "losers lose."
Chris Petersen is Rich Brooks, only that it didn't take him 17 years to lose a Rose Bowl. If you look at Petersen's body of work, he does enough things right to be respected as a decent coach. But in games that really matter (and piss off with beating shitty Colorado and Utah in the P12 Championship -- I still question why they were admitted to the P12), Pete shits the bed. It's in his DNA. It doesn't matter how close we might think Washington got, because there was no way UW was going to win that game last night. GrundleSpiltskin posted on the game thread early in the fourth quarter that we were going to lose. I felt it too but tried to remain positive. UW had the pieces to win the game.
As I watched Oregon celebrate on our home field last night, and as I heard the raucous cheering from green-clad douche bags in the stadium, I had traumatic flashbacks to 1995 and 1997. PTSD triggering, I tell you. (For those of you who were there and remember the missed field goals and Lambright blitzing all 11 defenders while Akili Smith connected with Patrick Johnson for a back-breaking TD, you know the nauseating feeling of which I speak).
But I digress.
Will any level of public shaming get Petersen to hire the right people and then not meddle? We saw public pressure force him to finally play his talented young wide receivers. It never should have taken so long. Those guys can make plays. Petersen wasn't going to do that on his own, he had to pressured to change his ways. But does he have the humility to realize he's the living embodiment of The Peter Principle? Does he hate losing enough that he can find people smarter than him and let them run things without him sticking his fingers in the pie and fucking everything up?
Otherwise, we can expect another ten years of this, before he retires to his boat with his millions.
Go Seahawks!
Comments
...but there really isn't anything to be excited about with this program right now. And I don't have any faith left in Petersen to make the needed moves. I'll go look for something else to distract me. I don't need to watch something that makes me feel worse. Take care.
Cheers--
The part that frustrates me the most about Pete is he is 90% of the exact Coach we want. But the other 10% is a fucking shitshow. And the worst part is I think he is too goddamn stubborn to change that 10% that could elevate this program to legit NC contention. I fucking hate everything.
We host Michigan to start the year in 2020. Losing to shitty Harbaugh at home will be special.
We get so much entertainment on HCH; the team is just a backdrop now. Outside the laughs and the same jokes repeated 23 million times, there's a lot to learn about watches, music, booze, cigars, etc.
Of course there's football content if one chooses to seek it.
I need to know.
It's true.
The problem is it isn't as easy to get to where Pete is now that we hate him as it looks. There is a real chance we would do worse because we usually do
It was a big step from Sark to Pete but it is a huge step to Dabo or NIck. A conundrum. Anyway upper campus loves this weak ass bullshit so learn to live with it
I don't recall Clemson Clemsoning for 6 years like we are Washingtoning now. Soft fucking losers with a smile on their face and a great GPA