I remember the optimism. There's no way Rick was going to figure out how to have an OL and a defense going into 2003. Best case he avoids the embarrassment against Nevada and Arizona, goes 8-4 and beats Minnesota in the Sun Bowl. Then he bottoms out in 2004 and gets fired.
Similar to his ending at UCLA
O-line, O-line, O-line… bad, bad, bad for 20+ years. Fuck. our? lives.
I remember the optimism. There's no way Rick was going to figure out how to have an OL and a defense going into 2003. Best case he avoids the embarrassment against Nevada and Arizona, goes 8-4 and beats Minnesota in the Sun Bowl. Then he bottoms out in 2004 and gets fired.
Remember when the fanbase wanted to fire people for shitty 6 win seasons that were an under achievement?
I remember the optimism. There's no way Rick was going to figure out how to have an OL and a defense going into 2003. Best case he avoids the embarrassment against Nevada and Arizona, goes 8-4 and beats Minnesota in the Sun Bowl. Then he bottoms out in 2004 and gets fired.
Remember when the fanbase wanted to fire people for shitty 6 win seasons that were an under achievement?
Maybe we’re back. Probably not but still.
I've been talking about with everyone who will listen that the last time the program had hope was when Lambo got fired for 6-6 (and yes I understand underachieving for like six seasons before was part of that too). But yeah, I think ol Slicky Ricky was getting canned to when he went 6-6 in 2003. He had bought himself some stock with his Northwest Championship run but flushed it all down the toilet by getting run by a 6-6 Purdue team in the Sun Bowl.
Jesus, college wrestling really??? Wtf is going on here??
I can go on a pro wresting tangent next time if you want
Yes to more pro wrestling. Specifically debate of Flair vs. Rock who was the best on the mic?
Also, yes UW did use Neuheisel's gambling scandal to push him out. Much like how this year has went for Lake and where it was going, the same was happening under Neuheisel but in his case we had been used to great defenses between James and Lambo for many of their 20 years here, and so when we were getting torched by shitty Pac-10 schools at the time the fanbases pitchforks were really out.
Rick was not run out like lake. The AD wet the bed and panicked. He may have been fired after another subpar year.
Yeah, given the timing and replacement, I don't think Rick was run out. I'm sure he was unpopular in the department at the time given how disappointing his team had become and him trying to get other jobs, but running him out that close to the season with Gilby (a failed head coach) as the replacement would have been insane. There was no way Gilby with two months heads up was going to outperform Rick in 2003. Had Rick stayed in 2003, he goes 8-4 at best, probably 7-5 or 6-6 and at the time that probably gets him fired and you do a real coach search with the best thing being Willingham not yet being available.
It's very unfortunate no one hired away Neuheisel some time when he was at Washington. Same with Sark in 2009-2011.
Rick was fired when he interviewed at San Fran and then lied about it after his airport convo was eavesdropped on. They just needed some kind of reason to save money on it.
They were looking for anything they could find, and entering the 03 season with 2 Heisman candidates and a preseason top 14 they needed a reason. Enter Hugh and his numerous calls to Ted Miller and they had the out they were looking for. Ended up costing them alot in the long run, but they thought they had it there. Sure, the O-line was trash, but they could still at least put up points every once in awhile, (Oh, and beat Oregon) something Jimmy isn't ever capable of.
If, and it's a big if, Jimmy is actually let go (I'll believe it when I believe it) at least we learned that when you want to fire a guy, 4 weeks before the next season starts isn't the optimum time.
Firing Rick and that way makes a lot of sense. But they were really banking on Gilby being better and with that little time before the season? That just seems wild.
Comments
Maybe we’re back. Probably not but still.
They were looking for anything they could find, and entering the 03 season with 2 Heisman candidates and a preseason top 14 they needed a reason. Enter Hugh and his numerous calls to Ted Miller and they had the out they were looking for. Ended up costing them alot in the long run, but they thought they had it there. Sure, the O-line was trash, but they could still at least put up points every once in awhile, (Oh, and beat Oregon) something Jimmy isn't ever capable of.
If, and it's a big if, Jimmy is actually let go (I'll believe it when I believe it) at least we learned that when you want to fire a guy, 4 weeks before the next season starts isn't the optimum time.