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Wilbur Hooks on Coaching Changes and The Husky Way
Hardcore_Husky
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 302 
Wilbur Hooks on Coaching Changes and The Husky Way
The former UW wide receiver recalls the coaching change from his era, and how it helped alter the team's culture.
Comments
Either way it will be interesting.
I think he hit it right on the head. The second half of that 2001 season was the turning point. If there was a pinpoint, it was the Oregon State game.
In the 2002 and 2003 seasons, I remember thinking the team seemed really ordinary. They struggled with weak teams for a half or even a game, or they lost to them, & elite/some good teams just annihilated us. It felt wrong. I never dreamed they would only win 20 percent of the games over the next five years or whatever the hell it was, but that two to three year period definitely was the precursor.
Doogs blame Rick for Gilby & Ty's struggles... I don't. I blame Rick for being a pussy, pansy POS and making us soft.
The thing was, we needed some fun after Lambo had sucked the life out of the players.
It was pretty easy to understand. Lambo had made kids TUFFFFFFFFF, but sucked the interest and enjoyment out of football. Rick was all of that. While he had the TUFFFFFNESS we did great. Once that was gone, we sucked because he was a pussy, ultimately.
The end.
You need a coach who lets people enjoy things (see '91; in contrast, see punishing DeSaussure for saying shitty things about the Cougs), but also makes them tough.
Rick showed what he had.
However, Gilby and Ty's years... those are on Gilby and Ty. Rick didn't do irreparable harm. Both Gilby and Ty were fucksticks.
Rick let the o line go to shit and was too worried about fast WRs. That '02 team had no rushing and Pickett threw 3,000 quick slants because he had no protection. The biggest problem was making Gilbertson a full h.c. when it was obvious he didn't really want it. If they had let Rick go (but he won a Rose Bowl dammit!!!!!!!!) and acted like a real football program, let Gilbertson be the interim and fight for the job if he wanted it, then hired a real coach, this shitstorm, 0-2 win seasons, nothing happens. Absolutely none. No Duckade, no five years of despair, nothing. At worse they have a losing season or two, probably in the 4-5 win range.
And when they went to Notre Dame with one of the more talented UW teams and lost 54-20, you could tell that the golden domers respected UW because they were Lambo Tuff.
And when Rick Neuheisel lead the buffs to an ass kicking performance over UW in the holiday bowl, you could still tell who the tougher team was.
Firing Rick after 2002 would have been a great move. The 2003 team was talented. Coaches would have lined up to coach that team. Of course Babs probably would have fucked up the hire. She fucked up by firing Rick when he did. If she would have relieved Gilby after his 6-6 year, we still could have found a good coach. That is much harder to do with a 1-10 team, although we obviously could have done better than Ty. One bad move after another. Luckily, I was a high school kid and was starting to get too busy for Husky Football. If I was an adult, I'm not sure if I would still be a fan after all of that shit.
Whether you agree with the coaching changes or not is a very small piece of the story.
Simple fact
Crisped
Just a bunch of excuses. Babs was right to fire Lambo. The problem wasn't that she fired Rick it was when she fired Rick and then letting Gilby take over.
Searching for some link to a non existent Husky Way was really stupid. That's what led to Ty. Then swing the other way to Sark. Swing back to Petermen.
If Petermen can coach which I think he can its a mute point irregardless. If he can't we'll swing back to a loose Sark Rick type. Its what losing programs do.