Huskies / UCLA

[jdruaint]

5 minutes left. Does Washington see the ball again?

Yep they did, but Miles is garbage. First read miss, run, over through, run, take a sack, run, interception. GG

 

[Spounge84]

And Miles ends the game with a stupid interception

 

[jdruaint]

Peterson better find him a QB next year. Sadly we had a great D this year.

 

[SeatownJay]

Peterson better find him a QB next year. Sadly we had a great D this year.

In addition to a QB, he's going to have to find a running back, a tight end, a defensive line, an offensive line, and some linebackers.

 

[jdruaint]

Peterson better find him a QB next year. Sadly we had a great D this year.

In addition to a QB, he's going to have to find a running back, a tight end, a defensive line, an offensive line, and some linebackers.

Agree. But it all starts and ends with a quality QB.

 

[jkitsune]

I'm not sure what D you're watching. We don't have a great D - we have a highly talented D with lots of NFL talent that has significantly underperformed in the majority of our games. Can't help but wonder what it might've looked like with Justin Wilcox here.

 

[hawknation2014]

Can't help but wonder what it might've looked like with Justin Wilcox here.

It would have sucked and won seven games.

 

[endzorn]

That was my first Huskies game and I was underwhelmed by the fans. I'd heard it was a madhouse but I was at a Trail Blazers gAme on Thursday and that was louder...a regular season NBA game.

And yes, the refs sucked.

 

[jkitsune]

Can't help but wonder what it might've looked like with Justin Wilcox here.

It would have sucked and won seven games.

The D under Wilcox was far superior to this. Sark teams were mediocre for other reasons, not the D's performance.

 

[Sarlacc83]

Last year, I was really frustrated with Mark Helfrich and thought that Oregon might not be stupid to look at other candidates if Helfrich was going to let his team play so poorly and essentially quit after getting knocked out of the BCS race.

However, now that he has more of 'his' guys (and Mariota has grown), those complaints have disappeared. So I guess I'm saying, in a roundabout way, keep your chin up with Peterson for at least another year. His system might need to take, and he might need to weed out the guys who are killing your team, especially your defense. (I mean, I want the winning streak to continue, so you may lose to Oregon with my blessing for the next three decades).

 

[davidonmi]

Can't help but wonder what it might've looked like with Justin Wilcox here.

It would have sucked and won seven games.

The D under Wilcox was far superior to this. Sark teams were mediocre for other reasons, not the D's performance.

You mean the same Wilcox d that UCLA Arizona state and Oregon dropped 40+ on? Them defense has been the least of this team's problems

 

[Largent80]

Wow, all 3 guys that I mentioned had huge games, but they have been doing that all year.

 

[kearly]

A few tough team losses aside, the Huskies still had one of the top defenses in the Pac-12 last year. The loss of Wilcox has had a fairly obvious impact.

But I don't think it really matters when UW is basically reduced to having an Army/Navy kind of offense. Hard to win games against good teams while being so limited on offense.

 

[hawknation2014]

Wilcox might be the most overrated coach in UW history. But after Nick Holt, what do you expect?

 

[jkitsune]

Can't help but wonder what it might've looked like with Justin Wilcox here.

It would have sucked and won seven games.

The D under Wilcox was far superior to this. Sark teams were mediocre for other reasons, not the D's performance.

You mean the same Wilcox d that UCLA Arizona state and Oregon dropped 40+ on? Them defense has been the least of this team's problems

I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone right now. Oregon and UCLA dropped 40+ on us THIS YEAR. EWU dropped 50+. Regardless of your thoughts about Wilcox, I'm not sure how anyone can describe this UW unit as 'great.' It's loaded with first-round NFL talent, and should be significantly better than this. It's a shame that Peters, Shaq, Shelton, and Kikaha are/will all be gone.

That being said, I agree with the other half of your post - that is to say, the biggest problem with this team is the QB. If that position improves, and we hold serve on defense, this team is much, much better.

 

[MLOhawks]

Couple things:

1) Smith calls plays, not Petersen.

2) Wilcox was mediocre, not great.

 

[davidonmi]

I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone right now. Oregon and UCLA dropped 40+ on us THIS YEAR. EWU dropped 50+. Regardless of your thoughts about Wilcox, I'm not sure how anyone can describe this UW unit as 'great.' It's loaded with first-round NFL talent, and should be significantly better than this. It's a shame that Peters, Shaq, Shelton, and Kikaha are/will all be gone.

That being said, I agree with the other half of your post - that is to say, the biggest problem with this team is the QB. If that position improves, and we hold serve on defense, this team is much, much better.

that's my point, the defense was good last year, it's good again this year. I really don't notice much of a difference between the two.

 

[kearly]

Wilcox might be the most overrated coach in UW history. But after Nick Holt, what do you expect?

How he is he over-rated? He took a bad defense and improved it dramatically in pretty much every category. He did the same thing at Boise State and Tennesee as well.

I don't mind strong opinions, right or wrong, but just throwing out a strong statement with no backup explanation for that conclusion is weak, especially when it goes against readily available evidence.

We all knew Wilcox was a rental when he came to UW. Not saying this is you, but I am honestly SMH at people who are acting bitter about him leaving, especially since a change at HC and assistant coaching staff probably factored.

No one is saying that Wilcox is Dick Lebeau. But he was a good DC that made a difference. He may be gone now, but that's no excuse for revisionist history. He did a good job, and I'd welcome him back.

that's my point, the defense was good last year, it's good again this year. I really don't notice much of a difference between the two.

There's definitely been a dropoff. UW is allowing more yards and points to a weaker schedule despite getting career years from some of their pass rushers.

One thing I will say though, Chris Petersen knows how to make nobodies into good players and good players into stars. He did that at Boise State, and he's doing it at UW. Been a long time since I felt this star struck by a UW defense.

 

[hawknation2014]

Wilcox might be the most overrated coach in UW history. But after Nick Holt, what do you expect?

How he is he over-rated? He took a bad defense and improved it dramatically in pretty much every category. He did the same thing at Boise State and Tennesee as well.

I don't mind strong opinions, right or wrong, but just throwing out a strong statement with no backup explanation for that conclusion is weak, especially when it goes against readily available evidence.

We all knew Wilcox was a rental when he came to UW. Not saying this is you, but I am honestly SMH at people who are acting bitter about him leaving, especially since a change at HC and assistant coaching staff probably factored.

No one is saying that Wilcox is Dick Lebeau. But he was a good DC that made a difference. He may be gone now, but that's no excuse for revisionist history. He did a good job, and I'd welcome him back.

that's my point, the defense was good last year, it's good again this year. I really don't notice much of a difference between the two.

There's definitely been a dropoff. UW is allowing more yards and points to a weaker schedule despite getting career years from some of their pass rushers.

One thing I will say though, Chris Petersen knows how to make nobodies into good players and good players into stars. He did that at Boise State, and he's doing it at UW. Been a long time since I felt this star struck by a UW defense.

Justin Wilcox is a profoundly average defensive coordinator. He has NEVER had a Top 25 defense at Washington, Tennessee, and now at USC. Boise State's defense got much better after Wilcox left; they had the No. 2 scoring defense in the country the year after. USC's defense has gotten worse in every single defensive category since Wilcox took over as DC.

Did you watch the defense give up 53 to ASU last year and 41 to UCLA? Did you watch BC destroy SC's defense this year with just two option plays?

What more evidence do you need? Wilcox is just not that good.

 

[kearly]

You can't just cherry pick a couple games. I could just as easily say that Seattle's historically good defense gave up 29 points to Indy last year. The 2000 Ravens had a game where they gave up almost 40.

Here is how the Huskies shake out over the last four years in scoring defense (with their Pac-12 rank in parenthesis):

2011 (Holt): 108th. (tenth in Pac-12)
2012 (Wilcox): 39th (fourth in Pac-12)
2013 (Wilcox): 30th (fourth in Pac-12)
2014 (Kwiatkowski): 67th (seventh in Pac-12)

UW's strength of schedule was the hardest during the 2012 and 2013 seasons too. In 2013, the best year defensively of the four, Seattle had the toughest SOS of this sample, the 11th hardest SOS in the nation that year.

Wilcox took a defense that had been historically bad over the previous half-decade and made it well above average. Since he left, this same defense slipped to slightly below average. A drop of 37 spots with essentially the same group of players, playing an easier schedule.

Tennessee, same thing. And though Boise State did temporarily improve after Wilcox left, they also improved from him arriving (from 51st to 21st in his first year at Boise State).

USC's defense has indeed declined so far this year, but only by 1.2 points per game. The hurry-up element Sark brings on offense probably accounts for at least that many points being added defensively, if not more, and it's close enough that by season's end Wilcox could still end up improving a pretty good defense despite Sark's offense.

I simply fail to see how he is over-rated or 'average'. Nobody is pushing sainthood on him. People are saying he's done a good job for most of his career and it's not over-rating a guy to point to his track record, which has been strong and consistent.