Tid Bits

Fearless Friday Predictions

Well it is Thursday night, and the Huskies, led by Ty Willingham get on the plane in the morning to head down to Southern California to meet a date with destiny. Ty Willingham is the last coach to win in the Coliseum when he was head coach at Stanford. Can the Huskies win on Saturday? That prediction will be made in the Fearless Friday Predictions which will have a new look this week, and will be released Friday morning.

Compromise

One thing that happens when you have been married a month is that you get sucked into doing things you otherwise won't do, and for me it is going to a Couples Shower on Saturday in of all places Rockford, Illinois. Luckily it ends just as the game is starting, so I won't miss the game, but I also won't be able to watch it in the comfort of home which means I won't be present for Dawgman Chat which is always a bummer. One good thing though is we play a round of golf in the morning before this, so it won't be all bad.

Midnight Madness at UW

Friday Night October 13th 7 pm for the UW vs WSU for Husky Volleyball followed by the first annual Husky Midnight Madness which will begin after the Volleyball game. You need tickets for the Volleyball game, but admission is free to Midnight Madness after the game is in it's thrid period. Get tickets to the Volleyball game by calling 206-543-2200.

Join Master of Ceremonies Dave "Softy" Mahler of Sportsradio 950 KJR AM and other Dawg fans for the official tip-off of Husky basketball season! See your Huskies in action for the first time and get pumped up for another great year of hoops.

The event will include:

1. Scrimmages by the UW men's and women's hoop's teams
2. Slam dunk contest
3. Fan contests
4. Lots of prizes

Event will start approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the volleyball match and is FREE for all fans!

Oregon vs California

Ted Miller wrote a fine article on the upcoming clash for ESPN.

"The merest mention of California to a national college football audience elicits smirks that recall the Bears humiliating face plant in a 35-18 defeat at Tennessee to open the season. The inglorious defeat fed the widely held perception that the Pac-10 is USC and nine tulips of varying shades."

New ASU Blog found this week

We finally with the help of (Dick) Hair found a halfway decent blog on ASU football. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Now if we could find something on Stanford we would be set.


Around the Pac Ten Blogs

The Bruins Nation contemplates if UCLA is a second tier Pac Ten team. Washington already has.

Are the Bruins a second-tier Pac-10 team or are they capable of contending for a Holiday Bowl invite? The answer lies in Ben Olson's left arm. After opening strong against Utah, the quarterback has slumped, throwing two touchdown passes and five interceptions, while averaging a measly five yards per attempt. Beginning this week against an underrated Arizona secondary, Olson needs to find his rhythm if UCLA is going to be more than just a six or seven win team.

At the WSU blog they are getting ready to play the second best team in Idaho, OSU.

The fate of this weekend's game rests on the two much maligned QBs, Moore and Brink. In this game, give WSU all the talent advantages that money can buy. Brink is obviously far superior to Moore in the moxy and execution department. You can give a slight edge to the Chipmumks on Bernard as an individual talent, but the Cougs winning the battle of the runnng game with a superior O-Line and running back depth...

The Duck Blog says Bellotti is looking to improve special teams play. That means there will be an extra Nike Official in the replay box this week.

Oregon will need to step up there special teams play this week if we intend to win on Saturday. The Ducks only punted three times against ASU, but two of the punts turned into adventures for Oregon. One punt by Matt Dragich (pictured) only went nine yards, while another was returned 21 yards by the Sun Devils.

On the Trojan Blog they think the Huskies are chokers.

The Huskies are certainly making strides in Willingham's second season in Seattle, but the team has not arrived yet. The Huskies will struggle in a game of this magnitude, while USC flourishes in such outings. Booty will do enough with his arm whether or not Jarrett plays and the Trojan defense will do the rest.

The Arizona Blog has put up the white flag.

Let's face it, Arizona football is done for the year. We won't be playing a meaningful game till early September of 2007. Sure we should still go to the games and cheer on our team and watch as they develop before our eyes. But a winning season? No. not this year. It's time to get next season started. So with that in mind, here are David's recommendations for the remainder of this season.

At the Arizona St Blog they want to salvage the season before Koetter is fired.

Arizona St been exposed. We're just not that good right now, and virtually every part of our game seems to be in shambles. We've had a chance to vent our utter frustration. Now what?
Dirk Koetter is not going to be fired in the middle of the season. We're going to sink or swim with Rudy Carpenter. We still have to play the remaining 7 games on the schedule. And we have to continue to recruit players for next year's team, even if they'll be playing for a different guy.

At Stanford they are trying to find some highlights.

Highlights practically have been non-existent for the Stanford football team, but Tim Sims provided a big one against UCLA.

At the California Blog they want it loud in Strawberry Canyon on Saturday.

The No. 16 Cal football team has played in two loud road environments in its first five games. This week the Bears are hoping their fans can create a similarly hostile environment for visiting Oregon at Memorial Stadium.

Nothing new from Oregon State Blog, but we have an article from the Oregonian on how the students are ragging on their QB.

No one will mistake Reser Stadium's decibel level for that of the Swamp in Florida, Louisiana State's Death Valley or even Boise State's Bronco Stadium. But the noise coming from the Oregon State student section -- the chants of "Canfield, Canfield!" and the insults directed at starting quarterback Matt Moore -- has become an issue.