The Monday Morning Wash

This is the third Spring at the University of Washington for Ty Willingham, and the fan base has begun to get restless after a four year bowl absence. You figure that in the third year you are ahead of the curve on establishing your culture, you know more about what your players can do, and the savior of the program begins taking his first snaps as starting QB today.

For Willingham, while he can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, he still has some challenges. One of the biggest is the practice depth this Spring which can only be remedied by the arrival of a large freshman class in August. Perfect practice against the best athletes is what breeds improvement in a football team. Just consider what USC, and Florida are practicing against this Spring? Willingham is still a couple of years away from enjoying that type of bonus.

The team is going to be young this year, the key is having new better athletes emerge as the season progresses. That is a sign of a team that is getting better ever week which was a trademark of most of DJ's teams. This particular team looks like it can do that despite what guru's such as Ted Miller of the PI are saying. I look for this team to challenge it's opponents all year long, and be more explosive on offense.

The conference race is free for all after USC, and even UCLA, and Oregon State beat them last year, so everyone has a chance even though the Trojan's will enter the Fall as the consensus number one team in the land.

The media has a few interesting notes we will share on the opening of Spring practice.

Bob Condotta starts us off with an interview with JR Hasty this morning in the Times. Does JR get it yet, not sure if the coaches are sure?

The interview was nearing its conclusion when a coach reminded J.R. Hasty that he'd better just end it so as not to miss even a second of an upcoming tutoring session.

Molly Yanity of the PI muses that Ty doesn't feel his teams have done enough since he arrived.

After two full seasons and increased production each year, University of Washington coach Tyrone Willingham still doesn't think he has done enough.

Ty has basically the same conversation with Don Ruiz of the Tribune.

“The reality is we haven’t equalized where I hoped we would be,” he said last week. “I thought we’d be that bowl team by now. But the reality of where we can go is still very much out there. We can get to be a very, very good football team again.”

Art Thiel wonders what the Sonic's would look with Spencer Hawes. If I am Spencer Hawes, I would be considering how much it would suck to live in Oklahoma City.

If you are the Sonics general manager -- and you could be, what with big changes in store -- do you take Hawes, or pass? This assumes, of course, that Hawes will declare himself eligible. He left a crack in the door for returning to the UW for his sophomore season by not signing with an agent. But the only way he's coming back is if he gets hurt, or bears are discovered using porta-potties instead of the woods.

We finish up with a nod of the head, and thumbs up to former Grambling coach Eddie Robinson who passed away last week.

Eddie Robinson was earning 25 cents an hour at a feed mill when he heard about a coaching vacancy at a small college in Louisiana. It was a time when Robinson and other black people lived in segregation.