Thursday, August 23, 2007

Puppy Chow

EJ Savannah is back in the good graces of the coaching, staff and has regained the starting position he vacated after suffering undisclosed academic problems this Summer. Obviously a little work corrected that problem. EJ has the ability to be an impact type of player this season and it is great news that he will be eligible. Chris Stevens will still play a lot this season. Expect to see a lot of him on passing downs.

Our poll question this week had to do with the use of two QB's. For the first time this year Ty leaked to the press that he will use both of them depending on the situation which makes a lot of sense. Locker is the future, and may be the present, but Carl Bonnell may give them the best chance to win early in the year. Ty knows that this isn't a throw away season, he needs wins, so look for Carl to come in quickly if Jake has growing pains.

Daily Doubles are over for the year, but it isn't as big a deal as it used to be. The Huskies only had five days of doubles this year because of NCAA regulations. Back in my day, every day was a double practice, and it was certainly a grind. Practicing in shorts, or shells? No way, all through HS, and college we pretty much suited up every single day. The limits on practice hurts teams who need the repetitions to improve. A young team like the huskies needs every minute of practice they can get.

USC is going to be holding a public scrimmage in the Coliseum, and expect a big turnout of fans to watch the #1's go against the #2's. USC is one school that could probably craft a couple of top ten teams out of it's roster. Practicing against the best each day is a key to winning championships.

By now you have all heard about Phil Knight coughing up 100 million dollars to kick off the building of a new state of the art arena on the Oregon campus. Washington is on the search for a similar sugar daddy who will kick start the remodeling of Husky Stadium. No word lately on any progress being made on that particular project, but expect something by at least the USC game when they unveil the new Husky Legends Center.

On the injury front Ty is still saying that everyone should be available for the Syracuse game. Anthony Russo is almost all the way back now and is the leading candidate to handle punt returns which is good news. You always like to see those senior hands back there early in the season. I would really like to see the "Flea" get a shot back there. The kid has a lot of speed that needs to get used. That being said, catching punts without fumbling the ball is an art form, just because you are fast doesn't mean you can catch the ball from that angle and hold onto it.

The Huskies are leaning towards going with a couple of frosh return men on kickoffs. Looks like the redshirts will come off for RB's Brandon Johnson, and Curtis Shaw. No word yet on if they have passed Hasty by for the backup TB job, but today's scrimmage will go a long way in determining the pecking order at that position. Brandon Yakaboski who has been impressive this camp is out for a few days with a minor injury.

Brief Notes

Former UW quarterback Isaiah Stanback saw his first action as a Dallas Cowboys receiver Saturday and registered a 15-yard TD reception. Looks like IS is going to make it which is nice to hear!

Lucas McGee, a former world champion with the United States National Team, was named the men's freshman rowing coach at the University of Washington, head coach Michael Callahan announced Wednesday.

Expanded Husky Coverage

I remember when I moved to Nashville in the early 90's how hard it was to get any information let alone broadcasts of my favorite team. If a game was on TV I had to go to a bar with a satellite and see if they would free up one of the TV's so I could watch the game. The Internet wasn't really happening yet, so games on radio where only available over the phone at an outrageous charge. Thank goodness that times have changed. You can be virtually anywhere in the world as Hair of the Dawg will tell you and stay connected.

The Huskies have announced they are expanding coverage to 11 hours of live radio and Internet coverage every game day. Through agreements with the Washington ISP Sports Network, flagship radio station 950 KJR in Seattle and official athletic website GoHuskies.com, Washington football enjoys increased coverage throughout the Northwest. For a complete network listing, click here. Every game will also be carried live for via the free Dawg Channel All-Access. Simply click on the link on the front page of GoHuskies.com and register for the service.

In the Seattle area, 950 KJR's live coverage of Husky football begins four-and-a-half hours prior to game time with the one-hour "Purple and Gold Saturday" show, hosted by award-winning broadcaster John Clayton. Three-and-a-half hours prior to gametime the "Husky Honks" take the air for a two-and-a-half hour show hosted by Dave "Softy" Mahler, former UW and NFL quarterback Hugh Millen and former UW assistant coach Dick Baird. The first 90 minutes of the show is called the "Husky Tailgate Show" and airs on 950 KJR. Two hours prior to game time, the trio transition to "Husky Gameday" that airs on the entire network.

Also don't forget that all the games can still be heard on XM radio! As the official satellite radio network of the Pacific-10 Conference, XM airs Pac-10 football, plus men's and women's basketball, live and nationwide. XM, which started airing Pac-10 games in 2004, recently extended its broadcast partnership with the conference under a multi-year agreement.

Coverage of Husky football does not just take place on game day, however. Every Monday, Rondeau and 950 KJR's Mike Gastineau visit with Coach Tyrone Willingham for an hour beginning at 4:30 p.m. live from Anthony's HomePort at Shilsole Bay. In addition, 950 KJR hosts the "Husky Honks" each week.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like you site very much.

It's worth noting that gohuskies will accomodate Macs and Safari this year. Quite a relief to me.

John Berkowitz said...

I think they have done a great job with the gohuskies website. As time goes on, and bandwidth increases, the Internet will be more integrated with TV. It won't be long till everyone has a PC dedicated to their entertainment system. TIVO, and DVR's are of course just hard drive storage systems, I think the next generation will put together multi hard drive systems for recording HD video, storing music libraries, and of course streamlining broadcast in from the web.

hairofthedawg said...

Yeah, and part of that worldwide connection is your site John...thanks. Now that my PC is packed up though, I'm having trouble getting KJR in Cyprus. It's the same plug in the router and wall, but they don't like the international IP address, which should be similar to the PC. I may have to send them another email.

I'm hoping my new digs will be an easy transition. So, thanks John, dawgman and all the commenters on both sites for keeping me connected. I also like the gohuskies site but haven't tried it yet this year.

hairofthedawg said...

Thanks for the heads up on gohuskies. I'm reliving the 12-0 season as I type. Works great with no traffic, so we'll see how the gameday experience is.