|
Articles
|
So long, cowboy The win in the Apple Cup ensures that Washington (6-6, 4-4) closes out its 27th straight year without having a losing regular season. Furthermore, the Huskies have a “slim” shot at bowl, and they can take satisfaction that they knocked the eighth-ranked Cougars (9-3, 6-2) out of the Rose Bowl and any other BCS bowl for that matter, in one of the Cougars' bitterest of defeats. Those facts make for bragging rights all over the State of Washington until the 2004 Apple Cup. If the Huskies should not go to a bowl, and many believe they won’t, we’d like to take some time out and say, “So long, cowboy.” How fortunate the UW has been to have had Cody Pickett playing quarterback the past three years. Fittingly, he goes out a winner, for Husky history would not have it otherwise. If the Huskies don’t play in a bowl, Pickett can tell his grandchildren that his last pass as a Dawg scored a touchdown. Hailing from Caldwell, Idaho, Pickett calls his hometown, C-town. Twirling a rope as a kid, Pickett reached the national high school rodeo finals in 1997 and 1998. During his sophomore year in high school he earned more than $30,000 on the rodeo circuit. He’s the son of Dee Pickett, a former world champion cowboy. The C-Town Cowboy (who is 6-foot-4, 210 pounds) has to be one of the most agile, athletic quarterbacks of his size ever to play in the Pac-10. His footwork rivals a Fred Astaire and he can avoid a rush like Harry Houdini. Pickett is as big and tough as the legendary John Wayne, and, being laconic, about as talkative. He’s a bottom-line guy in a tête-à-tête and a closer on stage. His actions speak much louder than his words, which are subdued and cautious. He’s a smart cowboy. Out west, you never give anyone a rope that could hang you. Pickett’s greatest game was against Arizona in 2001. Coming off a shoulder separation, which kept him out of the UCLA game the week before, Pickett threw for 455 yards, which is a school record. Behind 28-24 with 13 seconds on the clock, Pickett capped the scoring with a rollout run to the corner, which secured a 31-28 win. In its last three games, the UW averaged 71 yards on the ground, while its opponents averaged 261.3 yards. Those paltry numbers don’t make for Joe-Montana-like quarterbacking; yet, Pickett and his supporting cast managed to win one of those games, the Apple Cup, and we’re not being facetious in our praise. Pickett should be remembered as a quarterback with sheer guts, an abundance of determination and outstanding athleticism. Throughout his career, he never benefited from a real running game. Like J.R. did in Dallas, defenses were always cheating on him. In many games, his play-action passes wouldn’t have fooled Luci Arnez, and under a jailbreak of blitzes, Cody would imitate Astaire and Houdini, with the true grit of John Wayne. Due to a knock on the noggin, Cody couldn’t remember the first half of the Oregon game, and missed the second half. Naturally, he played the next week. Yet, he has passed for over 10,000 career yards, while saddled with a running game that resembled a dried up Rio Grande. How about averaging just over 102-yards rushing per game the past three years? Pickett had some help from teammate Reggie Williams, who set a few pass-catching records during his career at the UW. The Junior Williams is likely to leave early for the NFL. This season, Pickett’s candidacy for the Heisman Trophy was scuttled by an assortment of injuries to the team. Pickett worked behind a makeshift offensive line for most of the season, and injuries to the number one tailback, Rich Alexis, hobbled a resurgent running game in late season games. Because of a foot injury, the UW’s number two running back, Chris Singleton, never played one game. This was a Husky team that underachieved because of a number of injuries to front line players and a conference rife with parity. Also, the loss of four wide receivers and a tight end from last year’s team left the receiving corps thinned, with a number of true freshmen to fill in the gaps. Williams was a marked man most of the season, and when he and WR Charles “E.T.” Frederick left the game, the tight end and running backs were the only receivers Pickett could really trust. No slouch himself, Frederick accounted for a school record 371 all-purpose yards against Oregon State this season, breaking a school record set by Hugh McElhenny in 1950. Junior Coffin and Josh Miller were sorely missed on the defensive line, and CB/WR Nate Robinson opted for basketball. Offensive lineman Aaron Butler left the team for personal reasons. None of them played a down for the Dawgs this season. Fourteen front line-players who were expected to contribute significantly this season missed the Cal game. While Don James benefited from a reduction of scholarships in his tenure at the UW, ironically, further reductions in scholarships, to its current limit of 85, has bolstered the forces of other teams in the Pac-10, notably California, WSU, Oregon and OSU. Patsies of the past have turned into formidable opponents; opponents that are going to beat you if you don’t bring your A-game to the field. Giving up a school-record, 729-yards of total offense to California, in a losing effort (54-7) was the downer of the year. More likely, a six-month assault on the program took its toll in that game, causing an implosion of spirit and will. Never were the Huskies as emotionally drained, over so long a period of time, and so undeservedly. The macabre news of the past six months has been most demoralizing for fans and players alike. Blame parity and injuries for the loss to sixteen-and-one-half point underdog Arizona, and let an erosion of spirit account for the loss to an equal underdog, Nevada. I will never blame the coaches for any loss, because I don’t know a damned thing about coaching. On this site, nevertheless, our glass remains half full; we never run on half empty. We believe the Huskies are headed for the Silicon Bowl in San Jose because they make for good copy. Hopefully, our goodbyes to Cody and Reggie are premature. The tumultuous revelations of the past six months have focused a national spotlight on the Huskies. Television, which is ratings-bound, is always looking for glamorous and controversial teams—take your pick—thereby enhancing itself. Winning the northwest championship the past two years and being an apple-of-your-eye six straight times, won’t hurt Washington’s chances. A gourmet Pickett should help, for fans need another meal of rope-twirling runs and heat-seeking passes. Anyway, the game is to be played in the Silicon Valley, the home of computer geeks. And the number one geek in the world, Bill Gates, works in Redmond, just a trillion gigaseconds from the UW campus. Maybe, Gates will do some championing for the Dawgs as he gulps silicon in the valley. If the Dawgs don’t go to a bowl game this year, team-selecting committees must be out of their minds. After all, how many times do you see Astaire, Houdini and Wayne wrapped in one package, rifling bullets to Reggie and ET? As for Silicon, there is plenty of it in the movie Total Recall, which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is just two trillion gigaseconds away from San Jose. Richard Linde (a.k.a., Malamute) can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com |
|
|
