It’s easier to rant than rave
Richard Linde, 20 November 2007

It might be easier to rant than rave about the coach's progress, but it’s more fun to watch the Huskies on big-screen HD rather than on small-screen lo-res.

For example:

The improving stats are beaming like a proud new papa. The Dawgs have yet to pull an erstwhile "Tree." The hot seats are steaming with liquid nitrogen. Todd Turner says turning the corner is just around the corner. The OL is cooking up pancake blocks. The NegaDawgs are equivocating and about to break ranks. Tim Lappano is gloating, and so, perhaps, is "the unfairly fired one.”

Best of all, Jeff Tedford, a model for Willingham naysayers, went off "Berserk-eley" on his players in the locker room, this for losing to the "league's worst team."

On HDTV this week:

 --The Dawgs are now more potent than once potent Oregon and UCLA, as in a sudden shot of Viagra.

--The Dawgs have yet to come a cropper this season, as in last year’s "Tree."

--The defense didn’t come a cropper against the Bears, as in Baer.

-- Losing was all about the schedule, as in front loaded, obscene and money hungry. 

Does this mean the Dawgs have turned the corner? If they win the Apple Cup on Saturday, the answer is a resounding "yes," regardless of what happens in Honolulu.

The coach has repeatedly said the OL is the most important positional unit on the team, and it continues to develop superbly under Mike Denbrock's tutelage and the coach's urging.

U-Dub's zone blocking was as finely tuned as 'ol $C's. Its polished veneer rubbed off on the rest of the team.

Credit Tim Lappano for keeping both the two-back and one-back schemes alive -- unlike the simplistic Michael Bellotti – and using three offensive formations during the season.

If not a signature win for Coach Willingham, it was, at the least, a quality win -- this over a team once ranked as high as second in the country.

For the second week in a row, the Huskies won the second half, welcome reversals from most of their previous games this season.

Before the season began who would have thought Rankin would be rankin’ with the best.

The defense plays best when it's on the field less, as three-and-outs are on the wane. 

Give the "unfairly fired one" his just dues. His former charges -- Louis Rankin, Anthony Russo, Chad Macklin, Juan Garcia, Carl Bonnell, Cody Ellis, Jordan Reffett, and others – are acquitting themselves notably. [*]

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[*] It was never about lying and always about fear of the NCAA. Sorry, Hugh “modus ponens” Millen. ;-)  Check the trial transcripts.

Go Dawgs,