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The Monday morning quarterback In this article, we discuss the Oregon State game, ET, the MADDD database, budgets, drug-gate and the computation of the pass-efficiency statistic. On this website, we face all monumental issues head on. Why the win over Oregon State? In its prior six games, the UW has played well in one half of each game and torpidly in the other six halves. Against the Beavers, the Huskies played intensely in both halves. During the week, the Huskies practiced in T-shirts that had 60 for 60 printed on them--which means 60 players on a road trip, playing hard for 60 minutes. The win over Oregon State was 60/60 all the way. Sure moving Tank Johnson to the outside was huge, but repositioning Tank corrected a glaring weakness that had been obvious with the Huskies all season as most fans know. So look no further than past recruiting years for the Dawgs’ sudden rebound against Oregon State. Simply put the Dawgs have the better athletes. The Huskies out-recruited their northwest cousins in all of Coach Rick Neuheisel’s years at Washington. In the last four recruiting rankings, the Dawgs finished among the top 21 schools in the country and, in 2001, Neuheisel brought in a class that was ranked number 4 in the nation. Neuheisel consistently picked off the best athletes in the State of Washington, athletes like Reggie Williams, Isaiah Stanback and Craig Chambers. During his stint at the UW, Neuheisel recruited well in the San Joaquin valley and in Hawaii. He persuaded Charles Frederick to stay in school when most fans had given up on him. Not bringing in highly-ranked players from high schools in southern California is where Neuheisel’s classes were lacking--nuggets like Winston Justice, Shawn Cody, Tyler Ebell, Reggie Bush, Lorenzo Booker, Whitney Lewis, Darnell Bing, Kellen Winslow Jr. and Hershel Dennis. To his credit, Neuheisel brought in CBs Derrick Johnson from Riverside and Chris Massey from Moreno Valley. As in last season’s play, look for the Huskies to retain their northwest championship, putting the hammer on Oregon and Washington State in games played at home. If Washington is to become a national power again, it must recruit the southern California area more effectively. In my opinion, Neuheisel set a high-water mark in recruiting that will be hard for Keith Gilbertson to duplicate, Neuheisel’s failures notwithstanding. The King versus ET Hurricane Hugh McElhenny, out of Compton, is the most prominent southern California athlete the UW has ever landed, thanks, in the main, to Torchy Torrance. Considering Hugh McElhenny’s exploits on the gridiron in the Pros and his 3-years at Washington, he is unarguably the greatest player in UW history. Some of his touchdown gallops are legendary in Husky history, like the 97-yard kickoff return against Minnesota in 1949 and the punt return in 1950 that went for 100 yards against USC and its punter, the incomparable Frank Gifford. The King set an all-purpose yards record against Washington State in 1950, accounting for 362 total yards, a record that Charles “ET” Frederick broke on Saturday against Oregon State, when he amassed 371 total yards on the game. In the game against Washington State, McElhenny rushed for
296 yards, which is still a Washington record. The Huskies allowed WSC (as it
was known then) to score late in the game so that Don Heinrich could set an NCAA
passing record (133 completions for the season). After the record-breaking
completion, McElhenny broke loose on an 84-yard gallop a few moments before the
game ended. He averaged over fourteen yards per carry in that game. Like one of McElhenny’s runs from the pantheon of greats, ET’s 86-yard punt return in the first quarter will become legendary in Husky history. Why? Because it gave the Dawgs a 7-0 lead, temporarily erasing from fan’s minds the blowout loss to UCLA and the upset at the hands of Nevada, while giving the UW momentum it has lacked all season. Most importantly, the run was the piece d'resistance, a desert before dinner, in the all-purpose yards record ET set on Saturday night, a record that will forever be juxtaposed with the King’s outstanding day against Washington State almost 53 years ago. How do you compute pass efficiency? Are you confused by the pass efficiency rating that shows up in the conference’s weekly stats? Well, here’s the answer to that burning question, one you have always hungered and partially thirsted for. To determine pass-efficiency ratings points, multiply a player's yards per attempt by 8.4, add his completion percentage multiplied by 100, add his touchdown percentage multiplied by 330, then subtract his interception percentage multiplied by 200. Cody Pickett’s stats as of 20 October 2003. 256 attempts How it was computed. 1913/256*8.4=62.77 Balancing the budget. As part of compliance with Title IX, all NCAA schools had to submit a report to the NCAA by Wednesday, a report that included its budget for the past year. UCLA balanced its athletic budget for the ninth year in a row, thanks to the jettisoning of men’s gymnastics and men’s swimming nine years ago. USC wound up with a surplus of $12,000 for the 2002-03 school year. The year before the shortfall was just over $4 million. Last year’s successful season in football contributed to the extra monies brought in, so say USC administrators. UCLA’s men’s sports brought in $32.05 million on expenses of $21.38 million. UCLA women’s teams generated $715,000 on expenses of $9.54 million. USC’s men’s teams generated $31,225.686 on expenses of $21,820,000. USC spent $8.3 million on women’s programs, while women’s sports contributed only $915,098. (Source, the Los Angeles Times). Sensational journalism? Yawn, here we go again. In their coverage of the UW athletic program, Seattle newspapers have cried wolf so many times for so many years that it’s getting ludicrous. This off-and-on again savaging of Husky sports started with the Fruit-Basket scandal in 1992 and has not stopped since. No other athletic team in the country has a local press that is so hostile to its sports program. What makes the coverage biased are numerous double standards, sensationalism, story emphasis and paparazzi-like journalism, all of which we've discussed in the past. Now we’re being saturated with the UW drug-gate stories. Frankly, this fatuously written stuff is getting silly. ;-) This time a whole army of writers--well schooled in the derogation of Husky sports--has been billeted at the Seattle Times. Eleven--eleven and counting--writers/researchers contributed to the Seattle Times’ article, “Investigation of ex-UW team doctor could widen,” which details the UW drug prescription problem. In a follow-up Times article, “What's alleged, what could be next in UW case,” three Times’ reporters, along with the sports editor, contributed to the article. And then in its last article, “Too much slipping under Hedges' radar at UW,” writer Steve Kelley blasts Barbara Hedges, saying that, “Over and over again under Hedges, the athletic department has been guilty of gross slovenliness.” Why so much attention from the Times, coming from so much person-power? Have they no shame? Obviously, the Times wants these drug articles included in the MADDD internet database, where over 100 articles, written by local reporters, are linked by a Cougar fan. All of the stories are hostile to the UW and were written over the past two years. MADDD makes a wonderful database for NCAA witch hunters, a database which, when taken in its entirety, proves unquestionably that the UW is guilty of a lack of institutional control. J Other than Ritalin, methylphenidate, none of the other drugs listed by The Times as being investigated appear on page 418 of the NCAA Bylaws manual (Section 31.2.3.1 Banned Drugs for 2003/2004). In one of the articles, the inclusion of Jason’s Chorak’s comment seems like irresponsible journalism: "We always called him Dr. Feel Good. If we were aching before the game, he'd come around and give you some medication to make you feel right." By including Chorak’s comment, The Times is attempting to extend the women’s softball situation to football. It has no hard evidence of football irregularities, other than a whimsical comment. There are a lot of weasel words in the Times’ articles (including two of their titles, where the word "could" appears), and other than Chorak, no individual players are mentioned by name. Richard Linde (a.k.a., Malamute) can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com |
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