PICTURE DAY 2007

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Blue, sunny skies greeted us as we took to the field at Husky Stadium for Picture Day 2007. This was the biggest turnout I’ve ever seen at Picture Day, and I have been going to them since 2001.

The fans lined up from sideline to sideline for Jake Locker, and stretched to midfield from Coach Tyrone Willingham’s tent in the west end zone. Last year, Willingham sat in the direct sun.

As we meandered about, taking pictures of the players, whimsical purple clouds cast their shadows on the field. Mysteriously one of the shadows silhouetted the profile of someone I recognized, with his slouch hat and craggy features. It couldn’t be him, I thought. I’d seen photos of him hundreds of times, of former Washington coach Gil Dobie.

“Taking photos of the players spoils them rotten,” the craggy coach seemed to say from high above, “All of them are miserable, worthless human beings and … and,” he mumbled as his silhouette dissipated from sight.  

After a two-year hiatus, the names were on the back of the players’ jerseys. Gloomy Gil would not have approved of that.

The players’ optimism about the forthcoming season contrasted sharply in my mind with the pessimism that Dobie surely would have exuded had he been present.

Jordan Reffett said they were going to the Rose Bowl, and not to just play the Bruins. His wife was watching over his young daughter, who was somewhere on the field.

Juan Garcia says not to believe what the media says about the team, that they are just trying to sell papers. He asked me if I was a member of the media, and I told him I was their worst nightmare. You know, I’ve got the Go 2 Guy on the run, setting him up to eventually Coug it with the P-I by making him a success at what he does. Cougs can’t stand success.

Garcia looked fit and ready to play, and I complimented him on his fitness, as I did with Marcel Reece. Reece has lost a lot of weight from the last time I saw him at the last Picture Day.

Reece gets my “No Gut, All Glory Award.” Garcia gets my “Best Tattoos Award.”

Morgan Rosborough told me he weighs 365 pounds, down 35 pounds from the 400 pounds he weighed last year. See the spoof on losing weight below, which was inspired by Ted Miller of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Washington’s offensive linemen are huge. Ben Ossai rose up from his chair in sections when I asked him for a photo.

Cody Ellis told me that his GPA is 3.75, and that he is working very hard as a student athlete. Tyrone Willingham’s work ethic has rubbed off on him, as it has with Ryan Perkins.

Perkins fits the prototype of a Willingham recruit, being clean cut and respectful to his elders, calling me “sir.” Because of his work ethic and sheer determination, Perkins would have been a standout player had he been born a couple of generations back and played for Jim Owens. If there is any fairness in the world he should be in for a great year as a kicker/punter and a student athlete. He’s somewhat bothered by arthritis in his right knee, which resulted from the operations. Perkins gets my “Dawgs Award.” (See the meaning of the acronym below).

Kicker Erik Folk has reportedly been bothered by back spasms, and confirmed that when I talked with him.

DE Kalani Aldrich is a super-nice kid. I asked him if he’d ever played tight end. He said he had, but had not been very good in that position.

Is the Field Turf balding? We noticed a lot of artificial grass blades clinging to our shoes.

Okay, some of the offensive linemen don’t pass Ted Miller’s sight test, I guess. Miller writes for the Seattle P-I. I think I have a solution for Miller’s sight-test phobia.

-- Sight-test-solution = 4-Big-Macs + 4-super-size-fries

Playing on the offensive line is not hard work. These guys only work 30 minutes a week during the season and, after a three-and-out – about two minutes or work – they get to sit down and rest. On pass plays they get to rest against defensive linemen. Imagine having a “house” resting against you.

Controlling time of possession only means a few added minutes of time per work week. If he were coaching the Huskies, the late John McKay would say, “Time isn’t heavy, it trickles down from Einstein, tick by tock.”

McKay was always grumbling about his offensive linemen at USC, and their big guts.

That got me to thinking, as I remembered him, inspiring me with dietary visions for our offensive linemen, a way of getting Miller out of our hair.

Losing weight should be a snap for an offensive linemen – well, at least for a center. I mean these guys are big; they can consume tons of calories on a simple diet.

Say a 21-year old lineman stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 375 pounds. Because he is a football player, I assume he exercises vigorously each day.  According to a calorie counter I found on the web, it would take 5500 calories per day to maintain his weight of 375 pounds.

That’s a lot of food.

For instance, a Big Mac cheeseburger, along with a serving of super-size fries, is equivalent to 1100 calories. That means our hypothetical linemen can eat 5 Big Macs per day and 5 servings of super-size fries to maintain his weight of 375 pounds (5*1100=5500). Hopefully, he drinks dietary beverages.

How about a diet for him?

Say we cut out one Big Mac per day and an order of super-size fries, leaving him with 4 Big Macs per day and 4 orders of super-size fries (4400 calories per day). Eating that much means he takes in 7700 less calories each week, which is equivalent to a weight loss of 2.2 pounds per week for a man that size. That’s not a bad diet in my book, providing he eats a more nutritious diet than the fast food fare I’ve hypothesized. 

-- All of this takes self-discipline.

I strongly urge each member of the current team to read Thomas Porter’s “A football band of brothers,” which documents the triumphs and travails of the 1959/1960 Washington football teams and their rise to the national championship in 1960.

Also read Carver Gayton’s perspective on Jim Owens statue, while you’re at it.  

When Owens was hired as Washington’s football coach in 1957, DAWGS was just an acronym and not a moniker. Back then, Dawgs stood for Discipline, Assertiveness, Work ethic, Guts and Spirit, where each individual attribute in the acronym, added to those attributes from the other DAWGS, translated into teamwork and winning.

-- One of the keys to this season is Time of Possession

Although you can point to many stats that correlate with a team’s won/lost record, one of the stats I’m keeping an eye on this year is Time of Possession. Washington hasn’t controlled TOP since 2003, when it went 6-6.

Considering the running ability of Jake Locker and that of the two scholarship running backs, the DAWGS have a real chance to control TOP, provided that one or two of the fab four freshmen (Curtis Shaw, Willie Griffin, Brandon Johnson, or Brandon Yakaboski) step to the fore.

Controlling TOP will translate into more wins for the Huskies this season than most people expect of them. The coaches should be salivating at the opportunity.