Seasons’ ups and downs distort the reflection of UW, WSU programs
Much as we might try to attach a significant story line to today’s Apple Cup, the reality is, there probably isn’t one. It’s like a 4-7 team - we won’t mention names - trying to find a bowl destination.
Momentum for next year? Right, try to put a bow on that and package it for recruits. Bill Doba’s job? Perhaps, but that decision, on whichever side it might fall, probably should have been made. It’s not like beating these Huskies is akin to beating West Virginia.
Maybe there’s a carrot out there I’m missing. My contention is, we’re so addled by the assorted recent high jinks at the state’s two big schools that any subtleties in the form of victory’s reward may escape us.
Think of the Washington and Washington State programs like this: In the past decade, they’ve strolled an amusement-park fun house, completely distorting who they are (or whom they think they are).
Take the Huskies. Are they Rick Neuheisel’s can-do outfit of 2000, which marched to a Rose Bowl victory with classy quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo? Or are they the misbegotten louts of a few years later, suddenly trailing in the facilities race, broadcasting dirty laundry over Neuheisel’s NCAA pools, running up a 10-32 deficit on the field from 2004 to 2007?
And the Cougars - their fans are spiking drinks with Dramamine. Ten years ago they went to a long-awaited Rose Bowl. They capitalized on that breakthrough by going 3-21 in-league from 1998 to 2000. Then they authored a three-year, 30-win bender. Now, back to irrelevance.
What’s a fan to do with these two? And the real question, post-funhouse: What ought to be the baseline for these two programs? What’s the realistic demarcation of UW and WSU from the vantage point of 2007, above or below which they’re coming through or flopping?
We ran the question by a handful of folks closely allied to the two.
Todd Turner, the Washington athletic director, comes at it cautiously.
“I think we should be in the top division of the Pac-10,” Turner says. “I think we ought to be competing for championships. That said, we need to act like we want to do that. We need to provide the resources.”
Turner didn’t mention Oregon, but he went on: “I know what people do to compete. If we want to compete at that level, some of that is uncomfortable. Some of it, I don’t like at all. I don’t like gilding the lily. I don’t like gold-leafing the lily. There’s just no end to it. I’m really disappointed that’s where our industry is headed, but you know what? That’s where it is. I can’t change it.”
Hugh Millen, the former quarterback, has a more blunt expectation.
“Every Halloween, we ought to be in contention, where if things break right in November, we’ve got a chance to go to a Rose Bowl or BCS game, just about every single year,” he insists.
“If the standard for Washington is to show some improvement, you’re going to do that with Jake Locker. He ensures you’re going to meet that standard. The other standard is, are you reaching your potential?”
No doubt, the landscape is more unforgiving now. The Oregon schools are bigger factors, USC has been a dreadnought under Pete Carroll, California - though slumping as we speak - has been in places it hadn’t been. Arizona State looks dangerous under Dennis Erickson.
Referencing the Huskies’ three consecutive Rose Bowl appearances under Don James from 1990 to 1992, Rick Redman, UW’s Hall of Fame linebacker of the mid-’60s, says, “I think it was probably easier to get the job done back then.
“I just think the quality of coaches in the Pac-10 has gone through the roof. [But] I would love to see Washington in the top two, three schools in the conference, and staying up there all the time. That’s kind of what my expectation is.”
The stiffer surroundings could be viewed as ominous for the Cougars, who already have inherent disadvantages. But Clete Casper, the former quarterback, prefers to take the model of those 30 victories from 2001 to 2003 and extrapolate.
“It shows it’s entirely possible,” Casper argues. “We should have a winning program, be bowl-eligible, and from time to time, maybe not every year, compete for a Rose Bowl berth or a major-bowl opportunity.
“WSU may not be everyone’s choice, but there are 20 scholarships out there [annually] that are highly prized Pac-10 scholarships. You should be able to fill those with guys that are maybe not blue-chip [recruits], but certainly red-chippers that might blossom.”
The physical plant weighs on both. The take here is that while Husky Stadium is decaying and in dire need of repair, it doesn’t represent a negative in recruiting. On the other hand, WSU’s Martin Stadium simply needs an Oregon State-style face-lift to be brought into the 21st century.
Given that, WSU ought to be a postseason team, say, half the time. The Huskies, now out of the bowl business five consecutive years, shouldn’t miss more than maybe once or twice a decade.
Even if you schedule three wins and go 3-6 in the Pac-10, you’ve got a shot to go bowling. Lose to a top-25 team, win the other two and go 4-5, and you’re in somebody’s postseason.
It’s harder, but it shouldn’t be impossible. No matter what the fun house might say.
Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com