| 14 November 2011
"You're a dandy if you do."
So the pun-a-thon has begun and I am here to settle it once and for all. After a debut for the ages on Saturday night Connor Halliday has earned the right to have a nickname, just like Frank “Magic” Madu. The only one suitable for a gunslinger like Connor… Doc Halliday. There, its settled. So how about that performance by Doc Halliday the other night? We haven’t gone bombs away on a real opponent like that since the Brink-to-Hill days. Heck, even then did we really ever blitzkrieg a secondary like that? Besides Halliday and Wilson joining Montana and Rice, Corsby and Malkin and O’Brien and Richter on the list of the most devastating duos of all time… a lot of crazy stuff happened on Saturday.
Read on…
First of all, kudos to TruCoug89 who tried to explain to all of us in the comments here that we were probably going to be in over our heads against Cal, but that ASU should be on upset alert in Pullman the following week. Does the Sutra have a disciple?
You may have noticed I have been a little frustrated with the revisionist attempts by many to make the case that losing Tuel for the year was really no biggie and not a valid reason this team is struggling. Just like anyone who watched this team prepare for the season in August, we knew that this was a very very good offense… with the right QB at the helm. This weekend we saw what I have been trying to explain play out on the field. Sure, even I did not suspect that playing Halliday would result in over 1/3 mile of offense on what is a pretty salty ASU defense, but I did know that with a better arm behind center we could certainly do a lot more than we had been doing. A chance for 6-7 wins and a bowl game was a common expectation this year and if you had told almost anybody who made that prediction that we wouldn’t have Tuel, they would ALL have adjusted that prediction downward. Now with four wins and two games to play, the Cougs are still on track to meet expectations. They have faced the first of 3 straight “elimination” games, and so far, they are still alive.
Of course now we have a QB controversy, and I don’t mean next year. Here’s why… Senior Day. I would not be surprised to see Lobs get the start against Utah just in recognition of his final home game. If he leads us down the field for a TD, do we really pull him? I fear it could get dicey, and honestly I would love to see us just start Halliday, blow the Utes out and give Lobs a nice curtain call in mop up duty, but we don’t get to script these things. We also have to consider that Halliday is a rookie QB and record setting debut aside, he is definitely due for some struggles. Utah and UW aren’t going to be caught off guard, so buckle up Cougs, there is plenty of QB intrigue left this year!
MEANWHILE… Did anyone notice all the crazy stuff that happened in College Football this weekend? Im not even talking about the bizarro-fest that Penn State football has become. Rather I was stunned to see Boise State finally lose to someone besides the Cougs at home and Stanford got run all over by the Ducks. RUN OVER. How crazy was that? Well, maybe not so crazy. Besides an opening loss to the #1 team in the country, the Ducks have been sailing through their schedule and now find themselves in the thick of the BCS championship discussion. This all got me thinking about a simple little caveat the BCS could adopt that I have been suggesting (to nobody in particular) since the very same Ducks were snubbed of a championship opportunity in 2001. This caveat would have guaranteed them a shot back then, and it would assure we could all avoid a snooze fest re-match of Alabama/LSU this year. Here it is… you cannot play for the national championship if you are not the champion of your own conference. Period. Seems simple right? Some day I hope to see a playoff system, but until then the regular system is our playoff and if you are not even the champion of your own conference, than you should be eliminated. Period. See how easy that was?
Finally we got ourselves a basketball game tonight! Usually this time of year we expect to be playing one of those Indiana schools with an acronym like IUPIUIPU, or something. But no warm-ups for the 20011/12 Cougs; we are going straight into the Kennel to kick things off. Also, we are going in without Abe Lodwick and with both Moore and Aden questionable. Oh dear. Well, just like the UCLA game last year this is a chance for Bone and Hiro to show what they can do when dealt a tough hand with personnel. Also, we should get a very extended look at some of the new comers, especially Shelton in the post, and Ladd, Lacy and Kernich Drew on the perimeter. Usually, I would say this is a matchup of teams with opposite strengths, Gonzaga in the post and the Cougs outside, but with Reggie and Aden out, that may swing a pretty good matchup in the Zags favor. Still, the Zags did not look sharp in the opener against Eastern, so who knows. Its on ESPN, so lets hope for a good showing!
Have a great week and Go Cougs!
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
