Wazzu Morning Drip - Happy Holidays Edition
Um, Yeah, It's Getting Weird
Happy X-mas Eve Cougs, and of course we hope you and yours enjoy your holiday wherever you happen to be on this fine day.
So there's not a heck of a lot going on in the Coug-a-verse, but we did round up a few things for you.....so here we go:
Is there any doubt that the Seahawks are the hot story right now? And not just in Seattle or the NW, but really in the NFL they are getting the kind of pub you just normally don't see in "South Alaska" way the hell up here! Peter King even tweeted out this AM that the Seahawks were, well, check it out:
The Seahawks look like the '27 Yankees.
— Peter King (@SI_PeterKing) December 24, 2012
Crazy talk, I know. But when you basically pummel into oblivion the team everyone said was the best, most complete team in the NFL a week ago? And you do it on national TV, when you know the eyeballs were up about 10-fold compared to the amount of people who actually watch the Seahawks play? You are going to see that kind of reaction out there.
All I know is that as a kid who followed the Seahawks passionately for as long as I can remember, AND as a Coug fan (obviously)? We KNOW these are moments to savor, period. Don't fret about what lies ahead, don't lament the close losses earlier in the year when Russell Wilson and the offense were trying to get their legs, and don't worry about the long odds that they can go on the road and win a bunch of playoff games to get to the Super Bowl. Just try and live in the now and not worry about anything else, otherwise you will miss out on one hell of a run. It's these moments that come along that are so rare as a sports fan, moments that you will remember and talk about for years to come. But when happen to roll by, you just have to glob on and enjoy the ride.
And what a time to be a fan of young QB's in the NFL! Luck, RGIII, and Wilson, it's just crazy-cool right now. If you have a young NFL fan at home, I would run out to Target right now and buy the Topps NFL football card set for 2012 for 39.99 and get that sucker wrapped and under the tree. This is one of those years, know what I mean?
Moving on, a cool thing showed up in the mail over the weekend:
It includes a frame-by-frame look at the Keith Price-to-Toni-Pole INT in OT, and it's just a good look at the Apple Cup overall. A very cool idea, WSU Athletics, and I hope to see that kind of thing again in the future.
Yeah, I know. We went 3-9 and it was as disappointing season as I can remember. Yeah, the Apple Cup was our "bowl game" or whatever. But sports and football, it's all about emotion. There's nothing wrong with celebrating some success on the field in a rivalry game, know what I mean? So some UW'ers you know may yuk it up over the holidays that the Cougs were home for X-mas while they were busy vacationing in Vegas and their players were getting bowl swag, etc. Well, just go ahead and show them the cover of Cougars Quarterly. That might quiet things down a bit!
Finally, the Cougs got an early X-mas gift yesterday in the recruiting world. 3-star defensive end Paulo Lepua committed yesterday afternoon, a 6-3, 265 lb pass rusher from Harbor City, CA. Per Cougfan, Lepua held offers from Arizona, ASU, Colorado and Oregon State from the Pac-12, so he looks and sounds like a good "get" for the coaches. If you are scoring at home, the Cougs are now up to 22 commits for this year's class (including the JC'ers and greyshirts who just signed), and now rank 40th in the country in recruiting and 7th in the Pac-12. Cool.
That's it for now. ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY, and of course, GO COUGS!
I am still on vacation, well the tail end. Back to work tomorrow. I went from 75 degree temps to 6 inches of snow. Yikes.
I took in a Tampa Bay Bucs game where I witnessed fans wearing packer and bills gear and sat next to a group of Seahawk fans that were in town on vacation. I then watched my seattle located nephew get giddy about UW stuff and I started thinking... I know dangerous.
I always thought that winning would cure all ills at Wazzu, but now I am convinced it doesn't. Pullman isn't a destination town. We simply don't have people coming to Pullman to take in a game while on vacation. Moreover, Pullman ain't a big city so we simply don't get cling on fans like my nephew (definitely cling on, he is 14 and missed watching the Vegas bowl because he got bored with the poochies in an early hole). I know there are coug fans with poochie, seahawk, and mariner season tixs.
My question to the blog readers is what do we do to fix this? Is Moos on the right track? Maybe this can be a post with further commenting.
My view: We need Seattle games for football and bball (preferably non-conf) in order to capture the cling ons as well as divert those cougs who would have spent their entertainment money on seahawks, mariners, etc. (I will call them "social cougs") I also believe we should play more non-conf. bball and baseball games in the tri-cities because they are sports starved. Again, targeting the cling ons and social cougs.
Finally, I think that the city of pullman, pullman restaurants and other businesses, and the surrounding hotels should team up to subsidize alaska airlines to make flights dirt cheap from seattle to pullman (like $75-$125 per person). After having gone to Disneyworld and spent a boatload on food, hotel, etc. there is just too much revenue you can draw off a visitor to a town once you have brought them in off the airline.
Thoughts? I have more, but would like your ideas, etc.
I should add that I would like to see a tourney for bball in Seattle during the winter break (did this in spokane, but spokane should't be a target market for bball). I even would be open for two "home" games in Seattle if they were non-conference and we could get them on labor day and thanksgiving weekends (I know with AC this may never happen now).
Ahhh... It's good to be back on the Seahawks bandwagon. That's me. Fair-weather fan and proud of it! But this isn't fair weather. The Seahawks are summer in Death Valley hot right now.
Nice write up, Hawk!
The Hawks team I've seen for the past three weeks is the best Seahawks team I've ever seen. Here's to hoping that the NFL botched their procedure with Richard Sherman and the pee cup, because we all deserve to see this group full force moving forward.
And am I the only one rooting for Dallas this week?
Great news about the Cougs and recruiting. Still trolling the webs for news about Assistant coaches....But I've seen nothing from the rumor mill....
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
