In defense of Pac-12 Commisioner Larry Scott, he did start his tenure with guns blazing. He successfully re-branded the conference, inked a big, fat television deal, and made a bold attempt at stealing away the top Big 12 schools. He corrected several things that were long overdue for a conference that was falling behind the times under former commissioner Tom …
All good things must come to an end. Unfortunately for Washington fans, that sentiment may apply tomorrow afternoon, as the Huskies’ status as the premier program in the Pac-12 is in jeopardy. There’s no doubt that Washington currently sits atop of the food chain in the Pac-12. They’ve completely overhauled what was an underachieving roster and transformed it into a juggernaut. …
Saturday the Washington Huskies will march into Autzen Stadium with a fourth-year starting quarterback who guided his team to the College Football Playoff two years ago as a sophomore. In senior Myles Gaskin, they have the school’s all-time leading rusher. They are third in the nation in scoring defense, giving up a stingy 13.7 points per game. The Huskies were …
CULTURE: Shared patterns of behavior, interaction and achievement… developing specific characteristics and knowledge toward a stated goal. Blueprints are available for building and maintaining successful football programs. Alabama is the current gold standard, and has been for nearly decade. Just how did the Tide pull off a culture makeover down south? It has been said that imitation is the sincerest …
It is rightly said that adversity brings opportunity. And when you are a cutting edge, forward thinking, innovation spewing machine like the University of Oregon, you don’t let adversity bring you down, you let it propel you to greater things. Beloved Ducks, there shall be no further whining and crying about the decision of Willie Taggart to leave. After all, …
I have been appalled by the behaviors of Husky fans over the many decades of my life, and in my personal experiences with them. Note that this article is not about the UW football team or the Washington coaching staff, but the Husky fans, which are simply the worst ever I have ever witnessed. Let’s look at why…. A fascinating …
That’s really what it gets down to, isn’t it? Oregon State and Washington State will have a say in who dominates the Northwest from time to time. But it’s Oregon and Washington opening the pocketbooks to buy a camping spot at the top of the Pac, with aspirations for national titles. The Huskies believe they hired the perfect cure for …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out As reported by ESPN at the recent Pac-12 Media Days, Washington coach Chris Petersen turned the tables and begged the dogs — to not get their expectations up too high. It’s not false modesty. It’s an honest assessment from the one insider who knows the Huskies best. Petersen also knows that man’s level of satisfaction relates highly …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out A long time ago I was presented with a riddle that involved a war in the Middle East and went something like this: You take a hand-held calculator and add up or multiply this and that representing the numbers of opposing forces, tanks, aircraft, etc. Based upon the numbers given, you come up with 14,215,469. Then you …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out No. I first wrote the above one-word article on August 26, 2013 and it has been sitting unpublished in the FishDuck.com archives ever since. Though only one word long, the article proved to be spot-on for 2013, and as it happened, 2014 as well. Why 2015 will join those two years and the nine before them, and …
Good morning, Ducks! Next week at this time you will be doing one of two things. If you shopped early for a Valentine’s Day gift for your significant baby cakes, you will be enjoying the morning. If you waited until the last minute, your Valentines morning may look a little different. But I have confidence in you, Duck! As the …
Every football program and every coach wants to win. Unfortunately, the way the game is structured, there are always going to be as many losers as winners. So, we fans should be happy if our team wins more than half the time, right? Well… no! This might work for some: Colorado, California and Wazzu would see it as at least …