No Excuses for UW

Here's a little secret for ya - The Wife and I like to watch The Biggest Loser. Yeah, I probably shouldn't be proud of it, but whatever - I'm old and have a kid. Anyways...this season's theme is No Excuses, which was exactly what I thought when I saw the newly released 2012 UW football schedule. For those who haven't seen, the 12 game schedule contains non-conference games against Div 1-AA Portland St, San Diego St and likely defending national champion LSU on the road. As for the conference schedule, the Huskies play all teams except Arizona St and UCLA (with new coach, former Husky Jim Mora Jr). The actual schedule is as follows:

Sat Sept. 1 --- San Diego State
Sat Sept. 8 --- at LSU
Sat Sept. 15 --- Portland State
Thu Sept. 27 --- Stanford
Sat Oct. 6 --- at Oregon
Sat Oct. 13 --- USC
Sat Oct. 20 --- at Arizona
Sat Oct. 27 --- Oregon State
Fri Nov. 2 --- at Cal
Sat Nov. 10 --- Utah
Sat Nov. 17 --- at Colorado
Fri Nov. 23 --- at Washington State

The 2012 schedule presents an absolute BRUTAL opening set of games, with 4 of the first 6 opponents likely to finish in the Top 10 this year. I know it will be easy to complain about how the Dawgs open up, but I think it is time to put all excuses aside. I don't know what it is like to be in this town when the Huskies are a ranked team, but I can't imagine that the 1991 team backed down from a challenge. If the Huskies are really back - and I mean 9 or 10 wins - then they need to get the job done. It's simple as that. This isn't the SEC West where a team like Ole Miss will have to play Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Auburn and rival Miss St every year and then Georgia or Florida every other year. No, this is the Pac-12, where currently there are only 3 ranked teams. I don't want to rip on the league, but after Stanford and Oregon, we had Washington, UCLA and Arizona st playing in bowls. Not exactly Murderers Row.

No excuses. Get the job done. And you know what? I think the Dawgs might actually have a shot at 9 wins. I'm going to assume wins against San Diego st and Portland St (although the latter won't count towards Bowl eligibility) and a loss on the road against LSU. At 2-1 the Dawgs then open up the conference schedule at home against Stanford on a Thursday night. Stanford is a damn good team but they will be losing not only Andrew Luck but two lineman who are projected to be top 10 picks, a highly rated TE and 6 other starters. They are going to be good (projected top 10 in 2012), but not 10-1 good. The Cardinal will also be coming off a BYE week, but I think they will be ripe for the picking. I think coming into a rowdy, raucous Husky Stadium on a Thursday night will be a tough go for the Cardinal. The atmosphere will be ridiculous and I think the Huskies get the upset win.

The next two weeks will be tough but the USC game will be at home as well. They have won 2 of 3 against the Trojans, so who knows. After USC, the Dawgs won't play another ranked opponent the rest of the year, although road games at Colorado and WSU to end the year could be trap games.

Here is the other thing - if the Huskies do end up at 9-3, it probably means that they won 6 in a row to end the season. That would be good enough for a Top 25 ranking and a birth in another quality bowl game.

I know it is wayyy to early to talk about the upcoming season (especially with a new defensive coordinator coming in and a less than favorable recruiting class), but it doesn't hurt to see what the team is in for. It will be a rough go at first, but this is the type of thing that separates good teams from special teams. If the Huskies want to become an elite program again, it must take the bad with the good and just get the job done. It is that simple. No excuses.