TERRY MOSHER
Washington sits at No. 6 in the latest College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings, which is two from the final four that will begin on Dec. 31 with semifinal games at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and at the U of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The championship game is set for Jan. 8 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
For 25 years I covered Washington football games for the Bremerton Sun (now Kitsap Sun) and am a little bias toward the Huskies. But even my bias can’t get me to saying the Huskies should be at No. 6.
I’ve said from the beginning of the season that the Huskies are more of finesse, big-play team. They are like Willie Pep, the late featherweight boxing champion who was known as Will o’ the Wisp because he was the Floyd Mayweather of his era (1940-60), slick, fast, elusive and a great defensive fighter who won 229 of his 241 fights with just 60 knockouts.
That’s not all bad, but when I compare the Huskies to other power conference teams I shudder because I don’t think they match up well. You saw what I mean last Saturday at Husky Stadium when the USC Trojans, who have got their mojo going with freshman quarterback Sam Darnold at the controls, mugged the Huskies. They socked the Huskies right in the jaw, knocking them all around the stadium turf. It was a physical mismatch that doesn’t portend well if the Huskies are so fortunate to win out and claim one of the final four playoff spots.
Washington has a good, young quarterback in Jake Browning, who reminds me some of Joe Montana. But the USC Trojans made him look average, putting a lot of pressure on him and forcing him stumble around and several times crumple from the physicality of the Trojans.
The way the Trojans played reminds me of the old Trojans of the 1980s when they knocked people around. And that is the way teams in the Big-10 and SEC play. Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson, the teams that are ranked in the top four, all play that physical game. The Big-10 has always been known as a physical conference, probably because their recruiting base is rural Midwest where the winter weather forces you to be tough to survive.
Then you head south and teams like Alabama in the SEC and Clemson in the Atlanta Coast Conference are playing the game where football is almost a religion. Kids grow up there playing the sport and wanting to play for a team a national stage in the SEC or ACC.
For a long time, the Pac-12 has been a conference where the passing game has been dominant. If one were to use a political context, the Pac-12 would be liberal, floating new football ideas like the West Coast offense or the spread offense and the Big-10, SEC and ACC would be conservative and staunchly holding steady on the way football was meant to be played – smash mouth and no-holds barred with an aggressive running game.
Playing a finesse brand of football doesn’t mean that you would lose against the smash-mouths, but I think it’s tougher to maintain your will when you are continually being punched in the mouth. Yeah, big plays can also destroy wills, but if I were betting I would bet with the more physical style.
Actually, the best college football team I ever saw was the 1991 Huskies, and that team played tough, smash-mouth football. It just dominated opponents with an aggressive, attacking defense that smothered them and destroyed wills.
This is a long way to say that I think the Huskies are ranked too high. Because they are Big-10 teams, I would rank Wisconsin (No. 7) and Penn State (No. 8) above the Huskies. In fact, I would rank USC ahead of the Huskies. The Trojans are on a six-game winning streak and are playing as well as anybody right now, except for maybe Alabama, which destroyed the Trojans in week one, 52-6. But that was before Darnold took over at QB and its obvious the Trojans are way better now. And I’m not saying that USC would now beat Alabama, but it would be a vastly different game and result.
So I would rank the Huskies at No. 9, just ahead or tied with Oklahoma. That doesn’t mean I have given up on Washington. If the Huskies win out, they will likely be in the No. 5 or No. 4 spot, depending on what Clemson does. Michigan and Ohio State play each other Nov. 26 at Ohio State and that loser will drop out of the top four, allowing room for at least Louisville or Washington to sneak in.
The biggest problem Washington will have is Nov. 25 when they play Washington State at Martin Stadium in Pullman for the Apple Cup. That game is going to be a donnybrook and probably will determine the Pac-12 North Division champion and a spot in the conference championship game Dec. 2 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, where the 49ers play.
So let the arguments start. In the meantime, I’m going to try and relax and wonder what impact the return of Thomas Rawls to the Seahawks active list will mean for Sunday’s game in Seattle against the Philadelphia Eagles. Will the Seahawks finally be able to have a productive running game? We’ll see.
See you later.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.