Runnin' with the Pac, Weeks 14 & 15
It's been an ironic season
By: Lotti Bull, 3 December 2002

What do Tyrone Willingham and Mike Price have in common? Why is Jim Moore (Seattle P-I) an asterisk? What do Bluit Pass, Directv and Tivo have to do with the Apple Cup? How come the Dawgs have gone 26-straight seasons without having a losing one? What does Ruth Robbins (realdawg.com) have to say about Malamute's bark? Lotti has all the answers, and so much, much more.

In the last Apple Cup (between the U-Dub and WSU), a controversial pass play decided the game. The pass was ruled a lateral and a fumble recovery. A Husky fan posted a photo on the Internet (taken from his TV set) of Cougar QB Matt Kegel's lateral pass, which shows Kegel on his own 27-yard line and his receiver on the 28-yard line. The ball is headed directly towards the receiver. Washington's Kai Ellis deflected the pass and recovered the fumble.

Washington's State's coach Mike Price claimed that the pass was going forward, and, therefore, should have been ruled an incomplete pass--a circumstance that would have kept the Cougars' drive alive. This week, Pac-10 officials, after reviewing the Fox replay, said the pass was definitely a lateral and that the correct call had been made.

Here are Lotti's comments.

Hi Mal,

• I agree, Mal. In the photo, it looks like the ball is headed directly towards the receiver who is standing to the side and to the back of quarterback Matt Kegel. Cougar coach Mike Price says that the direct line is an artifact of the transmission over Directv.
  
  Anyway, he says, you can’t trust these new Tivo receivers. Give me a slot receiver any day.
  
  "It's an unforgivable mistake as far as I'm concerned," Price said later, when commenting on the pass play. Maybe, the governor should rename Bluit Pass, a mountain pass that connects Western and Eastern Washington, "Blew-it Pass," in Price's honor.

• The outcome of the  last Apple Cup is the most devastating loss for either team in its long history considering what could have been for the then-third-ranked Cougars, a win ensuring a possible shot at the national title and, at the very least, a Rose Bowl berth.

• Cougar fan, sportswriter Jim Moore (Seattle P-I) wants to put an asterisk after the 2002 Apple Cup game, thinking that the controversial pass was going forward and should have been ruled an incomplete pass rather than a fumble recovery. Fine, but let’s put an ass-terisk after his name, along with Price’s. 

• When it comes to baiting fans of local teams, Moore writes a column much like T.J. Simmers, who simmers over the Trojans at the Los Angeles Times. I wonder who came first, Moore or Simmers?

• Did the Cougar players “Coug it” against the Dawgs? No, they played good enough to win. After the game, head coach Mike Price “Couged it," with his controversial comments about the officiating.

• Bob Toledo is all fired up about a new website devoted to him. Seems his fans have created a new website called, firetoledo.com.

• Mike Bellotti and Bob Toledo are collaborating on a new book called, “The two quarterback system.” One of the chapters, entitled, “As a freshman quarterback, how not to screw up inside the ten yard line after being freshly inserted into the game,” will jointly be written by redshirt freshman Kellen Clemens (interception against Washington) and true freshman Matt Moore (fumble against USC).

• The few Cougar fans who threw bottles and hurled racial slurs at Husky players and coaches after the game need to be bottled up.

• And now Tyrone Willingham (Notre Dame) joins Mike Price in a critique of officials who work Husky games. According to Ted Miller (Seattle P-I), Willingham had this to say. “…Reporters asked Willingham if there was a team that seemed to have his number. ‘The University of Washington,’ he said. ‘For whatever reason, we couldn't get the calls, the plays or whatever it was, to get the victory.’"

• Washington has gone 26 straight years, the last losing one in 1976, without having a losing season. The streak must be due to biased officiating.

• Ruth Robbins (realdawg.com) has this to say about your golf game, Mal. “Malamute plays Husky golf, you know ‘ruff, ruff,’ and he does get a few barkies.”

• And after Notre Dame's humiliating loss to USC, a headline in the LA Times read:  "Total (Domi)nation." Bill Plaschke had this to say about the Trojan tradition: "It's back, strong enough to bite the thorns off a rose, blustery enough to burst into the BCS, good enough Saturday to hit the nation's seventh-ranked team square in its Knute while knocking it flat on its Rockne."

• First irony of the week: Although losses to USC in the past few years have almost cost Bob Toledo his job at UCLA, he must turn the other cheek and beat WSU on Saturday to keep his job, which will do the Trojans a mighty big favor by sending them to the Rose Bowl.

• Second irony of the week: If UCLA should lose to WSU, the Bruins could end up in the prestigious Holiday Bowl, since two Pac-10 teams would be BCS bound, USC and WSU. Holiday Bowl officials, who have their pick among Pac-10 teams in that case, might want the Bruins because of their local television appeal.

• First irony of the season: The week after Michigan whipped the U-Dub, Barbara Hedges, Huskies AD, gave coach Rick Neuheisel a whopping big raise, even though it was a goof by the coaching staff that handed the Wolverines a victory on a silver platter.

• Second irony of the season: The Cougars beat the Trojans because of a missed extra point, which would have given 'SC a four-point lead late in the game. However, there are some notable stats. The Cougars out-rushed the Trojans, 201 to 72 yards, for the game, and the Trojans, who were leading the nation in total defense going into the game, sacked QB Jason Gesser just once. Maybe that game wasn't a fluke, Mal.

• Third irony of the season: Not only did 'SC hit the "Irish square in the Knute while knocking them flat on their Rockne," but they also left Colorado in the Buff after knocking them flat with a Boulder. Ironically, the game stats were almost the same. USC held both Colorado and Notre Dame to just 4 first downs. Colorado managed 61 total yards against USC, while the Irish accounted for 109 total yards to the Trojans' 610.

Ciao, Lotti

Editor's note:

Right, Ruth, since my golf balls are always barking up the wrong tree that does make me a Husky golfer. But I never get a Barky.

In golf, a Barky is when  your ball hits a tree and you still get a par.