Leaving for Seattle
Well, we’re off to Seattle, a place I haven’t visited since 1996 when I witnessed BYU’s first loss of the season, the only one that year.
Jeff Call and I will leave this morning and will file some stories and blogs later today after we settle in to the hotel and have some lunch.
It’s interesting to see media guides put out by schools these days. A prime advertising vehicle, they usually include a section highlighting famous people who have attended the school so recruits can see themselves walking the same sidewalks and attending classes in the same rooms as some stars.
Here’s a list of some of the enlightened who were Huskies once upon a time:
Kenny G (Gorlelick), Grammy Award-winning saxaphonist; Anna Faris, actress in Scary Movie 1-4; Rainn Wilson, actor playing the nerdy guy in Office; Bruce Lee, martial arts legend, actor and philosipher and founder of Jeet Kune Do and Hank Ketcham, cartoonist and founder of Dennis the Menace.
The enrollment for Washington is 40,218 and there’s a 11 to 1 faculty to student ratio. The average class is 52.4 percent women and 47 percent men with 33.8 minority. There have been six University of Washington faculty members who have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
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Received an interesting question from a guy on Thursday. Here’s the email and my response follows.
“Hi there. I just have a little question. This is not something I have seen myself, but I heard something today that really concerned me about the BYU Football team. My brother listens to the radio show in the morning that has Hans Olsen on it. Hans has been talking a lot the past few weeks about his concern with the way the team is practicing. According to my brother, Hans has said that the team has not even practiced in full pads since two-a-days were over. He says they just look sloppy and lazy and no one seems interested in working hard like Broncos previous teams. If you know anything about this, please let me know. I sure hope it isn’t true, because I know they will barley be a middle of the road MWC team by the end of the year and will be slaughtered by Utah, who is rumored to be extremely focused in their practices. Anyway, I would just like to know if I can be excited about watching BYU on Saturdays or fearful that they are going to embarrass themselves.”
My response:
BYU did have a sloppy practice Wednesday but that happens to most all teams during a few sessions here and there. Washington had bad practices Monday and Tuesday. Hans wants bruises every day with hitting. I see this team busting their butts every day and sweating for hours on end. It is the same light hitting format used in the 2007 season when they finished 11 and 2. It is also the format by the 49ers when Holmoe enjoyed three Super Bowl rings.
May I add, I don’t know what impact for good or naught having non-hitting practices does. Hans has played the game on the Division I level and as a professional. I do know that when I interview players after practice, they are out of breath and sweating profusely after going through a workout that is intense and is based on execution and timing. A Washington defensive coordinator said the Huskies are also taking it easy on heavy hitting and he used the analogy that U.S. soldiers do not train for battle by shooting live rounds at one another. It is a delicate balance. But I did see this format last year out of Bronco Mendenhall and it seemed to have success except for losses to UCLA and Tulsa. In that UCLA loss in Pasadena, I thought, from my perch in the press box, that BYU physically beat up the Bruins that day.
If I had a concern about the way Mendenhall practices, it might be the off-season conditioning, that players run too much and get worn down and they need more recovery time for the long haul. I do believe he has cut back on what is done (Ecco challenge, etc.) in voluntary workouts in the summer from when he first became head coach.