Meet the Nation's Most Statistically Incredible Team - The University of Washington Huskies

University of Washington football fans came up on the short end of the stick Saturday (10-13-07) when the Arizona State Sun Devils blew into Seattle and extended their winning streak to 7 with a 44-20 second half victory. The Sun Devils outscored Washington in the third quarter 21-0 and in the second half 31-3, and it is a good thing because if the game had ended at the half, Washington would have won 17-13.

Therein lies the challenge of the youthful, inexperienced Washington Huskies: they played a terrible 3rd quarter and have not yet learned how to win games.

This statistic would not mean much unless you know that:

Washington led then No. 10-ranked Ohio State 7-3 at the half and lost 33-14 in its 3rd game. It was tied with then No. 27-rated UCLA 10-10 at the half and lost 44-31 in its 4th game.

Washington led then No. 1-ranked Southern Cal 17-14 at the half and lost 27-24 in its 5th game. They led then No. 12-ranked Arizona State 17-13 at the half and lost 44-20 in its 6th game.

You better believe that Sun Devil Coach Dennis Erickson was more than sweating bullets after watching redshirt freshman quarterback Jake Locker scamper for a 32-yard touchdown run with 4:11 to go in the first half, giving Washington its 17-13 lead.

Do Husky fans realize that if each of these games ended at the half, Washington's record would be 5-0-1 rather than 2-4? Washington would have an unbeaten record after polishing off Syracuse 42-12 in an away game and upsetting then No. 22-ranked Boise State 24-10 in its first two games.

Please, do not be sophomoric (as in sometimes moronic) and remind me that a game lasts 60 minutes and only the final score counts. To do so would ignore the point I am making. You could with fairness make the point that the Huskies have been tripping over themselves coming out of the locker room to start the second half of their last 4 games.

Why this has been happening leaves Coach Ty Willingham clueless. He is quoted in the Tacoma News Tribune (10-14-07 edition) as saying, "It's obviously a difficult thing to talk about because I don't have a solution to it."

Willingham, a man of heretofore impeccable standards and integrity, is also honest. Less than 1% of all college football coaches would not publicly repeat Willingham's admission.

One thing is for sure: Whatever Willingham and his coaching staff members are saying or not saying to Husky players at halftime, it is not working worth a crap and needs to be changed.

Do not tell me that the same Husky players who might play above their head with guts and enthusiasm in the first half go brain dead and unfeeling during the second half. I would love to be a bee on the wall in Washington's locker room at halftime and see what-if any-stinging comments are made. As a certified Monday morning quarterback and coach, this would be the first words out of my mouth at halftime during the Arizona State game:

"Let me be the first to congratulate you on a phenomenal first half. Arizona State made some mistakes in the first half and we did too, but you are leading the unbeaten and No. 12-ranked team in the country at halftime, 17-13.

"Some people would say that the Sun Devils have more talent on their team than we do, but we lead at the half, 17-13.

"Others would say that the Sun Devils have an unbeaten record and our record is 2-3, but we lead at the half, 17-13.

"Still others would say that the Sun Devils are ranked No. 12 in the country and since we are not ranked in the Top 25, they will win this game, but we lead at the half, 17-13.

"Now, we are going to quickly hand everyone a slip of paper and a pen, and by secret ballot I want you to quickly write down which player you think is the leader of this team."

After the ballots are immediately collected and Jake Locker's name is on every ballot or almost every ballot, I would say this:

"Jake, you may be a redshirt freshman but your teammates believe you are the leader of the Washington Husky football team.

"I want you, Jake, to get up right now and tell the coaching staff and your fellow teammates why we can win the second half of this game, how we are going to do it, and what it will take to do it."

I would then, as the head coach, sit down, shut up and listen. After Jake is done with whatever he says, I would ask any other player who received a vote as THE team leader to get up and do the same thing.

Let the players convince themselves and believe they can do in the second half what they did in the first half: outscore the opponent. Do that and Washington upsets its opponent.

Now, why is Washington the nation's most statistically incredible team?

1) The Huskies are rated No. 41 in the Sagarin Ratings.

2) Their current record is 2-4.

3) They are rated No. 1 for having played-for the 4th consecutive week-the toughest schedule among all 242 Division I-A and 1-AA teams.

4) There is not another team among Sagarin's first 40 rated teams with less than 4 wins.

5) The next highest rated Sagarin team with only 2 wins is No. 60 North Carolina at 2-5.

6) The Huskies, as Sagarin's 41st best rated team in the nation, are ahead of No. 42 Alabama (5-2), No. 44 Wisconsin (5-2 and ranked No. 5 in the AP Poll just two weeks ago), No. 46 Louisville (4-3), No. 48 Texas A&M (5-2), No. 51 Air Force (5-2), and No. 52 Indiana (5-2). Not too shabby, as the former Opera Man (Adam Sandler) would say on Saturday Night Live.

7) The highest rated team with the same 2-4 record as Washington is Stanford at No. 68. Stanford has played the 4th toughest schedule in the country.

8) North Carolina, which has a 2-5 record, is rated No. 60. The Tar Heels have played the 3rd toughest schedule through college football's week 7.

I know, now you wonder who has played the 2nd toughest schedule. It is 1-6 Notre Dame. I expect the Huskies to lose against Oregon (hopefully not by 53-7 like cross-state rival Washington State) and California. I predicted this two weeks ago on October 3.

I also predicted on October 3 that Washington would beat (in order) Arizona, Stanford, Oregon State, Washington State and Hawaii, finishing the year at 7-6. Hang on, Husky fans, the best is yet to come.

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Ed Bagley's Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews, Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing. My intention is to inform, educate, delight and motivate you the reader.

Read my 11 Washington Husky articles including "Anatomy of a Team on the Rise: Washington Will Get Over Freshmanitis and Really Thrive" and "College Football Mayhem: Flagrant Helmet-to-Helmet Shots Need to Stop Before Someone Gets Killed".

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Youth Football Practices, Fun Increases Competitiveness - it is Your Friend, See How

Having Fun and Being Competitive Are NOT Mutually Exclusive

First let's start off by establishing, you can have fun, play all your kids, teach great fundamentals and play well (win), these aren't somehow mutually exclusive goals like some soccer moms or perennial losing coaches would like you to believe. But I've also been challenged by some of the win-at-all costs guys or the skeptical negative naybobs of negativism that you can't interject fun into everything you do in youth football. One of these cheerful guys once challenged me to make an angle form fit and freeze tackling drill fun.

How To Interject Fun Into the Most Mundane Drill

While this very important drill is probably one of the few drills we do every day in practice, it can be a very vanilla and bland drill. These are the EXACT type of drills you HAVE to make fun, otherwise the kids end up just going through the motions on the drill instead of getting the full benefit of it.

First, let's describe the Angle Form Fit Tackling Drill: 2 players facing the same direction (towards the coach) about 10-12 yards apart. The coach is about 7 -10 yards in front of the players, he is standing in-between the 2 players 10 yard spacing. The "defender" is in his defensive position stance, whatever that may be. The "offensive" player is standing in a 2 point stance. On "go" each player jogs at about 1/3 speed toward the coach, so each player is running at about a 45 degree angle. The players converge just in front of the coach, with the 'defender" executing a "fit" form tackle on the offensive player. The coaching points we are looking for are: defenders feet nearly on top of the feet of the "offensive" player, knees bent, feet just wider than shoulder length apart, head up and in front of the offensive player, backside shoulder making contact with the offensive players midsection, and arms wrapped completely around the offensive players midsection. Upon contact each player freezes and the coach corrects any mistakes, once the coach taps the players on the head or says "go" they can come off the "freeze" and go to the end of the line.

Pace is Key

You can do this at a pace of 4-5 per minute; I do mine at a pace of 6-10 per minute. Do this in very small groups of 6 or 8, get several groups going and remember to alternate which line is offense and defense so the kids get used to tackling from both angles. This drill is part of our dynamic warm up, where our goal is to get blood flow to the muscles as well as teach a very important football skill. You can't accomplish this goal if the pace is not quick and the lines are too long. The pace should be such that the kids are breathing a bit heavier than normal, but not winded.

To interject some "fun" into this very important but monotonous drill is fairly simple. Divide the group into 2 teams of 3-4 players each. Team A is in line 1, team B is line 2. Alternate each rep the line that is the designated tackler. See which team can get to 5 perfect "fits" first. A perfect "fit" is a repetition where every coaching point is met perfectly by the tackler. As the kids get better, move the number to 10 perfect fits. The losing team has to do 5 pushups. Another way to do this is to see how many perfect "fits" in a row each team can do. Once a team makes a mistake they have to start back at zero. The first team to 10 perfect fits in a row, wins, with the losing team doing 5 pushups. Another way to do this drill is to have a team record. Keep the teams the same every practice and see which team can set the record of the most perfect "fits" in row.

Why it Works

Youth football players love competition, setting records and making their counterparts do pushups, so adding this into a drill will make them more focused and motivated to do the drill correctly. It also exerts some peer pressure on the players in their respective groups to stay focused, as no one wants to be the player that breaks the streak.

Fun is Your Friend

Remember that fun is your friend. Competition is just one component of many that you can use to make your football practices more fun. The book covers many more. Making your practices fun without giving up anything is just good coaching, Not only will your players be more attentive, your attendance and retention numbers will be off the charts.

I'm always perplexed by coaches that e-mail me about attendance issues or retention problems. While much of it can be solved through the expectation setting process and player contracts detailed in the book, a lot of the problem is solved by having great practice plans and interjecting a fun component to each drill.

Since moving to this practice methodology we have consistently had about 80% of the kids with perfect practice attendance. Our drops are almost non-existent and our retention numbers (kids who sign up again the following year) range from 90-95%. This season we have 97.5% of the kids back from two teams I coached last year.

Building the Emotional Bank Account

Another thing interjecting fun into your drills and practice does for your youth football team is it builds up your "emotional bank account" with your parents. Steven Covey talks about an imaginary bank account we all have with each other, where we are always making deposits and taking withdrawals. By having interjecting fun and the enthusiasm it generates into your football practices, you are making deposits into that emotional bank account of your parents. When it comes time to do something they don't like, like moving Junior from tailback to tight end, (making a withdrawal) the parents are more apt to be accepting if you have made a bunch of deposits along the way.

Fun is your friend; use it to make your youth football team better.

Dave Cisar-

Dave has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized. He is a Nike "Coach of the Year" Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington.

With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams. His personal teams to using this system to date have won 94% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.

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Youth Football Defense