Turn Back the Clock - University of Washington Huskies

[mattrd39]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cheese2121

Considering the schedule, a very strong first half of the season I think. I definitely think 3-1 is within reach for the second half. UCLA I think will still be a class above and for some reason I always find (granted I am playing back in NCAA '12) that Oregon State usually plays people tough. Fantastic thread, I check it daily.

Thanks again Cheese! I don't want to get ahead of myself, I've had a lot of trouble defending the pass this season and those numbers aren't likely to improve with QBs like Hundley, Mannion, and Halliday still on the schedule. Just hoping I can get some pressure on them to force some poor throws and get enough stops so I don't have to score 35+ per game.

Quote: Originally Posted by RyanLeaf16

I love what you did by putting together the old conferences like the Big 8 and the SWC. Very cool idea! It really makes the OOC scheduling that much better. Glad to see USF finally pick up a victory. At 0-7 I was getting worried they would go winless. I also like the graphics you have with the weekly recaps and game recaps for Washington as well. Very nice work. I'm a subscriber!

Thanks, glad you like the old school realignment. Figured I'd try something different than what most people do. I am still tinkering with it as the CPU scheduling can get very odd in this format - sometimes teams play 4-5 straight home or road games or a team like Mississippi State has started out with seven SEC games.

The Bulls have faced some tough competition so far. Baylor, Mizzou, and Arizona from the power conferences and then teams like Louisiana Tech, Central Michigan, and Colorado State that can be good. However, they hadn't kept a game within single digits until that OT win over UTEP. QB Mike White and DE Elkino Watson are having decent seasons so they might be able to pick up a couple more wins.

[mattrd39]

BREAKING NEWS - HUSKY CB PETERS SUSPENDED
Washington Head Coach Chris Petersen held a press conference today to inform the media and fans that redshirt junior cornerback Marcus Peters, a potential All-American, has been suspended for the rest of the 2014 season after his second reported altercation with teammates and coaches.

Following a heartbreaking 43-35 loss in triple overtime against USC, he went on a tirade in the locker room and was suspended for the game the next week against Arizona.

During the second quarter of the last game against Cal, Peters thought he had safety help over the top in a cover two and was beaten for a 34-yard touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Kenny Lawler. Afterwards, he was demonstrative on the field towards freshman strong safety Budda Baker (see below), whom he thought was late in covering that half of the field.

Back on the sidelines, Peters, who came to Seattle from McClymonds High School in Oakland, CA, continued to harass Baker and the coaches who tried calm him down, forcing Petersen and defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski to bench him for the rest of the game.

Coach Pete used the bye week to assess the situation and spent that time consulting with the coaching staff and other players. Despite his obvious talent as the team's #1 CB (93 OVR, 99 MCV, 92 ZCV), he decided this season-ending suspension would be the best course of action.

As a fourth-year junior and projected early-round NFL draft pick, Peters may decide to declare for the draft rather than mend the necessary fences in order to be reinstated. In seven games this season, he has 26 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 3 interceptions, and 2 passes defended. In 33 career games (27 started), he totaled 125 tackles and 11 interceptions, which ranks tied for seventh on the all-time UW list.

True freshman Sidney Jones IV (69 OVR, 79 MCV, 81 ZCV) started during the Arizona game in place of Peters and is expected to do so for the remainder of the season. In eight games, Jones has 18 tackles and 1 pass break up.

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WEEK ELEVEN PREVIEW
Biggest news: Both Southwest Conference unbeatens, Baylor and TCU, are ranked ahead of one-loss Oregon, while Utah overtook UCLA in both polls and Oregon in one.

Last week, the Ducks (7-1) and Bruins (6-1) were on a bye after facing each other. Baylor (7-0) won at Rice (2-5), 49-17. The Horned Frogs (8-0) beat Syracuse (1-8) by a score of 49-31 at home. And Utah (6-0) traveled to the islands and beat the 1-6 Rainbow Warriors, 49-28. This has some Pac-10 fans and alumni wondering: "Were those wins that impressive? Or some kind of bias against the conference?" Everyone else says: "Well, none of those three teams have lost all season. Those two have." Both solid points.

South Carolina was the only team making major directional movement in the polls, dropping from #11/15 to #22/24 after their 47-35 loss in Columbia to the Longhorns.

Injuries: Ohio State junior LT Taylor Decker will miss the rest of the season due to a broken ankle suffered during the Buckeyes' thinner-than-expected 38-31 win over Purdue.

The best linebacker for the Hurricanes, senior Denzel Perryman broke his tailbone in the loss to Florida State and should also miss the rest of the year.

A sprained elbow will cost freshman RB Samaje Perine a chance at running against Nebraska in a Big 8 showdown. Perine is averaging nearly 100 yards per game on the ground and could be back as soon as next week.

Top games:
#2/1 Alabama (7-0) at #15/16 LSU (7-2): Tiger Stadium is called Death Valley for a reason. It's a tough place for anybody to win, even Nick Saban's talented Alabama squad. The Tide have outscored their last four opponents since the scare against Ole Miss by a score of 190-38, which is 38 points per game. LSU has won their last four, but needed a Kenny Hilliard TD run with just 39 seconds left to defeat Temple (4-4) last week, 38-31.

#10/10 Wisconsin (6-1) at #3/3 Michigan State (7-0): The Badgers are 4-0 on the road. As they say, the running game travels and luckily for Wisconsin, they feature the nation's leading rusher in Melvin Gordon III. None of their opponents away from Camp Randall have been nearly as talented or complete of a team as the Spartans are though. Junior Connor Cook has 14 TD passes in his last three games directing the MSU offense.

#9/9 UCLA (6-1) at #21/20 Arizona (6-1): Neither of these teams have scored fewer than 27 points in a game this season, so this might be a shootout. The Bruins got a bye week to lick their wounds after suffering their first defeat to Oregon while Arizona rides in on a three-game winning streak, during which redshirt freshman QB Anu Solomon has looked increasingly comfortable running Rich Rodriguez' offense.

#12/15 Oklahoma (6-1) at #25/23 Nebraska (5-2): The Sooners control their own destiny in the Big 8 race thanks to the win over Mizzou two week ago, but will be without leading rusher Samaje Perine. The 'Huskers have won their last two easily as sophomore Tommy Armstrong, Jr. accounted for nine touchdowns against Colorado and Kansas.

This verse same as the last... the top four all played very well or had a bye, so they stayed put. The fifth spot welcomes another contender, this time Mountaineer QB Clint Trickett. After struggling a bit in 2013, he has thrown for at least 300 yards seven times in eight games and leads the nation in touchdown passes.

HUSKY PREVIEW
The Aztecs (2-5) come to town this week on the heels of a 49-28 win at New Mexico, thanks in no small part to junior running back Chase Price. He ran a whopping 42 times for 276 yards and three touchdowns in the victory and will likely be the focal point of the San Diego State offense once again.

SDSU is a bit banged up with both of their most talented players on offense sidelined due to injury: 85 overall WR Ezell Ruffin and 82 overall RB Donnel Pumphrey, whose absence made Price's big game possible.

The tricky 3-3-5 defense that Rocky Long employs has been solid against the pass (17th nationally), but has been getting gashed by the run, causing the Aztecs to allow almost 40 points per game. We will try to exploit this and look to improve upon the 405 yards on the ground in our last game against Cal.

Senior RT Ben Riva sustained a concussion during bye week practices and will be unavailable. Redshirt freshman Coleman Shelton will get his first career start in Riva's place. Fortunately, RB Jesse Callier should be able to go so we can have Shaq Thompson focus on defense.

[Cheese2121]

Interesting plot twist with Peters being suspended for the rest of the season. I would expect he will turn pro after this. A huge blow to your secondary and not exactly ideal timing when going up against some prolific passing attacks in the coming weeks.

I think you should be able to handle SDSU and it should give you a good preview of what you are looking at with your secondary down the stretch. Good luck!

[mattrd39]

An overhead view of Husky Stadium before the Dawgs take on San Diego State.


Senior RB Jesse Callier (24) was excited to get back on the field after missing the last game against Cal.


Some pressure from the blind side by Hau'oli Kikaha (8) in the first quarter forced a third-down incompletion by Quinn Kaehler (18).


Aztec safety Na'im McGee (21) studies the eyes of Cyler Miles (10) while Micah Hatchie (72) provides protection.


The research pays off for McGee (21) as he jumps a crossing route intended for Dante Pettis (87) for an interception in the second period.


Coach Petersen discusses the interception on sidelines with Pettis, a true freshman.


Lloyd Mills (82) caught only one pass in this game, but paid the price as freshman Sidney Jones IV (26) lays him out with a big hit. Jones played very well in place of the suspended Marcus Peters.

[mattrd39]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cheese2121

Interesting plot twist with Peters being suspended for the rest of the season. I would expect he will turn pro after this. A huge blow to your secondary and not exactly ideal timing when going up against some prolific passing attacks in the coming weeks. I think you should be able to handle SDSU and it should give you a good preview of what you are looking at with your secondary down the stretch. Good luck!

Since he was suspended in real life, I was kind of looking for an excuse to boot him off the team. I saw him do the thing where he throws his arms in the air after giving up a TD, got a picture of it, and figured it'd be a good story.

Like a lot of people (I think), the 3-3-5 can be tough to play against since it does have a big array of blitzes and coverages. Eventually we got it figured out in the second half and rolled 'em. This was definitely the best the secondary played all season... but it was the worst team we've played. I think 5 of their 11 completions were screens, so they definitely did their job. The bigger tests are coming up though!

[mattrd39]

WEEK ELEVEN TOP NEWS
#2/1 Alabama (8-0) 35, at #15/16 LSU (7-3) 31: Typically the games in this series have been tight defensive battles and that was expected again. Instead, we were treated to the highest scoring game in this series since 2007 and over 1,000 yards of total offense. Derrick Henry's second TD run of the evening with just under six minutes left capped the scoring and kept Alabama undefeated. Both QBs - Blake Sims and sophomore Anthony Jennings - were efficient and topped 300 yards through the air.

at #3/3 Michigan State (8-0) 52, #10/10 Wisconsin (6-2) 28: Heisman contender Melvin Gordon III had a big day, running for 213 yards and three touchdowns, but most of that came in garbage time as the Spartans raced out to a 35-7 lead. Senior Jeremy Langford ran for three scores and Tony Lippett caught 8 passes for 218 yards as MSU stayed perfect.

at #7/8 Oregon (8-1) 35, Stanford (4-4) 31: The Ducks needed to overcome a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to avoid another upset defeat to Stanford. A touchdown pass from Marcus Mariota to tight end Evan Baylis with less than a minute to play sent the Autzen Stadium crowd into pandemonium.

#9/9 UCLA (7-1) 49, at #20/21 Arizona (6-2) 24: Brett Hundley threw six touchdown passes, four to sophomore tight end Thomas Duarte as the Bruins rebounded emphatically from their loss to Oregon. The UCLA defense tallied 16 tackles for loss and sacked Anu Solomon five times.

at #25/23 Nebraska (6-2) 34, #12/15 Oklahoma (6-2) 30: Tommy Armstrong (219 yards, 3 total TDs) and Ameer Abdullah (175 yds from scrimmage, 2 TDs) led the Cornhuskers on a nearly five-minute drive capped off by an Abdullah TD run with less than a minute remaining to defeat the Sooners. This result allows Kansas State (3-0 in conference) to climb atop the Big 8 standings.

Arkansas (6-4) 38, at #18/17 Ole Miss (6-3) 28: Just a week after being thrashed 41-7 by Alabama, the Razorbacks shocked the Rebels in the Grove. Junior RB Jonathan Williams ran for 140 yards and three touchdowns to help Bret Bielema's squad become bowl-eligible.

A huge week for the defending National Champions, as they inked four of the top 83 players in the country, including the #1 overall recruit, DE Josh Sweat. Georgia was able to keep the #1 DT Trent Thompson at home despite pushes from Alabama and Auburn while the Tide also lost out on the top MLB Leo Lewis, who will also stay home to play for Dan Mullen at Mississippi State.

[Cheese2121]

Great win over SDSU. I agree with you about the 3-3-5. I tend to have a tough time picking up the blitzes and not doing something stupid when playing against them.

And jeez look at the Seminoles recruit; talk about the rich getting richer. That is just absurd. Best of luck moving forward. Loving this.