Go Mighty Card

Blogging with the Enemy: Washington Huskies

Once upon a time there were two twins growing up in Seattle. They grew up as brothers often do and became terribly competitive, battling each other to the death on the basketball court in games of full-court one-on-one, pushing each other to their limits as distance runners, and developing a shared love of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. They weren't identical, but they were close enough that people noticed them. 

When it came time for college in the fall of 1987, one brother -- we'll call him "Mark" -- stayed close to home and chose the University of Washington; the other -- "Erik" -- headed south to enroll at Stanford. These twins, as if they needed another reason to compete, had one more point of contention. One more battle to fight each fall.

Sadly for Erik, this was smack in the middle of one of the most one-sided stretches Stanford has endured against any opponent. Starting in 1983, the Huskies beat the Cardinal ten straight times. Stanford won in 1994, but UW bounced back to win six more in a row. Losing to his brother's alma mater 16 out of 17 games was hard on Erik, and it could've been this despair that pushed him towards those twin sirens of distraction, nicotine and Jack Daniels. Soon enough Erik was making bets in the only currency he understood -- cigarettes. Not satisfied with beating his brother Mark, he wanted to corrupt him, and he crafted wagers that would have Mark smoke one cigarette for each point in what Erik hoped would be a Cardinal victory.

But those victories never came; those cigarettes were never smoked.

In recent years, however, the tables have turned in this football rivalry. Aside from the debacle of 2012 when the Josh Nunes-led offense failed to score a touchdown in a 17-13 loss, the Cardinal has had its way with the Huskies, winning six of the past seven games, often in convincing fashion. There was a 41-o win in 2010, and a 65-21 thrashing the year after, a game which featured a school-record 446 yards rushing for the Cardinal.

It feels like Saturday night's game will give us a similar result. The Stanford offense has not looked this good since the halcyon days of Andrew Luck. This conservative, archaic offense has ravaged the Pac-12 thus far, posting 41, 42, 55, and 56 points in consecutive games to jump out to a 4-0 conference record and make the case that Stanford is the team to beat, no matter what people might think about Utah.

Of course, Washington features the best defense on the Cardinal schedule, so it's unlikely Stanford will be able to maintain its season-long streak of scoring more points than the previous game, but they'll certainly score enough to come away with an easy win.

Washington's offense has struggled this year, no doubt because they're breaking in a true freshman quarterback. Jake Browning certainly has the tools to develop into a star in the not-too-distant future, but he's been predictably inconsistent. His QBR numbers tell the story well: 83.9 and 91.5 against cupcakes Sacramento State and Utah State, then 15.4, 29.3, and 64.4 in conference play against Cal, USC, and Oregon; the Huskies were 1-2 in those games.

Browning was knocked out of the Oregon game with a shoulder injury, and Coach Chris Petersen has said his availability will be a game-time decision. With Browning, the Huskies are already at a disadvantage; without him things will be even worse. If our brothers are still making bets, Mark should end up smoking at least a pack of cigarettes on Saturday night.

I'm predicting a 41-13 Stanford win, but that probably doesn't surprise anyone. For the other side of this coin, here's Kirk DeGrasse from UW Dawg Pound with some great insight on the Huskies. Read on, good people. Read on...

Stanford 20, Washington 13

Last year Ty Montgomery took the game's opening kickoff against Washington and raced 99 yards for a touchdown; it looked for a moment on Saturday afternoon as if he were going to do the same thing. He took the ball straight up the middle of the field and bulled his way through a few attempted arm tackles, but just when he separated from the pack and readied to drop into fourth gear, he was pulled down from behind at the Husky 35 after a 62-yard return.

Kevin Hogan and the Stanford offense was only able to manage a single first down, and the opening drive stalled at the 18, but Jordan Williamson came in to nail the 35-yard field goal and give the Cardinal an early 3-0 lead.

Blogging With the Enemy: Washington Huskies

When I look back on my twenty-eight years following Cardinal football, the Stanford-Washington series has been interesting. While the yearly tilts with the Huskies lack the marquee value of Cal, Oregon, USC, or Notre Dame, those games have always served as barometer of the program.

In 1991 and 1992, the last year under Denny Green and the first under Bill Walsh, Stanford won a total of 18 games and appeared in consecutive bowl games for the first time since 1977 and '78. But as good as those teams were, they couldn't stay on the field with Washington. The Huskies dominated Stanford, winning 42-7 one year and 41-7 the next.

Then there was the 2006 game. If you were to plot the fortunes of Stanford football from 1892 until today, I have no doubt that the deepest valley on your graph would be 2006, and the Cardinal team that walked into Husky Stadium that year was at absolute rock bottom. The team stood at 0-9, and there were no indications that it would win a single game that year. Somehow, though, the Cardinal managed to beat the Huskies 20-3, avoiding the program's first ever winless slate.

As the program rose to national prominence under Jim Harbaugh, the team's 41-0 drubbing of the Huskies in 2010 followed by an even more impressive 65-21 romp in 2011 (with a school-record 446 yards rushing) helped establish Stanford's brand of intellectual brutality. 

And then came 2012. In its first season without Andrew Luck at the helm, the Cardinal landed in Seattle fresh off a stunning upset of the #2-ranked USC Trojans. They left in disarray, having lost 17-13 without scoring an offensive touchdown. A year later, though Kevin Hogan led the Mighty Card to a narrow 31-28 win.

What will happen today? I'll say Stanford wins (shocker!) 31-13. But for some insight into the Huskies, let's hear what UW Dawg Pound's Anthony Cassino has to say. Read on and educate yourself...

The 2015 Schedule

With no game to look forward to this Saturday, now seems like the perfect time to look at the Cardinal's 2015 schedule, released this week by the Pac-12. Far too many things will happen between now and next fall to predict outcomes of any of the games, but let's take a game-by-game trip through the schedule anyway, just for fun. Oh, and keep this in mind as we go -- the schedule sets up perfectly for a run to the playoffs.

2014 Schedule Breakdown and Predictions

Back by popular demand -- or, more accurately, by one person's demand -- is GMC's yearly schedule breakdown. Why wait for the games to be played when you can just read on? As usual, I'll give you my thoughts on each game along with the likelihood of a Cardinal victory, but just for fun I've also assigned a different 80s movie to each matchup. It promises to be entertaining...

August 30 vs. UC Davis
Movie: The Sure Thing
Quote: "I hope you appreciate the magnitude of your impending good fortune."

I don't know the real reason why UC Davis is on the schedule this year, but it might just be to remind Stanford fans how far the program has come. It was nine years ago that Davis somehow beat Stanford, 20-17, in a game that was surely brought up in the halls of the Stanford athletic department as some voices pushed to drop the football program down to Division II. In less than a decade, Stanford football has gone from being one of the worst teams in the country to one of the nation's elite. 

As devastating and shocking as that 2005 loss was, I can't imagine that anyone connected with the 2014 Cardinal is thinking about revenge. No one on the team was even out of middle school at that point, and this team has goals much larger than righting a nine-year-old wrong. This game isn't about revenge, it's about finishing without any major injuries.

I can't imagine that we'll see much from the starters after half time, but while they're in there it'll be interesting to see how the offensive line plays and what the running back rotation looks like. In the second half we should get a look at some of the younger players, including Christian McCaffrey, and the second- and third-string quarterbacks. It'll be fun.

Expected Outcome: This is a sure thing. 100% chance of Stanford victory.

Video Highlights: Stanford vs. Washington

Once again, the athletic department delivers goosebumps in the form of a highlight video. Watch and enjoy:

Stanford 31, Washington 28

It's okay. You can take a breath now. The dream still lives.

Blogging With the Enemy: Washington Huskies

In 2011 Andrew Luck led the Cardinal to a 6-0 start, but there were those in the media who believed they hadn't shown enough to warrant their #8 ranking. None of their first six opponents were ranked in the top 25, so some felt the Washington Huskies, barely on that list at #25, would pose a threat. With USC waiting the following week, some felt the Cardinal might overlook the Huskies and fall victim to the upset. 

It didn't work out that way, as Stanford steamrolled Washington 65-21, setting a school record in the process by rushing for 446 yards. In short, they passed the test.

Today the Cardinal face a similar test, and again that test comes in the form of the Dawgs from the Northwest. Even though Stanford dispatched #23 Arizona State two weeks ago and throttled an improved Washington State squad last week, the Huskies represent the stiffest challenge the Cardinal have seen to date.

Washington opened the season with a stunning 38-6 win over Boise State, followed that up with a road win in Big Ten country as they topped Illinois, 34-24, picked up an easy win over FCS foe Idaho State, then cruised past Arizona, 31-13. If they continue that string on Saturday night, it will be because of the resurgence of quarterback Keith Price, the continued brilliance of running back Bishop Sankey, and the strength of one of the top defenses in the conference.

Stanford got a taste of the Huskies improving defense last year when the Cardinal offense failed to score a touchdown in a 17-13 loss, but Washington seems to be even better on that side of the ball this year, as they've yielded only 10.8 points per game, good for fourth in the nation.

The thing is, though, it doesn't make sense to consider last year's matchup when analyzing this year's, because Kevin Hogan's name wasn't even on the Stanford depth chart at this time last year. In fact, few Stanford fans even knew who he was. Stanford's offense has averaged 41.3 points per game, but it still hasn't reached its full potential. On the other side of the ball, the defense is amongst the nation's elite.

As good as Washington has been, Stanford is much better, and not only do I expect the Cardinal to win, I expect it to be much easier than most have predicted. My prediction: Stanford 41, Washington 13. A big spread, I know, but that's how I see it.

But what do people on the other side of the fence think? To find out, I looked up Anthony Cassino from the UW Dawg Pound and asked him a few questions about the Huskies and today's game. Read on...

2013 Opponent Preview: Washington Huskies

Washington Huskies  
Head Coach: Steve Sarkisian (26-25)
2012 Record: 7-6, 5-4 in Pac-12
2012 Bowl: Las Vegas Bowl: Boise State 28, UW 26

Series Record: Washington leads, 38-41-4
Harbaugh/Shaw Era: Stanford leads, 4-2
Last Season: Washington 17, Stanford 13
This Season: October 5th at Stanford

There is perhaps no better barometer to measure the state of Stanford Football over the past few years than the Washington Huskies. As the defense was just beginning to round into form in 2010, Stanford travelled north and crushed the Huskies, 41-0. In 2011, midway through Andrew Luck's senior season, there was another shellacking, this one 65-21 in Palo Alto.

Last year, however, Stanford arrived in Seattle in search of an identity. The Cardinal had just beaten USC, but since that happens every year, it didn't really say much about the current state of the team. It was just three games out of the Andrew Luck era, and observers weren't sure what to expect from one week to the next. The Huskies took advantage of the situation and exposed a lackluster Stanford offense in defeating the Cardinal, 17-13.

That game pushed the villagers to the brink, and soon enough they were gathered at the steps of Castle Shaw with pitchforks and torches in hand, demanding a quarterback change. (Those villagers all wanted Brett Nottingham; five weeks later they'd get Kevin Hogan instead, and they'd eventually exchange their torches for bouquets of roses.)

Washington has finished 7-6 for three consecutive seasons, but the Huskies finally look ready to move out of the realm of mediocrity. Most of the top performers are returning on offense, most notably senior quarterback Keith Price, who has more than 5,700 yards passing over the past two seasons; junior running back Bishop Sankey, who had 1,439 yards rushing and 16 TDs in 2012; and junior Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who will likely be the top tight end in the conference this year. With all of that, and a huge emerging star on defense, the Huskies should be a handful and could be the third-best team in the Pac-12. The problem for them, however, is that the two best teams are also in the Pac-12 North.

With more insight on the Huskies, I give you Anthony Cassino from UW Dawg Pound. (Keep in mind, he answered these questions before the Huskies destroyed Boise State on Saturday.) Lots of good stuff, so read on...

Washington 17, Stanford 13

It's not that I've been avoiding this game, I've just been having a hard time figuring out what to say about it.