So much new...

Mrs. Loyalist: "You know, Loyalist, now that we have a son, your college football Saturdays are going to look a lot different."
Husky Loyalist: "You're right, finally someone in this household other than me will appreciate sitting around and watching football all day, even if that other person is just learning how to put everything, including the toilet seat, in their mouth."

"Seasons change, mad things rearrange, but it all stays the same like the love Dr. Strange..." - The Fugees, How Many Mics.

Ahhhhh, it is the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and for a lot of people that means recovering from a long car ride from the day before and trying not to get mosquito bites near their private parts at their favorite (and most hated) campground. For the Husky Loyalist over the years it has meant the ushering in of the greatest 4 or so months of the year; college football season.

For our Dawgs, this last off-season brought great change to the Husky Loyal Army and the team we support, but none of those changes take away any of the pageantry that comes with the first day of the season. New coach, new QB, new RB, new TE, new...hope. The first day of the season allows you to take a look at the college football landscape and figure out how the Huskies fit into the jumbled, beautiful mess that comes with being a college football fan.

Five years ago we saw the introduction of Steve "Trust me, I am probably not a racist, maybe" Sarkisian to the UW program and with it something we hadn't had in quite some time...hope. Despite Sark's unceremonious departure from our beloved, he did turn this program around from an underachieving pile of disappointment to a perennial "this could be the year, and then it sort of wasn't" program; and we thank him for that. But it is time to move on.

Coach Chris Petersen (Don James incarnate) is here. Holy crap, I can't believe I just wrote that, Chris Petersen is the new head football coach at the University of Washington! Doesn't it feel so good to say that?!? Hope. Tons of hope. Real hope. This is change I can believe in (corny, but true).

Onto tonight's game against the artists formally known as the Rainbow Warriors. Not much to say here. We are double digit favorites on the road in the first game of the season, that is not easy to do. It means the Huskies are primed and ready to show they are here and they mean business. The Rainb.....(sorry), The Warriors are just awful. I like Norm Chow and the work he did at USC way, way back, but he has not been able to match that magic since he left there (probably because he doesn't get to cheat like he used to with USC). The Huskies are stacked in just about every position this year, which is pretty fun. A little green in the secondary, but anchored by a very talented Marcus Peters. Our O-line and D-line are stacked. Our position players are deep and talented, not much to worry about Hawaii tonight.

The biggest thing about tonight is setting a precedent for the season and showing that we can dominate on the road. Hawaii is as close to being FCS-talented for being in the FBS as it gets, but it is still a long flight, tons of distractions and the first game of the season with the starting QB sitting on the bench wondering if it was really worth it to attack people who were celebrating a Seahawks super bowl win (the answer, Cyler, is no, no it was not worth it). Despite all of the potential challenges, I think UW shows up.

So here is to change, hope and and my baby's infectious mouth.

UW beats Hawaii, 34-10.

Go DAWGS!!!

Look who's coming to lunch...

What has been your favorite response to, "we are gonna make it a decade on Saturday"? I mean, don't you just hate this team and their fans so much? We understand the Cougar Complex, it is simple for us to understand that they don't have a lot to celebrate in the middle of nowhere so when there is any kind of success (like, a first down kind of success), then they freak out and bring the incoherent "in your f*****g face" comments. With the Ducks, there is just something about the way the team conducts its business and who their fans are that make you just want to pour gasoline all over your body and look for the first smoker wearing one of those Oakley sweatshirts Duck fans love so much. Phil Knight is like the dad of that rich kid you hated so much growing up. You know, the kid that got any and everything he wanted and his rich dad wasn't around very much so he made up for it by buying him the coolest crap. And then you finally meet the dad and he is the cockiest little punk you have ever met. That's what Phil Knight is like to this team, and this team is that stupid son that everyone loves until you get to know him. For instance, I have a lot of friends spread out across the country and they love the Ducks and their uniform crap and all that. But if you are in the Pac-12 or moved into the Northwest and started to get to know the Ducks and their fans, you know you hate them (enough of the metaphors and analogies for now). The reason this rivalry is so heated is because there seems to be such a difference in the type of people associated with either program. I am not saying that Husky fans are not without dumbasses, trust me, there are quite a few out there unfortunately. Whereas the Cougar fans are like that annoying little brother who you tolerate, Duck fans are like your wife's ex-husband; you just don't like anything about them. Everything they do just pisses you off and most of the time you can't even pinpoint why it pisses you off.

Big step forward?

Can this team win on the road? The big question that the Husky Loyal Army has gone back and forth on coming into this season. One of the major frustrations of the past decade has been the team's inability to win the games they are expected to win, and simply executing on the road. Road wins have been tough to come by as the Dawgs have only won six away from Husky Stadium/CenturyLink since Sark has taken over. And outside of the USC upset on the road, those were all games we were "supposed" to win. The oddsmakers are calling this a neutral site game.....give me a break. The crowd will overwhelmingly be in favor of this upstart Illinois team that has taken down an FCS team and a Cincinnati squad who hasn't been good since Brian Kelly left them at the prom to go hang out with the cool kids who have an after party at their parent's lake house (Notre Dame). Yet a lot of experts are seeing some strengths in the Illinis that we all didn't expect. I picked UW to win this game before the season started and I am still confident the Huskies, with their new and improved hurry-up offense and shut down defense, can win this game. What will be so important for the Loyal Army is coming away from this game with the idea that this Husky team can FINALLY win away from home, and have the confidence to win with the brand of football we have become accustomed to at home. You know the kind of confidece when you are about four drinks deep and have that good buzz going and you feel like you can do just about anything or talk to anyone? You know, you're at the bar, you have had an IPA, two coors lights and a shot of well rum. The girl in the corner of the bar who you thought was way out of your league 45 minutes before you started drinking all of a sudden is right up your alley. I am talking about that kind of confidence. THIS IS A GAME WE ARE SUPPOSED TO WIN. The experts think so, the fans think so, Dubs the Husky mascot thinks so, but most importantly the Husky players should KNOW that they should win this game. Keith Price has to KNOW that Nathan Scheelhasse has the razor ready to shave off one of his eyebrows.

2013 Season Preview

Well, you probably thinking to yourself, "Loyalist, isn't it a little bit too late to be coming out with a season preview the night before the season is supposed to start?!?" A valid question. But I say to you, do we really know what our team is going to look like in Spring, early Summer, or even after Fall camp? Here we are about 24 hours away from kickoff for one of the most important Husky campaigns we have seen in years, and you tell me whether or not what we found out at 10:00pm on August 29th, 2013 has any relevance on how the season could play out. If you don't know what the announcement was, you were probably on vacation or slipping on your toe shoes when the announcement came out last night. Needless to say, a certain All-American will not be playing in tomorrow's Boise State game. Some of you out there say it was fair, others say unfair. Some say it will make a huge impact on the game, others say he didn't have very much impact on the bowl game against Boise State last year, so he won't matter tomorrow. That is why you do a season preview the day before the games start. Regardless, we are in for an incredible season of football, a new stadium, and hope that Husky football is back. Here is my game by game breakdown of what I think will transpire this 2013 college football season.

Finish...

I had a dream a couple of nights ago that the Huskies had beat Colorado and went into the Apple Cup at 7-4 and needed one more win to finish with 8 wins and a decent bowl selection. The Huskies were down by 3 with a couple of minutes left and were marching against the Cougs. On a third down play, Keith Price threw a pick six against the worst passing defense in the country and the Huskies lost the Apple Cup. In this dream, a Coug friend of mine was watching the game with me, and he didn't even rub it in....which actually made it worse. I woke up thinking, "I cannot believe the Huskies saved the season only to lose in the finale against a terrible WSU team. I can't do this anymore." Thankfully, as my wife reminded me, it was just a dream.

Say bye-bye to the CLink

Today will mark the last game at the Clink for the Huskies in this season of transition. CenturyLink has actually been pretty friendly to the Dawgs throughout the season, and has been welcome turf after rough losses on the road. Yes, that game against USC was incredibly frustrating, so was the San Diego State game for that matter, but, UW has beaten two top 10 teams this season at home, and has the chance to go 5-1 at home, which is very good. It's been weird. The band has become somewhat irrelevant, tailgating has been God awful and the fan base has been a little less than loyal. Students needed to take shuttles to the game after getting hammered at their homes first, and alumni have not enjoyed the extra few miles down I-5 for the commute.

With all that said, here we are in a very winnable game, despite what Vegas says, and a chance to be 6-4 (4-3) with two games on the road against the worst teams in the conference. It really depends on how the team finishes and which bowl game they are fortunate to go to in December, but it has been a throwaway type of season. Lots of things to look forward to and a few highlights, but otherwise it has been really frustrating up to this point. Blowout losses, a tough home situation and an infinite amount of injuries. 8 wins is still 8 wins, and I think the fan base will be content at the end of the year, but seeing what kind of squad we'll have for next year is what gets me excited.

Tonight we will have to contain one person, and one person alone. Star Lotulelei. He is a beast in the middle and really clogs up things. The run game has been the surprise of the season, but we are going to have to keep most everything to the outside and have a solid game from Keith Price, which hasn't really happened this year. UW is a much better team overall so I have a lot of confidence going into this game, but the boys need to have their focus, this one is big.

Go Dawgs!!!

Bear Down? Hopefully Not.

Before the season started Husky fans looked at the Stanford game as the most important game in determining how far this program has come along since the days of Keith Gilbertson and his run-run-pass-punt offense and the disappointing days of Tyrone "Coach Rone" Willingham. Halfway through the season the Huskies are 3-3, and, on paper, just about where people thought they would be. However, if you've watched every game, you know that this team should be better than the record would indicate, and the potential for success has not been achieved in any way conceivable, minus the Stanford game. UW beat Stanford, a win that fans thought at the beginning of the season meant this team is on its way back. But after a bad loss at Oregon and a disappointing performance against USC at "home", we Husky fans are scrambling a little bit.

Coach Sark's Speech Today

What would I say to the Huskies in the locker room if I were Coach Sark today?

"Men, I believe in you. I believe we are the team we want to be. Today is a new day, and we are embarking on a one game season that will begin and end today. Play your hearts out today, and win today's championship game, because there is just one. Now that we got that out of the way, let me tell you what I really think. I think we are better than this team. They are a pack of cheats, and they will always be cheaters. Trust me, I used to be a coach there. If I showed up at a recruits house without a stack of cash, I would've been fired as soon as I got back to campus. They are overrated, they lack depth and they are immoral. Stanford beat them, they have struggled against a couple of weaker teams, and let me tell you what, gentlemen, we are not a weak team. We are the University of Washington, we play with pride wearing the purple and the gold. 1990......Todd Marinovich.... "All I saw was purple..." Just think about that when you take the field today. We are the God Damn Huskies, and we do not get pushed around by these soft, long-haired, prissy, Hollywood pansies of a football team. Fight for tradition. Fight for our fans and for this city. Make them bow down..."

Coach Sark, if you are reading this right now, use this speech. It will mean a victory for the Huskies against USC. Thank you.

Go Dawgs!!!

Playing the Ducks...

This has become one of the hardest weeks to look forward to each year. As Oregon has become one of the premier teams in college football over the years (by cheating), we, as Husky fans, have had to endure years of obnoxious, unintelligible Duck fans who have gained a national following for........their uniforms. I don't think there could be any other way to hate the Ducks after years of growing up hating in every way the boys from Eugene (shitty town), but this new "tradition" of having a different uniform for every game really eats at me.

Accompanying their stupid style of play that resembles a 7 on 7 drill at my high school football camp in Moscow, Idaho, are these dumb freaking uniforms. What the school basically said was, "we have sucked for so long, we need an overhaul, and we will do it by throwing tradition out the window." And what's worse, people all over the nation think this it is the coolest thing in the world. Watching the Ducks on TV is really hard to do. The fans, the stadium, the field, the fans, Chip Kelly, Kenny Wheaton, the fans, the uniforms, their recent success and the fans make it a miserable experience.