Coaching for Pizza: Not a Great Week to be a Washington Huskies Fan

Tues.-Fri., January 7-12, 2024

Before delving into the Washington Huskies' week of absolute turmoil, let's take a peek at some good things over the last four days.

Jacob's Orange team had a good

practice on Wednesday night

Friday after school at the Sky Zone

Trampoline Park in Thousand Oaks

Mary and Jacob jumped amok

for nearly TWO HOURS!

This place has "FUN"

written all over it

Black Light Special

Bounce up the wall . . .

. . . and then gravity takes over

Nice hair.

Mary was non-stop too

Combining the trampoline with

some of her dance moves

How did he get all the

way up there?

At the end of the day they were both hot, sweaty, hungry and thankful that we took them to the Sky Zone.

Jacob's sports photos from football and basketball arrived on Friday.

Game Face as a Sophomore level

Camarillo Stinger

Game Face as a CYBA

Grade 6 level Orange

Game #2 of the 0-1 Orange's season will be on Saturday vs. the 1-0 Boilermakers.

This weekend the NFL playoffs begin and the Los Angeles Rams are in them.

Cleveland Rams 15

Washington Redskins 14

This was the Rams first ever NFL Championship in 1945. They announced their move to Los Angeles less than a month after this game.

UCLA's Bob Waterfield was

the Rams QB that day

Waterfield would go on to star at QB in Los Angeles as well eventually earning Pro Football Hall of Fame status.

The 2023 All-Pro team was announced this week.

DT Aaron Donald from Pittsburgh

2014 First Round Draft Pick

#13th overall player taken in that Draft

No surprise here. He is a proven, sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer someday soon.

RB Kyren Williams from Notre Dame

2022 Fifth Round Draft Pick

164th overall player taken in that Draft

Great job by the Rams with this second year player.

WR Puka Nacua from BYU

2023 Fifth Round Draft Pick

177th overall player taken in that Draft

A truly amazing pick as he set all sorts of NFL rookie receiving records this season.

A good assessment by Coach McVay

of his overachieving 2023 squad

Wild Card Game on Sunday

#6 seeded, 10-7 Los Angeles Rams

#3 seeded, 12-5 Detroit Lions

Rams fans are feeling good

about Sunday's match-up . . .

. . . really . . .

. . . Really . . .

. . . REALLY good!

As I've said before, the Rams have played much better than anyone expected back in August.

I'm looking forward to Sunday's contest. The incessant Rams fans' pre-game chest thumping is about over, it is time to play the game!

Spain's Top Division starts

their season this coming weekend

I'll be closely following the Alcobendas Cavaliers, Osos Rivas and Mallorca Voltors this season as good coaching friends are involved with those three clubs.

Finally, on to the week's problems . . .

On Tuesday, the Huskies still #2 in

the nation after the loss to Michigan

Four wins over #3 Texas, #6 Oregon (twice) and #11 Arizona made this final ranking even sweeter.

Washington dubbed as "ELITE"

Feeling good about this on Tuesday as well.

I found this view of QB

Michael Penix, Jr.'s college career

to be inspiring

Finally, on Tuesday, Husky Nation

was in a good place going into next

year's mover from the now defunct

PAC-12 to the revised BIG-10

Then Wednesday happened

Two of the greatest coaches

of all-time left the game

Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots was let go after 24 seasons with the team. His overall record as an NFL Head Coach was 333-178 including six Super Bowl Championships.

Nick Saban retired as the Head Coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. His amazing record as a collegiate Head Coach was 292-71-1 with seven National Championships.

Saban's record at Alabama

Belichick's being relieved of his duties was no big surprise after four subpar, for him, seasons.

Saban's sudden retirement caused shock waves throughout the coaching world.

Who would be the next Head Coach at one of college football's premier, blue blood programs?

With Saban gone, many of these

names were in play including

Washington's Kaleb DeBoer

How good has Alabama been historically dating back to college football's first season in 1869, you ask?

This good!

Here are the overall National Championships won by these five universities:

1. Princeton Tigers

28 National Championships

First in 1869, Last in 1911

2. Yale Bulldogs

27 National Championships

First in 1874, Last in 1927

3. Alabama Crimson Tide

18 National Championships

First in 1925, Last in 2020

4 Tie. Michigan Wolverines

11 National Championships

First in 1901, Last in 2023

4 Tie. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

11 National Championships

First in 1919, Last in 1988

I know, Princeton and Yale are a stretch by today's standards but I think that the East will rise again in 2047!

Uh-oh, Alabama is interested

as of Thursday . . .

. . . extremely interested and

rightfully so, he IS a great coach

Then on Friday morning . . .

. . . it became painfully official

Coach DeBoer left the Huskies for much greener (about a reported $10,000,000/season) pastures.

What does this do to the Huskies football program?

This snowballed quickly into . . .

. . . into this

This was the Huskies two-deep depth chart for both the Offense and Defense for the National Championship game four days ago.

The names high-lighted in orange have left the UW in the last four day via graduation, the opportunity of an NFL career or the Transfer Portal. That is a whopping 20 of the 22 starters against Michigan.