Coaching for Pizza: Another Washington Huskies Loss Ruins an Otherwise Tranquil Week

Mon.-Sat., November 1-6, 2021

Let's start this post with a look at college football's DI landscape . . .

The first official college football

playoff poll was announced

on Tuesday night

Let the arguing begin as to who the four best teams are for this year's playoffs.

The only thing that is certain is that even if Alabama were to lose their last three regular season games they will still be in the playoffs dropping down to the #3 spot at worst.

Seeing the 7-1 Oregon Ducks ranked #4 in this initial poll reminded me . . .

Our beloved 4-4 Washington Huskies

played them on Saturday

The Huskies hung around for most of the game despite their continuing pedantic offensive issues. At the Half, Oregon led 10-9 but then extended their lead to 17-9 by the end of the Third Quarter.

The Final Score was the #4 ranked Oregon Ducks (8-1) 26 - the unranked Washington Huskies (4-5) 16.

It really wasn't that close.

Oregon out rushed the Huskies 329 yards to 55 yards and had the overall yardage advantage 427 to 166.

The Huskies Defense outscored the Huskies Offense based on the Defense's Pick-Six interception and a Safety.

So now the question is how to become bowl game eligible with the necessary six victory minimum?

The task at hand for the Dawgs is to find a way to win two of these final three contests vs. Arizona State (6-3), at Colorado (3-6) or vs. Washington State (5-4) in the Apple Cup Game.

If we pull this off, then perhaps we'll be off to Louisiana for a spot in the 2021 Poulan Weed Eater Bowl!

Maybe I should focus on Husky

hockey more the rest of this Fall

A local high school generously

donated all of these 35 shoulder pads

to the EuroBall cause

A new team in Spain's Alicante area, the Ibi Industriales, will soon be receiving them to help get their program make the transition from a flag football only club to adding their first tackle team.

The Industriales' Rafa Manzano, a former Murcia Cobras player/coach and good friend, had contacted me on Monday about his new club's varied equipment needs.

Two days later, VOILÀ!

It's not nearly close to all of what they needs but it's a start.

Laurie and I had a

movie and a dinner date

This was a Wes Anderson directed film whose previews led on to believe that it was made in a style similar to another of his pictures that we both loved, The Grand Budapest Hotel.

While many of the same actors were in both movies and the styles were indeed similar, The French Dispatch paled in comparison though it did have its moments of enjoyment.

Our post-movie dinner at the Freda's Pizzeria/Topa Topa Brewing Co./Rori's Artisanal Ice Creamery complex in Old Town Camarillo was great as always.

On to this week's edition of Friday Night Lights . . .

We had a chance for a rare twi-night doubleheader this weekend thanks to some kind of labor dispute between the Los Angeles Unified School District and their bus driver's union.

The bottom line is that, until the dispute is resolved, the bus drivers would not ply their craft in the evenings. Thus all of this week's C.I.F.-L.A. City Section playoff games were kicking off at 4:00 p.m.

I was headed to a Division 2 playoff game to watch one of the two schools that I've been helping by doing analytic breakdowns of their game videos.

The game featured . . .

The Cesar Chavez H.S. Eagles

4 wins - 5 losses

#16 seed in the D2 playoffs

The El Camino Real H.S. Royals

2 wins - 7 losses

#1 seed in the D2 playoffs

In the C.I.F.-Los Angeles City Section there are four playoff divisions for 11-man football plus one more bracket for schools playing eight-man football.

Based on the CalPreps Power Rankings, the City's eight best teams are placed in the Open Division. Then the next best 16 schools are bracketed into the D1 playoffs.

Schools ranked 25-40 go into D2 and, finally, the 41st-56th ranked teams go into the D3 playoffs.

That is how the 25th ranked overall Royals, who I have been helping, wound up as the #1 seed in D2.

It must be noted that in the D3 City playoffs the #4 seeded Narbonne H.S. Gauchos entered the playoffs with a glossy 0-9 record as the Power Rankings 44th best club in Los Angeles.

It was a contrast in styles to be sure

Chavez brought a now rarely seen, two back-one tight end power running attack to the contest. They only threw a few passes in the game but when they did, they were really bad.

The Eagles relied on long, time consuming drives but that strategy came with a price as though they were big and physical, they were lacking in breakaway speed.

As a result, any negative yardage plays or penalties disrupted their odds of scoring greatly.

Elk Camino Real was running the much more common spread offense with a good blend of running and passing with enough speed to create issues for the Eagles.

In a solid performance, the Royals defended their #1 seed status with a convincing 27-6 victory.

The Jefferson H.S. Democrats

will be ECR's Quarter-Final opponent

In a mild upset, the #9 seeded Democrats (7-4) beat the #8 seeded Fremont H.S. Pathfinders (5-5) 24-20 in their opening game of the D2 playoffs.

This Quarter-Final game will again be played at 4:00 p.m. next Friday at El Camino Real H.S.

Unless the bus driver's dispute gets resolved this week.

After the ECR game in Woodland Hills, I was off to pick up son Michael in Camarillo to go watch the other squad that I've been helping with analytics in their first round C.I.F.-Southern Section D8 playoff game in Ventura, the Buena H.S. Bulldogs.

The combatants in this one were . . .

The Paraclete H.S. Spirits

5 wins - 5 losses

#15 seed in the D8 playoffs

The Buena H.S. Bulldogs

2021 Pacific View League Champions

7 wins - 3 losses

#2 seed in the D8 playoffs

The Spirits were HUGE compared to the Bulldogs, that was obvious in watching the two teams warming up.

The real issue was whether we would be able to actually see the game as a fog bank had already enveloped the stadium.

See what I mean

As usual, we were on Buena's sideline for this game but we were missing young Jacob because he was not feeling 100% (who does at this point of the season) and he had a soccer playoff game at 8:00 a.m. the next morning.

The Paraclete RB #24 was a BEAST

The result of an amazing effort

by the Buena punt team

The Bulldogs' punter was aiming for the famed Coffin Corner where is ball hit at about the five yard line and went directly and quickly in a straight line towards the end zone.

A Buena player sprinting at top speed dove and with his left hand slapped the pigskin out of bounds at the one yard line.

It was an amazing play by a dedicated special teams player!