Local College Football Starts Saturday

 The University of Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars start their football seasons on Saturday. It will be exciting to report about them over the next three months.

Both of the teams are expected to do well this season. The media projected that the Huskies would finish second in the north division of the Pac-West 12 and the Cougars picked to finish 4 behind the Oregon Ducks.

I see both teams compete for the division lead. Either team could win the division. The Apple Cup at the end of the season on Black Friday the winner of the game could win the division. Whether that happens or not the winner of the game could make a major bowl while the loser may go to a smaller bowl.

The Huskies take on Rutgers in Seattle for the first time. The Huskies are favored to win by twenty-four points but you never know what happens in the first game of the season. Sophomore   Jake Browning will begin his second season as the starting quarterback. I am sure Coach Chris Peterson will let him go to throw longer passes and open up the offense more this season. The strength of the offense still is the running game. The starting tailback is Myles Gaskin who had a fantastic season last year as a freshman. He ran for over thirteen hundred yards and scored fourteen touchdowns. It would be another great year if he could match the same this season. His backup is another sophomore Jomon Dotson who only carried the ball eighteen times last year. He is expected to carry the ball more this year and take advantage of his speed. If both Gaskin and Dotson can run a lot of yardage this will leave open a good passing game though the wide receivers lack experience.  The top returning receiver will be John Ross who missed all of last season with ACL tear. He is back and healthy along with his speed. He is one of the fastest guys in the Pac-12 if not the nation. Another returning receiver is Dante Pettis who is a fellow junior with Ross. Another thing you will see both of them on kick offs and punt returns. You could see both guys return kickoffs or punt returns for touchdowns. The major thing though they will put the team in a good position to start off an offense series.

The big key to the Huskies will still be their defense. They were one of the top teams in the Pac-12 last year and this season should be no different. They are especially strong in the backfield beginning with free safety Bubba Baker and cornerback Sidney Jones who were both all-Pac-12 selections and could be top draft picks next year. They will especially good if the defensive line and linebackers do their jobs. So if the offense goes out and does a great job then the Huskies will be hard to beat.

The Cougars will start their season Saturday night against Eastern Washington. Although Eastern Washington play at a lower division than the Cougars they have always have given teams in the Pac-12 trouble when they play and I expect this matchup will not be any difference.

Like most years the Cougars will be going with a good powerful offense behind the passing of junior quarterback Luke Falk. The key for Falk is to keep him healthy. Last year he missed some action because of concussions. For the Cougar faithful everyone hopes that he will not have the same trouble this season. He could be the best Cougar quarterback they have ever had and that says a lot.

The big question like most years is where the Cougars defense will be. The only way the Cougars can win the Pac-12 is to have a large improvement on the defensive side of the ball unless the offense is the best in the country.

As long as Luke Falk stays healthy the Cougars will be one of the most entertaining teams in the country especially with the style of offense they play. Coach Mike Leach always likes having his offense opened up and a lot of passing will be happening for sure. We will see very little running the ball. It will only happen as a change up to the passing game but that doesn’t happen very often either. Now that all the Pac-12 game are on television we will have the opportunity to see them play.

Eastern Washington plays a style of football similar to the Cougars so a lot of footballs will be thrown around. Look forward to being entertained Saturday night.

Both the local teams should give us some really good football this season after having some down years the past decade especially in the Huskies. Besides the Seahawks we can use a lot of good football. Go Huskies and Cougars!!!!