It's time to get nervous, folks

by Jeff Nusser on Sep 10, 2009 3:56 PM PDT

Craig mentioned in a comment somewhere that he has a good feeling about this game. Which makes him nervous.

Well, both Ted Miller at ESPN.com and Jon Wilner at the San Jose Mercury News are picking the Cougs to win this one straight up. (And I'm sure there will be others.)

Which begs one question.

With so many writers jumping on the bandwagon, shouldn't we be terrified that things are going to go horribly wrong this weekend?

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I would not say I am nervous...

Well I am going to go in the game this way…I am looking for us to improve in the areas we struggled in with Stanford, Run-D and ST.

I am under the assumption that Hawai’i still runs a open spread offense correct? Thus making the run easier to defend against. So that really leads to the Cougs needing to get off their blocks on ST.

I also would like to see Sturdy use Simone in the passing game more, it seems he has the best hands of any of the available receivers at this time.

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by Cougar_Patrick on Sep 10, 2009 4:21 PM PDT reply actions

Maybe a little...

I do see what you are saying, as I am a little superstitious as well, although I doubt the players and coaches are reading what the writers and pundits are saying. At the very least maybe they took a look at the line, but I think overall they know they just need to go out there and execute the game plan. As long as the special teams play is addressed (which it sounds like it has been per Grippi), I think we are fine. Given the turnover on UH’s defense, and an additional week of practice with the no-huddle, I am very hopeful that we will be able to move the ball and put a few crooked numbers on the scoreboard. Regarding our defense, I believe that UH will have some success in their pass attack with Salas, although as was stated here earlier, they need to bend, but not break. Not sure if that is possible with the LB’s blitzing a lot as you suggested….I guess only time will tell.

by PalousePosse on Sep 10, 2009 4:46 PM PDT reply actions

It's going to be a track meet

I have a lot of hope for our offense right now. We showed against the cardinal that we can move the ball against high caliber competition, we just couldn’t finish. Our o-line is strong and our running backs are deep, and finally Lopina is really showing some signs of accuracy, if not power.
On the flip side, our defense is still vulnerable. We didn’t see how our pass defense did last week because the cardinal mainly ran with the rock and they were breaking in a new qb. If some of those passes had connected instead of being over thrown, things could have been a lot worse.

What is Hawaii’s strength? Passing, and their weakness is rushing D. this should be a fun game to watch, but after seeing how we managed to push around Stanford with the run, I have no doubt we will dominate the clock and the game.

by ogoshcougs on Sep 10, 2009 7:27 PM PDT reply actions

Spoken like a true Coug

There has been only one Cougar football game that didn’t make me feel, at least a teeeeeeeny-tiny bit, nervous.

by Jo-Jo on Sep 10, 2009 7:29 PM PDT reply actions

Which one?

For me, it was against Montana my freshman year.

CougCenter

by Jeff Nusser on Sep 10, 2009 7:54 PM PDT up reply actions

Whoever gets nervous for Idaho?

by cfred on Sep 11, 2009 2:06 AM PDT up reply actions

Mike Price did

Back in 2000. I have to admit, I was calling for him to get fired at that point. WE DON’T LOSE TO IDAHO.

CougCenter

by Jeff Nusser on Sep 11, 2009 6:46 AM PDT up reply actions

That was a fluke

Didn’t Nian Taylor drop a td towards the end of the game? That 2000 team was a team that didn’t know how to win. They were young and losing some of those games may have helped them figure how they needed to play to win in years to come.

This brings me to WSU currently and under Wulff. I don’t see WSU beating itself very often under Paul Wulff. We may see it short-term but Wulff seems focused on playing with discipline and execution more than any WSU Football coach I have seen in my lifetime as a Coug. Combine that with the obvious focus on toughness and I don’t see the kind of brutal losses we all know about and have experienced in the past. You could see it last week against Stanford. Mistakes yes but they weren’t beating themselves.

I’m cautiously optimistic but time will tell.

by BornCoug on Sep 11, 2009 1:08 PM PDT up reply actions