Simming The Season, Week 13: Cougs Take Back Apple Cup, Crush Huskies

When Mark and I first conceived this idea, we figured that two games per week would lead us right up to the BYU game. In our planning, we didn't account for the possibility of either the Pac-12 Championship game or a bowl game. Since both of those things are going to happen, I'll be posting today (the Apple Cup), tomorrow (Pac-12 Championship), and Monday (bowl game, end of season recap). So, enjoy!

To be honest, whenever I play UW, I like to turn off penalties, turn down the difficulty, and make quarters 10 minutes long. I do this in the hopes of scoring as much as humanly possible, while also setting ridiculous records at their expense (like throwing for 1,000 yards and 14 TDs in one game).

A few years ago, I had a Dynasty with Tulane. I hadn't played UW in a while, so I scheduled them for the last game of the season, right before Heisman voters cast their final votes. I then hung 255 points on the Huskies, and realized that the game has a max score. I tried throwing another TD pass, but nothing happened. I guess it's sort of like Little League -- only the mercy rule isn't 10 runs after 4 innings, it's 255 points in one game. The point of this long-winded rambling session, I suppose, is that you can never score too many points on the Huskies. So when the Cougs improved to 10-2 with a 55-7 beat down of the purple snuggie wearing Tyee Club, I felt pretty good.

Jeff Tuel ran the ball against rcook72's wishes and wound up scoring 3 rushing TDs. The lead was 35-0 at halftime, so a bunch of backups saw time, including Connor Halliday. The leading receiver this week was ... wait ... Henry Eaddy? Hahahahahahaha.

Husky QB Keith Price was taken out early after suffering a strained back, and Kasen Williams broke an ankle. Derrick Brown came in for the Huskies and accounted for their only TD of the game when he ran for a 5-yard TD in the 4th quarter.

Passing:
Jeff Tuel: 13/18, 225 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, L46, 2 sacks
Connor Halliday: 10/20, 170 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, L49, 1 sack

Rushing:
Carl Winston: 12 carries, 47 yards
Jeff Tuel: 10 carries, 45 yards, 3 TDs
Rickey Galvin: 7 carries, 35 yards
Connor Halliday: 3 carries, 9 yards
Mansel Simmons: 1 carry, 8 yards

Receiving:
Henry Eaddy: 5 catches, 139 yards, 2 TDs, L49, 1 drop
Kristoff Williams: 4 catches, 63 yards
Marquess Wilson: 4 catches, 44 yards, 1 TD, L20
Bobby Ratliff: 3 catches, 97 yards, 1 TD, L46
Andrei Lintz: 2 catches, 20 yards
Isiah Myers: 2 catches, 14 yards
Gino Simone: 1 catch, 9 yards
Mansel Simmons: 1 catch, 6 yards
Carl Winston: 1 catch, 3 yards

Defense:
Adam Coerper: 7 tackles, 4 solo, 0 sacks, 0 INTs, 1 FF
Nolan Washington: 2 tackles, 0 solo, 0 sacks, 1 INT (returned 13 yards for a TD)

A bunch of backups played on defense, so there were a lot of guys with 3 and 4 tackles, but nothing really worth writing about. The defense had zero sacks for the first time all season, but Nolan Washington returned one of Keith Price's passes for a TD.

Around the Pac-12:
Utah 63, Colorado 9
Arizona 38, Arizona State 23
Oregon 49, Oregon State 3
Stanford 24, UCLA 21
Notre Dame 35, USC 7

THE COUGS ARE FINALLY RANKED! WOO! All it took was 10 wins. Sheesh. They come in at #20 in the Coaches Poll, #19 in the AP Poll, and #21 in the BCS rankings.

Top 25: (Coaches Poll)
1) Iowa (12-0)
2) Utah (12-0)
3) VA Tech (11-1)
4) Arkansas (10-2)
5) Kansas State (10-1)
6) Oklahoma (9-2)
7) Georgia (10-2)
8) Notre Dame (10-2)
9) Alabama (10-2)
10) TCU (9-2)
11) USC (10-2)
12) NC State (11-1)
13) Texas (9-2)
14) Nevada (11-1)
15) Wisconsin (10-2)
16) Michigan (9-3)
17) Texas Tech (9-3)
18) Florida (9-3)
19) Georgia Tech (9-3)
20) Washington State (10-2)
21) LSU (8-4)
22) Purdue (8-4)
23) Tulsa (10-2)
24) SMU (9-3)
25) Cincinnati (8-3)

Others Receiving Votes:
Toledo, FIU, Army, Texas A&M, Florida State, Nebraska, Arizona, Michigan State, South Carolina

Bowl Projections:
Stanford vs. Nevada -- Las Vegas Bowl
Washington State vs. Ohio State -- Holiday Bowl
USC vs. Texas -- Alamo Bowl
Arizona vs. Clemson -- Sun Bowl
Oregon vs. Army -- Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl
Utah vs. Iowa -- BCS National Championship

• Jeff Tuel is 2nd in the Heisman Race behind Georgia RB Richard Samuel. Samuel has been #1 for almost the entire year after replacing Isaiah Crowell as the top ball carrier for the Bulldogs. I don't think Tuel is going to win this one, but he should be a 1st or 2nd Team All-American. He should also walk away with at least one award (Davey O'Brien Award), with an outside shot at three (Maxwell and Walter Camp the others).
• The roster I downloaded listed Samuel atop the Georgia depth chart at RB after Crowell's dismissal. Apparently Georgia lists Samuel as a fullback, which, yeah. Of course a fullback would beat out a Coug for the Heisman because we can never have nice things.
• If Marquess Wilson doesn't win the Biletnikoff Award (Best WR), I'll eat Nuss' shoes.
• USC lost to Notre Dame which ruined any shot of them in the National Title game.
• UCLA won it's first 6 games of the season, then went on to lose it's final 6 because EA has a sense of humor.

In lieu of a tweet, here's a GIF of what the Hulk thinks of Team Bear:

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Remember, if you want rosters, go here. For a detailed explanation of what this is, go here. See you tomorrow. Go Cougs!