Neuheisel and The Decline of University of Washington Football posted by Zem
A matter that only holds relevance in the rainy dirth of Seattle is the fact that Rick Neuheisel, easily the most reviled coach to don the purple and gold makes his return to Husky Stadium Saturday night. I intend to voice my displeasure towards him, although I am less offended than most at his lying and interviewing other schools. I dislike his principles of coaching.
The problem many Husky fans have with Neuheisel isn’t actually the lying, it’s not the deceit, or the NCAA violations, or his participation in betting pools. The real issue is that he took the very essence of Husky football, and destroyed it. The powerful running game, the intimidating defenses, the hard hitting linebackers, all gone. Why? A) He didn’t recruit quality linemen, B) He only recruited skill position players(Kind of like Willingham) and C) Running the ball was an afterthought. When you don’t stress running the ball, you aren’t able to stop the run. Thanks to two coaches, Willingham and Neuheisel, the Huskies don’t have linemen and are incredibly soft. The principles that the program was built on for 30 years were stripped away.
Then there was Barbara Hedges, Barbara Hedges. Ostracizing Lambright, cutting the recruiting budget, making sure that football was treated the same as water polo, that is what led to the downfall, that and hiring a coach who didn’t follow rules back then because she thought he was good looking.
There isn't one singular reason for the Huskies decline, it really began when Don James resigned out of disgust for the backstabbing upper campus and utterly ridiculous sanctions by the NCAA. Lambright was a good coach and a good recruiter, buy Husky football was fading, limited scholarships, limited funding, declining facilities, all led to the decline. Hedges fired him at her first opportunity, when Lambright's young, injury riddled squad stumbled to a 6-6 record despite the fact that he had compiled one of the best recruiting classes the Huskies had ever reeled in the previous two years. Neuheisel was brought in, and granted, he won the 2000 Rose Bowl, but whisperings are that the seniors that led that charge turned a deaf ear to Neuheisel and put the season on their back. For reasons previously explained, when Neuheisel was fired, he left Gilbertson, an average coach, great football guy and mediocre recruiter with very little in the form of recruits. Willingham, took on the same approach as Neuheisel, neglecting line play and going after the flashy players. This is the reason for what is at Montlake right now, an 0-9 team that will spend their Friday nights taking shots of Patron instead of mentally preparing for the game(This is the truth).
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