Husky Battle Cry Should Be 'Remember The Oregon Rivalry'

Husky Battle Cry Should Be 'Remember The Oregon Rivalry'

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Husky Battle Cry Should Be 'Remember The Oregon Rivalry'
John Mills, second from left, and his UW teammates are projected to be a nine-win team.
John Mills, second from left, and his UW teammates are projected to be a nine-win team. | Dave Sizer photo

We're in the midst of college football's unadorned silly season — May, June and July — in which people make up stuff you can't believe to pass the time away. A list here, a list there.

For instance, someone just posted a top 15 all-time CFB rivalries and somehow the Oregon-Washington game didn't register with this particular author. Not one dog hair or duck feather found anywhere.

If this person had bothered to check from coast to coast, rather than from coast to the Mississippi River and whatever other short-sighted boundary was used, one would be hard-pressed to find a more jacked-up series in which one team wins 58-0 one year and the other side comes back with a 66-0 beatdown the next.

That's a rivalry, man. Bitter, batter, who's better.

For another example of ill-fated silly season logic, another enterprising soul just compiled the nation's top 10 offensive linemen for next season and the Huskies' man-child John Mills didn't make the cut. At 6-foot-6 and 335 pounds, with hair down to his belly button, the sophomore guard is a hard one to miss.

Oh well, it's only May.

If these early bird prognosticators are getting anything right about this next band of Jedd Fisch-coached Huskies, it's that more people are in agreement that they could be a 9-3 team in the regular season.

It's three weeks in a row now that someone has pegged the UW for a finish in the upper third of the Big Ten and likely a place in the Top 20, probably needing 10 victories to be a playoff team

Signs are evident that Huskies have stockpiled some talent over three seasons of Fisch recruiters pounding the pavement.

After all, one of the biggest offseason college football stories was someone — OK, LSU, try to deny it — felt quarterback Demond Williams Jr. was worth pilfering at a high bounty.

Gripe about his height all you want, but Williams, likely the fastest signal-caller among the Power 4 schools, is bound to run away from people at a more prolific rate than he did over his two previous seasons.

One reason is he has four returning starters on his offensive line, foremost some guy named Mills, plus there's a 5-star recruit filling in as the fifth man.

Defensively, the Huskies appear all in with Ryan Walters calling the shots as defensive coordinator.

His linebackers, collectively as a group, are as talented and experienced as any that might find in the FBS, with four guys.

The secondary appears to be full of playmakers.

Now if the Huskies can get a competitive rush up front and someone to carry the football, they should be representative of a nine-win football team or better.

No about that all-time rivalry series.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/washington as Husky Battle Cry Should Be 'Remember The Oregon Rivalry'.

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