Power Pros Forum

#3 Washington matched up against #9 Michigan State in a daytime Rose Bowl matchup, and boy did it deliver action.

The first play from scrimmage was not an inspiring one for Michigan State: an interception, caught by Brian Hodge, who's in the top 5 in the country in tackles. Not learning his lesson, another deep ball by Hamilton, this time in the end zone, resulted in a Casey George pick, and this second time finally got points up on the board, off a 40-yarder by Greer. Washington then returned a punt to the Spartans' 27, and two plays later a perfectly thrown lob into the corner of the end zone gave Brandon Buckley a touchdown, the receiver just back from his injury. However, Greer shanked the extra point, making it a 9-0 affair. This was cut to 9-7 when MSU came back for a touchdown, and it remained that way into the half.

After a second Tim Johnson INT gave Michigan State the ball, they capitalized with a quick touchdown, and with a 2 point conversion it became 15-9 in favor of the Spartans. Tim Johnson then gave the ball away AGAIN late in the 3rd, and it resulted in a 28 yard FG by Randall after Washington once again tightened up in their red zone defensively. With just over 4 minutes to go, though, it was 18-9, a two-possession game for the Pac-12 reps.

Naturally, this was the time for Johnson to air it out first play to Pierre Bush, and naturally Bush had the corner beat and caught the safety sleeping, and 76 yards later it was 18-15, after Greer AGAIN fell asleep in the middle of a PAT. A wonderful 3-and-out gave Washington the ball back a minute later, with all timeouts spent, and they had 3.33 minutes to drive the field for a score to force OT or win the game.

It took a minute to reach midfield, but this was because Washington themselves were letting the clock run down, and at this point Tim Johnson forced a ball to Mike Morris on the corner route... who made an acrobatic leaping catch in traffic and bruised his way to the Spartan 27, at least putting the Huskies in field goal range. Knowing they had control, Washington ran down the clock with another first down conversion on 3rd down, and with 11 seconds left, Seth Brown took the ball on a goal-line toss play and darted in without a broken sweat. The extra point (made this time) made the game 18-22, meaning Michigan State would need a hell of a Hail Mary to win it.

Hamilton dropped back to pass from his own 27, and heaved it all the way to the Husky 25, into triple coverage... and Peter Barnes caught the ball.

And turned around with only green in front of him.

And ran...

About 5 yards. That's when Brian Hodge, of course, dragged him down from behind at the 18, with no time on the clock, a somewhat Mike Jones, '99 Rams-esque way to win the game, but a successful one nonetheless.

The University of Washington caps a remarkable season with a breathtaking victory over Michigan State, in a way that was somehow unsurprising to most: a comeback victory.

Seth Brown, with 124 yards and the game-winning touchdown, was named MVP.

1st: 3-0
2nd: 6-7
3rd: 0-8
4th: 13-3
Final: UW --- 22-18 --- MSU

Damn it all...

Nice job winning the Rose Bowl! Hope you do it again next year, only with the crystal football in your posession.

Haha, sorry. If it makes you feel better (though I don't know your allegiances for CFL), MSU beat Ohio State to get to the Rose Bowl.


Thanks, I hope so too!

Also, some awards and notables as we head into the offseason:

STATS:
-Tim Johnson finishes the year 6th in passing yards and rating, T4th in TD's, and waaaaay in 1st with INT's, though his Comp. Pct. is 59%.
-Seth Brown led the NCAA in rushes of 20+ yards, as well as yards after contact
-Pierre Bush finishes the year 15th in Receiving Yards, 1st in yards per catch, T6th in TD's.
-Joe McCarty finishes the year 2nd in INT's with 10, and 1st in INT return yardage and TD's (4 TD's!)
-Brian Hodge finishes the year 2nd in solo tackles, with Casey George T3rd
-Sam Sampson led the NCAA in return yardage

AWARDS:
-Joe McCarty, as mentioned earlier, won the Bednarik and Thorpe awards.

ALL-AMERICANS:
1st team All-American, All-NCAA: Joe McCarty (CB, Sr)
2nd team All-American, All-NCAA: Pierre Bush (WR, So), Brian Hodge (FS, Sr)
Freshmen All-American, All-NCAA: Marcus Sanders (MLB)
1st team All-American, All-Pac-12: Pierre Bush, Joe McCarty, Brian Hodge, KR is Sam Sampson (WR, Jr)
2nd team All-American, All-Pac-12: Mike Morris (TE, So), Brandon Black (RT, Jr), Chaz Gould (LOLB, Jr), Derek Fine (CB, Sr), Casey George (SS, Jr)

Washington finishes #2 in the nation after their win, with Georgia defeating Ohio in the national championship game. #4 UGA beat #2 Arkansas in the SEC Championship, while Washington defeated #1 Utah in the Pac-12 championship, leaving Ohio as the only undefeated team and Georgia as the #2 to face them.

COACHING GOALS MET (in ascending order of impact):
-Grade B or higher on 10 campus visits in one season
-Win a conference Championship
-Win 10 games in one season
-Win 8 games in one season
-Win a bowl game
-Win a BCS bowl game

Marceau failed to fill all team needs before the off-season, with two positions left, but it had no fail impact. His job security right now is 90%.

Before I go any further, I have a question out of curiosity, one that will merit a poll: Is Washington too big a school to make this interesting? I dunno if this all would be improved a lot more by having a smaller school with it harder to recruit and such, making it more of a challenge... please respond, either with a vote, comment or both!

I can't vote but I like this log a lot

Just put up the poll, so there~

Sorry there wasn't a poll when I commented

I feel Washington is a good sized school, but you waaaaay over performed that season, so it was like you were at a school like Oregon, Stanford, or USC.

That's what I was thinking too. Like, I actually tried to blow the game against Oregon a good bit, but their playcalling was just terribad even on the second highest difficulty (but I don't know about pushing it up to Heisman, because I already make enough mistakes as is, as Tim Johnson's insanely high INT count shows).

Plus, my recruiting is going really well, as the update I might be typing up if I proceed with this will/would show.

You should have blown the bowl game

Naw man, that comeback was too nice.

I've liked this log from the start. I'm starting to follow Washington irl myself, so congratulations there. Don't change the log.

Pre-Offseason Recruiting Update:

Hard Commit:
-Brett White, 67 OVR MLB, ***
-Mike Ware, 69 OVR FB, *
-Laurence Weaver, 70 OVR WR, ****
-Rob Harrison, 68 OVR CB, ***
-Tim McIntosh, 67 OVR DE, ***
-Stephen Lane, 77 OVR DE, ****
-Brandon Bowers, 68 OVR OLB, ****
-Paul Parks, 75 OVR MLB, ****

Notables:
-Sean Veney, 81 (+7) OVR HB, ****; Started with us just around top 5, then Washington entered Top 3 with Air Force and Texas. As we go into the offseason, Washington is 2nd behind Air Force, never once being the top choice. Currently Soft Committed to Air Force, and currently Marceau's biggest want.

-Chris Love, 69 OVR WR, ****; The project Marceau wishes to develop, with 94 Speed, 82 Jumping and a 6' 5" frame. His catching, in the 60's on all accounts, is what holds him back, though. Soft Committed to Washington.

-Todd Powell, 78 (+5) OVR ATH, ****; Very recently added as a possible linebacker or defensive player. Very aggressively recruited by Marceau, and as a result UW has shot to the top of his list by quite a margin.

-Stephen Stone, 69 OVR FS, ***; Pretty much destined to be a backup safety, especially with a better recruit looming... found at the very start, however. Soft Committed to Washington for weeks now.

-Brian Williams, 79 (+4) OVR CB, ****; The Canadian Corner who was out, then in, then out, then in again. After Georgia cut their scholarship, Washington sat very, very alone at the top, and a commit looks inevitable.

Alrighty, will continue!

I almost feel like having a second log though, of a small school like New Mexico or UTSA or something, but I'd want to make it different somehow... would you guys want that, and if so how would you like it to differ from this one, as well as stay the same? I don't want the same log twice if I'm doing another (if y'all want), just with a different school, obviously...