WEEK 1

Washington vs Idaho

Another season, finally started. I can't believe Summer's over and it's here already. The Huskies open this season against Idaho rather than starting with a bye again. The Huskies have been robbed on the bye week for the last... many years, it's good to see it work to our advantage for once.

Tom Cable's Vandals are a good opener. They are a decent team with a solid passing attack, and linebacker Chris Nofoaiga would be starting on any Pac-10 team. This team will answer some questions about the Huskies. Idaho has a solid passing attack that will test the main Husky weakness, the secondary. Their defense will also tell us whether the Washington offensive line is as good as the hype indicates.

The story this offseason has been the Huskies' loss of many players, some of them key guys. Rod Green, last year's questionable starting CB is out for the season. Anthony Vontoure is out as the other corner, although he re- joined the team on Monday. He will miss the Idaho game but will return for Miami next week.

Other notable missing players are Maurice "Mo" Shaw at running back. Rock Nelson, Guard (back), Chris Juergens, our most reliable receiver. Ja'Warren Hooker is at the Olympics running track. Alter Tuipulotu left for personal reasons. Jeremy Stevens, our most notable TE is elegible for either football or jail, we're waiting to find out which. Finally Levi Madarieta transferred to BYU.

This leaves us to the game. Overall, the Huskies are weak in the secondary but have a pretty solid defensive line. I expect they'll be able to handle the Idaho running game but give up some yards on big plays to the Vandals. On the other side of the ball, I think the Huskies have too many Big Dawgs on offense for Idaho to handle. We'll get to see the "new" Paul Arnold, weighing in at +20 lbs (how much of that is hair?), and the "more confident" Marques, who has "improved light years" from last year. I find that hard to believe but there you go. Special teams is headlined by John Anderson, who's probably the best kicker to play in Husky Stadium in my lifetime.

My main question is on the passing offense and defense of the Huskies. The linebackers are solid and should be more aggresive than last year, so once again I expect a good rush defense. But if the Vandals find our secondary has some really big holes then we can expect them to exploit them fully. This is why we'll see a lot of blitzing and probably at least 4 sacks.

There you have it.

Washington: 38, Idaho: 17.

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