Looking for some facts here rather then rumors.

As of right now, including the guys who just signed their letters of intent UW has 93 players under scholarship for next season. The scholarship limit they''ll have to be down to by fall is 85. Just wondering if you guys have heard how they're going to get rid of 8 scholarship players? Rumors from my Duck board are:

A. Sark is going to be a douche and run off a bunch of kids he gave scholarships to in the past.

B. Several Huskies are going to have to medically retire (specifically i've heard Kohler and Tanigawa mentioned)

C. Several of this years commits are not going to qualify academically. (specifically i've heard that the entire d'line recruiting class is going to struggle to get into UW, as well as 2 of your WR commits)

Now, to be clear these are all just rumors that i'm hearing from Duck fans, not exactly neutral observers. (although the fact that youre going to need to lose 8 scholarship players is a fact). So i'm looking for maybe some more real information from you guys.

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I believe that they will utilize the grayshirt option for some of these players specifically players that were walk-ons, but are now willing to give up their scholarship for others.

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It's going to be a combination of things that get them to 85. We'll start with the fact that the numbers as reported are wrong. It is not a fact that an additional 8 places will need to be found. There has been attrition already outside the reported transfers of James Sample and Blake Rodgers. Those two were public as they were leaving the UW asap to find other schools to play. The other players aren't transferring, they're just either graduating or will no longer play football.

In addition, three scholarship players last year were former walk ons who were given scholarships on a year by year basis. If there isn't room, those won't be renewed.

As far as incoming recruits, there is one who will almost assuredly not make it in, and a second on the fence.

The numbers will easily work and it won't be because of something ugly Sark does to get rid of guys.

Not sure what Oregon fans would be worked up about, but I guess they need to stay occupied to keep from having to dwell on the fact that they live in Oregon.

Believe it or not most Oregonian's enjoy living in Oregon. There's no where else in the world i'd rather live. As for why we're worked up about it, that's how rivalries work. I'm sure you've seen how much 49er crap is on our site here. I've been to Washington Husky forums and seen all the Ducks crap there.

As for the 93 number that came directly from Bob Condotta's Husky blog on the Seattle Times web site. He may have been mistaken, but thats the number being reported.

Thank you for some of your clarification. The walk on's on a one year scholarship makes sense and I personally wouldnt take any offense to a move like that. I hope the Huskies get better. It would make the rivalry all the more fun.

Pac 12 is going to be pretty fun next year. I know Stanford and Oregon are going to be good. I'm pretty sure UCLA and Washington will be top 25 teams. Oregon State is not great, but always tough. USC is a brush fire right now but have the skill to be great if they wanted to be. Both Arizona schools I think are going to be a lot better as well.

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I've said it before- but we UW fans seriously don't give a shit (about Oregon, et al). We find some of the other teams annoying, but that's pretty much about as far as the "rivalry" goes. Oregon v. UW is such a shitty rivalry anyway. UW dominated before Oregon dominated. UW has mostly had their way with WSU, even when WSU does rarely win, it's usually in a very close manner. UW v. Oregon State is pretty much the only NW matchup that feels close to 50/50 in the last 10 years, and even that matchup lacks the feel of a rivalry.

A few years back, Arizona snapped their decades long losing streak to UW and they FLIPPED out. But then, within a couple years, they stopped caring. UW was just another team. Same thing with Cal. They snapped a long losing streak against us, but it didn't take long before UW was just another team. That's pretty much how I feel. Oregon, WSU, OSU, each one is just another team to me. All I care about is seeing UW get back to perennial 10 win seasons. It's silly to cling on to the idea of rivalries when your team hasn't posted more than 7 wins in over a decade.

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"I believe there’s merit to the idea that once something in life becomes conventional, it’s no longer the safest path to success." -Matt Waldman
"If everyone's thinking alike, no one's thinking." -Bill Walsh

You might feel that way personally, but I dont believe that for a second about yoru fan base as a whole. I'm not talking about the teams having rivalry on the field (most of them are from California, or somewhere other then Washington or Oregon, so they dont care) I'm talking about the fans having rivalries towards each other. Liston to Softy on the radio. Hell, if you go to Dawgman before it became a pay site there were more threads about Oregon than about Washington. I get "hate" on this website all the time from Husky fans just for being a Ducks fan. To me its fun. Rilvalries are fun. I dont get into the "I hate you i hope you guys lose every single game" type rivalry. But I love the poking fun at each other, needling each other type of rivalry.

As an Oregon fan the rivalries I enjoy, and feel are genuine are:

USC first, followed closely by Washington. Then a big gap to Oregon State, followed closely by Stanford and Cal. In reverse, based on what i've seen on different Oregon forums and other teams forums I think Oregon State fans hate us the most, followed closely by Washington. Then USC, then everybody else.

Sports would suck and i'd probably lose all interest in them altogether if I didnt feel any rivalries. Its the biggest reason i'd still to this day like to see the Seahawks return to the AFC West.

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Fuzzy math.Same as ducks.I am not sure how that works but just about every team in the pac 12 carries more than 85.Except USC lol.
As far as the rivalry goes I don't know any Husky fan that feels the ducks are just another game.We hate them they hate us regardless of records.If we win 10 games and still don't beat the ducks Im gonna be pissed.
In fact if I had the choice of seeing the Huskies go to a meaningless bowl game in el paso or vegas or beat the ducks, I would take beating the ducks and its not even close.

I hate everyone in the PAC12 that isn't UW... Even Utah & Colorado and we don't even have a history vs those schools.

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Official Tharold Simon Fan Club Member

Condotta's article was correct, but you have to read how he framed it. He said these were the scholarship numbers as of the end of the season, plus the incoming recruits.

Since the end of the season, there have been two transfers, plus the three walk ons, and now the number is 88. Injuries, grades, recruits not getting in, and guys leaving the team will get that number below 85, and I think you'll see a couple of those walk-ons back on scholarship.

As far as a rivalry, it's pretty lame. UW beat up on Oregon for 50 years, Oregon has beat up on UW even worse for 10 years, that doesn't make a good rivalry.

That being said, UW fans don't like Oregon fans for a couple reasons.
#1, it's because we're getting our arses kicked repeatedly.
#2, Oregon took what was the already shaky connection between high level athletics and academia, and completely smashed it to the point where they're basically running a professional franchise down there. Washington fans like to pretend we're watching 'student'-athletes.
#3, nobody likes front runners, and Oregon fans are front runners. If Phil Knight had a connection to Oregon State instead, that entire state would be covered in Orange and Black and the Ducks would be an afterthought. (If UW were winning at the same clip, they'd have the same front running fans). When the Oregon run ends, and it will end because college sports are cyclical, Oregon will again have trouble selling tickets and the bandwagon fans can go back to wearing their Yankees and Cowboys gear.

The UW just doesn't have any solid athletic rivalries, at least ones that have stood the test of time. They've either always been one sided (WSU), or non competitive (Oregon) or the other team has bigger rivalries (Arizona bball).

This statement boggles my mind...pretty much sums up the entire oregon fan base though

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Team Hansen

Well, it shouldnt boggle your mind, its a fairly common occurance unfortunatly. The Ducks did it about 5 years ago and I thought Bellotti was a douche for it too. The SEC does it pretty much every year. I'm pretty sure UCLA did it last year, although in that case it was a little different since Mora was pushing out kids from the previous coaching staff, not the kids that he recruited himself. I'm pretty sure all college coaches do it at some point with a player or two, but it doesnt make it any less douchey.

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Apparently you don't read Kimmy's board: UW fan fixation on the Quacks is equal to, if not greater, than their fixation upon you. Almost daily there is a new Muttman thread about Chip Kelly, potential Oregon sanctions, Phil Knight, uniforms and/or marijuana. It's pretty obvious UW fans care a lot about Oregon; considering the team malaise of the last twenty-odd years, it's probably justified (nobody outside the PNW really gives a damn about UW anyway).



I think Wazzu is closer than the Beavs to a 50/50 matchup: They've beaten the Mutts five times in the last ten years. And they've done it with shit recruiting classes (compared to the top-25 classes the Mutts are getting and squandering on seven-win seasons).

DohBoy, not a Quack fan BTW.

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Yes, because we all know a message board frequented by a couple hundred people is the absolute best representation of what any fanbase thinks.

Is Oregon a rival of the UW? Sure, and at times it can be a heated rivalry, but 65k fans show up at Husky Stadium on Saturdays, and another couple hundred thousand watch on TV, and outside a small minoritythere just isn't any sort of immense rivalry or hatred for Oregon. They want UW to win and dislike whomever is keeping that from happening at the time.

I have been to that hell hole down there to watch UW in the 80s and 90s and the duck fans were as obnoxious as any fans I have been around and that was before they were any good.
Maybe its a changing of the fanbase but going to Husky Stadium now is nothing like it was in the 80s or 90s there is nowhere near the passion for the Huskies.That stadium used to be more electric than the Hawks games.
I don't know its its sour grapes that make people say the ducks game isnt that big or just people really dont care that much but people I grew up with watching the Dawgs hated the ducks before they were good and still do.
There is no team I hate losing to more than the ducks period.Deep down I feel the fans who dont feel that way are the minority.

As a known Duck in Dawg territory, yeah, there's quite a bit of animosity from UW fans directed Oregon's way. Admittedly, wearing my Ducks gear doesn't help, but I don't go out of my way to provoke them (I target the OSU fans mostly). Still get a lot of friendly needling, considering how uncompetitive things have been lately.

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Sarlacc, on comparing .NET to Soccer: And why not? It's a bunch of people running around in circles, feigning pain, and never scoring.

Eugene is a great city. Hate to break it to you, but the Ducks have the better team.

The UW sites I visit (UWdawgpound, etc) almost never bring up Oregon, outside of celebrating Chip Kelly's departure- which is only natural. UW's fanbase is very self-focused. Hating Oregon only comes after our team has a real chance to unseat them. Getting beat 56-0 when you expected to lose 56-0 doesn't really stir emotions. Getting beat during an 11-1 season does, and the last time that happened was 13 years ago.

I think UW fans probably hate Oregon's fans (seriously, some of the nastiest in the sport- remind me of 49ers fans- you are an exception of course), and they hate all the annoying (and often ugly) costume changes courtesy of Nike. And they probably hate constantly hearing about how brilliant Chip Kelly was (which he is), but I never got the sense that they really cared much about Oregon the football team any more than they did when USC was kicking their asses a few years ago. I don't really hate WSU, but I hate them 100 times more than Oregon, because they have embarrassed UW on a few occasions, and Oregon has never really done that, even when they were winning sixty to nothing.

If you were to feel envy, would you be envious of your CEO or envious of a coworker who just got the promotion you wanted? It's kind of hard to summon emotion when it comes to failing to achieve unrealistic expectations (unless perhaps you are a Mitt Romney pollster for Fox News).



Nailed it. Basically, the passion for UW football isn't anywhere close to where it used to be. I'd compare it to maybe the "optimistic" post-2009 Mariners or maybe the Seahawks right after they hired Pete Carroll. UW fans are mildly upbeat, but the casual fans still need to be sold on. Saturdays are filled with more hopefulness than cockiness.

Without that passion, you will never experience a true rivalry with anyone else. One of the reasons Oregon thinks they are rivals with anyone is because their team is awesome. The reason we feel like we are rivals of the near SB winning 49ers is because the Seahawks are awesome. I think from Oregon's view, they aren't really rivals with the current Huskies, I think they view UW's legacy as the object they want to rival.

The Huskies just came off a season where they finished 4th in the Pac-12 North. The shit-talkiest fans also tend to ironically be bandwagoners, so yeah, you probably get some playful ribbing wearing a duck's jersey in Seattle right now, but you won't get a sharp object literally stuck in those ribs, as has been known to happen in some unnamed venues.

As far as sites that obsess over Kelly, etc, that sounds like a pretty obvious case of them wanting UW to improve through the attrition of the conference. Oregon is the conferences best team, so it's only natural they'd only want to see that team knocked off it's perch. If Oregon was being coached by some terrible coach like Mike Singletary and they had several losing seasons, I really doubt those same places would still be focusing on Oregon.

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"I believe there’s merit to the idea that once something in life becomes conventional, it’s no longer the safest path to success." -Matt Waldman
"If everyone's thinking alike, no one's thinking." -Bill Walsh