September 7, 2026 • 41 mins
MMQB with HUGH MILLEN We bring Hugh on today to give us his thoughts on the Apple Cup and we start right there with the “rivalry game” itself. How did the Dawgs do in their debut? Hugh breaks it all down. Why did it take the Dawgs so long to get going? :30- We continue with Hugh breaking down the Huskies win over the Cougs. :45- We wrap up MMQB with Hugh. What did he think of the Husky defense and who stood out? What did Hugh think of Ryan Walter’s debut?
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
And the Apple Cup's already over. I know. Wait, does
that mean that all of football season's over? No, no, no.
Just beginning. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Just beginning.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That was very weird. Yeah. Very odd. Great morning to
you all. Happy Monday. Happy Labor Day. Yes, we are
doing a live radio show all day long here at
Sports Radio 93.3 KJRFM, celebrating the holiday, celebrating labor right
here on Sports Radio 93.3 KJRFM. And we are also
(00:48):
launching our Factor Fiction as well. We've already given out
the first pick. That was at 735 this morning. It'll
be the morning show's slot for Factor Fiction throughout the year,
and that is at 735. Apparently, we already have run
into the you're not getting the bounce back receipts that
you typically get. Again, we don't know why that happens.
(01:11):
If we did, we would have fixed that because we
don't want to deal with the frustration. But I don't
know why. Um, sometimes you don't get the bounce backs.
Today's one of those days, but that does not mean
that we did not get your pick. So we got
your picks. You just didn't get a receipt. Yeah. We
got your picks and we know you're not getting the
(01:32):
bounce back. So you also don't need to text it
and tell us you're not getting a bounce back, but
all is good. All is good. And we've been doing
this long enough and we've had this little snafu long enough, uh,
that we know, uh, that we, uh, we have all
the picks, uh, And your fact or fiction prediction is
part of the record. Yes. All right. We've got a
special Monday morning quarterback session here today. Joining us now
(01:56):
is our QB1 to talk some Apple Cup. He's been
in a couple of these here in the past. It's
Hugh Millen joining us here. on the radio program. Good morning, sir.
Good morning. Great to be with you. Do you always,
every apple cup, just kind of put on your old, uh,
you know, Jersey and just walk around the house in it? Uh,
not at all. Um, you know, I, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
We're going to call this the apple cup because I
think there's a lot of entities that benefit from it.
You know, you paint it on the field and I'm
sure there's money to be had for that. But, but I,
In my own mind, I think if the Apple Cup
isn't dead, it's at least in a coma. And let
(02:38):
me defend that proposition. If you go back to the
history of the Apple Cup, we all know that Washington
State has a lot of– they have elements of their
university that are– are not to the level of Washington.
(02:59):
And so it, it, it's competitively imbalanced through the years, right?
I don't think anybody would dispute that. I would also
credit Washington state for playing above their, their, uh, their
means in many ways. I mean, hell, they got four quarterbacks, uh,
drafted in, in the top three picks of the first round. Uh,
Washington doesn't have any in the top five. So they've
(03:21):
in a lot, in a lot of ways they've outperformed,
but The imbalance now, when you consider that Washington has
five to six times the NIL money, before when the
Apple Cup, yeah, there was an imbalance, but at least
Washington State was saying, hey, our scholarship check is the
(03:42):
same as Washington's. You're playing in the same conference. And
so there was at least something of a fair fight.
And even at that, other than Oklahoma State, there's a
bigger imbalance in the Apple Cup than in any other
traditional rivalry. So now you've got the only school now
(04:03):
where a traditional rivalry... Now, there's been others that I'm
not going to get into the history of college football.
There's others that have dropped down a conference, but then
now have climbed back up to the same conference. To
my knowledge... Tell me if I'm wrong. This is the
only traditional rivalry where one team is in a power
four school and the other team is in a group
(04:25):
of five. And so I don't know. I just look
at the Pac-12. They call it the Pac-12, but you
could call a Beagle a Rottweiler. That doesn't make it so.
It's not the Pac-12. It's Washington State and Oregon State. which,
(04:46):
by the way, the Pac-8 came into existence in 1968
and then dissolved in 2023. The team, the losingest team
in the history of the conference is Oregon State at 380.
The second losingest team is Washington State at 450 win percentage.
So you take the two losingest schools in the history
of the Pac-12, combine them with a bunch of Mountain
(05:06):
West teams, and then throw in Texas State, who was
in the Sun Belt, who used to be called, they
were a directional school. They were Southwest Texas. And so
now you're going to call that the Pac-12 and somehow
tell me this is the Apple Cup? Look, to me,
in my opinion, this is more like the Apple Stem Cup.
There's a portion of an Apple Seed Cup. And so, look,
(05:31):
I understand it benefits Washington to bark about winning the
Apple Cup, but I think that, you know, in a way,
I understand where Cougars are like, hey, I'm losing interest
in this because it was already– A tough fight before. Right.
Now it's just a level of absurdity and unmatched. So
(05:53):
at any event, I don't think that there's a lot
of pride that Washington should be taking from this. I mean,
you line it up, you play, it's an opponent, you
should win. They are a team from a group of five,
and there's not much more to it to me.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah. And yet at 10, 15 left in the fourth quarter,
it was a three point game. Um, at four 30,
it was a seven point game in the fourth quarter. So, uh,
the game itself, um, I mean, there are a lot
of different angles obviously that we can take, but what's
the first one for you that tells the story of
this game yesterday?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, obviously the defense and we can, we can highlight
the defense. They deserve to be, uh, lauded. Um, You
go back to two years ago, and Washington State was playing.
They had John Mateer, and now you get this kid
from UC Davis. So that just underscores where they are,
the Cougars, offensively. But I think for Washington, a year ago,
(06:53):
Washington went into Pullman, scored 59 points. They were 8
of 9 on third and fourth down conversions. This is
a year ago. Yesterday, they were 4 of 14 in
third and fourth down. At Pullman last year, they scored
touchdowns on their first three drives, then kicked a field goal,
(07:15):
and then scored touchdowns on their last four drives. They
had essentially eight drives, and they scored on all of them,
and they were seven of eight on touchdowns. Now, technically,
they had one drive at the end where they took
a knee, so it was nine drives. Yesterday, the first
nine drives, playing at home, which should be a more
(07:37):
imbalanced roster. And with Kirby Moore in year one, Washington
had nine drives, one touchdown, one field. So I think
that you could say that, I mean, if you're a
Cougar fan, you'd say defensively a huge improvement from a
year ago, which means from a Washington perspective, certainly a letdown.
(08:02):
And yet, As you point out, the fourth quarter was
really impressive. A lot of big-time football, but a lot
of big-time playmaking on the offense and with DeMond Williams. But,
you know, a lot of just, you know, just kind
of stagnant, stuck, you know, just the details. The details, Chuck,
(08:25):
I've been studying this damn tape for hours, including this morning,
and every single play, all of the mistakes, There's detail problems.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Give us an example.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, okay, the touchdown or the last play of the
second quarter, everybody remembers that. That prompts the head coach
to throw his head down.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, fourth and one. This is embarrassing is what Coach
Fish said, not being able to get one yard. Fourth
and goal from the one, went for it, and got stuffed. Okay,
so details.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So they're running inside zone, split zone, which means that
you've got the tight end in what's called the sniffer position.
He lines up right behind the tackle. That is a
common term in football. That's not my term. You could
go to any football coaching convention, high school, college, or pro.
You can use the term sniffer, and you get away
with it. Now you can use your imagination why he's
(09:18):
called the sniffer, but he's going to come across the formation,
and you're going to run the inside zone right. you're
essentially going over right guard. If you're going to do
it from shotgun, where your quarterback's heels are at five yards,
then the running back, if you're going to be at
the goal line, generally the running back is going to
be to the left because going from the left behind
(09:42):
the left guard, going over right guard, it's a straight
line and you could hit it faster and you can
have a straight line. When you line up the running
back to the right, he has to start to the
left and then slow down his momentum. and and then restart,
and then there's a portion. Now, Washington didn't block it well.
(10:06):
The Mike linebacker for Washington State gets unblocked. It's as
if he was wearing an invisible juice or drank invisible juice.
Nobody thought to block the middle linebacker. But if you
line him up, What's that?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Can you get some of that? I'd like to try that.
Wouldn't that be cool? Yeah, it'd be great. It would
create all kinds of, man, you could really creep. Is
that available? Can I grab that at Safeway? Well, you
know what?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Ask the Mike linebacker for Washington State because apparently he
drank it because nobody had a thought to block the
middle linebacker. And yet there's a point where you say
you're getting the double team with the center and the
right guard. And, uh, uh, uh, because you're going inside,
that's the point of attack inside the right guard. And
(10:54):
so there's a point there where you say, even though you,
you don't block the Mike linebacker, you get with a
big back that they had there, um, that you're gonna,
you're gonna plow in and get the touchdown, but you're, um, with, uh,
Jaden Lamar, um, But you're not going to get it
when you line up. A, when you go shotgun instead
(11:15):
of under center because that's going to slow things down already.
But then when you put the running back on the
right side and make him do counter steps instead of
plunge steps, that's enough. So, you know, maybe the coach
was throwing his headset because he realized he drew.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Up a play with poor detail. Hmm. I mean, we
can be here all night. Well, there was another fourth
and one play later, and they were 0-2 on fourth
down in the game, and it really blew up. Williams
had nowhere to throw, no time to throw. They decided
(11:55):
to try to throw the ball, maybe roll him out,
and it just looked like an absolute mess. What went
wrong on that play?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, you're going sprint left, and you get into a
bunch formation, and so you're trying to get some rubs
where you've got the tight end is the innermost of
three guys in a bunch.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
You generally have a point guy.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It looks like a triangle, and Washington had that. And
so they get the nice rub. The tight end's open, but– Apparently,
and they showed it from multiple angles, I have no
hesitation to offer this. DeMond just didn't like the vision.
(12:35):
The end was up the field, and if you just
kind of stop and you say, okay, what's he seen
from his level? He didn't like the picture because the
guy's up in his face. I still think that he
had enough depth. I know this, the NFL would look
at that and say, dude, throw the freaking ball. The
tight ends open the flat. Like if they're scouting them,
(12:57):
there's nobody's going to give him a break on that.
And so he just missed, you know, that was a
well-designed play. Got the tight end open.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I understand you're not six foot five, but you still
have to throw that ball. And so he ends up
turning down the tight end in the flat and And
then there's a corner out that was developing down the field.
He holds up, gets his arm hit, and it's just
a complete mess. But there was enough there that the
(13:27):
quarterback needs to execute and you get the first down.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So in general, the offense did not get going until
the fourth quarter. Why?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Well, I don't think that they had any real dynamic
running game. I mean, they They did mostly their zone.
They tried a lot of inside zone and outside zone.
They couldn't really get to the perimeter, couldn't really gas
anything from the inside. Their best runs were on what's
called gap scheme and counter, particularly to the left side.
(14:01):
They had a nice counter to the left down in
the red zone going to the goal line, but you
didn't really get a lot of explosive plays. The running
backs averaged under four yards per attempt. Wasn't it 3.6?
I know it was under four. Um, and so, so
you can kind of start there. I think that, um,
you know, demand for through three quarters was very inconsistent.
(14:28):
I mean, he, you know, on an RPO, um, pass
early on, which is, you know, you're going to call
inside zone, but if you, if you got a guy
in the flat, uh, which he had, you don't throw
it to him, but he dirts the ball. Um, you know,
he had, he had play action passes where, He had,
you know, just basic, simple, just double deep curls. You know,
(14:50):
it's a stop route, so you don't have to be
dynamically accurate. And, you know, he turns down a completion there,
you know, because, you know, he's conservative. He gets the
check down for, you know, four or five yard gain,
but that's not why Jed Fisk called that play.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
He wants a shot. He wants to go get, you know, 16,
18 yards down the field. The.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
The whole sequence in the second or going towards the
lake with the, you know, they got them to, what,
third and 33? They get in delay of games. They
get a holding call and then another holding call. And
yet they dial up. They move the pocket and they
dial up. The Cougars bust a coverage. And they get
(15:35):
with a little scissors action. They got the corner route,
a post route. coming open for whatever reason, the free
safety comes out of the middle to cover the corner
out in a scissors concept. And the corner had been
turned around. It's wide-ass open on third and 33. I mean,
like there's barely even Cougars in the picture. So that's
(15:59):
a hell of a play for any play caller to
dial up to get somebody that open on third and
33 in the back of the end zone. Hell wasn't
even the back of the end zone implies that it
would have taken a tough, a tough throw. It was
wide open at the front of the end zone, the
middle of the end zone and the back of the
end zone. And so for, for, uh, for, uh, demand
(16:25):
with his experience now and what is expected of him
to miss that was rather alarming. I mean, even the,
the post route that they took a shot, you know,
they were clear. They, they wanted to take the shots.
They go play action in the first half on a
post route. Now, they get the pass interference.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It was nullified because there was offensive holding and defensive
pass interference.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Do you remember that one? Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
The safety comes out of the middle. That's a very
poor ball placement. It's up the field and to the left.
As a quarterback, when you see the safety vacate and
you've got the entire middle of the field and to
the right, you're the, there's a, the defender has to
(17:12):
mirror the receiver. So you, as you look, your post,
your post route is going from your left side. He
goes up the field and they runs towards the post.
As the name implies, the, the defender is going to
match that angle.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So let's think of like a, a railroad track. You
got the receiver on the one track and the corner
on the other. If you throw the ball more to
the middle of the field, the receiver, the defender is
not tracking the ball yet. He's, he's, he's running with
the receiver. And so if you, if you flatten the
(17:46):
ball over more towards the right hash, even though he's
coming from the left side, if you flattened him towards
the right hash, then he flattens it, his angle. And,
and that there's creates a little separation bubble because, because
the corner can't react to that. And so the, So
then you catch it, and there's all that area. You
can kind of throw it to any angle over there.
(18:08):
Make him go get to the ball towards the right
sideline is what I mean by flattening it.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
And he did the opposite.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
He threw it up over the left shoulder as opposed
to bringing him over to the opposite side.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So that's detail. That's poor ball placement. Hold on. All right,
we're losing, but I think we're at the end of
the segment anyway, so we'll reconnect here. Hugh Millen is
with us. It's our Monday morning quarterback session, 24-10 Washington
over Washington State in the 118th playing of the Apple
Cup yesterday, and we've got a lot more to evaluate
(18:47):
with our QB1, so we'll continue on the other side.
It's Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM. Monday morning quarterback here,
special edition, Apple Cup edition. We've got our QB1 with us,
(19:10):
Hugh Millen. The Huskies went over the Cougs 24 to
10 yesterday, but at one point it was 10 to
7 with 10 minutes, 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
And so in our next segment here with our QB1,
let's dive right into that fourth quarter. And The Cougs'
lone successful touchdown scoring drive made things a little bit
(19:33):
uncomfortable there. Hugh, what did they finally get going against
that Huskies defense as you saw it?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Well, that was their best drive on offense. They had
a fourth and four. They converted on a QB sneak,
and then they they did a little naked misdirection like
they're running to the left they got the tight end
in the flat for a first down that he he
hit a hell of a slant route down near the
red zone where he threw it in into a window
(20:04):
and zone just past what's called the hook defender the
inside shallow defender and And then the QB draw was
very well conceived at about the 11-yard line. That should
be tough yards to get, but on first down, they
got aggressive. They dialed up a play where they fake
like they're doing a quick toss to the left. They
got the influence they want. They got the lead blocking
(20:26):
on the counter blocking, and they popped the touchdown from
the 11-yard line. So that put it, as you said,
at 10-7 with 10-15 remaining. The Huskies get the ball,
and You know, from Jed Fish's perspective, you know, there
was an aggression. They moved the pocket. They sprint out.
(20:47):
And they throw an over route where you get a
crossing route. Now, in this case, I'll tell you, if
you're a cougar, you're like, there was a guy closing
from the backside.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
DeMond almost got his arm hit. That could have been
a fumble on the first play of the drive, but
it wasn't. They get the crossing route to Chris Lawson.
He breaks a tackle. He gets 29 yards, and then
they dial up immediately. Again, speaking to the aggression at
that point, they were not going to get conservative. They
(21:20):
go the flea flicker. get a really nice play. Um,
now I think this is one of those cases where
Yogi Roth and, and I know Yogi well, love him
to death. He, he, he gets a lot of, of, uh,
grief for being a little bit positive. And I think he,
he had a little bit of hyperbole in praising, uh,
demand on that play. It was just a cover four,
(21:42):
four deep three under. And, uh, it's a concept, very,
very ubiquitous concept. I call it jungle, uh, which is
a word conjunction of, of, uh, jet and go a
little 12 yard out route.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And he's wide open.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I mean, there's only three guys in a, in a
four under three deep flat and the flat defender didn't
get out there. So even though he's thrown to the
far hash, there wasn't anybody within five yards of him.
So that was a easy throw. Well, you know, well-designed
flea flicker. They, you know, they got the guys flat
footed just enough. So, so they get the run down,
run down, running down to the three yard line. He
(22:19):
was out of bounds and, And then they had a
nice RPO where they fake the run, but they get
a well-designed RPO with the receiver coming across the formation.
And they get the touchdown pass on that on a
design run that DeMond pulled the ball and threw it
(22:39):
to Rasheed Williams, who had caught the flea flicker.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, he earned it. He deserved it. He deserved it.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
And so I think that's the best thing you can
say about the offense was the answer drives. In the
fourth quarter, when Washington State made you, if you were inclined,
to bite your nails, the Cougars did that. And on
both of those drives, Washington came back with aggression, made
(23:06):
big plays, and DeMond.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Had some really terrific plays. Yeah, I mean, I think
it's just, having the athletic ability that he has. I
don't know if there's much, uh, science to break down
on his scramble for 21 yards where he alluded to
play the game. Yeah. He alluded three, uh, Cougs on,
on third and nine. And then, but the 33 yard
pass to Lawson where he was getting mugged, uh, down
(23:30):
the field and still made the catch. So that sequence
of plays capped off by the 11 yard touchdown run. Um,
that was a hell of an answer. You're right. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
And, uh, you know, they had, They tried a couple
of bootlegs, one to the right, one to the left,
and that set up third and four. They get the
false start with the freshman left tackle.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
So it's third and nine, 254 to go.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
The Cougars are going to force a punt here and
get the ball back, and the score is 17-10. They're
going to have the ball with a little over two
and a half minutes, and they had just had in
their prior sequence, as we had said, they got their
best series. earlier in the fourth quarter. What I can
tell you on that play of the game, the Cougars
(24:19):
are playing man-to-man, but they only rushed three. You can
rush up to five if you don't want to account
for the quarterback and you don't want to have a
low hole player. But because the Cougars only rushed three,
they had a couple of robbers in the area that
(24:40):
And I would just say there's a point there where
when DeMond goes to his left, I didn't look up
the roster, but number one, number 15, and number six.
If you can for me, Chuck, hold up three fingers
with your middle finger being In the middle.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I can't hold up the middle finger. We're on YouTube
right now. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Well, if you have accessories, you can accessorize it with
the index finger on one side and the ring finger
on the other.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Okay. Are we safe that way? I got it. Yeah,
I got it.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So Washington State was in that situation. And now I
want you to put your other hand, put your index
finger kind of right in the middle of those three.
If you're just going to say basic fundamental football, you
would say if we got three guys, you would talk
to your index finger and your ring finger and you'd
say never let the quarterback go around you, like force
(25:32):
it in towards the middle. And if the one in
a hundred chance we don't make the tackle, it's got
to be between your ring finger and your middle finger.
and your middle finger and your index finger. It's got
to be between them, never to the outside of the
outside guy or to the inside of the inside guy,
(25:52):
getting back to football.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Let me repeat that again. Three guys converging on the quarterback,
and whoever number six is, For Washington State, I don't
know if their numbers are crumpled up. It's possible it
was eight, but I think it was number six. But
the inside guy, you cannot let the quarterback run to
your inside. The outside guy, you cannot let the quarterback
get to your outside up the sideline. You should feed
(26:16):
it into the middle, have the other two guys help
you tackle, and if the one and a– I said
one and a hundred. And the one and a thousand
he gets through, I guess with DeMond it's going to
be more than– but it's got to be in the
middle of those. And so for them to lose, the
term is lose leverage, uh, two guys to lose leverage.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Um, you know, it's just a astonishing breakdown of fundamentals,
but then you'd say, well, demands the kind of guy
that can kind of break rules.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Uh, and, and he did that.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
And you, as you said, then he hit the go
route with the guy in his face. That's a hell
of a play. That's a double plus for the quarterback. Um,
and then the run was a pin and pull design,
nice design, the center and the tackle are pulling out and,
And so you got great blocking at the point of
attack and you may, you know, uh, real good blocking
out on the perimeter, make running back makes the guy miss.
It's kind of how you draw it up, uh, just about.
(27:07):
And so, uh, so Washington closed strong, um, with some
really good football and some aggressive play calling and what
have you, and save some of their best stuff for those,
those two answer drives. That's the best thing I can
say about the offense is, is not just good play
in the fourth quarter, but. responding in the answer drive
after Washington State had scored in each of those occasions.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Well, that's the best thing they can say about them.
Probably the worst thing that you could say about the
Huskies yesterday were all the penalties. 130 yards worth of
penalties and really a lot of stupid ones in that bunch, Hugh.
A lot of stupid ones.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Well, I think to have two delay game penalties, particularly
when you start the third quarter with a delay game, Benny,
after you'd already probably peeled some paint off the locker.
To start the third quarter with a delay game is
just unforgivable. The holding call on a really nice jailbreak screen,
(28:06):
but that's holding. I think you're probably focused on the
defense on some of those lapses. You get the young freshmen.
I guess all freshmen are young, right? But Ramzak Fruin.
He gets on third and I think third and 11.
He ends up bumping the quarterback. This was in the
(28:30):
third quarter, right, on a drive. Now, he had been
juked out a couple plays before. Do you remember that
one on the bootleg?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
And so now he– that was on the defensive left side.
Now he's on the defensive right side. They go third down.
They don't allow him to rush the quarterback. They have
him drop off in a fire zone, a zone blitz.
And so he's on the right side of the field,
and give him credit, he chases all the way over
to the left sideline. He bumps into the quarterback, and
(29:04):
maybe it was the frustration, but it was great hustle.
He'll learn from that. Now you get a third and 19.
You force the quarterback to scramble. You gang tackle the
quarterback with three, four guys, and your middle linebacker, what
is he, senior middle linebacker?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, senior middle linebacker.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
He wants to get up and stand over the quarterback
on third and 19. So now this is the second,
third down, you you give up um and uh uh
oh the that you had the uh on a third
down the obviously the targeting yep um you know i
(29:46):
think you know how i feel i hate i hate
the whole targeting thing i think that for me to
throw a targeting you'd have to um have a an
egregious clear sign of intent because um I'll just summarize
it like this. If you knew you gave every player
on the field a little potion. We talked about the
(30:07):
invisible juice before. Now we're going to have juice that, that,
that removes any part in the brain that would have
an intent to hit an opponent in the helmet.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I got to really visit your apothecary. Yeah. Oh, Hey, listen,
I got the goods, man. Just come see me.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
We got Bob Marley playing and we're handing out the
good stuff, but, but so now we know just as
a thought experiment, every player on the field has been removed.
We know for a fact that every player has, has
had any intent to hit another player in the helmet
removed from his intent. You're still going to watch the
(30:42):
game and you're going to see a lot of helmet-to-helmet
contact because you're going to say, well, don't hit with
the head, hit with the shoulder. Well, it's a funny
thing about the head and the proximity to the shoulder.
They seem to be very close to one another. So
every time, so when you're trying to react to contact,
you know, the moving target of a ball carrier and
you go and okay, Hey, my intense to hit with
(31:04):
the shoulder, my intense is the shoulder and not.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
To hit his head.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
But then the, the, the ball carrier moves. And then
now all of a sudden you go head on head. And, and,
and then everybody's going, wait a minute. I thought you
took the potion. He's like, I did take the potion.
I didn't intend to hit him in the head.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
But neurologically, I can't freaking react that fast to a
moving target. So I think the whole thing's absurd, and
the Huskies got stung on that one.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah. I thought for sure he was going to get
hit with the penalty when I saw it in real time.
And then they threw the flag. I'm like, yep. And
then the explanation was given by the Gene Steratore. I
don't know what the guy's name was. We know what
you mean. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Okay.
Might get away with this thing. So I don't think
(31:50):
anybody can complain that you didn't necessarily get away with
that under the rules because it was close. But I'm
with you. I was kind of hoping that the official
would get talked out of that.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, you know, Chuck, I think I'm going to have
to go to school on this because I thought that
there was a middle ground where you'd say it's a
penalty but not an ejection. Like if you hit forcible
contact to the head and neck area, it doesn't matter
whether it's with your shoulder, your forearm, or whatever. And
so clearly, as the rules are written, we can all
(32:29):
agree that the Cougar quarterback got bobbleheaded his head. He
definitely took a significant blow to his head. Like, like
no Huskies should deny that. Now the question of whether
it's the crown, which is the, is the part that, that, uh,
triggers the ejection. I think there's a lot of question
as to whether the crown did. I don't, I don't,
(32:49):
I don't see crown intent at all. So I was
thinking based on what I thought the rules were, it's
going to, the 15 yards is going to stand and,
But the ejection is not because it's not crown. But
then we got the guys, you said the stare tours
coming on saying if they, if they turn down the ejection,
they're going to turn down the 15 yard. And I'm
sitting there going, oh my God, I'm a, I'm an
(33:10):
analyst on the radio show. And I don't even know
the fricking rule.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Well, they did change something about it. You now don't
get suspended for the next game. So that's the thing
that they changed. So you can still get thrown out
of the game for targeting. But the first offense does
not carry over into the next game. What about the
last play of the game, then? You're a little frisky.
You're a little salty about losing. Maybe, maybe, if you
(33:34):
want to take advantage of it. But if you get like–
I think then it accumulates, like two offenses, three offenses,
and then it gets worse. Yeah. All right. What's the–
what do I always hear? Clean that up? Yeah, clean up. Yeah,
get the bleach out. There's a lot to clean up.
All right, one more segment with you here today. An
hour of Monday Morning Quarterback Apple Cup edition with our
(33:57):
QB1 on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM. Oh, Monday Morning Quarterback.
You're getting two of them this week. You're getting one
today on the Apple Cup. You're getting another one Thursday
when we recap the Seahawks opener. on Wednesday. And of course,
(34:17):
the star Monday morning quarterback is our quarterback, Hugh Millen.
One more segment here today to put a bow on
this 24-10 win for the Huskies over the Cougs yesterday
in the 118th playing of the Apple Cup. And I
think that we should spend our final segment talking about
the defense a little bit. It did seem smothering. It
(34:38):
seems stifling. I don't know how much of that has
to do with the Cougs' offense, but certainly they were
beehiving it yesterday. And I know who stood out to me,
and that was the freshman, Derek Coleman-Bruce, who looks like
a grown man out there. Ramzak had his one misstep
there on the sidelines, but I thought he was prominent.
(35:01):
An interception from Jones. I mean, the freshman, to me,
stood out on defense yesterday, Hugh.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah, they sure did, and we'll talk about Ryan Walters
hopefully here as well, but let's talk the personnel there.
Derek Coleman, Bruce, they kind of play an NFL front
for the most part where they played a lot of
what's called over front where they slid everybody to the
strong side, and Derek Coleman, Bruce, is the three technique,
(35:29):
so he's in the shade between the guard and the tackle.
They're not always asking him to get up the field,
having him hold his gap. man, that guy has star
written all over it. He's got NFL stamped all over
his body. I mean, I'm sitting there, is this guy
some kind of J.J.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Watt? You know, T.J.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Watt's more of the outside linebacker, but if you remember, J.J.
Watt would play more inside. I mean, beautiful frame on him,
the strength, you know, the hold down. So I just, man,
the sky's the limit with him. And Just, again, they're
asking him to play with power from that scheme as
(36:10):
opposed to always trying to penetrate, and he has the
frame to do that. But there's also some– I'm going
to be interested to assess his twitchiness moving forward. But
then Ramzak Fruin, he played mostly on the left side
as an end. There's probably– a greater gap on his
(36:30):
upside from where he is now to.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Where he'll, he will be.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Um, I mean, if Derek Coleman, Bruce can have a,
a huge gap, then that guy's going to be a
first round draft pick, but, but, uh, Ramjack through and,
you know, he, he's long and athletic. Um, you know,
he got juked out in space, so I don't want
to say he's some kind of Eman worry as an athlete,
but he's long and, and, you know, he's a young
(36:55):
guy and, I understand why they're starting him. Really encouraging
to have your... You're playing essentially a 40 front, and
half your defensive line there, at least as they were
constituted at starting, are true freshmen.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Man, crazy. Very crazy. You did mention Walter's good start
for him, and there are big expectations for him in
this defense. A few notes there.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I know we're pinched on the segment, but after the
first drive where the Cougars went down, missed a field goal,
you know, very first play of the next drive, they
line up in a bare front. They had been getting
beat in the running game. So the bare front is
where they have, it's also called the double Eagle. You
got the center cover, both guards, you got a five
man defensive line instead of a four man defensive line. So,
(37:46):
you know, that stopped the run right from the beginning.
Their zone blitzes on back to back plays. They went, they, they,
they're bringing five, which obviously means they're playing zone with six.
They go three deep, three under on one, and then
the very next play, they come back, they go zone blitz.
Bring it from another angle, it's still just a five-man rush,
but they're playing a two-deep, what's called a palms coverage,
(38:10):
where the corners are going to activate to the flat
or they're going to drop deep. And so it's an
entirely different structure from the quarterback's perspective. And I noticed
the Wazoo quarterback was going straight to the iPad to
study that. The delay blitzes with the experienced linebackers where
they get up, they mug up at the line scrimmage.
(38:30):
act like they're backing out and dropping into coverage and
then delay blitzing. That tripped up the Cougars.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
You had.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
They play Tampa 2, where they just lined up and
showed you Tampa 2.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
That's a 5-under and sometimes 6-under because there was times
in a critical part in the fourth quarter where Ryan
Walters just rushed three, and he had a drop in
eight guys, and he was able to cloud, meaning the
corners in the flat. And that's exactly where the Cougars
wanted to go on third and three was to the flat,
and the corner could jump that. That caused a punt situation.
(39:05):
So that's really being one step ahead of the playmakers
play caller for the Cougars but as I mentioned the
Tampa two that's too deep with a with generally a
middle linebacker in the middle but the the wrinkle that
the Huskies showed is that they had Alex McLaughlin just
kind of standing in the middle and yet they played
the uh the two around it with the safeties around
(39:26):
him and then the corners coming up into the flat
and so now that defense always taketh, defense giveth. So
that's taken away the sidelines, and it's taken away the
deep stuff down the middle. But the shallow stuff in
the middle, you're vulnerable. But because the Huskies are so
good at linebacker, And in that defense, the linebackers have
(39:48):
to cover more ground. They're experienced. They're fast. They're good tacklers.
And so they could play that coverage because their linebackers
are so deep and talented and experienced that they react
to what they see. They're one step ahead. They get
to where the ball is, and they make the sure tackle.
So that's a good coverage to play with your personnel.
So I think there's a lot of good things from
(40:09):
a scheme standpoint, what he was dialing up. Ryan Walters,
you know, yeah, the fourth quarter touchdown. I'm sure he's
upset about that early in the fourth quarter. And, you know,
there's a couple missed field goals. Maybe there's a few
more points that Cougars would have added. But by and large,
Ryan Walters, given the youth that he has and the secondary,
(40:29):
I didn't even get to the secondary, they look good
and athletic and well-prepared. So I think a really good
day for Ryan Walters.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Well, we are underway.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
We won't do this for Utah State. So from any
meaningful perspective, how was this any different than Utah state? Well, well,
I mean, if you're taking away nostalgia, if you take
nostalgia out of it, right.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
I made myself clear on, on the apple cup, not to, uh,
you know, denigrate the Cougars.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
If anything, I'm being charitable to the Cougars.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Like, Whoa, dude, you guys, you guys played above your, your, uh, your,
your circumstances for all those decades now, but this is
just asking a little too much.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
All right, man. They were competitive.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
As you said, you know, there are two drives where
they had a chance to go tire, win the game.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yep. Yep. Yep. All right. Uh, well, thank you, sir.
We appreciate great stuff as always. You're building our QB
one with a little, uh, Apple cup Monday morning quarterback
for you, uh, right here on the radio program coming
up next. Um, well, we are two days away from
that Seahawks opener. And today, uh, I mean, usually it's
Wednesday where we start previewing the next opponent. Well, the
(41:45):
game's on Wednesday. So we do it today. Sports Radio
93.3 KJR FM.
And the Apple Cup's already over. I know. Wait, does
that mean that all of football season's over? No, no, no.
Just beginning. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Just beginning.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That was very weird. Yeah. Very odd. Great morning to
you all. Happy Monday. Happy Labor Day. Yes, we are
doing a live radio show all day long here at
Sports Radio 93.3 KJRFM, celebrating the holiday, celebrating labor right
here on Sports Radio 93.3 KJRFM. And we are also
(00:48):
launching our Factor Fiction as well. We've already given out
the first pick. That was at 735 this morning. It'll
be the morning show's slot for Factor Fiction throughout the year,
and that is at 735. Apparently, we already have run
into the you're not getting the bounce back receipts that
you typically get. Again, we don't know why that happens.
(01:11):
If we did, we would have fixed that because we
don't want to deal with the frustration. But I don't
know why. Um, sometimes you don't get the bounce backs.
Today's one of those days, but that does not mean
that we did not get your pick. So we got
your picks. You just didn't get a receipt. Yeah. We
got your picks and we know you're not getting the
(01:32):
bounce back. So you also don't need to text it
and tell us you're not getting a bounce back, but
all is good. All is good. And we've been doing
this long enough and we've had this little snafu long enough, uh,
that we know, uh, that we, uh, we have all
the picks, uh, And your fact or fiction prediction is
part of the record. Yes. All right. We've got a
special Monday morning quarterback session here today. Joining us now
(01:56):
is our QB1 to talk some Apple Cup. He's been
in a couple of these here in the past. It's
Hugh Millen joining us here. on the radio program. Good morning, sir.
Good morning. Great to be with you. Do you always,
every apple cup, just kind of put on your old, uh,
you know, Jersey and just walk around the house in it? Uh,
not at all. Um, you know, I, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
We're going to call this the apple cup because I
think there's a lot of entities that benefit from it.
You know, you paint it on the field and I'm
sure there's money to be had for that. But, but I,
In my own mind, I think if the Apple Cup
isn't dead, it's at least in a coma. And let
(02:38):
me defend that proposition. If you go back to the
history of the Apple Cup, we all know that Washington
State has a lot of– they have elements of their
university that are– are not to the level of Washington.
(02:59):
And so it, it, it's competitively imbalanced through the years, right?
I don't think anybody would dispute that. I would also
credit Washington state for playing above their, their, uh, their
means in many ways. I mean, hell, they got four quarterbacks, uh,
drafted in, in the top three picks of the first round. Uh,
Washington doesn't have any in the top five. So they've
(03:21):
in a lot, in a lot of ways they've outperformed,
but The imbalance now, when you consider that Washington has
five to six times the NIL money, before when the
Apple Cup, yeah, there was an imbalance, but at least
Washington State was saying, hey, our scholarship check is the
(03:42):
same as Washington's. You're playing in the same conference. And
so there was at least something of a fair fight.
And even at that, other than Oklahoma State, there's a
bigger imbalance in the Apple Cup than in any other
traditional rivalry. So now you've got the only school now
(04:03):
where a traditional rivalry... Now, there's been others that I'm
not going to get into the history of college football.
There's others that have dropped down a conference, but then
now have climbed back up to the same conference. To
my knowledge... Tell me if I'm wrong. This is the
only traditional rivalry where one team is in a power
four school and the other team is in a group
(04:25):
of five. And so I don't know. I just look
at the Pac-12. They call it the Pac-12, but you
could call a Beagle a Rottweiler. That doesn't make it so.
It's not the Pac-12. It's Washington State and Oregon State. which,
(04:46):
by the way, the Pac-8 came into existence in 1968
and then dissolved in 2023. The team, the losingest team
in the history of the conference is Oregon State at 380.
The second losingest team is Washington State at 450 win percentage.
So you take the two losingest schools in the history
of the Pac-12, combine them with a bunch of Mountain
(05:06):
West teams, and then throw in Texas State, who was
in the Sun Belt, who used to be called, they
were a directional school. They were Southwest Texas. And so
now you're going to call that the Pac-12 and somehow
tell me this is the Apple Cup? Look, to me,
in my opinion, this is more like the Apple Stem Cup.
There's a portion of an Apple Seed Cup. And so, look,
(05:31):
I understand it benefits Washington to bark about winning the
Apple Cup, but I think that, you know, in a way,
I understand where Cougars are like, hey, I'm losing interest
in this because it was already– A tough fight before. Right.
Now it's just a level of absurdity and unmatched. So
(05:53):
at any event, I don't think that there's a lot
of pride that Washington should be taking from this. I mean,
you line it up, you play, it's an opponent, you
should win. They are a team from a group of five,
and there's not much more to it to me.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah. And yet at 10, 15 left in the fourth quarter,
it was a three point game. Um, at four 30,
it was a seven point game in the fourth quarter. So, uh,
the game itself, um, I mean, there are a lot
of different angles obviously that we can take, but what's
the first one for you that tells the story of
this game yesterday?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, obviously the defense and we can, we can highlight
the defense. They deserve to be, uh, lauded. Um, You
go back to two years ago, and Washington State was playing.
They had John Mateer, and now you get this kid
from UC Davis. So that just underscores where they are,
the Cougars, offensively. But I think for Washington, a year ago,
(06:53):
Washington went into Pullman, scored 59 points. They were 8
of 9 on third and fourth down conversions. This is
a year ago. Yesterday, they were 4 of 14 in
third and fourth down. At Pullman last year, they scored
touchdowns on their first three drives, then kicked a field goal,
(07:15):
and then scored touchdowns on their last four drives. They
had essentially eight drives, and they scored on all of them,
and they were seven of eight on touchdowns. Now, technically,
they had one drive at the end where they took
a knee, so it was nine drives. Yesterday, the first
nine drives, playing at home, which should be a more
(07:37):
imbalanced roster. And with Kirby Moore in year one, Washington
had nine drives, one touchdown, one field. So I think
that you could say that, I mean, if you're a
Cougar fan, you'd say defensively a huge improvement from a
year ago, which means from a Washington perspective, certainly a letdown.
(08:02):
And yet, As you point out, the fourth quarter was
really impressive. A lot of big-time football, but a lot
of big-time playmaking on the offense and with DeMond Williams. But,
you know, a lot of just, you know, just kind
of stagnant, stuck, you know, just the details. The details, Chuck,
(08:25):
I've been studying this damn tape for hours, including this morning,
and every single play, all of the mistakes, There's detail problems.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Give us an example.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, okay, the touchdown or the last play of the
second quarter, everybody remembers that. That prompts the head coach
to throw his head down.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, fourth and one. This is embarrassing is what Coach
Fish said, not being able to get one yard. Fourth
and goal from the one, went for it, and got stuffed. Okay,
so details.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So they're running inside zone, split zone, which means that
you've got the tight end in what's called the sniffer position.
He lines up right behind the tackle. That is a
common term in football. That's not my term. You could
go to any football coaching convention, high school, college, or pro.
You can use the term sniffer, and you get away
with it. Now you can use your imagination why he's
(09:18):
called the sniffer, but he's going to come across the formation,
and you're going to run the inside zone right. you're
essentially going over right guard. If you're going to do
it from shotgun, where your quarterback's heels are at five yards,
then the running back, if you're going to be at
the goal line, generally the running back is going to
be to the left because going from the left behind
(09:42):
the left guard, going over right guard, it's a straight
line and you could hit it faster and you can
have a straight line. When you line up the running
back to the right, he has to start to the
left and then slow down his momentum. and and then restart,
and then there's a portion. Now, Washington didn't block it well.
(10:06):
The Mike linebacker for Washington State gets unblocked. It's as
if he was wearing an invisible juice or drank invisible juice.
Nobody thought to block the middle linebacker. But if you
line him up, What's that?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Can you get some of that? I'd like to try that.
Wouldn't that be cool? Yeah, it'd be great. It would
create all kinds of, man, you could really creep. Is
that available? Can I grab that at Safeway? Well, you
know what?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Ask the Mike linebacker for Washington State because apparently he
drank it because nobody had a thought to block the
middle linebacker. And yet there's a point where you say
you're getting the double team with the center and the
right guard. And, uh, uh, uh, because you're going inside,
that's the point of attack inside the right guard. And
(10:54):
so there's a point there where you say, even though you,
you don't block the Mike linebacker, you get with a
big back that they had there, um, that you're gonna,
you're gonna plow in and get the touchdown, but you're, um, with, uh,
Jaden Lamar, um, But you're not going to get it
when you line up. A, when you go shotgun instead
(11:15):
of under center because that's going to slow things down already.
But then when you put the running back on the
right side and make him do counter steps instead of
plunge steps, that's enough. So, you know, maybe the coach
was throwing his headset because he realized he drew.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Up a play with poor detail. Hmm. I mean, we
can be here all night. Well, there was another fourth
and one play later, and they were 0-2 on fourth
down in the game, and it really blew up. Williams
had nowhere to throw, no time to throw. They decided
(11:55):
to try to throw the ball, maybe roll him out,
and it just looked like an absolute mess. What went
wrong on that play?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, you're going sprint left, and you get into a
bunch formation, and so you're trying to get some rubs
where you've got the tight end is the innermost of
three guys in a bunch.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
You generally have a point guy.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It looks like a triangle, and Washington had that. And
so they get the nice rub. The tight end's open, but– Apparently,
and they showed it from multiple angles, I have no
hesitation to offer this. DeMond just didn't like the vision.
(12:35):
The end was up the field, and if you just
kind of stop and you say, okay, what's he seen
from his level? He didn't like the picture because the
guy's up in his face. I still think that he
had enough depth. I know this, the NFL would look
at that and say, dude, throw the freaking ball. The
tight ends open the flat. Like if they're scouting them,
(12:57):
there's nobody's going to give him a break on that.
And so he just missed, you know, that was a
well-designed play. Got the tight end open.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I understand you're not six foot five, but you still
have to throw that ball. And so he ends up
turning down the tight end in the flat and And
then there's a corner out that was developing down the field.
He holds up, gets his arm hit, and it's just
a complete mess. But there was enough there that the
(13:27):
quarterback needs to execute and you get the first down.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So in general, the offense did not get going until
the fourth quarter. Why?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Well, I don't think that they had any real dynamic
running game. I mean, they They did mostly their zone.
They tried a lot of inside zone and outside zone.
They couldn't really get to the perimeter, couldn't really gas
anything from the inside. Their best runs were on what's
called gap scheme and counter, particularly to the left side.
(14:01):
They had a nice counter to the left down in
the red zone going to the goal line, but you
didn't really get a lot of explosive plays. The running
backs averaged under four yards per attempt. Wasn't it 3.6?
I know it was under four. Um, and so, so
you can kind of start there. I think that, um,
you know, demand for through three quarters was very inconsistent.
(14:28):
I mean, he, you know, on an RPO, um, pass
early on, which is, you know, you're going to call
inside zone, but if you, if you got a guy
in the flat, uh, which he had, you don't throw
it to him, but he dirts the ball. Um, you know,
he had, he had play action passes where, He had,
you know, just basic, simple, just double deep curls. You know,
(14:50):
it's a stop route, so you don't have to be
dynamically accurate. And, you know, he turns down a completion there,
you know, because, you know, he's conservative. He gets the
check down for, you know, four or five yard gain,
but that's not why Jed Fisk called that play.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
He wants a shot. He wants to go get, you know, 16,
18 yards down the field. The.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
The whole sequence in the second or going towards the
lake with the, you know, they got them to, what,
third and 33? They get in delay of games. They
get a holding call and then another holding call. And
yet they dial up. They move the pocket and they
dial up. The Cougars bust a coverage. And they get
(15:35):
with a little scissors action. They got the corner route,
a post route. coming open for whatever reason, the free
safety comes out of the middle to cover the corner
out in a scissors concept. And the corner had been
turned around. It's wide-ass open on third and 33. I mean,
like there's barely even Cougars in the picture. So that's
(15:59):
a hell of a play for any play caller to
dial up to get somebody that open on third and
33 in the back of the end zone. Hell wasn't
even the back of the end zone implies that it
would have taken a tough, a tough throw. It was
wide open at the front of the end zone, the
middle of the end zone and the back of the
end zone. And so for, for, uh, for, uh, demand
(16:25):
with his experience now and what is expected of him
to miss that was rather alarming. I mean, even the,
the post route that they took a shot, you know,
they were clear. They, they wanted to take the shots.
They go play action in the first half on a
post route. Now, they get the pass interference.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It was nullified because there was offensive holding and defensive
pass interference.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Do you remember that one? Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
The safety comes out of the middle. That's a very
poor ball placement. It's up the field and to the left.
As a quarterback, when you see the safety vacate and
you've got the entire middle of the field and to
the right, you're the, there's a, the defender has to
(17:12):
mirror the receiver. So you, as you look, your post,
your post route is going from your left side. He
goes up the field and they runs towards the post.
As the name implies, the, the defender is going to
match that angle.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So let's think of like a, a railroad track. You
got the receiver on the one track and the corner
on the other. If you throw the ball more to
the middle of the field, the receiver, the defender is
not tracking the ball yet. He's, he's, he's running with
the receiver. And so if you, if you flatten the
(17:46):
ball over more towards the right hash, even though he's
coming from the left side, if you flattened him towards
the right hash, then he flattens it, his angle. And,
and that there's creates a little separation bubble because, because
the corner can't react to that. And so the, So
then you catch it, and there's all that area. You
can kind of throw it to any angle over there.
(18:08):
Make him go get to the ball towards the right
sideline is what I mean by flattening it.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
And he did the opposite.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
He threw it up over the left shoulder as opposed
to bringing him over to the opposite side.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So that's detail. That's poor ball placement. Hold on. All right,
we're losing, but I think we're at the end of
the segment anyway, so we'll reconnect here. Hugh Millen is
with us. It's our Monday morning quarterback session, 24-10 Washington
over Washington State in the 118th playing of the Apple
Cup yesterday, and we've got a lot more to evaluate
(18:47):
with our QB1, so we'll continue on the other side.
It's Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM. Monday morning quarterback here,
special edition, Apple Cup edition. We've got our QB1 with us,
(19:10):
Hugh Millen. The Huskies went over the Cougs 24 to
10 yesterday, but at one point it was 10 to
7 with 10 minutes, 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
And so in our next segment here with our QB1,
let's dive right into that fourth quarter. And The Cougs'
lone successful touchdown scoring drive made things a little bit
(19:33):
uncomfortable there. Hugh, what did they finally get going against
that Huskies defense as you saw it?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Well, that was their best drive on offense. They had
a fourth and four. They converted on a QB sneak,
and then they they did a little naked misdirection like
they're running to the left they got the tight end
in the flat for a first down that he he
hit a hell of a slant route down near the
red zone where he threw it in into a window
(20:04):
and zone just past what's called the hook defender the
inside shallow defender and And then the QB draw was
very well conceived at about the 11-yard line. That should
be tough yards to get, but on first down, they
got aggressive. They dialed up a play where they fake
like they're doing a quick toss to the left. They
got the influence they want. They got the lead blocking
(20:26):
on the counter blocking, and they popped the touchdown from
the 11-yard line. So that put it, as you said,
at 10-7 with 10-15 remaining. The Huskies get the ball,
and You know, from Jed Fish's perspective, you know, there
was an aggression. They moved the pocket. They sprint out.
(20:47):
And they throw an over route where you get a
crossing route. Now, in this case, I'll tell you, if
you're a cougar, you're like, there was a guy closing
from the backside.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
DeMond almost got his arm hit. That could have been
a fumble on the first play of the drive, but
it wasn't. They get the crossing route to Chris Lawson.
He breaks a tackle. He gets 29 yards, and then
they dial up immediately. Again, speaking to the aggression at
that point, they were not going to get conservative. They
(21:20):
go the flea flicker. get a really nice play. Um,
now I think this is one of those cases where
Yogi Roth and, and I know Yogi well, love him
to death. He, he, he gets a lot of, of, uh,
grief for being a little bit positive. And I think he,
he had a little bit of hyperbole in praising, uh,
demand on that play. It was just a cover four,
(21:42):
four deep three under. And, uh, it's a concept, very,
very ubiquitous concept. I call it jungle, uh, which is
a word conjunction of, of, uh, jet and go a
little 12 yard out route.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And he's wide open.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I mean, there's only three guys in a, in a
four under three deep flat and the flat defender didn't
get out there. So even though he's thrown to the
far hash, there wasn't anybody within five yards of him.
So that was a easy throw. Well, you know, well-designed
flea flicker. They, you know, they got the guys flat
footed just enough. So, so they get the run down,
run down, running down to the three yard line. He
(22:19):
was out of bounds and, And then they had a
nice RPO where they fake the run, but they get
a well-designed RPO with the receiver coming across the formation.
And they get the touchdown pass on that on a
design run that DeMond pulled the ball and threw it
(22:39):
to Rasheed Williams, who had caught the flea flicker.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, he earned it. He deserved it. He deserved it.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
And so I think that's the best thing you can
say about the offense was the answer drives. In the
fourth quarter, when Washington State made you, if you were inclined,
to bite your nails, the Cougars did that. And on
both of those drives, Washington came back with aggression, made
(23:06):
big plays, and DeMond.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Had some really terrific plays. Yeah, I mean, I think
it's just, having the athletic ability that he has. I
don't know if there's much, uh, science to break down
on his scramble for 21 yards where he alluded to
play the game. Yeah. He alluded three, uh, Cougs on,
on third and nine. And then, but the 33 yard
pass to Lawson where he was getting mugged, uh, down
(23:30):
the field and still made the catch. So that sequence
of plays capped off by the 11 yard touchdown run. Um,
that was a hell of an answer. You're right. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
And, uh, you know, they had, They tried a couple
of bootlegs, one to the right, one to the left,
and that set up third and four. They get the
false start with the freshman left tackle.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
So it's third and nine, 254 to go.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
The Cougars are going to force a punt here and
get the ball back, and the score is 17-10. They're
going to have the ball with a little over two
and a half minutes, and they had just had in
their prior sequence, as we had said, they got their
best series. earlier in the fourth quarter. What I can
tell you on that play of the game, the Cougars
(24:19):
are playing man-to-man, but they only rushed three. You can
rush up to five if you don't want to account
for the quarterback and you don't want to have a
low hole player. But because the Cougars only rushed three,
they had a couple of robbers in the area that
(24:40):
And I would just say there's a point there where
when DeMond goes to his left, I didn't look up
the roster, but number one, number 15, and number six.
If you can for me, Chuck, hold up three fingers
with your middle finger being In the middle.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I can't hold up the middle finger. We're on YouTube
right now. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Well, if you have accessories, you can accessorize it with
the index finger on one side and the ring finger
on the other.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Okay. Are we safe that way? I got it. Yeah,
I got it.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So Washington State was in that situation. And now I
want you to put your other hand, put your index
finger kind of right in the middle of those three.
If you're just going to say basic fundamental football, you
would say if we got three guys, you would talk
to your index finger and your ring finger and you'd
say never let the quarterback go around you, like force
(25:32):
it in towards the middle. And if the one in
a hundred chance we don't make the tackle, it's got
to be between your ring finger and your middle finger.
and your middle finger and your index finger. It's got
to be between them, never to the outside of the
outside guy or to the inside of the inside guy,
(25:52):
getting back to football.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Let me repeat that again. Three guys converging on the quarterback,
and whoever number six is, For Washington State, I don't
know if their numbers are crumpled up. It's possible it
was eight, but I think it was number six. But
the inside guy, you cannot let the quarterback run to
your inside. The outside guy, you cannot let the quarterback
get to your outside up the sideline. You should feed
(26:16):
it into the middle, have the other two guys help
you tackle, and if the one and a– I said
one and a hundred. And the one and a thousand
he gets through, I guess with DeMond it's going to
be more than– but it's got to be in the
middle of those. And so for them to lose, the
term is lose leverage, uh, two guys to lose leverage.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Um, you know, it's just a astonishing breakdown of fundamentals,
but then you'd say, well, demands the kind of guy
that can kind of break rules.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Uh, and, and he did that.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
And you, as you said, then he hit the go
route with the guy in his face. That's a hell
of a play. That's a double plus for the quarterback. Um,
and then the run was a pin and pull design,
nice design, the center and the tackle are pulling out and,
And so you got great blocking at the point of
attack and you may, you know, uh, real good blocking
out on the perimeter, make running back makes the guy miss.
It's kind of how you draw it up, uh, just about.
(27:07):
And so, uh, so Washington closed strong, um, with some
really good football and some aggressive play calling and what
have you, and save some of their best stuff for those,
those two answer drives. That's the best thing I can
say about the offense is, is not just good play
in the fourth quarter, but. responding in the answer drive
after Washington State had scored in each of those occasions.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Well, that's the best thing they can say about them.
Probably the worst thing that you could say about the
Huskies yesterday were all the penalties. 130 yards worth of
penalties and really a lot of stupid ones in that bunch, Hugh.
A lot of stupid ones.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Well, I think to have two delay game penalties, particularly
when you start the third quarter with a delay game, Benny,
after you'd already probably peeled some paint off the locker.
To start the third quarter with a delay game is
just unforgivable. The holding call on a really nice jailbreak screen,
(28:06):
but that's holding. I think you're probably focused on the
defense on some of those lapses. You get the young freshmen.
I guess all freshmen are young, right? But Ramzak Fruin.
He gets on third and I think third and 11.
He ends up bumping the quarterback. This was in the
(28:30):
third quarter, right, on a drive. Now, he had been
juked out a couple plays before. Do you remember that
one on the bootleg?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
And so now he– that was on the defensive left side.
Now he's on the defensive right side. They go third down.
They don't allow him to rush the quarterback. They have
him drop off in a fire zone, a zone blitz.
And so he's on the right side of the field,
and give him credit, he chases all the way over
to the left sideline. He bumps into the quarterback, and
(29:04):
maybe it was the frustration, but it was great hustle.
He'll learn from that. Now you get a third and 19.
You force the quarterback to scramble. You gang tackle the
quarterback with three, four guys, and your middle linebacker, what
is he, senior middle linebacker?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, senior middle linebacker.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
He wants to get up and stand over the quarterback
on third and 19. So now this is the second,
third down, you you give up um and uh uh
oh the that you had the uh on a third
down the obviously the targeting yep um you know i
(29:46):
think you know how i feel i hate i hate
the whole targeting thing i think that for me to
throw a targeting you'd have to um have a an
egregious clear sign of intent because um I'll just summarize
it like this. If you knew you gave every player
on the field a little potion. We talked about the
(30:07):
invisible juice before. Now we're going to have juice that, that,
that removes any part in the brain that would have
an intent to hit an opponent in the helmet.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I got to really visit your apothecary. Yeah. Oh, Hey, listen,
I got the goods, man. Just come see me.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
We got Bob Marley playing and we're handing out the
good stuff, but, but so now we know just as
a thought experiment, every player on the field has been removed.
We know for a fact that every player has, has
had any intent to hit another player in the helmet
removed from his intent. You're still going to watch the
(30:42):
game and you're going to see a lot of helmet-to-helmet
contact because you're going to say, well, don't hit with
the head, hit with the shoulder. Well, it's a funny
thing about the head and the proximity to the shoulder.
They seem to be very close to one another. So
every time, so when you're trying to react to contact,
you know, the moving target of a ball carrier and
you go and okay, Hey, my intense to hit with
(31:04):
the shoulder, my intense is the shoulder and not.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
To hit his head.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
But then the, the, the ball carrier moves. And then
now all of a sudden you go head on head. And, and,
and then everybody's going, wait a minute. I thought you
took the potion. He's like, I did take the potion.
I didn't intend to hit him in the head.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
But neurologically, I can't freaking react that fast to a
moving target. So I think the whole thing's absurd, and
the Huskies got stung on that one.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah. I thought for sure he was going to get
hit with the penalty when I saw it in real time.
And then they threw the flag. I'm like, yep. And
then the explanation was given by the Gene Steratore. I
don't know what the guy's name was. We know what
you mean. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Okay.
Might get away with this thing. So I don't think
(31:50):
anybody can complain that you didn't necessarily get away with
that under the rules because it was close. But I'm
with you. I was kind of hoping that the official
would get talked out of that.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, you know, Chuck, I think I'm going to have
to go to school on this because I thought that
there was a middle ground where you'd say it's a
penalty but not an ejection. Like if you hit forcible
contact to the head and neck area, it doesn't matter
whether it's with your shoulder, your forearm, or whatever. And
so clearly, as the rules are written, we can all
(32:29):
agree that the Cougar quarterback got bobbleheaded his head. He
definitely took a significant blow to his head. Like, like
no Huskies should deny that. Now the question of whether
it's the crown, which is the, is the part that, that, uh,
triggers the ejection. I think there's a lot of question
as to whether the crown did. I don't, I don't,
(32:49):
I don't see crown intent at all. So I was
thinking based on what I thought the rules were, it's
going to, the 15 yards is going to stand and,
But the ejection is not because it's not crown. But
then we got the guys, you said the stare tours
coming on saying if they, if they turn down the ejection,
they're going to turn down the 15 yard. And I'm
sitting there going, oh my God, I'm a, I'm an
(33:10):
analyst on the radio show. And I don't even know
the fricking rule.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Well, they did change something about it. You now don't
get suspended for the next game. So that's the thing
that they changed. So you can still get thrown out
of the game for targeting. But the first offense does
not carry over into the next game. What about the
last play of the game, then? You're a little frisky.
You're a little salty about losing. Maybe, maybe, if you
(33:34):
want to take advantage of it. But if you get like–
I think then it accumulates, like two offenses, three offenses,
and then it gets worse. Yeah. All right. What's the–
what do I always hear? Clean that up? Yeah, clean up. Yeah,
get the bleach out. There's a lot to clean up.
All right, one more segment with you here today. An
hour of Monday Morning Quarterback Apple Cup edition with our
(33:57):
QB1 on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM. Oh, Monday Morning Quarterback.
You're getting two of them this week. You're getting one
today on the Apple Cup. You're getting another one Thursday
when we recap the Seahawks opener. on Wednesday. And of course,
(34:17):
the star Monday morning quarterback is our quarterback, Hugh Millen.
One more segment here today to put a bow on
this 24-10 win for the Huskies over the Cougs yesterday
in the 118th playing of the Apple Cup. And I
think that we should spend our final segment talking about
the defense a little bit. It did seem smothering. It
(34:38):
seems stifling. I don't know how much of that has
to do with the Cougs' offense, but certainly they were
beehiving it yesterday. And I know who stood out to me,
and that was the freshman, Derek Coleman-Bruce, who looks like
a grown man out there. Ramzak had his one misstep
there on the sidelines, but I thought he was prominent.
(35:01):
An interception from Jones. I mean, the freshman, to me,
stood out on defense yesterday, Hugh.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah, they sure did, and we'll talk about Ryan Walters
hopefully here as well, but let's talk the personnel there.
Derek Coleman, Bruce, they kind of play an NFL front
for the most part where they played a lot of
what's called over front where they slid everybody to the
strong side, and Derek Coleman, Bruce, is the three technique,
(35:29):
so he's in the shade between the guard and the tackle.
They're not always asking him to get up the field,
having him hold his gap. man, that guy has star
written all over it. He's got NFL stamped all over
his body. I mean, I'm sitting there, is this guy
some kind of J.J.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Watt? You know, T.J.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Watt's more of the outside linebacker, but if you remember, J.J.
Watt would play more inside. I mean, beautiful frame on him,
the strength, you know, the hold down. So I just, man,
the sky's the limit with him. And Just, again, they're
asking him to play with power from that scheme as
(36:10):
opposed to always trying to penetrate, and he has the
frame to do that. But there's also some– I'm going
to be interested to assess his twitchiness moving forward. But
then Ramzak Fruin, he played mostly on the left side
as an end. There's probably– a greater gap on his
(36:30):
upside from where he is now to.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Where he'll, he will be.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Um, I mean, if Derek Coleman, Bruce can have a,
a huge gap, then that guy's going to be a
first round draft pick, but, but, uh, Ramjack through and,
you know, he, he's long and athletic. Um, you know,
he got juked out in space, so I don't want
to say he's some kind of Eman worry as an athlete,
but he's long and, and, you know, he's a young
(36:55):
guy and, I understand why they're starting him. Really encouraging
to have your... You're playing essentially a 40 front, and
half your defensive line there, at least as they were
constituted at starting, are true freshmen.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Man, crazy. Very crazy. You did mention Walter's good start
for him, and there are big expectations for him in
this defense. A few notes there.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I know we're pinched on the segment, but after the
first drive where the Cougars went down, missed a field goal,
you know, very first play of the next drive, they
line up in a bare front. They had been getting
beat in the running game. So the bare front is
where they have, it's also called the double Eagle. You
got the center cover, both guards, you got a five
man defensive line instead of a four man defensive line. So,
(37:46):
you know, that stopped the run right from the beginning.
Their zone blitzes on back to back plays. They went, they, they,
they're bringing five, which obviously means they're playing zone with six.
They go three deep, three under on one, and then
the very next play, they come back, they go zone blitz.
Bring it from another angle, it's still just a five-man rush,
but they're playing a two-deep, what's called a palms coverage,
(38:10):
where the corners are going to activate to the flat
or they're going to drop deep. And so it's an
entirely different structure from the quarterback's perspective. And I noticed
the Wazoo quarterback was going straight to the iPad to
study that. The delay blitzes with the experienced linebackers where
they get up, they mug up at the line scrimmage.
(38:30):
act like they're backing out and dropping into coverage and
then delay blitzing. That tripped up the Cougars.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
You had.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
They play Tampa 2, where they just lined up and
showed you Tampa 2.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
That's a 5-under and sometimes 6-under because there was times
in a critical part in the fourth quarter where Ryan
Walters just rushed three, and he had a drop in
eight guys, and he was able to cloud, meaning the
corners in the flat. And that's exactly where the Cougars
wanted to go on third and three was to the flat,
and the corner could jump that. That caused a punt situation.
(39:05):
So that's really being one step ahead of the playmakers
play caller for the Cougars but as I mentioned the
Tampa two that's too deep with a with generally a
middle linebacker in the middle but the the wrinkle that
the Huskies showed is that they had Alex McLaughlin just
kind of standing in the middle and yet they played
the uh the two around it with the safeties around
(39:26):
him and then the corners coming up into the flat
and so now that defense always taketh, defense giveth. So
that's taken away the sidelines, and it's taken away the
deep stuff down the middle. But the shallow stuff in
the middle, you're vulnerable. But because the Huskies are so
good at linebacker, And in that defense, the linebackers have
(39:48):
to cover more ground. They're experienced. They're fast. They're good tacklers.
And so they could play that coverage because their linebackers
are so deep and talented and experienced that they react
to what they see. They're one step ahead. They get
to where the ball is, and they make the sure tackle.
So that's a good coverage to play with your personnel.
So I think there's a lot of good things from
(40:09):
a scheme standpoint, what he was dialing up. Ryan Walters,
you know, yeah, the fourth quarter touchdown. I'm sure he's
upset about that early in the fourth quarter. And, you know,
there's a couple missed field goals. Maybe there's a few
more points that Cougars would have added. But by and large,
Ryan Walters, given the youth that he has and the secondary,
(40:29):
I didn't even get to the secondary, they look good
and athletic and well-prepared. So I think a really good
day for Ryan Walters.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Well, we are underway.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
We won't do this for Utah State. So from any
meaningful perspective, how was this any different than Utah state? Well, well,
I mean, if you're taking away nostalgia, if you take
nostalgia out of it, right.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
I made myself clear on, on the apple cup, not to, uh,
you know, denigrate the Cougars.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
If anything, I'm being charitable to the Cougars.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Like, Whoa, dude, you guys, you guys played above your, your, uh, your,
your circumstances for all those decades now, but this is
just asking a little too much.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
All right, man. They were competitive.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
As you said, you know, there are two drives where
they had a chance to go tire, win the game.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yep. Yep. Yep. All right. Uh, well, thank you, sir.
We appreciate great stuff as always. You're building our QB
one with a little, uh, Apple cup Monday morning quarterback
for you, uh, right here on the radio program coming
up next. Um, well, we are two days away from
that Seahawks opener. And today, uh, I mean, usually it's
Wednesday where we start previewing the next opponent. Well, the
(41:45):
game's on Wednesday. So we do it today. Sports Radio
93.3 KJR FM.
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Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.