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Message: [QUOTE="Jerseynole8, post: 1867224, member: 5898"] This was an extremely bad match-up for Rutgers. Washington is much better than I thought they would be. I'm not saying they are going to be 2004 USC or even win the Pac 12 but they are legit. They had excellent speed at WR (as most Pac 12 teams do) and their QB Browning was dropping dimes. The WR who torched them for 3 TD's, John Ross, sat all last year with meniscus tears. They say he runs a 4.25 40 and while I don't buy that the kid runs a [U]legitimate[/U] sub 4.4 and more importantly plays that fast on the field. RU also gave up a punt and kickoff return for TD's which is alarming but correctable. Kicking the FGs late in the game was to get the freshman walk-on placekicker game reps which he sorely needs. At least he made both. UW's DL and front seven as a whole really is as good as advertised and I think they will be able to compete with Stanford in the trenches. The only positive I saw from RU was their run defense. For a defense that gave up 401 yards on the ground against a 3-9 Maryland team in last year's finale (and another 250 in the air), they held an explosive back in Myles Gaskin in check as UW as a team only rushed for 104 yards and that was with RU trotting out 3 new starting linebackers, all of whom played better than I expected. The 3 deep passing plays they hit for scores, RU was not out of position...the receivers just beat the DB's and Browning threw perfect balls. Their tackling and alignment/fits are much much improved over one off season without playing anyone but themselves. The offense sucks mainly because of the QB situation and while I'm happy RU is getting away from the pro-style offense (finally) this is going to take a couple of years to get going. QB Tylin Oden is supposedly the real deal (he had many good P5 offers) but he's a toothpick and may need a year of S&C before he hits the field. I'm glad you guys are happy with Babers...I think he was the right fit for you in your conference and with the Dome and Ash is the right fit for us. Rutgers D the past 3 years was worse statistically then even during the Shea Era. I don't know how that's even possible as I witnessed the massacres first hand between 1997 and 1999 but that's why we need Ash to come in and rebuild the culture and the defense, even if he's not the long term solution as head coach. This will be a much bigger tear down and rebuild than I initially thought but I still see 4 wins this year and as long as the team gets better as the year goes on that's fine. But one final note...I don't think he's the "meat head" you make him out to be. A meathead coach would have kept our Schiano/Flood early 1990's offensive football philosophy...pro style run, run, pass, punt and play defense. Going to a read option spread (albeit different than the one you guys run) shows Ash knows he needs to bring modern college offensive football to the Banks and as someone who has watched pathetic offense here for 20 years (save for 2006) I'm happy he made that call. Good luck vs. Ville. [/QUOTE]

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