Last Thursday, former Seattle P.I. sports columnist and current ESPN.com Pac-10 columnist Ted Miller joined George Schroeder and Justin Myers in ESPN 1320’s studios in Eugene on “The Writer’s Block” to talk Pac-10 football.
Ted was the special guest for the entire hour. So, his interview is presented here in four parts.
Atlanta
1 (21) Sam Baker, ot, Southern California
3 (98) Thomas DeCoud, db, California
5 (138) Robert James, lb, Arizona State
7 (212) Wilrey Fontenot, db, Arizona
Over the course of the 2007 football season, former Oregon linebacker Peter Sirmon was a regular contributor to Duck Sports News. But in addition to being a Duck, Peter was also a Tennessee Titan and Benji Olson’s teammate for seven years.
Even though Peter is making his way to Ellensburg, Washington to assume the duties as Linebackers Coach at Central Washington University, Peter had a few thoughts on the former Husky’s retirement.
Here’s Peter.
Husky fans have probably heard that one of their own recently retired from the Titans after 10 years. I knew about Benji long before I was ever his teammate. His reputation when he was playing at Washington was one of an incredibly strong and nasty player. He kept that reputation in tact while he played for the Titans, as well. Tennessee Titans offensive line coach and Hall of Famer, Mike Munchak was quoted as saying that, “Benji was one of the most consistent players I ever coached.” That is one of the best compliments that you can receive as a player. Every coach likes nothing more that being able to predict a consistent performance week in and week out. Benji was also incredibly consistent when it came to showing up on game day. He played through numerous injuries because he took pride in his game and being a player that you could depend on. All players struggle to know when to give up the game that has been so good to us all, but Benji will do a great job transitioning and more than likely he will continue to make all Huskies proud.
That got me to thinking: how many times has the University of Washington been represented on the cover of Sports Illustrated? The answer? Suprisingly, only two times. But that’s more than Washington State’s zero.
Then I was curious as to how that stack up against the rest of the Pac-10. Not that great. But, as you will see, USC and UCLA are in a league of their own.
This is not an exhaustive list (because of USC and UCLA). And the cover count only represents the instances where a school is the primary focus on the cover. For example, USC’s Todd Marinovich made the cover throwing against Stanford. But Stanford really isn’t the focus (Actually, they’re kind of oblique and out of focus.). So, that doesn’t count. And SI.com’s search feature is OK, but sometimes returns inconsistent results.
Washington State joins Arizona State as the only Pac-10 schools not to have a Sports Illustrated cover. Although, I think there is a WSU player (Cowgill?) on the cover of the 2008 NCAA Tournament Preview edition.
Like Washington State, Arizona State does not have a Sports Illustrated cover to its name. Unlike Washington State, though, I don’t even think they have a player on the cover of the 2008 NCAATournament Preview edition.
We’d like to invite you to join in this year’s College Hoop Fix 2008. It’s back and better than ever.
Just like last year, you’ll have the chance to fill out our brackets online and keep track of how you’re doing against the field after each game is completed.
Also back again this year is the “Cinderella” and “Lock” picks which is what makes Hoop Fix more than just your typical bracket pool.
This year, registration is FREE and the winner will take home a Slingbox!
So don’t delay, register now, and start entering your picks now!
For those of you who participated in Bowl Bash 2007-08 you won’t have to register. Simply log in with the same username (email) and password and click the “Active” link.
Registration and the ability to make picks ends Wednesday, March 19 at 11:59am.
Today, Jeff “The Fish” Aaron caught up with Ryan Appleby and talked to him about the Huskies upcoming game against WSU and the end of the Pac-10 regular season. Here’s what “The Fish” covered with Washington’s Ryan Appleby:
• 3-Point Shooting
• Never beating the Cougs
• Pac-10 Tournament
• And the legend, “Pistol” Pete Maravich
Today, Jeff “The Fish” Aaron caught up with Stanford Cardinal, O’Dea High School State Champ, and son of JJ Johnson, Mitch Johnson. Here’s what “The Fish” covered with Mitch:
• Playing with Lopez twins
• Future in the NBA
• Was Stanford the right choice?
• Playing with Jon Brockman since 8th grade
• Taking it “One Game At A Time”
Ryo Sekiguchi double bageled Bradwin Williams 6-0, 6-0 to highlight singles play as the 27th ranked Washington men’s tennis team rolled to a 6-1 win over 62nd ranked Arkansas at the Nordstrom Tennis Center on Saturday night.
One week after compiling a perfect 3-0 recordat sixth singles in the pressure cooker of the ITA Team Indoors, Husky head coach Matt Anger moved Sekiguchi into the fifth slot in the lineup and he did
not miss a beat, using his relentless baseline game to overwhelm Williams. After making short work of
Williams in the first set, Sekiguchi continued to breeze through the second, winning eight of nine
points against Williams’s serve en route to a 3-0 lead. At that point it appeared as if Williams finally
showed up to play. In the fourth game, he had a chance to go up 15-30 on Sekiguchi’s serve when he hit what looked like a forehand crosscourt winner to the deuce court. Sekiguchi, however, chased down the ball and forced Williams to hit another shot, a volley that stayed up. The Husky ran down that ball as well and flicked a backhand winner past Williams to go up 30-15. Two unforced errors then gave Sekiguchi a 4-0 lead.
Williams, however, would not get bageled without a fight. His best chance to avoid the zero for the
match came in the next game, on his serve. Despite facing double break point at 15-40, he came up with a
pair of winners to even the game at deuce. Unfortunately he committed unforced errors on the next
two points to go down 5-0, and Sekiguchi held serve to finish the shutout. More importantly the win put the Huskies ahead 2-0 in the team match.
The remaining five singles matches also finished in straight sets, with the Huskies victorious in four.
At the fourth position, Derek Drabble beat Christopher Nott 6-2, 6-0 to make it 3-0 Huskies. Patrik Fischer clinched the fourth point and the win for Washington (6-4), with a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Colin Mascall at 2. Andy Kuharszky made it 5-0 Huskies with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Matt Hogan at 3. Husky freshman Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan made his season debut at the top singles spot a successful one with a 6-1, 7-6 (2) win over 95th ranked Blake Strode. Nedunchezhiyan would not win the second set as easily as the first, even when he broke serve to go up 3-2. Strode got the break back and the two would eventually finish the match in a tiebreak. After splitting the first four points, Nedunchezhiyan won five straight points to end the match. Strode gave him four match points with a double fault and he converted the first one, drilling a backhand return winner past the net-rushing Strode.
At 6, Dmitry Lebedev denied the Huskies a 7-0 sweep with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Tobi Obenaus. He broke
Obenaus to finish the first st and then went up a break and 4-1 in the second. The feisty Obenaus got
the break back and eventually tied the set at 4 all, but then Lebedev stepped up his game and won the final two games to give the Razorbacks their only point.
The Huskies won the doubles point easily, winning at 1 as Fischer and Nedunchezhiyan beat
Mascall and Strode 8-4. Obenaus and Martin Kildahl followed with an 8-3 win over Hogan and Lebedev at 3.
The only suspense was whether the Huskies’ Drabble and Kuharszky would get the sweep at the second
position. They did, barely winning 8-7 (6) over Taylor King and Tyler Tarnasky. The Huskies went up a break and 3-0 but then lost five straight games to go down 3-5. Kuharszky held serve to make it 4-5 and a break on King’s serve tied the set at 5 all. With the score tied at 7 and the doubles point already clinched the two sides went to a tiebreak. The Huskies fell behind 3-5 but, as they did in the set, came back. An ace by Drabble, a double fault by Tarnasky, and a forehand return winner by Drabble gave the Huskies match point at 6-5, but Tarnasky kept the match alive with a return winner on Kuharszky’s serve. Tied at 6, a Kuharszky forehand volley winner and an errant volley by Tarnasky finally ended the match.
After playing their last six matches at home the Huskies hit t he road for a pair of matches in
Eugene, Oregon against the host Ducks on Friday, February 29 and 59th ranked Denver on Saturday, March 1. They next play at home on Friday, March 7, when they host 22nd ranked Pepperdine at 3 p.m.
This past Thursday, Sports Illustrated opened the vault on all of their content.
