THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016
Almost three years to the day of his move from Boise State to Washington, football coach Chris Petersen has the Huskies just one win from the national title game.
It’s going to be a challenge to get to the title game, but it wasn’t something that you thought was going to happen that soon when he got hired.
PETERSEN HAD his share of monster wins at Boise State, in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma and TCU to name a few, but after eight seasons at the helm, opted to take on the challenge of bringing Washington back to relevance in not only the Pac-12 Conference, but in the rest of college football.
On Sunday, after much speculation by the rest of the national media, the Huskies earned one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff, and will face Alabama on Dec. 31 in the first national semifinal. Clemson, last year’s runner-up and Ohio State, will play in the other semifinal later that day.
Some might not give Washington much of a chance to actually win the game with Alabama, but keep this in mind.
Did anyone give Boise State much of a shot against Oklahoma when they played in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl?
Probably not outside of this state.
They used all kinds of trick plays, including the statue of liberty, to shock the country that night.
To beat a team like Alabama — if you can — it might take a few of those tricks once again to get the job done.
Besides, it’s not like they have much to lose anyway, right?
A LITTLE closer to home, the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy boys basketball team returns two starters — Eli Putren and Jacob Rutherford — in coach Steven Zamora’s first year as varsity coach.
Coeur d’Alene Charter, which played as a junior varsity program in 2014-15 and finished 3-18 in 2015-16, also makes the move from the 2A Central Idaho League to the 3A Intermountain League this year.
“The level of competition is going to increase for sure,” said Zamora, who coached the Panthers’ JV team last year. “I think our kids will be ready eventually. Every day at practice I’m seeing improvement. We’ll be able to compete at the 3A level later in the year I think. This year, it’s a rebuilding year, and we’ll be able to compete at districts.”
Eight others have experience at the varsity level.
“The kids are very coachable,” Zamora said. “It’s going to be tough for us at first, but we should be able to compete with everyone in the conference. The kids are getting better each day in practice and that’s good to see.”
Zamora added that early on, the team’s defense will be its strength.
“Defensively, I think we should be pretty good,” Zamora said. “They’re a smart, coachable team. They’re good at moving the ball around on offense, and getting better at moving without the ball. We’ve got a quick team. We’ll improve from each game. We’re starting from scratch this year, but we’re seeing improvement in the kids every day.”
Read about all the area high school and North Idaho College basketball and wrestling teams in The Press’ winter sports special section in Thursday’s newspaper.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.