Ask Yourself, Huskies: "Who's in Trouble Here?"

I've sorely missed Ron Fairly this year, and the Fairly-isms I'd come to know and love. (I once had this idea to compile them all in a book that would've been called Fairly Stupid).

One of my favorites, and I think one that the Huskies ought to keep in mind this week against UCLA, is the immortal "Who's is trouble here?"

Fairly would deploy this rhetorical masterpiece when the M's had the bases loaded. "The PITCHER!" was the answer; Fairly occasionally supplied it himself.

This Saturday night, UCLA is definitely in trouble. To wit:

--The starters at these positions won't play: QB, LB, DT, RG, FB, DE, WR.
--The new starting QB has practiced once this fall and isn't 100% healed from a hamstring injury.
--The new starting DT is a true freshman who just qualified and has had one week of practice ever.
--They suffered a demoralizing blowout last week at Utah.
--Their coach's job, forever tenuous until USC's in the rear-view, may be on the line.

The Fairly dictum, as applied to batting with the bases loaded, was that you should force the pitcher to make a pitch. Don't get yourself out.

Not sure how Ron would apply it to football, but the Bruins' troubling quarterback situation provides Husky DC Kent Baer with an interesting conundrum.

Faced with a backup QB (Patrick Cowan, son of former UW starter Tim) with a hamstring injury, do you sit back and force the guy to beat you, or do you bring pressure and force him to run?

You'd wanna say the latter, but that would open you up to some early scores, and the last thing the Dawgs want to do is allow the Bruins to get any confidence. Some of the Utah players said the Bruins gave up last week, you'd think if you can hold them and get a couple of scores you could get the boo-birds going and end it early.

Then again, with pressure, you could force the QB to throw some errant passes. And to re-purpose another Fairly classic: "You know it's an interception when you throw the ball and nine guys call for it."

You can buy that 1974 Topps Ron Fairly card for 50 cents on CheckOutMyCards.com