The Monkey Shack

Everyone involved with the celebration penalty against Jake Locker (the official that made the call, the crew chief, the head of officials in the Pac-10, and whoever that was on ESPN College GameDay Final) in the Washington – BYU game on Saturday just needs to admit the obvious:

“It was stupid to make that celebration call against Jake Locker.”

I don’t care what the rule book says about “throwing the ball high in the air,” only a fool would make that celebration call against Jake Locker in that situation. Our Creator gave us a brain, and it is everyone’s responsibility to use their brain in an appropriate manner, and that celebration call against Jake Locker was a totally inappropriate application of the celebration rule. No supervisor of officials is going to admit the truth that it was asinine to throw that celebration flag, because it would take real guts to just stand up and be honest.

This was a game I have looked forward to for two years. I made a t-shirt that said "Born a Husky, Graduated a Cougar." Torn between my two favorite teams, I just wanted a close game, a great game decided at the end. And I got a great game, but regardless of whether or not UW would have missed a normal PAT or not, it's a shame that it had to end like that. The conversation should have been about two teams going back and forth and looking to head into overtime. Instead, I am posting about a referee losing his yellow hankie in the endzone.

But why should we be surprised? The entire game of college football starts and ends with a fraud that the BCS crowns a legitimate national champion, and officials that defend that celebration flag against Locker, are just part and parcel of what is becoming a game that is more and more out of the hands of the players and coaches on the field of play. We all know what the celebration penalty is supposed to be used against, and what Jake Locker did should not have been anywhere close to drawing a penalty flag.

Washington came out playing with a lot of passion and fire against a very good BYU team, and Willingham must be given credit for having his team ready to play. Probably the most distressing thing for the Huskies is that it doesn’t look like Jake Locker has developed very much with his passing and decision-making skills in offseason. Jake Locker is a freaking warrior, but he has to learn to stand in a pocket and find open receivers and not always take off running when he starts to feel some pressure. Locker will never be able to sustain the number of hits he is getting if they keep up at this rate, and Washington would be in deep trouble if they didn’t have Locker’s play-making and leadership skills on the field in each game.

With all that being said, the University of Washington football team should always be able to make a 35 yard extra point or field goal every time when they really need it. There is just no excuse for the Washington PAT/field-goal team to break down as much as it did. Yet that is what happened and it's just another example of the Husky football team executing poorly in a very critical situation. Poor execution is something that has become painfully characteristic of the team in the Willingham era, and an anecdote that has certainly not been lost on Husky fans.

With Oklahoma coming to town, Jake Locker and Washington are going to have to find a way to get the ball into other playmakers, or the Sooners will hit Locker so many times he won’t know what city he is in come next Saturday night. Can Washington beat Oklahoma next Saturday? If the Sooners show up and play their game, the Huskies cannot beat OU. A 0-3 start at Washington, even with an incredibly tough schedule, is just not going to make things very pleasant for Willingham and the Huskies on the shores of Lake Washington.