Go 2 Guy: Kent Baer's firing will bite Dawgs

Shock of shocks, Kent Baer's a goner, dusted Monday by Tyrone Willingham as the comical carnage continues at Washington.

In a more surprising move, the Huskies head coach also disposed of Bob Simmons, special-teams coordinator and tight ends coach.

That makes for three Dawg dismissals in six days, following AD Todd Turner's last Tuesday. Forget Christmas lights -- there's nothing like upheaval at Montlake to make the season bright.

The heck of it is, Huskies fans are rejoicing, too. They are absolutely certain that Baer is the reason why the Dawgs were dreadful on defense -- it must be his fault because he's the defensive coordinator.

Really? Are you sure about that? Is there a chance it had more to do with injuries and a lack of talent than Baer's coaching?

For every reason you think Baer's terrible, I could counter with a reason why he's not. It's all in his bio. And I'd bet he's a better coach now than he was five years ago when he was named a finalist for the Frank Broyles Award, given to the country's top assistant coach.

He's an undeserving fall guy, Paint Dry Ty's scapegoat for a 4-9 season. Just once I'd like to see a head coach who takes the sword and spares his assistants.

If we're blaming people, why has Baer been singled out all season long? What about the guys under him, chiefly J.D. Williams, the defensive backs coach? Wasn't the secondary the worst part of the defense? If heads must roll, how is Williams still standing?

What did you expect this season, an unblemished record and a national championship with seven shutouts? With that schedule? Wasn't this supposed to be a rebuilding year? Wouldn't 6-7 or 5-8 have been acceptable, and 4-9 tolerable?

Dawg fans talk about the supposedly gigantic mess that Rick Neuheisel left and act like it should be cleaned up overnight. Quick-fixer-uppers such as Dennis Erickson had more to work with in Tempe and would have struggled here, too, so it's debatable if a different coach would have made a faster impact.

This might be simplifying it too much, but didn't Washington get closer to becoming a good team this year? Granted, there weren't many games in which they played four quarters, but is that Baer's fault? Isn't Willingham responsible for making halftime adjustments?

If I were a Huskies fan, I imagine I'd be unrealistic, too, because that's what you are as a Huskies fan. Excuse all the questions, but I'm baffled -- have you forgotten the game against Boise State? The Dawgs won that one, and the defense was pretty solid.

What about the Ohio State game? Remember when the Huskies led 7-3 at halftime? Your team did not allow a touchdown in the first half to a team that will play for the national championship next month.

Happily, the Buckeyes stormed back, but isn't this a process? Isn't it possible that your team will benefit from being competitive in most of its games this season, and that the narrow losses might turn into narrow wins next year?

(For the Neuheisel bashers, this was never a problem with your Slick Rick-coached Dawgs -- annoyingly, they seemed to rally in the fourth quarter almost every week.)

And can we talk about the opposition? It's not as if the Huskies faced low-octane offenses. USC, Arizona, Oregon State and ASU ran it up on several teams, and the Cougs were kind of high-powered on occasion -- OK, rare occasion.

Then look at the last two games -- the Dawgs came within a whisker of beating the Cougs, plus they should have beaten an unbeaten team in Hawaii.

A Huskies fan would blame the Hawaii loss on the UW defense for allowing the Warriors to come back from a 21-point deficit. But I would argue that the Huskies defense played pretty well that night, and that giving up 35 points to Hawaii on its home field with Colt Brennan at quarterback isn't so bad.

I would also blame the Huskies offense for not scoring in the second half and Marcel Reece for not catching that late pass in the end zone that hit him in the numbers, which would have sent the game into overtime and might have led to an amazing victory and prevention of the Turner, Baer and Simmons carnage.

One more thing -- injuries hurt the U-Dub defense. When you're not real deep and take out first-stringers who weren't that good to begin with and have to go with their backups, well, you saw what happened.

Baer has been rocked, but he'll land on his feet, perhaps in Pullman, where new coach Paul Wulff still needs a defensive backs coach.

Paint Dry Ty should have shown more loyalty to Baer, but he took the easier route, the one that will draw favorable reviews until the Dawgs give up chunks of yardage in their season opener at Oregon, prompting criticism of their new defensive coordinator, whoever that poor sap turns out to be.