Living through Washington's 0-12 slitwrist of a season last year is something I'll eventually cherish. It's yet another facet of a Seattle sports psyche that is shaped by failure more than success. [The first year I was a true engaged Seahawks fan, they went 2-14.]

They see me rollin', they hatin'... ganked from Kelly Bailey's flickr.

The Huskies lost to 11th-ranked LSU at home on Saturday, but not the way they were supposed to. They scored first. They shoved the Tigers around on the line. They had the best player on the field in Jake Locker. [This will continue in every game Locker's healthy for except USC. He is that good.] Incredibly, their defense shut LSU down for stretches, even springing Alameda Ta'amu, my new favorite Husky, for a here-comes-the-pain, up-the-gut sack.

Steve Sarkisian and U-Dub are lucky to have each other. You can't buy pride, you can't recruit it, and you can't throw a dead body into a prestigious program and have it churn out swagger. We once had it. Saturday night, even in losing for the fifteenth time in a row, you could feel pride seeping in from the rafters. Locker looked like the first-rounder he will be. Sark was every bit the aggressive play-caller he was billed as. And the future includes kids like chronic suplexer Chris Young:

This team is gonna be a problem for the rest of the country next year. They've got at BYU and Nebraska at home. And Syracuse, but whatever.

As for this year, it's a remarkable feeling. We're confident underdogs. Provided we beat Idaho next week and stay relatively healthy, it's going to be a ton of fun.