EUGENE, Ore. -- Somewhere, the most optimistic Washington Huskies fan -- the person who cheered with abandon during the 2008 "Crapple Cup," a loss at Washington State that completed a winless season; the person who told everyone who would listen that, "This is the year we're gonna beat Oregon!" for 12 consecutive autumns -- is tempering his euphoria, taking off his purple-shaded glasses and whispering, "I never saw this coming."
During the Huskies' preseason of hype, everyone saw those first two weekends of October -- first, Stanford at home and then Oregon on the road -- as the red-letter dates, the put-up-or-shut-up games.