Husky Explainer:
What's up with hardcorehusky.com?
It's a close-knit group of Husky fans who have been posting together on a progression of different sites for 20+ years. It isn't representative of the husky fan base in general for a bunch of reasons. It's nominally a place to talk Husky football, and the people there genuinely are fans of the team, but it is primarily a social organization for friends (and antagonists) to take pot shots at each other loosely organized around current events in Husky football. The posters there have a schtick of internet trolling, which is no doubt juvenile. They genuinely do have affection for each other, and a lot of them are knowledgeable about football, but as a cultural matter it's uncool there to be serious, genuine, and hopeful. You can be serious and genuine, but not hopeful. You can be hopeful and ironic. But genuine expressions of positive emotion read as naive and pollyannic in the Pacific Northwest, whereas genuine expressions of angst, depression, cynicism, etc. are treated almost as normative goods in their own right. If you understand that, you'll understand the HH posters coming here. They know they're being dumb. They know you think they're being dumb. They know it's a waste of time. They know it shouldn't be funny. They still think it's funny.
Why do UW fans hate Sark?
Short version is that they don't, but it is genuinely true that Sark was an alcoholic serial adulterer during his time at UW, though his true sin from Husky perspective is that he let his vices impact his coaching. However much better he was than Ty Willingham, that's a remarkably low bar to clear and it is indisputable that his drinking and cavorting hurt the team's performance. Still, most Husky fans recognize him as a step on the path to a better future. The hate toward Sark tends to come primarily from the Hardcore Husky board, which as noted above is distinct from the broader Husky fan base. Part of that has to do with the fact that HH's existence stems from a break with a different Husky message board during the Sark era at UW, and the people in charge at that board were adamantly pro-Sark folks who shut down criticism of Sark. To this day, there is bad blood between the HH folks and that other board, and Sark becoming a good coach who has reformed himself would mean HH is open to a victory dance from that other board's leadership, which is intolerable to the HH group.
Why do people think UW is good enough to beat UT?
To start with, it's true. UT is also good enough to beat UW. UT's d-line will probably be stouter than any UW has faced. UW's offense will be more potent and creative than any UT has faced. They're aren't perfect comps for either team on the other's schedule this year, which is good because that's the fun of the playoffs.
If you want a read on what makes UW a tough matchup, it obviously starts with Penix. He's got a huge arm, he makes decisions fast, he doesn't get rattled, he's really good when the team is behind the sticks, and he is really hard to sack. To that point, he's a pocket passer who throws a ton, and he's taken very few sacks this year. Same was true last year. UT will get its pressures, but it would be a very big win for UT if the horns can actually get a bunch of sacks. Beyond Penix, UW has really good skill guys. It's not just hard to cover the wideouts, but they're very tough in contested catches. Dillon Johnson is a 1,000 yard rusher on a team that doesn't try to run first. UW isn't going to run up the gut against UT, but something it does well against tough D-lines is use the whole field in the passing game with few substitutions to get the big guys tired, and then run opportunistically. Doesn't mean UW is going to be dominant on the ground, but don't expect them to try to run between the tackles and then abandon the run entirely.
If you want to understand the optimism of general Husky fans, it mostly stems from weird quirks in the season. UW's offense looked great the first three games of the year. It then lost Jalen McMillan (knee), Rome Odunze (broken ribs and a collapsed lung (played through it and didn't miss time but obv. not 100%)), Penix was sick through multiple games and looked awful, Bernard and Jackson missed time being hurt, UW played a bunch of crazy weather games, etc. The defense also had tons of injuries in the secondary (particularly safety). In any event, UW won all its games but the wins were unimpressive compared against early season games, and Husky fans themselves openly questioned how good the team was. The Pac12 championship game saw all those hurt players healthy at the same time for the first time since Michigan State and the team came out and looked like its old self against Oregon, which has people feeling optimistic.