The difference in coaching philosophy is stark at this point.
On one side of things, you have the head coach of a team bad-mouthing his upcoming opponents and going back on previous quotes, saying his words were taken out of context. On the other side, you have a head coach who will barely give the “bulletin board material” the time of day, saying instead that every ounce of his team’s focus is on the upcoming game.
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No matter which side you agree with, it’s clear that the players learn from the coach, and this week, we heard more yapping come out of the Washington Huskies locker room. This time it was stemming from defensive back Kyler Gordon, who still can’t seem to get over the fact that Oregon took his team’s place in the Pac-12 Championship last season and made the most of it.
“I was pretty sad; I’m not going to lie,” Gordon said, via the Seattle Times. “I would have loved having a chance to play in the Pac-12 championship and do all that. Just to see a team we were in front of (Oregon) be able to take that (spot), it was like, ‘I don’t think you deserve that. You don’t. Let’s be real: you don’t.’ So it was sad to let that happen.”
Gordon certainly has a point. If you are going by the records, Washington deserved to be in the conference championship game ahead of the Ducks. However, a COVID-outbreak in the Huskies’ program forced them to cancel their game against the Ducks and subsequently forfeit their chance to play USC for a conference title. The Ducks got the nod, and they made the most of it, grabbing their second-straight Pac-12 title.
Nobody can fault Gordon, or any other Washington player, for that matter, for feeling bummed about the missed opportunity. However, it’s interesting to note that they’re still talking about it.
One thing the Ducks and Huskies have in common, both teams have spent the entire week talking about the Ducks https://t.co/Pyq5KACCEe
— #1 Not Academically Prowess Team Fan®️ (@vamospatos) November 5, 2021
That seems to be the major difference between the Ducks and the Huskies this season, aside from, of course, the onfield talent. Washington has made themselves concerned with what Oregon is doing, who they consider ‘recruiting rivals,’ and how they made off with something that wasn’t theirs last year. Mario Cristobal and the Ducks have had their heads down, focused on doing the one thing that really matters this week: Beating Washington and continuing their path towards the College Football Playoff.
In the end, we will see which philosophy works better.
On paper, Oregon’s defense should be able to handle Washington’s offense, but we’ve seen the Ducks struggle against lesser opponents before.
This is starting to become a trend.
First, it was Arizona, then Colorado and now it’s Washington. But Oregon hopes the results will be different this time around.
When the Ducks faced woeful offenses with the Wildcats and the Buffaloes, for some reason both of those teams found their offensive footing against Oregon. Arizona scored 19 points and probably should have had more, making it the best offensive showing to date this season.
Colorado was the next uninspiring offense Oregon was eager to shut down, but the Buffaloes came into Autzen and scored 29 points and gained 341 total yards. That was the best the Buffaloes had looked in five conference games. They were shut out once and held to seven and three points in two other games.
Having the Buffaloes come into the most hostile environment and score that many points was somewhat shocking. One has to ask if that was just an aberration or becoming a trend.
Oregon has a chance to answer that question Saturday when the Ducks go up to Seattle and face a 4-4 Washington team that has an offense comparable to both Colorado and Arizona in terms of production. It’s almost a foregone conclusion that offensive coordinator John Donovan will be handed his walking papers after this season unless the Huskies don’t make a dramatic turnaround.
In the Pac-12, Washington ranks 10th in total offense with 353 yards per game, 10th in rushing, eighth in passing, and 10th in scoring, while barely mustering up 23 points per game. In years past, the Huskies are definitely not used to having to struggle to cross the goal line, but that’s where they find themselves as they prepare to face the Ducks in 2021.
In the games against UCLA and Colorado, the Duck defense blitzed a lot, and we can expect more of the same up on Montlake. Washington has allowed 18 sacks in its eight games. Head coach Jimmy Lake says the Huskies have to account for the whereabouts of Kayvon Thibodeaux at all times.
“He’s a game-wrecker. This is the best I’ve seen him play,” he said of the Oregon defensive end. “When we played against him, he was a true freshman and he was still a work in the making. In the film this year, you definitely can see the progression of where he is now.”
If Thibodeaux can create havoc in the backfield, it might cause quarterback Dylan Morris to make some mistakes as he has been prone to do. The redshirt freshman has been picked off eight times this season, and with as stout as the Oregon secondary has been this season, we can expect that number to grow on Saturday.
On paper, Oregon is the better team, and their defense should be able to get the job done and keep Washington’s offense quiet throughout the day. Of course, we’ve thought the same thing before and seen otherwise.
However, holding down a bad Husky offense will go a long way towards making a Duck victory purely academic.
The Ducks and Huskies are in very different places when it comes to success on the field, but that didn’t stop Jimmy Lake from taking shots at Oregon.
It’s “Husky Hate Week” here in Eugene, with the Oregon Ducks set to travel up a couple of hundred miles north later this week to take on the Washington Huskies in one of the more heated rivalries in the Pac-12.
While the two teams are in wildly different places when it comes to on-field success, some fuel has been thrown onto the fire thanks to Washington coach Jimmy Lake. Despite his team’s embarrassing start to the season where they lost to an FCS team in Week 1, and then got throttled by Michigan in Week 2, Lake decided to pull some punches and take a shot at the Ducks, saying that Oregon is not someone they compete with in recruiting, noting that they see themselves going against schools with more “academic prowess.”
If you were to ask Mario Cristobal, I bet he’d say they don’t necessarily compete with Washington for recruits, either…
For the past three years, Oregon has been ranked No. 1 in the Pac-12 recruiting rankings and is often inside the top-10 in the nation as well. Over that time, Washington has ranked No. 6 once, and No. 2 twice. Not exactly on the same level.
If Lake doesn’t consider players at Oregon to be smart enough to play for his school, he may be in the wrong business. No matter which schools he thinks that his team is competing with in recruiting, it’s pretty obvious that he’s losing the battle.
Washington went into Saturday night’s game at The Big House intending to stop the run quite particularly. Well, 343 yards and four touchdowns surrendered later, it didn’t exactly work that way.
On the other side of the ball, Washington seemed intent on running until Michigan had the game in-hand, yet, again, the Huskies couldn’t achieve what they set out to achieve.
After the game, UW head coach Jimmy Lake made no excuses about what happened in Ann Arbor.
“We went into this thing trying to run the football and the goal was to stop the run,” Lake said. “We did not get that done and Michigan did.”
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Though the Huskies gave up 13 carries for 72 yards in the first quarter, Lake was pleased with the job his defense was doing. That is, until sophomore running back Blake Corum exploded for a 67-yard score, putting Washington down 10-0 in the second quarter. From there, the wheels started falling off, he says.
“Early on we did a nice job,” Lake said. “They’re a talented team. Early on I think we did a nice job of stopping it. And then they hit that big one. And it only takes one run. It was a 60-plus yard run in the second quarter. And then I think we’ve gotta play as a team. For us not scoring any points whatsoever and for our opponents a reason to throw the football and they can just keep pounding it at us, that’s a good way to win football games. Yeah, it’s team football, we’ve gotta put points up, we’ve gotta make our opponent not be able to just hand the football off and win the football game.”
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Michigan particularly broke Washington’s back in the second half when it ran an eight-play, 73-yard drive, all of which were running plays. Lake says the defense got worn down and from there, there wasn’t much it could do against the Wolverines’ offensive front.
On the other side of the ball, while UW looks like it had a decent game in some respects — the Huskies finished with 293 yards passing, albeit at a 54% clip — the run game could not get going against the new-look Michigan defense under coordinator Mike Macdonald.
The Wolverines managed to hold Washington to just 50 yards on 32 carries — an average of 1.6 yards-per-run.
Lake says that the Huskies had to really go to the well when it came to trying to figure out what Macdonald’s defense would look like, noting that Western Michigan, in what it ran a week beforehand, did his team little favors when it came to revealing what he and UW might have seen on Saturday night.
“Yeah, we had to study a lot of the Baltimore Ravens,” Lake said. “We had to study a lot of their defense to see a lot of what we were gonna see. Western Michigan only lined up in one personnel grouping for most of the game so we only saw structure-wise what they were gonna do in that group — that personnel grouping. So there was still a lot of mystery as to what they were gonna do to our personnel sets we were gonna do. But we had a general idea and they were gonna play sound defense and tackle well and they did a great job of bottling us up and stopping the run and putting pressure on our quarterback.”
Up next for Michigan, it will host another MAC team, this time Northern Illinois (1-1), which won against Georgia Tech in Week 1 but lost to Wyoming, 50-43, in Week 2.
While Washington is currently reeling from the upset loss on Saturday to FCS-level Montana, the one bright spot the Huskies had was the defense. Yes, the level of competition was significantly less compared to that of the Power Five, but UW allowed just 105 yards passing and 127 yards rushing. The Grizzlies scored only one offensive touchdown in the 13-7 upset.
But second-year Huskies head coach Jimmy Lake is cognizant that Washington’s defense will be seeing an increase in level of competition when it squares off against Michigan on Saturday night and two players have caught his eye.
First and foremost is Wolverines quarterback Cade McNamara, who only attempted 11 passes but completed 9 of them for an 83% completion rate. Lake pointed to the touchdown throw to Ronnie Bell as an example of just how formidable the first-year starter can be.
“He’s a great decision maker,” Lake said. “He can make all the throws. They did a nice job with him — well first, they ran the football. They made it very easy for him to dish the football out after running the ball for over 300 yards against Western Michigan. He didn’t attempt very many passes against Western Michigan, didn’t need to. But they won the football game. Goes back to our prior conversation there. But he looks like a great decision maker, can make all the throws. Made an awesome throw vs. a zero blitz, which was a 60-yard touchdown pass last Saturday. He’s a quality, quality quarterback that we’re gonna have to be ready to defend.”
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Naturally, McNamara isn’t the only player that Lake is concerned with. As he mentioned, Michigan ran the ball at-will on Saturday, with the biggest threat coming from Blake Corum, who also scored on a swing pass while having also added a 79-yard kickoff return.
To defend Corum, Lake notes that Washington is going to need to be prepared to see him in multiple phases of the game.
“Yeah, he’s a special player,” Lake said. “You just said it all — he’s not just a running back, he’s a returner. We’re gonna have to be ready for him in the special teams department and also at running back. He’s shifty, reminds us a lot of Myles Gaskin — his body type, his height, how he sees the linebackers and the safeties in the box and how he’s able to make them miss. That’s always a great quality in a running back is making people miss and he does a good job of making people miss in the return game but also at running back.”
Short-handed Huskies
On the other side of the ball, there is some concern for the Huskies. While they will be bringing Giles Jackson back to Ann Arbor — albeit in a different uniform — they are notably thin at wide receiver.
Lake confirms that wideout Ja’Lynn Polk suffered a season-ending chest injury on the first play of the game, while Terrell Bynum, Rome Adunze, and Jalen McMillan are all considered week-to-week — leaving Washington with but four scholarship receivers at the moment. Polk, Bynum, and Adunze are all starters at the position. Taj Davis and Jackson are the only receivers aside from Polk who caught passes in Washington’s season debut.
Speaking of Jackson, Lake was asked if he would share why he transferred to Seattle after spending two years at Michigan. He wouldn’t, but is excited that he spurned the Wolverines.
“I’m not gonna share exactly what he told me about something like that,” Lake said. “All I know is that I’m very happy that Giles is here and what he’s done is he’s bought into our culture, he’s an extremely hard worker. We believe he’s given us an added boost in the return game and at wide receiver. And he’s only gonna get better from here.”
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Leaving early
Lake confirmed that Washington will arrive in Michigan on Thursday rather than Friday. The team plans to practice at 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday and Friday in order to get acclimated to the time change.
When Oregon coach Mario Cristobal tweets out a GIF of WWE Samoan wrestler Umaga with the hashtag #TrenchWarfare, you know something really cool just happened.
That something was 4-star offensive lineman Dave Iuli committing to Oregon. Iuli stands at 6-foot-5 and weighs 330 pounds. Out of Puyallup, Wash., Iuli, who is the No. 7 offensive guard in the country according to Rivals.com, selected the Ducks over Oklahoma, USC, Cal, and Washington.
This is just the latest big-time recruit Cristobal and offensive line coach Alex Mirabal has been able to add to the Class of 2022. Iuli joins the likes of Michael Wooten, Kelvin Banks, and Cameron Williams.
They (Washington) should be worried that the recruiting has definitely dropped off. They lost out on JT Tuimoloau and he’s from Washington. The number one recruit in the nation and he was right there in their backyard. So now they’re worried about the overall recruiting and it’s in the middle of the Pac-12. Most recruiting sites list the Huskies as fifth or sixth and in Seattle, that’s not good enough. And right now Oregon is killing it when comes to recruiting.
According to Washington Huskies head coach JImmy Lake, it is all just a matter of time before all of FBS cancels their season.
The Pac-12 canceled their 2020 football season on Monday, following the Big Ten. There has been controversy around the decision, with players and coaches from around the country feeling as if football can be played.
However, there is one head coach who feels like the ACC, Big 12, and SEC are heading in the same direction as the Big Ten and Pac-12.
Washington’s head coach Chris Petersen stepped down after the 2019 season and was replaced by defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake. The first-year head coach thinks the other three Power Five conferences will be heading down the same direction as the Pac-12.
“I believe all three other conferences are going to follow suit (canceling) in due time.”
Washington coach Jimmy Lake: "I believe all three other conferences are going to follow suit (canceling) in due time."
The Big 12 took a major step towards playing on Wednesday, releasing its 2020 schedule. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has done an excellent job making sure players and coaches are as safe as possible.
🚨 Fall sports update from @Big12Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby.
Given so many conversations have occurred between Bowlsby, student-athletes and medical staff it would be hard to fathom that they would change course now. At least not without new information being provided. As Bowlsby stated “reasonable people can disagree.” That seems to be the case here.
Provided that the three major conferences left proceed, then the questions comes about if there will be a College Football Playoff. The short answer being that seem poised to continue down that road. The committee has given no indication that they won’t move forward given the teams still planning on playing.
The commissioner did mention there is a call next week with the committee so they can hash out the plan. The next question that make come is will the future champion being considered legitimate? If you asked Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, he thinks so.
After back-to-back home tilts against Washington State and Southern Utah, Utah State will embark on the road for the first time in 2020 against the physically-minded Huskies. Even without the services of former head coach Chris Petersen, this Husky defense is going to be strong and look to punish an Aggie team that will doubtlessly be searching for its identity. The game is set for Sept. 19 but the TV network has not been announced.
Location: Seattle, Washington
Mascot: Harry the Husky & Dubs
Conference: Pac-12
2019 Record: 8-5
Head Coach: Jimmy Lake (Overall 0-0). There is no question Lake has big shoes to fill with the sudden departure of Chris Petersen last season. Luckily for the Huskies, the transition is all but guaranteed to be smooth with the amount of defensive experience Lake has to his name. He has been at Washington as a defensive assistant for the last six seasons, two of which he was the co-defensive coordinator and the last two as the full-time defensive coordinator.
Despite the loss of nine starters from 2018, Lake’s defensive unit limited opponents to 19.4 points per game in 2019, good for 15th best in the country. Though the Huskies’ record last year was disappointing, the defense kept them in every game and ensured all but one of their losses was within one score. This defense hits hard and makes absolutely nothing easy for its opposition. Lake helped build the culture at U-Dub into what it is under Chris Petersen and it’s genuinely terrific.
Quick Series Snapshot: Washington leads 2-0
These two schools have only played twice. In 1998, Dave Arslanian’s Aggie team got utterly embarrassed and dominated 53-12. The game was so bad it even prompted Arslanian to say in the post-game press conference this gem: “I must be a lousy football coach. I’ve never seen that bad of a performance. I apologize, especially to the Huskies, for being the inept opponent we were today.”
The Aggies at least showed up in the 2015 game. After a competitive first half, the defense faltered and the offense sputtered in a 31-17 loss. Then freshman QB Jake Browning showed off his arm and torched a largely helpless secondary, previewing to the college world how good of a career he was going to have in Seattle.
Washington Huskies, 2019 Season:
Though a few highlight games provided great thrills, the 2019 season will go down as a “what if” type of season for U-Dub fans.
The Huskies took care of business against their FCS foe Eastern Washington with ease in week one. The next week, they surprised everyone (including Cal fans) after losing a defensive slug-fest in Seattle to the Golden Bears. Cal got the go-ahead field goal with under ten seconds to go and Husky QB Jacob Eason couldn’t make late-game magic.
After the bitter loss, the Huskies righted the ship with three solid wins in a row against Hawaii, BYU, and USC. Washington dominated all three games and looked like a shoo-in for the Pac-12 North Division winners.
The Huskies then lost control of their season as quickly as they seemed to initially tame it. They lost three of their next four games, and each loss was a heartbreaker worse than the one before. Losses to the Ducks, Utes, and Cardinal all but ensured Washington would not head back to the Pac-12 championship game. Adding insult to injury, they even lost a road contest against a poor Colorado team in Boulder.
The Huskies closed out their 2019 campaign on a good note, however. They scored dominant wins against their in-state rival Washington State and then granted Chris Petersen the last laugh in a romp against Boise State in the Las Vegas bowl.
2020 Overview:
Offense:
With the departure of Jacob Eason, U-Dub is going to have a QB competition on its hands. Unfortunately for the Huskies, none of their prospects have much experience in games and not a single one has thrown a touchdown pass on game day. With inexperience and a new offensive coordinator comes growing pains. SO Jacob Sirmon is the early favorite to win the role, but FR Ethan Garbers and Dylan Morris can make it interesting in the coming weeks.
Though quarterback is an unmistakable weakness at this point, Washington still has excellent recruits and some proven playmakers on their offense. SO RB Richard Newton is expected to carry most of the load this season and SR Sean McGrew is more than capable of having a breakout performance. Newton had good numbers last season with 514 yards gained on 117 attempts, garnering 10 touchdowns. McGrew was used less but had a higher rushing average per play. Both of these runners saw less time than star rusher Salvon Ahmed last season, but they are now well prepared to carry the offense while their QB finds his feet in the scheme.
The Huskies return a pair of JR receivers in Cade Otton and Terrell Bynum to take over for Aaron Fuller and Hunter Bryant from 2019. Though their receptions last year are dwarfed by the graduated seniors, Otton and Bynum still totaled up more than 340 yards each to go along with their combined four touchdown grabs. They’ll undoubtedly need to help out their QB and get open against the DBs they match up against or else this offense could have the tendency to sputter.
Defense:
Unlike the question marks they have on offense, Washington is in excellent shape on the defensive side of the ball. SR Elijah Molden is back at corner and he’ll be looking to build on a stellar junior year where he tallied up 79 total tackles and made first-team All Pac-12. SR Keith Taylor will help Molden out at the other corner and is no slouch with 59 total tackles in 2019. This secondary allowed just over 222 yards per game last year and I expect them to improve due to the overall increased age and maturity of the unit.
At linebacker, the Huskies have some big bodies to work with. SO Edefuan Ulofoshio should increase his production from last year and JR Joe Tryon will be an absolute load for opposing offenses to plan against. Tryon is bigger than your typical LB and he can slide into the defensive line as a DE as well. He’s multi-talented and is slated to be a high round NFL draft pick for 2021. When SR Ryan Bowman is on the field as well, there will be many frightened QBs who don’t want to run into either of them.
The defensive line has a couple of stars who will certainly cause havoc for the Huskies. SR Levi Onwuzurikenabbed 45 tackles last season and a couple of sacks. SR Josiah Bronson rounds out the upperclassmen on the line and will need to step up his production from last season for this unit to shine to its fullest potential. He earned 23 tackles in 2019 and was recently granted another year of eligibility. The rest of the line is quite young, so the fortunes will largely ebb and flow with these two seniors.
Final Thoughts and Game Prediction
Historically, Utah State has not played well on the road against P5 teams. It pains me to say it, but they just haven’t. Though there’s no telling how much of a factor the crowd at Husky Stadium will be in the midst of a pandemic, the Aggies have a ton to prove.
In a similar twist to the Washington State matchup earlier in the season, this game will likely be a game of strength vs weakness on each side of the ball. Washington has a lot of retooling to do on offense and will be against an Aggie defense that should be substantially improved over last season. Conversely, Utah State’s offense has to show up against a traditionally very strong Washington front seven to have a puncher’s chance in this game.
The Aggies’ shuffling of offensive lineman last season hasn’t yielded a terribly consistent unit. USU started strong in this category last year, but once SO Andy Koch went down to injury early in the season, the sacks started to pile up and the Aggies finished 44th in sacks allowed. This offensive line can get pushed around versus a stalwart and beefy defensive line, so it will be critical for SR Demytrick Ali’ifua to get his occasionally wayward snaps under control. This will give time to Jr Henry Colombi to get the ball out quickly to his seasoned receivers, a potential match-up advantage over the Huskies.
Washington was strong against the run last season ranking 28th in the NCAA and yielding just 126.4 yards per game to their opponents. Since USU’s passing game is a question mark right now, the Aggies will have to rely on getting the ground game churning with SR Jaylen Warren leading the way. USU was middle of the road rushing the ball in 2019 at 152.2 yards per game, so Warren will need to stay healthy and get help from one of the younger backs to elevate this offense.
The Aggies are most likely going to have a rough outing against Washington. Though USU’s defense is probably good enough to keep the Husky offense in check, it’s going to turn into a murder slog quickly if USU can’t keep the chains moving against a schematically sound and disciplined Husky defense. They’re athletically superior and quite talented with the highest rated signing class in the Pac-12 for 2020.
I stopped believing in Utah State’s ability to win a P5 road game a long time ago. They won’t get it done until they actually get it done. This game will be largely a repeat of the 2015 affair, just uglier and more drawn out.
A decision lies ahead for the Cowboys’ 2019 signal caller.
Fans of the Dallas Cowboys 2019 offense can rejoice, a little bit. It appears that new head coach Mike McCarthy, a staunch advocate of the West Coast offense, was enamored with the product that showed up for most of the Cowboys’ season. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, McCarthy has asked first-time offensive coordinator Kellen Moore a chance to return to his post for a second season.
The issue? Moore also has an offer to go work for the program being run by his former college coach, Chris Petersen. Peterson retired this past season from the University of Washington, opening the door for longtime assistant Jimmy Lake to take over. Lake has offered Moore the job as his offensive coordinator.
Update on #Cowboys OC Kellen Moore: New coach Mike McCarthy would like him to stay and remain OC, which may also help Moore learn a new system. But he also has an opportunity to go back home and become the University of Washington OC under Jimmy Lake. He is mulling it all over.
In 2019, Dallas’ offense finished second in DVOA, a Football Outsiders metric that takes into account game situation, down and distance and opponent difficulty.
There is a lot to dissect in the decision for Moore. McCarthy is a play caller, and may want to keep that job as opposed to being a walk-around coach. If he does, than Moore would be serving in a game-planning role without the reward and accolades of calling the shots. He’d get that if he went to the college program, but what kind of path would that lead for him?
Neither are ideal for being a stepping stone to an NFL head coaching position, but in today’s game, neither would preclude it, either.
Kliff Kingsbury had head coaching experience at Texas Tech but had been fired from that job, taken an OC job at USC when the Arizona Cardinals hired him for his creative mind to be their head coach. Nothing is out of the realm of possibility if you interview well and have a creative mind to sell an organization.
Lake was a defensive coach, including his time at Boise State when Moore was breaking all sorts of passing records under Petersen’s tutelage. It would undoubtedly be his show to run on the offensive side of the ball if he were to go to Washington. Unlike his experience in 2019 under Jason Garrett and what has to be perceived as at least one year of learning under McCarthy, he’d be his own man through and through.
However, for a guy who has been drawing up plays on a napkin since he was a kid, getting first-hand exposure to the WCO after spending years in the Air Coryell system could be the type of apprenticeship that would carry his play book to astronomical levels when he ascends to the biggest stage, an NFL head coach.
University of Washington’s head coach Chris Petersen is stepping down, effective following the Huskies bowl game.
University of Washington’s head coach Chris Petersen is stepping down, effective following the Huskies bowl game.
The athletic department announced the news Monday, naming current defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake the Huskies next head coach. Petersen will transition into a leadership advisory role within the athletic department, according to the news release.
“It has been a privilege and a professional dream fulfilled to be part of this world-class institution,” Petersen said. “I will forever be grateful, honored and humbled to have had the opportunity to coach our fine young men on Montlake for these past six seasons. I thank each of them, as well as our coaches and administrative staff for the incredible commitment they’ve made to Husky football during my tenure. The football program and Husky Athletics across the board will continue to prosper – and do it the right way – with Jen Cohen’s leadership and the University administration’s commitment to excellence. I’ll be a Husky for life, but now is the right time for me to step away from my head coaching duties, and recharge.”
Petersen helped Washington win two PAC-12 Championships (2016 and 2018), a College Football Playoff appearance (2016) and three New Years’ Six Bowl games in a row.
The Huskies finished the regular season with a 31-13 win over rival Washington State for a 7-5, 4-5 Pac-12 regular-season record.
