It’s been 25 years since the Washington Huskies were on top of the college football world. In 1991, the Huskies went 12-0 en route to claiming their second national title in school history. The Huskies would spend the rest of the 1990’s as a good team that was always in the hunt to win the Pac-10 Conference, but they were never able to replicate their success from earlier in the decade. In 2000, the Huskies once again won the Pac-10, and after they defeated the Purdue Boilermakers in the Rose Bowl, Washington would finish that campaign with a record of 11-1. But slowly things would go south for Washington and by 2008 the bottom would fall out as they went 0-12 for the first time in school history. Steve Sarkisian was then hired as Washington’s head football coach to resurrect the program and by 2010, he got them to a their first bowl game in eight years. But when Sarkisian decided to leave the Huskies in 2013 to become the head football coach of the USC Trojans, it appeared as if Washington was going to be right back at square one.
Washington would then make a big splash with their next hire as former Boise State Broncos head football coach Chris Petersen was brought in to replace Sarkisian. In eight years at Boise State, Peterson was 92-12 which included a pair of undefeated seasons, along with victories over storied programs such as the Georgia Bulldogs and Oklahoma Sooners.
Chris Petersen
In Peterson’s first two years at Washington, he was a combined 15-12 as he was able to get the Huskies to a bowl game in each year, but they still appeared to be an afterthought. However the 2016 college football season is shaping up to be totally different in the Pacific Northwest.
This year the Huskies have shown the dominance that is reminiscent of their title season in 1991. Washington won each of their three non-conference games by an average of nearly 40 points. And when Pac-12 Conference play began, Washington didn’t show any signs of slowing down.
Last Saturday the Huskies went on the road and defeated the Arizona Wildcats 35-28 in overtime as Tuscon is never an easy place to secure a road victory. And last night the Huskies welcomed the Stanford Cardinal to Seattle which was opportunity for them to show that they were for real. The Cardinal have won the Pac-12 Conference in five of the last six years and they have one of the best play makers in the nation in junior running back Christian McCaffrey who is in the running to win the Heisman Trophy.
But the Huskies jumped on the Cardinal as after the first quarter, the score was 13-0 in favor of Washington. By halftime the rout was on as Washington was up 23-0 as the Huskies defense was able to pin their ears back and come after Stanford senior quarterback Ryan Burns. The Huskies defense would limit McCaffrey to just 79 yards of total offense as they dominated Stanford 44-6 in front of a raucous crowd at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium. Now the Huskies who entered the contest ranked tenth in the Associated Press Poll are 5-0, can expect to move up after they steamrolled the Cardinal who were seventh. Washington is now just one victory away from being bowl eligible, but bigger things could be on the horizon for this program.
Washington has now knocked off the bullies of the Pac-12 North in Stanford, but Peterson and his crew must keep the momentum going. The Huskies still have road games against the Oregon Ducks, Utah Utes, and Washington State Cougars which will definitely test if Washington will be a national title contender, however Peterson’s young team has grown up in a hurry.
Jake Browning
Sophomore quarterback Jake Browning has picked up his play drastically from 2015 as he has already thrown 17 touchdown passes. Led by sophomore running back Myles Gaskin, the Huskies are averaging 5.3 yards on the ground and he is on pace for his second consecutive 1,000-yard campaign. Led by senior left guard Jake Eldrenkamp, Washington has returned four starters on the offensive line which is providing protection for one of the best offenses in the Pac-12. And defensively the Huskies can get after opponents with likes of linebackers Psalm Wooching and Joe Mathis who together have 8.5 of Washington’s 21 team sacks. But this Huskies resurgence should not be that much of a surprise with Petersen leading the way.
Many people didn’t expect Peterson to have continued success at Boise State when he took over for Dan Hawkins, but he did as the Broncos had four, top-10 finishes under him. And while at Boise State, Peterson consistently sent talent to the National Football League such as New York Jets offensive tackle Ryan Clady, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin. Now Petersen has been given more money along with better resources at Washington, and the sky is the limit as far as him making the Huskies a national power once more.
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