10 Things to Know as Huskies Take the Week Off
Parties and parades won't be held to commemorate the approaching University of Washington football milestone.
Maybe a moment of silence.
When the Huskies come off their much-welcome bye week and resume play against Oregon State in a Friday night outing shown by ESPN, they will find themselves just shy of the day their music died.
Or so it seemed.
Instead of losing Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, the UW football team said good bye, at least professionally, to Jimmy Lake, John Donovan and eventually all but one of the rest of the coaching staff.
Nov. 6 was the day Husky football came apart at the seams, one of the program's darkest afternoons. It would sink to its lowest level in 13 seasons, when the UW went 0-for-2008. The Huskies would lose to Oregon 26-16, its coach, its offensive coordinator and all of its bearings in 24 hours.
As it stands, DeBoer's first team in Montlake has two wins more than last season's flameout and six more than Tyrone Willingham's last stand. Things are coming back together at a steady pace.
While noting this solemn time in UW football history, we take a moment to highlight the resurgence with 10 salient rebound points:
1. The Huskies are offensively as entertaining as they've ever been, reminiscent of the high-powered, pass-minded and point-filled Sonny Sixkiller era of 1970-72. So it should have been no surprise to anyone that Sixkiller and his wife flew to the Bay Area last weekend to take in the UW's 28-21 victory over California. Sonny had an aisle seat, about 15 rows in front of me.
2. In 1970, Sixkiller led the nation in passing with 2,303 yards over 10 games while Michael Penix Jr. currently tops all FBS passers from coast to coast with 2,934 yards in eight outings. Sixkiller twice threw more than 50 passes in a game that season, launching 57 against USC and 50 against Oregon State; Penix has matched that, with 53 at Arizona State and 51 at Cal. Fireworks galore from the pocket.
3. Holding up a 6-2 record, DeBoer can become the winningest first-year Husky football coach if he captures three of his final five outings considering the Huskies are bowl eligible. Chris Peterson opened his UW career with an 8-6 record in 2014 to claim that distinction. Jim Lambright and Rick Neuheisel are next best at 7-4 in 1993 and 7-5 in 1999, respectively. For that matter, Don James was 6-5 in 1975.
4. The Huskies have two of the Pac-12's top four receivers in terms of receptions per game in runner-up Rome Odunze (7.14) and No. 4 Jalen McMillan (5.63). Odunze, who has 50 catches for 756 yards and 6 scores, ranks No. 1 in the conference in yards per game (108). For multiple seasons, everyone was bemoaning the fact the UW receivers were merely average.
5. The Huskies have five of the Pac-12's top 19 sack artists in Bralen Trice, who is third with 6.5; Jeremiah Martin, fourth with 6; Voi Tunuufi, 12th with 4; Zion Tupuola-Fetui, 13th with 3.5; and Alphonzo Tuputala, 19th with 3. Add to that former UW edge rusher Laiatu Latu, who is second with 6.5 sacks in one fewer game than Trice. Imagine how good the UW would be had the previous coaching staff left behind more ready-to-play pass defenders.
6. With two more home outings, the Huskies have a chance to go unbeaten in Montlake over a season for the first time since 2018, when Chris Petersen's next-to-last team went 6-0 on familiar turf.
7. Here's a stab at next year's Husky secondary upgrade: then-junior Mishael Powell and true freshman Curley "Lockdown" Reed at cornerbacks, senior Asa Turner and true freshman Vincent Holmes at the safeties, and senior-to-be Dominique Hampton at the hybrid Husky. DeBoer clearly is going to need a few new faces on defense to stem that flow of passing yards and touchdown passes.
8. Here's wondering if anyone will try to throw tremendous sums of money at Husky offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, architect of the nation's leading passing attack (379.2 yards per game) and clearly a talent, and try to steal him away?
9. Michigan State finally won a game for the first time since DeBoer's Huskies sent the Spartans on a four-game losing skid with a 39-28 defeat in Seattle, by beating Wisconsin 34-28 in overtime. The UW's three non-conference opponents for 2023 have the following records: Boise State (5-2), Tulsa (3-4) and Michigan State (3-4). The Huskies and Spartans will meet next fall in East Lansing, Michigan.
10. DeBoer, while righting things on the scoreboard and enjoying notable recruiting success, can mark his first season as an undeniable success if he can somehow beat the Oregon Ducks his first time out in two weeks. The previous four Husky football coaches, Tyrone Willingham, Steve Sarkisian, Chris Petersen and Jimmy Lake, couldn't do it in their initial try. Willingham, Sarkisian and Lake, in fact, never beat them as head coaches.
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