Inside The Huskies

Huskies and UCLA Will Meet In Night Game

The UW hasn't played at the Rose Bowl since 2022, when Kalen DeBoer was coach.
Dan Raley|
The Huskies have a night game against UCLA at the Rose Bowl.
The Huskies have a night game against UCLA at the Rose Bowl. | Dan Raley

It's been three years since the University of Washington football team last played at the Rose Bowl and some things have changed, others not.

Back in 2022, the coach was Kalen DeBoer, who took the Huskies into Pasadena and came up short 40-32 to UCLA, for the first of his three losses over two seasons.

Of course, DeBoer is now at Alabama, dealing with a weekend loss to Oklahoma and probably hearing what a horrible human being he is over and over by the Crimson Tide faithful.

On Saturday night, coach Jedd Fisch will lead the UW (7-3 overall, 4-3 Big Ten) into the famous football venue to face the Bruins (3-7, 3-4) in a less then desirable night game in late November.

Same as DeBoer's Huskies, Fisch's version will have to deal with the dreaded 7:30 p.m. PT kickoff, with NBC televising this match-up while most of the rest of the conference is tucked away in bed for the night.

UCLA, of course, is an absolute mess these days.

The Bruins fired coach Deshaun Foster three games into the season, all losses, and dismissed offensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe, the former UW assistant coach, linebacker and safety, as well.

Under interim coach Tim Skipper, UCLA enjoyed a temporary rebound, with consecutive victories over Penn State, Michigan State and Maryland, but it's back on a three-game bender, with blowout losses to Indiana and Ohio State involved.

Making matters worse, the Bruins went up against the Buckeyes without usual starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who was in concussion protocol, and turned the team over to sophomore Luke Duncan, who hadn't thrown a pass prior this past weekend.

It didn't go well against No. 1-ranked Ohio State, which drubbed UCLA 48-10 in Columbus.

With Rose Bowl trips for the Huskies always a regal experience on New Year's Day, it's now become a miserable atmosphere during the regular season, with the fan base having quit on this team and crowds in the 30,000 range.

That's prompted the school to seek SoFi Stadium as an alternative landing spot for the future, which would require some sort of settlement with the Rose Bowl in order to move on.

None of these developments can be too enticing to coaching applicants, with James Madison's Bob Chesney the targeted name for the moment.

If he was hired, the Bruins faithful are hoping Chesney might be the second coming of Curt Cignetti, who left James Madison for Indiana, where he's won 22 of 24 games.

Fisch, who coached at UCLA in 2017 as the offensive coordinator and an interim coach for the fired Jim Mora, was name-dropped early on for the job, but he's publicly said he's happy at the UW.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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