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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Sneak Into AP Poll As Vote-Getter

The UW was ignored over the first month of the season.
Dan Raley|
Denzel Boston (12) and Drew Azzopardi (74) celebrate Boston's touchdown catch at Maryland.
Denzel Boston (12) and Drew Azzopardi (74) celebrate Boston's touchdown catch at Maryland. | Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images

They're No. 34.

Actually, the battle cry coming out of Montlake this weekend is the simple fact the University of Washington football team finally persuaded someone to vote for it in the latest Associated Press poll -- the Huskies exist after all -- with them showing up with 10 points in Sunday's balloting.

Until then, Jedd Fisch's team had been nowhere to be found in what is considered the holy grail of college football rankings through the first month of the season.

The Huskies (4-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) showed up 10 teams removed from the Top 25 after overcoming a 20-0 deficit at Maryland and pulling out a 24-20 victory in College Park on Saturday evening on the East Coast.

The only team to beat the UW this season, Ohio State (5-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten), retained its hold on the No. 1 spot after beating Minnesota and ex-Huskies Cam Davis and Kahlee Tafai 42-3 on Saturday, ranking above Miami (5-0 overall, 1-0 ACC), which leapfrogged idle Oregon (5-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten).

The Buckeyes drew 40 first-place votes to 21 for Miami, which beat Florida State 28-22, and 5 for the Ducks.

Huskies QB Demond Williams Jr. (2) chest bumps WR Dezmen Roebuck (81) after they connected for a TD pass.
Huskies QB Demond Williams Jr. (2) chest bumps WR Dezmen Roebuck (81) after they connected for a TD pass. | Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images

For the Huskies, they simply haven't convinced many people they deserve to be elevated among the country's better football teams as they continue to rebuild following their CFP national championship game appearance two seasons ago. It's been a painstaking return to glory.

Yet 10 points is progress.

Outside of the Top 25, the UW finds itself itself in the company of Cincinnati (129 points), Texas (111), Penn State (97), Utah (84), USC (46), UNLV (19), North Texas (16) and TCU (14), tied with Mississippi State (10), and just ahead of Navy (4), Louisville (3) and Auburn (1).

Truth is, while the Huskies trail UNLV, North Texas and TCU in the poll voting, if they went head to head with those schools Fisch's team probably would be favored over each one.

Texas and Penn State, formerly the No. 1- and 2-ranked teams in the season-opening AP poll, come off of disheartening losses to Florida and UCLA, especially the latter, which lost 42-37 to an 0-4 Bruins team in what has been called the biggest upset of this college football season.

The AP Top 25 looks like this: 1, Ohio State (5-0); 2, Miami (5-0); 3, Oregon (5-0); 4, Ole Miss (5); 5, Texas A&M (5-0); 6, Oklahoma (5-0); 7. Indiana (5-0); 8; Alabama (4-1); 9, Texas Tech (5-0); 10, Georgia (4-1); 11, LSU (4-1); 12, Tennessee (4-1); 13, Georgia Tech (5-0); 14, Missouri (5-0); 15, Michigan (4-1); 16, Notre Dame (3-2); 17, Illinois (5-1); 18, BYU (5-0); 19, Virginia (5-1); 20, Vanderbilt (5-1); 21, Arizona State (4-1); 22, Iowa State (5-1); 23, Memphis (6-0); 24, South Florida (5-1) and 25, Florida State (3-2).

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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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