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If Huskies Somehow Land Bowl Bid, Look for them to Play in Texas

The pandemic has erased five bowl options normally presented to Pac-12 teams.
Dan Raley|
If Huskies Somehow Land Bowl Bid, Look for them to Play in Texas
If Huskies Somehow Land Bowl Bid, Look for them to Play in Texas

Jimmy Lake wants his University of Washington football team, once it gets a clean bill of health again, to play in a bowl game.

It would help take the sting out of the virus-idled Huskies having to withdraw from Friday's Pac-12 championship game against USC in Los Angeles.

The postseason options, however, are limited for everyone because of the pandemic. Five of the eight bowl games with contracted Pac-12 tie-ins have been canceled.

If Lake gets his wish, look for the UW (3-1) to end up somewhere in Texas — either in the Dec. 29 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio or in the Dec. 31 Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth. 

A possible third bowl, the Independence in Shreveport, Louisiana, on Dec. 26, apparently comes too soon for Washington to come out of quarantine, show negative test results and return to the practice field. 

"Our team is extremely excited to play in a bowl game," said Lake, who suggested his team would need just 3-4 practices to get ready following a certain amount of weight-lifting and running workouts. 

Well before the Huskies pulled out of an Oregon road game and the league championship match-up, ESPN predicted Washington and and the Big 12's Oklahoma (7-2) would be paired in the 28th Alamo Bowl, a Tuesday night game with a 5 p.m. PT kickoff and broadcast by ESPN. 

Pac-12 teams have appeared 13 times in this postseason game played so far. Other potential opponents for this outing might include Oklahoma State (7-3) and Texas (6-3).

The UW previously played in the Alamo Bowl in 2011 and lost to Baylor in a historic offensive shootout, 67-56. Yes, coach Steve Sarkisian was forced to fire Husky defensive coordinator Nick Holt after that game. Holt last coached at Purdue a year ago and was fired last December.

If that game is booked, the Huskies could end up in the 18th Armed Forces Bowl, a contest they haven't sampled yet and would pair them with an SEC opponent. This game kicks off at 9 a.m. PT on New Year's Eve.

Possible opponents could be coach-less Auburn (6-4), Mississippi (4-4) or Missouri (5-4). 

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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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