Photo Replay of When UW Conducted Its Own Big Ten Realignment
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For months, the University of Washington has been portrayed as among the great unwashed when it comes to college football, as unworthy of a coveted Big Ten membership, as charred ruins from a once proud conference.
On Saturday night, the Huskies finally had a chance to respond. They let everyone know there's still plenty of bark left in this 133-year-old program with the great stadium by the lake, that they still can look good wearing their all-purples in primetime on national TV, and that they can wind up and hit you in the mouth and not think twice about it.
Washington 39, Michigan State 28.
This marked the major launch of the Kalen DeBoer football era in Seattle, of someone who suggests he intends to stay 15 seasons even if many of his highly capable assistant coaches get poached along the way, of a football coach who could have half of the Big Ten chasing after him in due time when he starts winning year after year. This is not hyperbole, just all indications of maybe a perfect hire in Montlake.
His teams will not only be highly disciplined going forward in the seasons ahead, they'll be as entertaining as anyone across the Power 5 landscape or whatever they call it. Yes, they will lose, but likely look fun when doing it.
BIGGER THAN THE BIG TEN
DeBoer's Husky program currently appears to have one of the most talented quarterbacks in the nation, no matter who's taking snaps in those pristine football chapels known as the SEC, the Big Ten or ACC.
Has a quarterback ever been more ready to step onto a big stage than Michael Penix Jr. 3,000 miles from his hometown and then fully embrace this football platform against the nation's 11th-best team at this time and embarrass it?
With the exception of a couple of goal-line stands turned into brick walls for the Huskies, Penix and Company went for the throat with almost every opportunity it was afforded.
UW student Skylar Lin, who's as creative and productive as this football team that now occupies Montlake, was in attendance on Saturday night with his camera. For three hour, he aimed it at a football game that could be considered a milestone event for the program for decades to come.
It was the day the Huskies started winning again against topflight opposition, against a supposedly far superior football program that soon will be cashing those big TV checks, while erasing the coaching sins from the brief but damaging run of Jimmy Lake.
Take a look at these Lin images and treat it like a TV replay, only photographic. These photos won't get old any time soon.
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