A Wish-List Holiday Bowl Matchup Is UW Against Notre Dame

A lot stands to happen before college football's regular-season games wind down and bowl invitations are formally extended, but one postseason matchup being considered right now might stir up a little excitement in Montlake.

How about the University of Washington and Notre Dame meeting in the Holiday Bowl at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 28, at Petco Park in San Diego in a game televised by ESPN?

The 15th-ranked Huskies (8-2 overall, 5-2 Pac-12) would bring their gunslinging quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and his teammates to pit them up against one of the game's most legendary college programs in the No. 18 Fighting Irish (7-3), all in the guaranteed climatic comfort of Southern California.

"I think consensus is we'd like to see a [prolific] quarterback in our game," said Larry Baber, longtime Holiday Bowl representative, who will attend Saturday night's UW-Colorado game.

While Penix, in particular, will be a big bowl game draw wherever he goes, he likely brings some assurances for ticket-selling efforts. Others of his stature recently have opted out of bowls to protect their NFL interests, but Penix has never appeared in a bowl game because of four season-ending injuries at his previous stop, Indiana. It's hard to see him not going the distance with the UW in the postseason.

However, the Huskies might be aiming a little higher than San Diego if they win out and finish 10-2.

They still could end up in the Rose Bowl, especially if Lincoln Riley's USC Trojans go 12-1 and earn a spot in the College Football Playoff and others around the conference lose.

Oregon (8-2, 6-1) remains in the championship mix, but it might have to go without an injured Bo Nix against Utah and Oregon State, with the quarterback's possible absence changing everything for the Ducks.

Utah (8-2, 6-1) still has a very good chance of playing in the league championship game and a New Year's Day bowl, but has to beat the Ducks on Saturday in Eugene.

The Holiday Bowl is eager to have a quality matchup after it returns to operation following a two-year absence because of the COVID pandemic. UCLA and North Carolina State showed up a year ago to play, only to have Bruins players test positive for the virus and the game get shelved at the last minute.

The Huskies haven't beaten Notre Dame in eight tries and this might be an opportune time if the game comes to fruition. The Fighting Irish, who likewise score a lot of points these days, suffered bad losses to Marshall and Stanford, but have won four consecutive games to restore their image.

In fact, the Irish hold up a pair of impressive victories in a 35-14 rout of now No. 9 Clemson, the Tigers' only loss, and a 45-32 decision over No. 13 North Carolina, handing the Tar Heels their only defeat.

Should Notre Dame go elsewhere, Holiday reps would bring in an ACC team, with Florida State, North Carolina State, Duke and maybe even Cam Bright's former team, Pittsburgh, among the possibilities.

The UW has played in the Holiday Bowl four times, and won just once, and hasn't been there for a dozen years.

In 1996, Colorado topped a Corey Dillon-led Husky team 33-21, in matchup of the nation's No. 8 and 13 entries, with Jim Lambright in his fourth season as the UW coach.

Three years later, a seventh-ranked Kansas State team defeated the Rick Neuheisel-coached Huskies 34-20. In 2001, ninth-ranked Texas beat Neuheisel's No. 21 UW team in a 47-43 shootout.

Finally in 2010, the Steve Sarkisian-guided Huskies won its one and only Holiday Bowl, beating 17th-ranked Nebraska 19-7.

Forty-one Holiday Bowls have been held since the game was established in 1978. The Pac-12 has had a working agreement with the postseason venture since 1998, always sending a league member thereafter.

This year's game will be played at the San Diego Padres' Petco Park, with the stadium reconfigured to accommodate 40,000 fans, which is a good crowd size for a bowl game these days outside of New Year's Day.

The previous site, San Diego Stadium, recently was demolished to make room for San Diego State's new football facility ... which some say could become part of the Pac-12.

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