Road Trip Marks New Experience for Huskies' Worldly Odunze

The UW wide receiver hasn't traveled for a non-conference game before.

Just when you thought Rome Odunze had experienced everything with the University of Washington football team, he shared the following little anomaly, an obtuse factoid.

When he rides that chartered jet on Thursday to Michigan State and East Lansing, Michigan, the junior wide receiver — in his fourth season — will be embarking on his first road trip with the Huskies for a September non-conference game.

"I don't think I've ever played an out of conference away game," Odunze said. 

He was correct about that, which seems odd for this worldly wide receiver, who has spent time studying aboard in, where else, Rome, Italy. 

When Odunze was a freshman, the Huskies played just four conference home games before the COVID pandemic shut down Montlake in 2020.

A year later, Odunze was injured to begin the season and stayed home when the Huskies traveled to Michigan and lost 31-10 in a nationally televised encounter and their only non-league road game.

And last year, the UW opened up with three non-conference contests against the States, all at home — Kent State, Portland State and Michigan State. 

That's not to say Odunze hasn't traveled to most of the Pac-12 cities for games and shared in the postseason well away from home last December, in the Alamo Bowl against Texas in San Antonio.

Yet it remains nothing short of amazing that this will be Odunze's one and only non-conference road trip, considering he's likely headed to the NFL at the end of this season.

Maybe he'll have to ask his teammates how to act and what to pack for this weekend excursion back east.

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