This Is Not the Way Huskies Want To Be Singled Out

As Jedd Fisch noted the other day, it's six games into the schedule, which means it's halftime for the 2026 football season. Time to for everyone to catch their breath. Towel off a bit. Reflect on what's happened.

Well, the Sports Illustrated mothership has used this pause in the action to take a concentrated look at the entire college football landscape and who has done what -- and come to the conclusion that nine FBS programs have greatly underperformed to the point they rate as midseason busts.

Yes, the University of Washington is among them.

The Huskies (3-3 overall, 0-3 Big Ten) appear fifth on this list, trailing Texas A&M (3-3 overall, 1-3 SEC), Penn State (3-3 overall, 0-3 Big Ten, Oregon (3-2 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) and LSU (3-2 overall 1-2 SEC), and are positioned ahead of Michigan (3-2 overall, 0-2 Big Ten), Oklahoma (3-2 overall, 1-1 SEC), Clemson (3-2 overall, 2-1 ACC) and Vanderbilt (3-3 overall, 0-3 SEC).

Fan bases are angry, unhappy with the coach or the quarterback or both.

From a preseason national title favorite to high-profile SEC programs, several teams have turned promising seasons into uphill battles pic.twitter.com/59WpRk8XTa
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) October 13, 2026

The SI national team noted how the UW is winless against power-conference opposition. How the Huskies hosted Minnesota and Iowa and never led in either game. How the Husky Stadium home-field advantage has literally disappeared.

Here's what the in-house analysts had to say about Jedd Fisch's team, which was initially ranked 17th in the Associated Press poll:

"It’s been a full-system failure of a season so far for the Huskies. But as tends to be the case, the blame game has focused on quarterback Demond Williams Jr. He became a late-season sensation as a freshman in 2024, followed that up with a productive sophomore campaign, nearly left for LSU, then stayed and received a big payday to do so. This season has not gone well for Williams, bottoming out in a futile performance against Iowa that ended early with a rib injury. Backup Elijah Brown played well in relief and could spark a lineup change, but benching Williams would wave the white flag on a hefty investment."

Usually jovial John Mills had a blank look on his face and somber tone on Tuesday when asked about the unexpected dip for the Huskies.

"Obviously none of us on this team thought this season would be going this way," he said. "When you put in all the offseason work and you're doing your job and what not, and you come and have back to back to back losses like this, it's very frustrating, angry. But we have to push on and that's what we're doing."

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