True Story: Huskies Haven't Lost to USC In Decade

This might change come Saturday, but strange as this may sound, the University of Washington football team hasn't lost to USC in 10 solid years.

Granted, these teams have played just three times over the past decade for whatever circumstances dictated it -- such as dealing with rotating Pac-12 and Big Ten schedules -- yet to go that long without losing to the Mighty Men of Troy has been something of a revelation in Montlake.

It's been two home victories sandwiched around the Michael Penix Jr. dagger through the heart in Los Angeles three years ago.

The Huskies from 2016 will tell you it's ample payback for what happened to them the last time USC emerged victorious over the UW.

The Trojans broke linebacker Azeem Victor's leg.

Huskies quarterback Will Rogers (7) winds up to throw a pass in his team's 26-21 win over USC in 2024. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

They took away the UW's top defensive player and one of its fastest defenders at the time, abruptly ended the Huskies' bid to go unbeaten and weakened the program's first College Football Playoff qualifier considerably against Alabama.

Victor was never the same again.

Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold can tell you all about it because he was taking snaps for the Trojans that day as Victor was loaded onto a cart in the second quarter of a close game that turned into a 26-13 setback and the upright defender waved to the somber fans as he was driven out of Husky Stadium.

Michael Penix Jr. throws an end-zone TD pass to Devin Culp in the 2023 UW-USC game in Los Angeles. | Dave Sizer photo

Ten years without a loss to USC helps make up for the 10 consecutive defeats the Trojans doled out from 1965 to 1974, when O.J. Simpson shared in some of that success and three national championships were won.

It's further removes some of the sting out of the Trojans losing the first game of this overall series 22-0 in 1923 and then rattling off six wins in a row over the UW.

It eases USC spoiling a Husky national championship bid and an unbeaten season in 1984 by beating that Don James team 16-7 in Los Angeles.

Huskies quarterback Jacob Eason (10) throws a pass over the USC defense in a 26-13 win in 2019. | USA TODAY Sports

The '84 Huskies still beat Michigan on the road and Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and should have been rewarded with a national title even with that Trojan blemish hanging over it.

No, the Huskies are unbeaten over USC in recent times after besting them 26-13 in 2019, 52-42 in 2023 and 26-21 in 2024.

Quarterbacks Jacob Eason, Penix and Will Rogers engineered those landmark victories, with the 52-point outburst engineered by Penix so tough to deal with the Trojans immediately fired their defensive coordinator and later much of the defensive staff, including Brian Odom, now the UW linebackers coach.

Victor, an L.A. area kid who was last heard from as a football player in 2022 with the UFL's Houston Gamblers, no doubt will be watching and pulling for a Trojans beatdown on Saturday while he massages that likely chronic sore leg.

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