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Inside The Huskies

UW Will Make Gophers Have To Come Out at Night

Kickoff is set for the Minnesota game and it's a late one in Montlake.
Dan Raley|
Husky Stadium at night is quite a spectacle.
Husky Stadium at night is quite a spectacle. | Skylar Lin Visuals

If Caddyshack taught us anything, it's that gophers prefer to come out of their holes early in the day, when the temperatures are warm and fuzzy.

Apparently the University of Washington has seen the movie -- because the UW will try and make the Minnesota Gophers as uncomfortable as can be by hosting them in a game that kicks off at 8 p.m. PT on Sept. 26 at Husky Stadium.

By the way, that's 10 p.m., Minneapolis time, for those watching at home.

The only thing that could make this experience more harrowing for this first Big Ten opponent of the season for the Huskies is to have Bill Murray working the sideline in the Montlake chill, swatting at everything coming near in a Gophers uniform.

The Huskies have deemed this as their blackout outing on the home schedule, one in which Jedd Fisch's players will show up in all-black Addidas uniforms, in a continuing effort to pull themselves out of the game-day malaise that's surrounded this team since the opener.

After unimpressive showings against Washington State and Utah State, which effectively knocked the Huskies out of the AP poll after beginning the season at No. 17, the Minnesota game looms large for them.

They're hoping to welcome back starting center Landen Hatchett from a wrist injury that day to anchor a discombobulated offensive line, as well as their lone Minnesota-raised roster representative in defensive-line mainstay Elinneus Davis.

The 6-foot-3, 320-pound Davis is defensive tackle who hails from Moorhead, which is located on the North Dakota state line in the Fargo suburbs but is part of Minnesota.

By then, Davis will have missed two games with a lower-leg injury if and when he faces his home state team that would have sorely loved to have kept him home.

None of these guys on either side were born the last time the Huskies and Gophers mixed it up on the football field.

That was 1977, when the Huskies were quarterbacked by Warren Moon, whose son Ryken currently is a walk-on running back, were bound for the Rose Bowl, but emerged a 19-17 loser to Minnesota on the road during the daytime.

The UW provided a 54-yard touchdown pass from Moon to wide receiver Spider Gaines, and a 16-yard scoring run from Moon, but got beat by four field goals, with three coming unanswered in the second half.

So these teams will reunite in Seattle in two weekends, with a Moon likely in attendance and in uniform, at night, in the chill coming off Lake Washington, at a time that isn't necessarily conducive for Gophers, furry or human.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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