UW's 3 Best Wins and 3 Worst Losses Against Stanford
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Nothing says spoiler better than the Stanford Cardinal, a team that's always done its level best to ruin a promising University of Washington football season.
In 92 meetings, the Huskies never get far, on the average winning one, then losing one. They simply haven't been able to put any discernible distance at all between themselves and those bonafide student-athletes from the South Bay.
As these longstanding football rivals prepare to meet once more on Saturday night at Husky Stadium, their all-time series ledger resembles the ultimate slot-machine jackpot — 44-44-4.
New Husky coach Kalen DeBoer and Stanford's well-respected leader David Shaw likely will insist they've never met on a football field before.
We had to dig deep to find this one, but unbeknownst to each of these coaches they actually crossed paths 26 years ago, in a championship setting no less.
In Savannah — Tennessee, not Georgia — DeBoer was a record-setting wide receiver for a Sioux Falls team that won the 1996 NAIA national championship by beating Western Washington 47-25.
The now-defunct Vikings were headed up by former UW fullback Rob Smith, who gave one David Shaw his first coaching job, first as an outside linebackers coach in 1995 and the following season as Western's tight-end coach when Shaw found himself opposing DeBoer and Sioux Falls.
So Shaw owes DeBoer one as they ready their teams to go to battle in Montlake.
In eyeing the series highs and lows, first the good news relative to the home squad.
3 BEST HUSKY WINS
2016, at UW 44, Stanford 6 — In a Friday night romp televised by ESPN, the 10th-ranked Huskies scored their most lopsided victory over a Top 10 team, beating No. 7 Stanford in a game witnessed by a raucous crowd of 72,027. This outcome surpassed a 44-8 romp over No. 6 Wisconsin in the 1960 Rose Bowl. The UW did a lot of damage with 8 sacks, 6 in the opening half, on their way to a CFP berth against Alabama.
1999, at UW 35, Stanford 30 — Husky quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo made NCAA history by becoming the first player to rush for 200 yards and throw for 300 in the same game, doing so against a 25th-ranked team headed to the Rose Bowl. In front of a crowd of 70,308 at Husky Stadium, he piled up 207 yards rushing on 22 carries and 302 yards on 19-of-32 passes with one TD throw. On top of that, he required in-game medical treatment for a bruised hip and backside.
2012, UW 17, Stanford 13 at Century Link — The Huskies rushed back from a 13-3 third-quarter deficit with a pair of scores and beat the 8th-ranked Cardinal on Keith Price's 35-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Kasen Williams with 4:53 left to play. With Husky Stadium under renovation, the game was played downtown at the Seahawks' facility, plus it was was shown on national TV. The victory ended a three-game losing streak to Stanford built on differential scores of 20, 41 and 44 points.
3 WORST HUSKY LOSSES
1982, at Stanford 43, UW 31 — The Huskies were the defending Rose Bowl champs, holding a 7-0 record and ranked No. 1 for six weeks when they squandered a 17-7 second-quarter lead in a game nationally televised from Palo Alto. They gave up 23 unanswered points to a team powered by quarterback John Elway, who completed 20 of 30 passes for 265 yards and 2 touchdowns, and had to finish the year in the Aloha Bowl against Maryland and Boomer Esiason.
1971, Stanford 17, at UW 6 — Averaging 50 points per game in their first four outings, the unbeaten and 11th-ranked Huskies were completely shut down by the Cardinal defense and had their Rose Bowl hopes dashed. They finished with negative 13 yards rushing and vaunted quarterback Sonny Sixkiller completed just 12 of 46 passes for 182 yards while throwing 4 interceptions. The Huskies finally scored with 4:40 left in the game on Luther Sligh's 1-yard run.
2011, at Stanford 65, UW 21 — In a matchup of the nation's 7th- and 22nd-ranked teams, the higher-regarded Cardinal demonstrated the difference by piling up 615 yards of total offense, including 446 yards rushing. The Huskies, even with Chris Polk getting loose for 61- and 46-yard touchdown runs, couldn't make it a game. They had defensive problems all season long, later losing to Baylor 67-56 in the Alamo Bowl and firing defensive coordinator Nick Holt.
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