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Inside The Huskies

Who's No. 1? High-Profile Football Analysts Say It's the Huskies

The Huskies haven't been top-ranked in the AP poll since 1992.
Dan Raley|
Who's No. 1? High-Profile Football Analysts Say It's the Huskies
Who's No. 1? High-Profile Football Analysts Say It's the Huskies

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Washington Huskies

TUCSON, Arizona — Joel Klatt first voiced his opinion, then Kirk Herbstreit. A former Colorado quarterback and an ex-Ohio State signal-caller. One a FOX Sports staple, the other currently an ESPN-TV headliner.

These well-known college football figureheads have one more thing in common, too.

They've both been persuaded this week that the Washington Huskies, now 4-0, seventh-ranked and preparing to play the Arizona Wildcats as 18-point favorites on Saturday night in the desert, are the nation's top football team.

This week, the high-profile Herbstreit ranked his top four teams in the following order: 1) Washington, 2) Georgia, 3) Florida State and 4) Texas.  

With the Huskies winning four blowouts in as many tries, more and more people are climbing on the UW bandwagon these days.

This week, Kalen DeBoer's team even drew a first-place vote in the Associated Press poll, something that hadn't happened since 1997, when the Huskies began the season 2-0 and rose to No. 2 in the rankings only to lose to Nebraska 27-14 in week 3.

DeBoer has no problem with the added attention coming to his team.

"I think, collectively too, where we're at, it helps with the recruiting," the UW coach said of a high ranking. "I don't know if just one person's vote makes that big a difference, but just where we've been now, not just for one week, two weeks, but we've sustained this year in the top 25."

The second-year Husky leader says his team thrives off its lofty reputation and is determined to perform like one of the nation's best football entries.

"I think there's an expectation our team has to play like a top 10 team and beyond," DeBoer said. "We know we're going to get everyone's best shot. We know that our schedule is super competitive and we can't bring anything but our A game."

The Huskies actually haven't been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll since 1992, when Don James' final team spent five weeks on top of the rankings before a loan scandal involving starting quarterback Billy Joe Hobert and other distractions ruined everything for a team coming off a national championship.

Not to bring up bad news, but '92 was the last time the UW topped the rankings and it didn't end well. The Huskies took an 8-0 record and a new QB — brace yourself — into Tucson and lost to Arizona 16-3. 

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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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