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Inside The Huskies

Would 9-3 UW Season Be Revelation Or Disappointment?

Nearly 100 days from the season opener, we dissect a prediction for the Huskies.
Dan Raley|
The Huskies share a post Spring Game moment.
The Huskies share a post Spring Game moment. | Dave Sizer photo

One hundred and three days until the season begins against Washington State in the Apple Cup at Husky Stadium and a much more veteran University of Washington football team is trying to be taken seriously.

Yes, everyone agrees the Huskies resemble a Top 25 team, but just how good are they?

In a USA Today forecast separating teams by tiers, the UW turns up in the 9-3 category in terms of regular-season record. At first glance, this isn't anything to groan about because Jedd Fisch's guys share this distinction with Florida State, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and USC.

Just wondering: would Lane Kiffin's team in Baton Rouge be pegged higher had it successfully obtained Husky quarterback Demond Williams Jr. from the transfer portal rather than settling for former ASU signal-caller Sam Leavitt, which is what happened.

No, Williams will call the signals in Montlake this season and, with an offensive line filled with potential NFL players, he should be fairly effective. He has not gotten any slower. He should put his high-end speed to far greater use this fall than before.

In this USA Today guesswork, the Huskies are one of 16 teams projected to finish 9-3 and they trail 31 others in the top tiers.

Four teams are projected to go unbeaten in 12 games, five others are relegated to 11-1 and 22 have 10-2 attached to them.

So the next question is who do the Huskies lose to this season?

Based on records alone, consider this scenario: the Huskies open 8-0, which includes road wins at USC and Nebraska, and then lose to Penn State, which is rebuilding with a new coach and has generously been given a 10-2 record in Matt Campbell's debut season. But they're the Nittany Lions.

Should that happen, the UW would bounce back with a win at Michigan State and then lose their last two outings to Indiana at home and Oregon on the road. The Hoosiers are predicted to finish 11-1, the Ducks 10-2.

Next question: would the fan base consider this coming season a failure with three losses in the UW's final four games on the schedule?

A playoff berth would be trumpeted as a real possibility at 8-0 or even 9-1, but would no doubt disappear for a three-loss team, wouldn't it?

So if offensive guard John Mills reads this USA Today forecast, does he head back into the weight room, swearing and throwing things around, and do an extra set of every lift?

Ah, but this is what the silly season -- that college football down time from May 1 to August 31 -- is used for.

Predictions, guesswork, daydreams.

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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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