18 Reasons Why There's No Place Like Home for Huskies

The UW takes nation's second-longest home streak up against USC.

The Huskies have an 18-game home winning streak, second longest in the nation. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Not much looks familiar for the University of Washington football team in a year's time. The Pac-12 blew up. The Husky coaching staff changed over. The roster was gutted. The Huskies no longer find themselves in contention for a national title or a conference championship, let alone ranked in any polls.

Yet throughout all of this inner chaos, one thing holds true -- it's still difficult for anyone but the guys wearing purple shirts to win at Husky Stadium.

With USC coming to Montlake on Saturday for the first time in five years, the Huskies will show up clutching the nation's second-longest home win streak at 18 and counting, exceeded only by Georgia's 28 consecutive victories in its friendly confines.

The streak isn't necessarily a topic of conversation among the players, according to UW coach Jedd Fisch, who has both won four games and lost as a one-time visitor at Husky Stadium during that time, yet the venue never gets old.

"We talk about how excited we are to play at home," he said.

The UW hasn't lost in its home haunts in 1,068 long-winding days and three continuous seasons. They've hosted visitors such as Michigan, Michigan State, Boise State, Oregon and Fisch's 2022 Arizona team, and survived to tell about it.

They can't win on the road in the Big Ten, but the Huskies still hold up an unvarnished home record that supersedes LSU's 14 consecutive wins in Baton Rouge, Oregon's 13 in a row in Eugene and Liberty's 12 straight in Lynchburg, Virginia.

The Ducks actually have dropped just one game at Autzen Stadium in seven seasons -- to the UW 37-34 in 2022 -- going 37-1 over that time.

HUSKIES' 18-GAME HOME WIN STREAK
1. Kent State, 45-20	Streak began with Kalen DeBoer's UW debut.
2. Portland State, 52-6	The Huskies beat up on current UW center D'Angalo Titialii.
3. Michigan State, 39-28	This marked the first of three crowds storming the field during the streak.
4. Stanford, 40-22	DeBoer's first Pac-12 win was decisive.
5. Arizona, 49-39	Jedd Fisch made his contribution to the streak as a visitor.
6. Oregon State, 24-21	On a windy day, the Huskies survived a close one.
7. Colorado, 54-7	The Buffs lost the year before Deion Sanders took over.
8. Boise State, 56-19	UW made a decent Broncos team with Ashton Jeanty look like a pushover.
9. Tulsa, 43-10	The Golden Hurricane could have used alum Steve Largent.
10. California, 59-32	Jeremiah Hunter's TD catch wasn't enough to stop the UW before he came to Montlake.
11. Oregon, 36-33	Husky fans rushed the field a second time during the streak.
12. Arizona State, 15-7	The UW trailed all game before rescuing this one on Powell pick-6. covering 89 yards.
13. Utah, 35-28	Alphonzo Tuputala made this one a little tougher by dropping 76-yard pick on the 1.
14. Washington State, 24-21	Grady Gross' walk-off field goal secured win No. 14.
15. Weber State, 35-3	The Wildcats scored the fewest points of an opponent in the streak.
16. Eastern Michigan, 30-9	Zach Durfee did his part in extending the streak with 2.5 sacks.
17. Northwestern, 24-5	The Huskies notched their first official Big Ten win to win 17th in a row.
18. Michigan, 27-17	A third crowd rushed the field after getting title-game payback.

Breaking it down, the Huskies have put together their streak by beating 18 different opponents since dropping their final game of the 2021 season, 40-13 to Washington State in the Apple Cup in Seattle.

And not only has the UW come up on the right side of the ledger in all that time, just five of the 18 games have ended up as a one-score outcome, with the Huskies beating Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State by a field goal in each outing, Utah by a touchdown and Arizona State by eight points.

On the average, the Huskies have won these games by scoring 34.8 points to the opponent's 18.2. During the streak, Fisch's Arizona team has tallied the most points by a visitor at Husky Stadium, putting up 39 in 2022.

The coach said the advantage for the Huskies in playing at home is their exceptional fan base, student section and glistening facility.

While the UW barely resembles the team thad did wondrous things in 2023, it holds up the Big Ten's longest home win streak, given that distinction once Michigan lost to Texas 31-12 in Ann Arbor early in the season and had its run of success end at 23.

The Longhorns had their own 11-game home win streak until they lost to Georgia 30-15 in Austin two weekends ago.

So out of all of this home cooking emerges a UW team hasn't been able to survive in the Big Ten outposts of Piscataway, New Jersey, Iowa City or Bloomington, Indiana, but dares anyone to come to its double-deck ballpark hard by Lake Washington and leave in the win column.

"We're at Husky Stadium," Fisch said, "which is a phenomenal place to play ball."

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