A Big Ten Road Trip, As Huskies Know, Won't Be Easy

Jedd Fisch leads his UW football team into his home state.

Jedd Fisch leads his UW football team into the stadium on game day. / Skylar Lin Visuals

The thing about playing Big Ten football road games is, with few exceptions, the schools are isolated and a challenge to reach.

While the University of Washington football team has the luxury of flying a chartered jet directly to a game-day site, Husky fans typically have to change planes or travel to a hub city by air and then drive multiple hours in a rental car to reach the final destination, thus limiting their willingness to take on this adventure.

Or have you not looked up State College, Pennsylvania, on a map and determined whether it's best to fly to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia or Baltimore and then drive anywhere from 139 to 191 miles to Penn State University, smack dab in the middle of that state? And then fork over $1,000 or more a night to book a hotel room?

This might explain why the Huskies previously have won just 12 of 33 road games in Big Ten country, all non-conference match-ups, often overmatched and distracted by the partisan and exhaustive surroundings.

On Friday night, Jedd Fisch will take his UW team into his home state to play Rutgers in one of the more accessible road trips on the schedule, with the home city of Piscataway just 20 miles from the Newark Airport.

"I think we have about 50 people coming to the game, with family and friends and friends' kids and all of that. and high school coaches," said Fisch, who grew up in Livingston, New Jersey, which is about 25 miles from Rutgers. "It should be fun."

At least he can say that.

Rutgers is going all out to promote this game as one of the biggest ones on its home schedule, calling for a "Black Out" in which all of the Scarlet Knights players and 50,000-plus fans come dressed all in that ominous color to host and try to beat up on the most recent national runner-up.

While the Huskies have pulled memorable road upsets at Ohio State (38-22) and Michigan (20-11) some 58 and 40 years ago, respectively, their back history is littered with plenty of 48-14 and 50-0 defeats, where the Big Ten pressure and physicality simply got to them.

The UW's longest Big Ten road trip came at the beginning of the 1969 season when Jim Owens took his team to Michigan State and lost 27-11 in its opener in East Lansing, then stayed another week back there and practiced for a game at Michigan 65 miles away in Ann Arbor on the following Saturday -- and dropped that one 45-7.

The UW is 1-4 both at Michigan and Ohio State, and 2-6 at Minnesota. The Huskies have lost at every Big Ten venue except Purdue, winning all three visits in West Lafayette, Indiana; Rutgers, Wisconsin and Northwestern, going 1-0 at each of those places; and Maryland, where they've never played.

With an overall 46-42-1 record, the Huskies are 25-14-1 against the Big Ten at home.

They're also 9-7 against Big Ten teams in bowl games, including 7-4 in the Rose Bowl -- numbers that for the most part won't change unless the Huskies somehow get paired up in a playoff game against a conference member in one of the big bowls.

Fisch, whose mother still lives in the area, says a team dinner at the family home isn't feasible because the Huskies have a late arrival on Thursday, the day before the game.

Hie noted how his defensive coordinator, Steve Belichick, is a Rutgers grad who played a season of football for the Scarlet Knights.

Yet this comes down to a business trip. Playing in the Big Ten is hard enough.

"It's just about bringing our Washington team over to New Jersey," the coach said, "and seeing how well we can play there, "

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington