Against Overmatched Colorado, Huskies Have Lot at Stake

Good byes, bowl games and coaching milestone on the line.

The University of Washington football team will take the field against Colorado on Saturday night not so much for revenge, but for an encore.

The Huskies will try and build on the momentum that comes with a deeply satisfying 37-34 victory over the then sixth-ranked Oregon Ducks rather than the memory of one of their most tepid performances in recent seasons that resulted in a 20-17 loss last year in Boulder.

While mathematically still in the running for the Pac-12 championship game, Kalen DeBoer's team (8-2 overall, 5-2 Pac-12) has a more realistic chance of winning out and finishing with an 11-win season — something done at the UW only in 1984 and 2000 by Orange and Rose Bowl teams. Just two Husky teams, in 1991 and 2016, have won 12 games in a season. So this could be a landmark season for success.

A victory over Colorado (1-9, 1-6), the team with the worst overall record in the conference, would turn DeBoer into the winningest first-year coach in Husky football history. He and Chris Petersen currently share that distinction as 8-game winners.

Holiday Bowl rep Larry Baber will be in attendance at Husky Stadium, with a UW-Notre Dame game high on his postseason wish list, and he likely will be joined by scouts from other bowls interested in the Huskies.

Quarterback Michael Penix Jr., in what could be his final UW home game, will try to build on his nation-leading 3,686 passing yards and 368.6 passing yards per game while a Heisman Trophy campaign slowly takes shape promoting him.

Thirteen other Huskies, notably offensive guards Jaxson Kirkland and Henry Bainivalu, center Corey Luciano, running back Wayne Taulapapa, edge rusher Jeremiah Martin, safety Alex Cook, linebacker Cam Bright and kicker Peyton Henry, will exit as seniors and be saluted accordingly.

Colorado joins all of these lakefront festivities having lost every game except a 20-13 overtime victory over California. Karl Dorrell was fired as coach at midseason. The program is an absolute mess.

It wasn't doing much better at this time a year ago when the Huskies outgained Colorado by a whopping 426 total-offense yards to 183 and lost by three. It was complete giveaway, with then-quarterback Dylan Morris fumbling away a chance to score and having Buff linebacker Jack Lamb go the other way for an 88-yard interception return, and everything went downhill after that in a lost 4-8 season.

That football game also marked the last time Morris was the Huskies' starting quarterback, with him replaced for the Apple Cup by then true freshman Sam Huard and then for this season by Penix. Running back Cam Davis likewise was hurt against the Buffaloes, forcing him to miss the WSU game and then all of spring football. 

The Huskies likely will be sorely tested at cornerback once more with redshirt freshman Davon Banks now out for the season and grad transfer Jordan Perryman nursing a shoulder injury and possibly not available. Expect either redshirt freshman Elijah Jackson or true freshman Jaivion Green to start. 

Yet with that problem position still in flux, chances are the UW won't suffer a letdown against a wounded opponent. There's too much at stake, too much momentum carrying this team. With the 2021 game in Colorado just a faint memory, the Huskies should know better than to not be at their best.

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