Bowl Bid Remains Incentive for Huskies to Win Again

Jedd Fisch would welcome the 15 extra practices for his UW rebuild.

Demond Williams Jr. and Adam Mohammed will get 15 extra practices if the Huskies can land a bowl bid. / Skylar Lin Visuals

A Peach Bowl scout wandered through the press box last weekend at Penn State, handing out promotional material for his postseason game to everyone in attendance, cheerfully chatting up different people as he made the rounds.

Media members following the University of Washington football team might have glanced at the stuff as a courtesy, but they knew it didn't have anything to do with the four- soon to be a five-loss Huskies who went home with a 35-6 loss.

Whereas the Peach, the site for a CFP quarterfinal match-up in Atlanta on New Year's Day, hasn't been an option for the UW (5-5 overall, 3-4. Big Ten) since the losses began piling up, a bowl bid remains imperative for Jedd Fisch's rebuilding efforts.

It really doesn't matter where the Huskies would go or who they might play in December, whether it's before or after Christmas.

Yet the additional 15 practices that comes with a trip to, say, the L.A. Bowl or the Independence Bowl in Louisiana is the big carrot -- especially with freshmen such as quarterback Demond Williams Jr, running back Adam Mohammed, tight end Decker DeGraaf and linebacker Khmori House expected to be pillars for the 2025 football team.

"We're going to do everything we can to make that happen," Fisch said of the extra practice time.

Of course, that will require a sixth win for the UW,which hosts UCLA (4-5, 3-4) on Friday night at Husky Stadium, an opponent that is far more beatable than the one in the Huskies' final game, against No. 1-ranked and unbeaten Oregon (10-0, 7-0) in Eugene.

Yet there's more to a bowl game than just getting the next group of headlining players ready for the following season. The older guys want it, too.

"Just to get that extra two weeks with the teammates and brothers and bond with them some more and have the opportunity one more time, you cherish those memories forever," senior wide receiver Giles Jackson.

One hundred years ago, the Huskies began going to bowl games when they ended up in the 1924 Rose Bowl against Navy, a game that ended in a 14-14 tie.

Altogether, they've appeared in 42 bowls, or or nearly one every other year, won 21 of them.

Going back a dozen years, the Huskies have appeared in 10 different bowls in as many opportunities, not repeating a trip until they played in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, which they did in 2011 and again in 2022.

While the new guys can use the practice and the older players can use the added memories, there's also a newcomer such as senior D'Angalo Titialii, a Portland State transfer who came in and has started all 10 games so far, who would find great satisfaction in a bowl outing.

"I've never been to a bowl game; I've never been to a playoff game," Titialii said. "To win this [UCLA] game, would be great to get in a bowl game."

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