Inside The Huskies

Here's Why a Bowl Game, Any Bowl, Is important For the Huskies

Multiple prognosticators have the UW playing in the same postseason outing.

Dan Raley

UW players arrive at Husky Stadium before the Michigan game.
UW players arrive at Husky Stadium before the Michigan game. / Skylar Lin Visuals

When the University of Washington football team hosts USC on Saturday, the Huskies have much to play for.

Their 18-game home winning streak -- the second longest in the nation to Georgia's 28 -- is on the line.

The UW's recent dominance of the Trojans -- two consecutive victories and three in the past four outings -- is at stake.

With the Huskies hovering at the .500 level -- 4-4 overall and 2-3 in Big Ten play -- a winning season is a must.

Oh, and there's one more valuable incentive.

A bowl game.

While that might seem superfluous to some, considering the UW appeared in the Sugar Bowl and the semifinals and the championship game of the College Football Playoff last season, a postseason match-up is imperative for Jedd Fisch's rebuilding efforts, giving him added time to develop his mostly young roster.

"It's always important because you get 15 more practices," Fisch said earlier this week. "You know, as a coach, that's what you always look for. How do you have more opportunity to have more practice time with the guys."

With the newness of this UW team, the coach added that it would be a bonus just to spend another month together on the football field.

The seniors receive yet one more opportunity to showcase their talents before relying solely on the NFL Scouting Combine, pro days and film to convince pro scouts they're worthy of a draft pick.

Also, Fisch mentioned that the fans get rewarded with yet another chance to see the Huskies in action in a bowl.

It appears if the UW can beat its Los Angeles rival and finish with at least six wins, the Huskies very well could end up in Southern California in the LA Bowl against UNLV (6-2 overall, 2-1 Mountain West) on Dec. 18 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

Of six bowl-game projections that came out this week, USA Today, Bleacher Report and Sports Illustrated all favor that particular bowl match-up. Yet Action Sports thinks the UW will face SMU (7-1 overall, 4-0 ACC) in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 27. College Football News and CBS Sports don't see the Huskies going bowling at all.

"I try to focus in on beating SC, but I would love nothing more than to celebrate something in December with a bowl, with our families and with our friends and with our team," the Husky coach said. "And we're going to do everything we can to do that."

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

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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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