Inside The Huskies

Huskies Just Miss Top 25 in Coaches Poll

Jedd Fisch's team came in 25 votes behind Iowa.

Dan Raley

The UW and Oregon line up a against each other at Husky Stadium in 2023.
The UW and Oregon line up a against each other at Husky Stadium in 2023. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Typical of this University of Washington football team, it remains the big unknown for a lot of people who, at the same time, still can't totally dismiss the Huskies.

Take the AFCA Coaches Poll, for example.

The UW finds itself on the outside looking in, receiving the 26th most votes -- leaving it just outside of this Top 25 ranking.

The Huskies picked up 123 votes from the coaches, leaving them just 25 behind No. 25 Iowa, their Week 7 opponent.

The roadblock to higher regard is the UW returns just two starters, senior linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala and junior cornerback Elijah Jackson, and it underwent a coaching change from Kalen DeBoer to Jedd Fisch.

What keeps the Huskies in the national conversation is the fact they went 14-1 and advanced to the national championship game against Michigan, which should give them some credence, that the program deserves continuing respect for its landmark season.

Georgia, no surprise, ranks No. 1 with 1,364 votes, including 46 first-place votes, to outdistance Ohio State, which has 1,302 overall votes and 7 first-place ballots as the poll runner-up.

Oregon, which the Huskies beat twice last season, is the No. 3 team; followed by Texas, which the UW defeated in the Sugar Bowl, at No. 4; and Alabama, which has DeBoer as its new coach, is ranked No. 5.

The Huskies will face five of the Top 25 this season in Oregon, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Penn State, No. 23 USC and No. 25 Iowa.

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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