Inside The Huskies

Huskies Rank in Top 3 Among Bounce-Back Teams with 6-Win Bump

Only TCU and USC have shown a bigger increase in victories.

Dan Raley

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Twelve months ago, the University of Washington and University of Texas football teams were home for the holidays, forced to put their feet up and flip on ESPN or some other TV network if they wanted to get their fill of the postseason.

That was then and this is now: the Huskies and Longhorns, who will meet in the Dec. 29 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, are among 10 teams singled out by 247Sports as programs on the rise heading into 2023, an observation gladly retweeted by UW recruiting director Courtney Morgan.

Taking a closer look at this redemptive 10, Texas Christian and USC have made the most progress from a numbers standpoint to date — improving by seven victories from 2021, with bowl games still on their docket.

TCU went from a sorry 5-7 season to a 12-1 showing, with only a 3-point overtime loss to Kansas State standing in the way of a perfect season, with a CFP Fiesta Bowl outing against Michigan still to be played and maybe more even more success if the Horned Frogs can advance.

The Trojans have bounced back from 4-8 to go 11-2, a ledger marred only by 1- and 23-point setbacks both to Utah, with a Cotton Bowl game against Tulane left to finish up the season and a chance to reach for a dozen wins.

DeBoer's Huskies have made the third-most progress of anyone on the list of 10, improving their fortunes in a year's time by six victories, from 4-8 to 10-2, with only 8- and 7-point losses preventing them from running the table.

"Being 10-2, [I] can't say we put a number on the record, as far as number of wins that would make us feel good about the season, but [I'm] certainly proud of the way the guys kept battling," DeBoer said. "We were 4-2 at one time, but to rattle off six straight to end it means a lot." 

The Duke Blue Devils followed with a five-win increase, rebounding from a 3-9 free fall in 2021 to finish the regular season 8-4, with their losses all close ones, coming by 8 points, 3 in overtime, 3 and 2.

Florida State had four-victory uptick, bouncing back from a 5-7 season to go 9-3, with the Seminoles' losses coming by 10, 2 and 6.

Illinois, Texas, Tennessee and LSU were next, each putting up three-win improvements.

The Illini remade themselves from a 5-7 team to 8-4, losing games only by 3, 8, 7 and 2; Steve Sarkisian's Longhorns have progressed from 5-7 to 8-4, showing losses only by 1, 3 in overtime, 7 and 7 points; Tennessee went from 7-6 to 10-2, dropping games by 14 and 25 points; and LSU has improved from 6-7 to 9-4, counting defeats by 1, 15, 27 and 20 points.

Bringing up the rear on the 247Sports list is South Carolina, welcoming a single-victory bump from season to season, going from 7-6 to 8-4, still counting hard losses by 14, 41, 13 and 31.

 

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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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