Husky Football Receives High 5s in Forde, Wilner Preseason Polls

Kalen DeBoer's second UW team continues to climb in early rankings.

Thirty-six hours after Georgia made its primetime pitch to become the next NFL expansion franchise, the mock Top 25 rankings for 2023 began rolling off the presses much like newspapers once did. 

The University of Washington Huskies, similar to that SEC juggernaut, is turning up on all of these prognostications.

While Georgia has No. 1 locked down in nearly all of these exercises for the coming college football season, Kalen DeBoer's team finds itself moving up more and more in the neighborhood practically with each new release.

This week, Sports Illustrated's college football expert Pat Forde and Jon Wilner of the Bay Area News Group each pegged the Huskies as the nation's fifth-best team — one slot removed from a potential College Football Playoff appearance and what's truly rarefied air.

On Tuesday, Forde picked Georgia, Michigan, LSU and Penn State, before raising the name of the UW in his way-too-early Top 25, with his story accessed here.

As for the Huskies, here's what the veteran sportswriter had to say about them, even teasing their ultimate postseason potential:

Anyone ready for another purple-clad Playoff crasher? The Huskies could have a chance. In the final analysis, Kalen DeBoer was the best first-year coach not named Sonny Dykes. He now has the chance for a huge second season. Quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who finished in the top 10 in the Heisman Trophy voting, is coming back, as are most of his prime receiving targets. The Huskies have done some work in the transfer portal that should bolster the defense, particularly Oklahoma State defensive back Jabbar Muhammad. In terms of the schedule, there will be a trip to USC, but Oregon must come to Seattle. We’ll see whether Michigan State has recovered sufficiently to provide a test in East Lansing early.

Meantime, in Northern California, Wilner, who covers all things Pac-12 football and basketball and has done so for decades, came away similarly upbeat about the UW's chances for national success next fall. His story is found by tapping this link.

He ranked the Huskies directly behind Georgia, Michigan, Alabama and LSU in his way-too-early poll, offering the following glowing synopsis on DeBoer's second team in Montlake:

The best team in the Pac-12 at the end of 2022 looks like the best for the start of 2023 with the return of quarterback Michael Penix, a slew of playmakers and several premier edge rushers. Our question: To what extent, if any, will the offensive line regress?

Everyone appears to be in agreement, Forde and Wilner included, that the Pac-12 should be about as good as its ever been in its final season counting USC and UCLA memberships before those two are swallowed up by the Big Ten. Six Pac-12 teams, beginning with the UW, continue to draw Top 25 mention.

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