Inside The Huskies

Place Your Bets Now: Klatt Among Those Picking UW Over Michigan

The Huskies have been favored all week for Saturday's game with the Wolverines.

Dan Raley

Drew Fowler heads to the locker room after losing to Michigan.
Drew Fowler heads to the locker room after losing to Michigan. / Skylar Lin Visuals

It apparently makes no difference whatsoever that the University of Washington football team has lost two of its past three games, that its top run stopper was lost for the season at Rutgers and that its top pass rusher is limping around and labeled as a game-time decision.

Leading into the weekend's games, the general feeling around college football is the unranked Huskies will beat No. 10 Michigan, in a rematch of the CFP title game participants, at home on Saturday.

The Sportsline consensus says so. BetMGM roundly agrees. Even Joel Klatt, the erstwhile podcaster and FOX football authoritarian is being very public about picking the Huskies to win.

"I know we've got to play really good to have a chance to beat a really good Michigan team ," UW coach Jedd Fisch said on Thursday. "And for us to do that, we've got to have the self-inflicted wounds at a minimum and we have to continue to build confidence when we are down there and it's third-and-long, and when we're kicking the ball. If we can build confidence in those three phases, I think we can have a really good team."

Klatt appears to have a similar premonition. In getting down to the bare details, he offered the following prediction: Washington 24, Michigan 17.

"I like Washington in this game, guys," he said on Thursday's podcast. "I really do."

Klatt bases his forecast on two things: he felt the UW showed enough and should have beaten Rutgers, and agrees that Michigan is one-dimensional at quarterback.

"There's minimal to no downfield passing," he said, referring to Wolverines quarterback Alex Orji.

Almost immediately entering the week, the Huskies were given the nod as a 2.5-point favorite over the Wolverines, who visit Seattle for the fifth time, and make their first Montlake appearance in 23 years. Michigan is 2-2 at Husky Stadium.

"We could look at in a number of ways," Fisch said. "Two third-down stops. Two fourth-and-goal conversions. Two kicks that are there. A few less penalties. We'd be in a different position looking at rankings right now."

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

Published |Modified
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.

Home/Football