Inside The Huskies

UW-Oregon Football Kickoff All Set, With NBC Televising the Action

The Big Ten made the decision after most of Saturday's games were complete.

Dan Raley

Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr. (9) embraces Oregon counterpart Bo Nix (10) after the 2022 game at Autzen Stadium.
Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr. (9) embraces Oregon counterpart Bo Nix (10) after the 2022 game at Autzen Stadium. / Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

The Big Ten has spoken: the Washington-Oregon football game will kick off next Saturday from Eugene at 4:30 p.m., with NBC televising the proceedings -- which means everyone will have to wait untiil things get real chilly and the sun begins to go down before learning whether freshman Demond Williams Jr. will be the Huskies' starting quarterback.

UW coach Jedd Fisch has vowed he won't reveal his QB choice -- between senior Will Rogers, the 11-game starter, or Williams, who would be making his college starting debut -- before the game begins.

Anything to build some suspense for for a match-up that could get out of hand, with the No. 1-ranked Ducks (11-0 overall, 8-0 Big Ten) hosting the rebuilding Huskies (6-5, 4-4), who haven't won a road game yet this season.

Williams has played in all 11 UW outings and replaced a slumping Rogers either at halftime or early in the second half of the past two games against Penn State and UCLA.

The 5-foot-11, 187-pound Williams, from Chandler, Arizona, gives the Huskies a better chance when they face a physical disadvantage up front, with his high-level speed and scrambling abilities able to create problems for opposing defenses.

The UW will head to Eugene with a 63-48-5 edge in the rivalry series, which includes three consecutive victories during the Kalen DeBoer era.

The Huskies-Ducks games, in fact, have been wildly entertaining as of late, with the UW taking a 37-34 victory in their last trip to Autzen Stadium, a 36-33 win at Husky Stadium on a missed Oregon field goal on the final play, and a 34-31 victory in the Pac-12 championship game in Las Vegas last December.

Before that, the Ducks took a 26-16 victory in Seattle in a 2021 game that led to the eventual firing of then-UW coach Jimmy Lake for shoving one of his players on the sideline that day, and presumably for losing, and the immediate dismissal of his offensive coordinator, John Donovan, because his offensive schemes didn't work.

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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