UW Tries to Turn Buffaloes Extinct, Wins in a Rout

Husky running backs Wayne Taulapapa and Cam Davis account for 4 rushing touchdowns and 166 yards rushing.

Before Saturday night's game, Michael Penix was the last man out of the Husky Stadium tunnel, at least before his teammates were called out one by one for Senior Day ceremonies.

He skipped onto the field, then ran sideways, and finally turned all the way around to look at the crowd, soaking in the moment as if it were his final University of Washington home game, too.

Colorado certainly hopes it has seen the last of Penix and a lot of his teammates. They had the hapless Buffaloes all turned around and confused as the Huskies mixed ceremony with trickery to to roll to a 54-7 victory as expected, though maybe not as unmerciful.

The UW (9-2 overall, 6-2 Pac-12) put on an impressive show for Holiday and Alamo bowl representatives, scoring the first three times it had the ball and running out to a 33-0 halftime advantage. 

Yet if the Huskies can beat Washington State (7-4, 4-4) next week in Pullman, they might fully expect to play in a New Year's Day game somewhere.

While greatly one-sided, the victory also proved historic because Kalen DeBoer became the winningest first-year UW coach in program history with his ninth victory, surpassing Chris Petersen, who posted an 8-6 opening record in 2014.

"That was a good win for us," DeBoer said. "We talked at half that we did what we were supposed to do in the first half. We did what we were supposed to do for the whole game. It starts with the seniors and the leadership."

Will Nixon (8) and the Huskies head out of the tunnel for their final home game of the season :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

In what was offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb's wildest concoction yet, the Huskies scored their second touchdown on a dizzying double-reverse pass that began with Penix and ended with Jalen McMillan for a 27-yard TD. 

Each player touched the ball twice on the play. Penix pitched it to McMillan who slipped it to Ja'Lynn Polk, who gave it back to the quarterback, who threw to McMillan on the left side.

Whew.

Colorado (1-10, 1-7) was so baffled by this drawn-up, sandlot play, McMillan broke no less than three tackles as he easily scampered into the end zone for a 14-0 Husky lead with 2:49 left in the first quarter.

"We've been repping it," McMillan said. "We detailed it up this week and it was really fun."

Other than that, the Huskies were fairly conventional as they pounded their coach-less, greatly dispirited opponent into submission. It was a rocky outing for the Rocky Mountain team.

Penix, whether it was his farewell Husky Stadium appearance or not, had his least productive showing in 11 outings, but he was still highly effective. Averaging a nation-best 369 yards coming in, the left-hander completed 19 of 31 for 229 yards and the lone score to McMillan. It worked for him.

His Husky running backs, however, were at their very best, with senior Wayne Taulapapa and sophomore Cam Davis each running for two touchdowns, and junior Richard Newton adding one, plus redshirt freshman Sam Adams catching a scoring pass. Taulapapa finished with a game-high 107 yards on 11 carries — his second career 100-yard game for the UW — and Davis added 59 yards on 12 carries.

A Virginia transfer, Taulapapa had a tragic week, losing three of his Cavaliers teammates in a campus shooting. He and DeBoer embraced before his coach sat down to address the media in his postgame news conference. It was emotional to see.

"It was tough," the running back from Honolulu said. "Monday was probably one of the hardest days receiving just some of the hardest news I received in my life. It was really hard, but I had such a great support system here and with the coaches and them being able to embrace me. And my brothers here. It was tough."

The Huskies sandwiched a pair of Taulapapa TD runs around the Houdini play, with him scoring on runs of 8 and 2 yards. That gave him 10 TDs for the season, nine coming on the ground.

Wayne Taulapapa had a pair of short touchdown runs in the first half :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Maybe feeling a little threatened in maintaining his team scoring lead, backup running back Cam Davis scored his 12th rushing touchdown of the season with 15 seconds left in the first half, and later his 13th.

Amazingly, the initial Davis score was sandwiched by a pair of really bad Colorado special-team mistakes that brought a UW safety and a field goal.

On the first miscue, a Buffaloes punt snap sailed over everyone's heads, away from everyone's hands and out of the end zone for two points and a 23-0 UW lead with 1:25 left in the half.

The Huskies turned the ensuing kickoff into a speedy 45-yard drive and Davis' power blast up the middle, with the back bowling over two Colorado defenders to find the end zone.

On the UW kickoff, the Buffaloes return man muffed a bouncing ball and Will Nixon recovered it on the Colorado 16. Following an incomplete pass, Peyton Henry came on for a 33-yard field goal after earlier missing a 48-yarder. His second attempt sailed through the uprights as time expired on the first half for that 33-0 lead. It was landmark.

Henry, entitled to a meaningless miss after winning the previous games against Oregon State and Oregon with last-second field goals, set a UW all-time scoring record on his half-ending 3-pointer against the Buffs. That gave him 382 points, two more than kicker Jeff Jaeger (1982-86).

Coming out of the break, Taulapapa got loose for a 57-yard run — the longest of the season for the UW — to the Colorado 6, but the Huskies couldn't punch it in. Penix threw an incomplete pass and Taulapapa picked up 3 yards to the 1 and twice was held for no gain, and the UW ran out of downs. It was a small victory for greatly undermanned Colorado.

However, things would get much worse for the Buffaloes.

Once Davis somersaulted over a tackler and scored from 6 yards for a 40-0 lead, teammates Bralen Trice and Edefuan Ulofoshio bookended Colorado quarterback J.T. Shrout and temporarily knocked him out of the game with 6:51 left in the third quarter. 

By now, DeBoer and his staff began substituting liberally, first sending freshman cornerback Jaivion Green and redshirt freshman safety Makell Esteen onto the field, followed by freshman defensive tackle Jayvon Parker, and even walk-on freshman Austin Hartineaux made his career debut on the kickoff team. Esteen came up with his second career interception late in the game.

The veteran Newton, picking up snaps wherever he can, got a chance to carry the load and took a flat pass 30 yards to the Colorado 21. He then carried on three of the next four plays for a 2-yard scoring run. That made it 47-0.

Shrout returned and, like so many others before him, took advantage of a young Husky cornerback, uncorking a 69-yard TD strike over Green's head to Montana Lemonious-Craig. Finally, the Buffaloes were on the board with 1:45 left in the third quarter.

The parade of UW subs kept coming. Dylan Morris replaced Penix near the end of the third quarter and was joined by the second-unit offense line. Redshirt freshmen defensive backs Elijah Jackson, Dyson McCutcheon and Sean Toomey-Stout, the latter a walk-on, took over in the secondary. Redshirt freshman edge rusher Maurice Heims entered in the fourth quarter. Heims picked up his first career sack, as did sophomore defensive tackle Jacob Bandes. Even redshirt freshman tailback Jay'Veon Sunday made his first appearance of the season and ran for 19 yards on his lone carry.

The Huskies tacked on yet another score when Morris led his guys down the field on an 87-yard drive for a 15-yard TD pass to Adams with 8:19 left in the game. A 21-yard Morris pass to redshirt freshman tight end Griffin Waiss, his first career catch, moved the ball close. Even Idaho State transfer Kevin Ryan got on the field for the UW's only punt of the game, a 37-yarder and his first one as a Husky.

In his quarter-plus of action, Morris, last year's starter, completed 4 of 7 passes for 66 yards, ran four times for 32 yards, which included a 22-yard scramble, and got a good sweat in.

The Huskies now look ahead to the regular-season finale in Palouse against rival Washington State, still remembering a 40-13 beatdown it took from the Cougars in Seattle a year ago. They just completed a 7-0 home record, coming on the heels of that Apple Cup disaster and 2-5 Montlake showing in 2021.

"The problem with last year was we had so much talent on this team and I felt like we could do so much better at times," senior offensive guard Jaxson Kirkland said. "It was combination of a lot of things as we know. To see it finally come to light with the preparation and hard work we put in, it's no fluke why this is happening."

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