Huskies Shine in Senior Sendoff: Defense Dominates, Demond Williams Dazzles, and Bowl Game Secured

Washington Huskies Secure Bowl Eligibility: Defensive Dominance, QB Shakeup, and Senior Night Highlights

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Photo credit: James Satterberg

Bowl-eligible. Undefeated at home for the third straight season. Twenty straight home wins.

All of these accomplishments are much more pronounced when you consider the offseason coaching change and ensuing decimation of the roster.

Sure, the Huskies have been out of playoff contention since they fell to Rutgers in Week 5, but if you are like me and have been able to finally readjust expectations, and have successfully moved forward from the 2023 Washington Huskies, then maybe this win feels like the team’s most important win of the season.

To put it simply: this win mattered.

And it means even more because it gave Washington’s seniors one final positive memory at Husky Stadium.

What I Liked:

The Defense. Specifically, the Pass Rush.

Suprisingly, UCLA’s offense outgained Washington’s offense 319 yards to 305 yards. But if you watched the game, you knew that the Husky defense played a terrific game. The score says UCLA scored 19 points, but the last touchdown was in garbage time, so it feels more like the Huskies defense held UCLA to 13 points.

Washington’s defense forced two fumbles, logged 9 tackles for loss (-52 yards), 6 sacks (-49 yards), and six pass breakups.

In typical bend, but don’t break style — not counting the final drive — in Washington territory, UCLA managed one touchdown in ten drives. Here’s what UCLA’s drive chart from the entire game looks like: Punt-Punt-Punt-Field Goal-Fumble-Touchdown-Field Goal-Fumble-Field Goal Attempt-Turnover on Downs-Touchdown.

Demond Williams.

My name is Kevin, and I advocated for Will Rogers to start at QB for the rest of the season.

I immediately started to have a change of heart after Rogers came out of halftime and threw a pick in his own territory. I felt even more strongly about yanking Rogers after he threw another interception the next drive. Was that the last we saw of Will Rogers this season?

Demond Williams replaced Rogers after the second interception, and promptly jolted Washington offense into three consecutive scoring drives in the third and fourth quarters.

Williams completed 7-of-8 passes for 67 yards and a touchdown, and rushed six times for 52 yards.

While Williams may not be as experienced of a passer as Rogers, one has to wonder if Fisch is considering giving Williams the keys to the offense in the season finale against Oregon — especially with two weeks to gameplan around Williams’ dynamic skillset.

A good show for Andrew Marsh

Washington reportedly hosted recruiting target Andrew Marsh during tonight’s game against UCLA. Marsh, a Class of 2025 wide receiver committed to Michigan in August. He must be having some second thoughts if he’s making a gameday visit to Washington in November. It isn’t necessarily an easy trip for Marsh, who lives in Texas. I’m guessing a potential recruit like Marsh might be more excited to play in a pro-style UW offense compared to a run-heavy Michigan offense.

Three More Thoughts:

1. I have a prediction that at the end of the season, Jedd Fisch will reveal that Jonah Coleman was nursing some type of injury during the first half of the season. Fisch will praise Coleman’s toughness and set up his campaign as one of the top if not the top running back in all of college football next season. Coleman finished the night with 95 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 21 attempts. It was his second-highest rushing total of the season. In the team’s first seven games, Coleman averaged a mere 14 carries per game. After the bye week, in the past four game's he’s averaged 18 carries a game, with 23 carries against Indiana and 21 carries against UCLA. Despite a lighter workload for a good chunk of the season, Coleman became the 15th player in Washington Huskies history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season.

2. Those black uniforms looked cool. I think they’d even look cooler with gold chrome helmets, but Adidas did a great job with them:

   

   @UW_Football

3. What bowl game will the Huskies play in? The “legacy” Pac-12 schools and the current Pac-12 schools (Oregon State and Washington State) will still play in the Pac-12’s affiliated bowl games for the next two seasons. Possibilites include: the Alamo Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Sun Bowl, Los Angeles Bowl, and the Independence Bowl. Colorado and WSU probably will get the top two bowls (Alamo and Holiday), with Washington and Cal taking the next two (Las Vegas and Sun), and USC/UCLA/Utah fighting for the final two bowls.