THE GAME: The Washington football team (8-3 overall, 5-3 Big Ten) closes out the regular season this Saturday vs. longtime rival Oregon (10-1, 7-1). Kickoff at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium is 12:30 p.m. PT, and the game will air live on CBS television. The game marks the 118th meeting between the Huskies and Ducks, in a series that dates back 125 years, to the first meeting in 1900. Last year, in the season finale, the then-No. 1-ranked Ducks broke the Huskies’ three-game win streak in the series. UW had won twice in 2023 (once in Seattle and once in the Pac-12 championship game), and also won a thriller in Eugene in 2022.
QUICK HITTERS: Washington heads into the weekend ranked No. 4 in the nation in third-down efficiency, at .523 … the Huskies are also No. 7 in both team pass efficiency and completion percentage, No. 18 in both rushing defense and total defense … Husky QB Demond Williams Jr. current ranks No. 2 among active FBS quarterbacks in career pass efficiency, with a mark of 168.14, which would rank No. 14 in NCAA-FBS history … in the 2025 FBS season rankings, Williams is currently No. 6 in completion percentage (.720), No. 7 in pass efficiency (165.1), No. 12 in yards per pass attempt (9.07), and No. 12 in total offense (299.0 yards per game) … Williams is well ahead of pace to set a new UW record for single-season completion percentage (set last year by Will Rogers III), and is also well ahead of Michael Penix Jr.’s career pass efficiency record … despite missing the majority of the last three games, Husky RB Jonah Coleman, one of six finalists for the Paul Hornung Award, is eighth in the nation in scoring (9.6 points per game); fourth in total touchdowns (16); seventh in rushing touchdowns (14); and No. 13 total points (96) … he’s has broken in to the UW single-season top-10 in both rushing TDs (tied for 7th) and total TDs (tied for 9th) … Coleman has new career highs for attempts (24 vs. Colo. St.), rushing TDs (5 vs. UC Davis), receptions (8, vs. Maryland), and receiving yards (104 vs. WSU) this year … Washington has won 25 of its last 26 home games … the Huskies have outscored opponents in all four quarters this season, including 120-54 in the second quarter and 115-45 in the fourth.
TELEVISION: The UW-Oregon game will air on CBS, with Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and Jenny Dell on the call. For more on how to watch online, go to www.cbssports.com/cbssports.
RADIO: All Washington football games will air on the Washington Sports Network from Learfield, with Tony Castricone (play by play), former Husky tight end Cameron Cleeland (analyst) and former UW basketball player Elise Woodward (sidelines) on the call. Radio coverage begins four hours before kickoff on the network’s flagship station – Seattle’s SportsRadio KJR 93.3 FM – with “Husky Gameday” live from The Zone for Husky home games. Statewide coverage on the 17-station Washington Sports Network begins two hours before kickoff. The entire broadcast is available worldwide on the Huskies Gameday mobile app and the Varsity app. The UW broadcast of this game will also air on Sirius/XM channel 136 or 196. Additionally, the Husky Football Coach’s Show airs each game-week Monday during the season at 6:00 p.m. PT, live from JOEY Kitchen in University Village.
GRADUATES: A total of 12 Huskies head into the 2025 season already having earned their undergraduate degree, whether from UW or from another university before transferring to UW. Here’s the list: CJ Christian (S), Zach Durfee (DE), Makell Esteen (S), Geirean Hatchett (OL), Milton Hopkins (DE), Deshawn Lynch (DL), Dyson McCutcheon (S), Quentin Moore (TE), Simote Pepa (DL), Logan Sagapolu (DL), Anthony Ward (LB), Carver Willis (OL).
ACADEMIC SUCCESS: Following the most recent academic quarter (spring, 2025), the UW football program posted some impressive results. The Husky football team’s cumulative GPA for the quarter was 3.27, highest ever in program history. Additionally, 26 football players made the Dean’s list, including the following 22 current team members: Xe’Ree Alexanders, Deven Bryant, Jonah Coleman, Elinneus Davis, Decker DeGraaf, Kade Eldridge, Jonathan Epperson Jr., Omari Evans, Luke Gayton, Zachary Henning, Luke Luchini, Jacob Manu, Dyson McCutcheon, Paul Mencke Jr., John Mills, Ephesians Prysock, Jack Shaffer, Austin Simmons, Anterio Thompson, Rainen Vines-Bright, Beck Walker and Demond Williams Jr.
IN THE CFP ERA: The era of the four-team College Football Playoff is gone, but that 10-season stretch (2014-2023) is instructive in terms of illustrating the teams that operated at the top level of the sport during that timespan, and Washington is one of those teams. Over that 10-year stretch, only 15 different programs earned a berth in the CFP semifinals, and only eight reached the tournament more than once. With two CPF berths in the four-team era (2016 and 2023), Washington is one of those eight. Only six teams made more than two appearances: Alabama (8), Clemson (6), Ohio State (5), Oklahoma (4), Georgia (3) and Michigan (3). For what it’s worth, six more teams made their CFP debut in the 12-team bracket in 2024, but UW remains one of (now) 10 teams to have appeared in the CFP more than once, when counting the 2024 data.
B1G TIME: As has been well documented over the last couple of years, Washington officially joined the Big Ten Conference ahead of the 2024-25 school year, effective on Aug. 2, 2024. The Huskies were joined be fellow former Pac-12 programs Oregon, UCLA and USC in making the move to the B1G, which now includes 18 schools. Washington was one of four founding members of the Pacific Coast Conference (along with Cal, Oregon and Oregon State), and, along with Cal, was one of just two teams that were a part of that league (which changed names to the AAWU, Pac-8, Pac-10 and Pac-12) for the entirety of its full-fledged existence from 1915 to 2024.
FUTURE SCHEDULES: In October, 2023, the Big Ten revealed 18 football teams’ home and away, conference opponents for the next for the following five seasons (2024-28). Here are the UW’s home and road, Big Ten games, for the coming three years:
2026: home – Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Penn State; road – Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, Purdue, USC
2027: home – Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, USC; road – Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, Rutgers
2028: home – Michigan, Northwestern, UCLA, Wisconsin; road – Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio State, Oregon
HUSKIES vs. DUCKS HISTORY: Washington leads the all-time series against the Ducks with 63 wins, 49 losses and five ties.
In games played in Seattle, the Huskies are 33-23-4 against their cross-border rivals, while in games played in Eugene, the Ducks enjoy a 19-14 edge all-time (Oregon’s home games vs. the UW were played in Portland for many years). The Ducks have had the edge of late, winning 21 of the last 30. However, UW has won five of the last nine and three of the last four, as the Huskies’ three-game streak was broken in 2024.
Last year, No. 1-ranked Oregon wrapped up a 12-0 season with a 49-21 win in Eugene, as UW true freshman QB Demond Williams Jr. made his first career start (17-for-20 for 201 yards and one TD). In 2023 UW beat Oregon twice, both by three points. In the regular season, in an absolute classic, the Huskies came out on top, 36-33, scoring the go-ahead TD (an 18-yard pass from Michael Penix Jr. to Rome Odunze) with 1:36 left. Penix threw for 305 yards and four TDs while Dillon Johnson rushed for 100 yards and a score. Later, in the Pac-12 Championship Game, UW won, 34-31, behind 319 passing yards from Penix, along with 152 rushing yards, and two TDs, from Johnson, who also threw a TD pass.
The 2022 game in Eugene was a memorable one as UW emerged from a back-and-forth affair with a 37-34 win, thanks to a last-minute field goal from Peyton Henry, along with late, long TD catches from Ja’Lynn Polk and Taj Davis. In 2021 in Seattle, Oregon overcame an early, 9-3 deficit to win, 26-16, holding UW to just seven first downs and 166 yards of total offense. The teams did not play during the 2020 season (UW played only four games that year). In 2019 in Seattle, Oregon scored with 5:10 remaining in the game to win 35-31. Washington could only reach the Ducks’ 35-yard line on the ensuing drive before failing to convert a fourth down. Salvon Ahmed rushed for 140 yards and Jacob Eason passed for 289 and three TDs for the Dawgs.
In 2018 in Eugene, the Ducks edged the Huskies, 30-27, in overtime. Washington got a field goal in the opening overtime period, but the Ducks scored a touchdown in their possession to win the game.
In 2017 in Seattle, UW’s Dante Pettis broke the NCAA record with his ninth career punt return for a TD and the UW held Oregon to just 31 passing yards in a 38-3 UW win. In 2016, the Dawgs broke the Ducks’ long win streak in the series with a 70-21 win in Eugene. Jake Browning was 22-for-28 for 304 yards and a school-record six TD passes (plus two rushing TDs) while Myles Gaskin rushed for 197 yards on just 16 carries.
In 2015 in Seattle, Oregon won, 26-20, as a third-quarter, 72-yard run from Myles Gaskin and a three-yard pass from Browning to Jaydon Mickens in the fourth brought the UW to within six points. The Ducks, however, intercepted a last-minute pass to preserve the win. In 2014 in Eugene, a 21-point output from Oregon in the second quarter was the major difference in a 45-20 Ducks win. In 2013 at Husky Stadium, the Ducks stretched a seven-point lead heading into the fourth quarter into a 45-24 victory. Marcus Mariota passed for 366 yards and three TDs rushed for 88 and one while the Huskies got 167 rushing yards from Bishop Sankey. In 2012 in Eugene, second-ranked Oregon beat No. 23 Washington, 52-21.
In 2011, in the final game at the old Husky Stadium, the Ducks beat the UW, 34-17. In 2010 in Eugene, UW QB Keith Price made his first college start in a 53-16 Husky loss. Oregon led 18-16 in the third quarter before pulling away. In 2009 at Husky Stadium, Oregon won, 43-19. In 2008 in Eugene in the season-opener for both teams, Jeremiah Masoli came off the bench and led the Ducks to a 44-10 win. In 2007 in Seattle, the Huskies and Ducks were tied at 31-31 after three quarters before Oregon pulled away in the final period for a 55-34 win.
The Huskies’ last win over Oregon prior to 2016 was in 2003, when Shelton Sampson and Kenny James both rushed for over 100 yards in a 42-10 Husky victory. Washington and Oregon first met on the football field in 1900, a 43-0 Oregon win in Eugene. The Huskies got their first win in the series in the next meeting, a 6-5 victory in 1903. From 1974 to 1993, Washington won 17 of 20 meetings. The series also features one of the biggest year-to-year turnarounds in college football history as the Ducks beat the Huskies, 58-0, in 1973 and then lost at the UW, 66-0, the following year.
DEMOND’S BIG DAY: UW quarterback Demond Williams Jr. turned in a career performance in Washington’s 38-19 win over Rutgers on Fri., Oct. 10, passing for 402 yards while rushing for 138. In doing so, he became the first Husky, second Big Ten player and 16th QB in NCAA-FBS history to pass for 400-plus yards and rush for 100 or more in a game. His 138 rushing yards were fourth-most ever by a Husky quarterback (his was just the 12th 100-yard rushing performance by a QB in UW history), and his 538 yards of total offense broke Michael Penix’s record of 529, set in 2022 vs. Arizona (516 passing, 13 rushing). His 402 passing yards were 15th-most in UW single-game history.
ROSTER TURNOVER: Like at a lot of programs in this day and age of college football, Washington’s roster has seen a good deal of turnover in the last few years, unsurprisingly, given that UW has had four head coaches in seven years. However, in terms of class years, the 2025 Husky football roster is relatively balanced. At the start of the season, UW’s 103-man roster includes 29 true freshmen, 15 redshirt freshmen, 19 sophomores, 18 juniors, and 22 seniors. However, taking into consideration how many years players have been at UW provides a different picture, as 77 of the 103 are playing their first (47) or second (30) at Washington in 2025. UW’s roster also includes 14 third-year Huskies, seven fourth-year (including Anthony Ward, who spent two years at UW before going to Arizona for two seasons), four fifth-year (including Geirean Hatchett, who spent last season at Oklahoma), and one sixth-year roster member (Makell Esteen, whose first year at UW was 2020).
ALASKA AIRLINES FIELD AT HUSKY STADIUM: The Oregon game on Nov. 5, 2011, marked the final game in Husky Stadium prior to major renovations that were completed in summer, 2013. The Huskies re-opened their home field with a 38-6 win over then-No. 19 Boise State on Aug. 31, 2013. The 2024 season marks the 104th season of play in Husky Stadium. Original construction on the facility was completed in 1920 when Washington played one game in the new campus facility. UW’s all-time record in Husky Stadium stands at 423-186-21 (.688). Washington is 68-17 (.800) in home games since the stadium re-opened in 2013.
