The UND Fighting Hawks football team has a mad dog waiting them out in Seattle. The Washington Huskies are coming off a four quarter battle with the Auburn Tigers down in Atlanta in which the Huskies came up short 21-16.
The stats were nearly identical for the two teams (420-398 in total yards) but Auburn was able to come up with five sacks and two turnovers to turn the tide.
Here is what we know:
- Washington head man Chris Peterson is a hell of a coach. Overall record of 129-30 and has the Huskies on the brink of being a national title contender.
- The Huskies possess the best 1-2 punch in the country in senior QB #3 Jake Browning and senior RB #9 Myles Gaskin. Browning has thrown for 9,104 yards and 78 TD’s and Gaskin has rushed for 4,055 rushing yards and 45 TD’s in their careers. Unbelievable numbers.
- Washington the overwhelming preseason pick to win the Pac-12 conference and potentially make the College Football Playoff.
- Washington has won 16 consecutive home, non-conference games.
- The Huskies consistently have the best defense in the Pac-12 and this year appears to be no different. They typically have five defensive backs on the field.
- Peterson promoted Co-DC Jimmy Lake to call the plays in-game this year even though Co-DC Pete Kwiatkowski is still on the staff. Kwiatkowski had been calling the defense and has been with Peterson for eight seasons.
- The Washington offense is extremely multiple. They go fast tempo, they huddle, run RPO stuff, go two tight ends, etc. The closest Big Sky example we can think of is the UC-Davis offense.
- Washington beat Montana 63-7 last season. They beat Idaho 59-14 and Portland State 41-3 in 2016.
Photo’s courtesy of University of Washington Athletics (https://gohuskies.com/sports/2016/10/17/huskystadium.aspx)