Breaking down the Husky Non-Conference football schedule

There has been an interesting ongoing debate among Husky fans about how they view the 2014 non-conference schedule  and how poor it looks on paper. However, the reality is that this type of non-conference schedule is a perfect fit for the 2014 Washington Huskies.

The opener at Hawaii is a nice bone throw to the fans and alums. Aloha Stadium is a soft landing spot for a new quarterback, a primarily new secondary and most importantly  a game as a heavy favorite that you should win going away.

The Eastern Washington game for the home opener fits nicely because while the Eagles are a FCS program and a darn good one this game should allow coach Petersen to play a ton of  players. The ability to play a ton of players early will be critical to building more depth by the time conference play starts.

Illinois fits the bill of scheduling one school from one of the other Big Five power conferences.  The fact that the Fighting Illini are a struggling program is not the fault of the University of Washington. This game at least will give the Huskies exposure to similar types of physical and athletic play that they would see in conference play.

Finally, the Georgia State game should once again set Washington up to play pretty much their entire roster and be in the best possible shape health wise for the Stanford game on September 27 which is most important.

The bottom line is with this year’s non-conference schedule is that it is a smartly designed efficient one that will put the Huskies in the best possible position to succeed in PAC-12 conference play. It also is a Southeastern Conference like model which is the only way to go in this day and age.