The Washington Huskies have won the last 22 games played in Husky Stadium. It’s the longest home winning streak in modern program history and the nation’s second-longest active home winning streak. But all that could change on Saturday, when the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes come to Montlake.
The Huskies’ 22-game winning streak began alongside the team’s Kalen DeBoer era. Initially led by head coach Jimmy Lake, the team lost five of its seven home games in 2021, including an embarrassing 13-7 defeat against FCS Montana to begin the year.
Lake was fired in mid-November, and replaced by interim head coach Bob Gregory. However, it would be too little, too late. The Huskies suffered a 40-13 demolition by visiting rivals Washington State to end the season with a 4-8 record.
DeBoer replaced Gregory less than a week after the Huskies’ 2021 Apple Cup loss, and he immediately turned things around. The 2022 Huskies finished 11-2, losing away games to UCLA and Arizona State, but winning all seven home games -- including ranked wins over No. 11 Michigan State and No. 23 Oregon State.
DeBoer and the Huskies were nearly unstoppable in 2023, winning 14 straight before falling to Michigan in the national championship game. The incredible run included another seven home victories, with notable wins over No. 8 Oregon, No. 18 Utah, and an always-competitive game against Washington State.
DeBoer departed for Alabama in Jan. 2024 and was replaced by current head coach Jedd Fisch. Although the Huskies struggled in 2024, their home-winning streak endured.
Fisch’s first season in Montlake saw the Huskies pick up six more victories, including one over No. 10 Michigan in October. Though the team lost every game not played inside Husky Stadium (including the Apple Cup at Seattle’s Lumen Field), the team’s Husky Stadium winning streak stretched to an impressive 20 games.
The Huskies have since extended that streak to 22 games with early-season victories over Colorado State and UC Davis. However, getting win No. 23 over the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes will be the biggest challenge the Huskies have faced at home in almost 20 years.
The defending national champions will enter Husky Stadium with an undefeated 3-0 record, as will Washington. However, Ohio State’s Week 1 win over the nation’s preseason No. 1 Texas Longhorns earned them the top spot in the AP Poll, and the Buckeyes have remained there since Week 2.
Their position as the nation’s top team makes Saturday’s clash the biggest game on the Huskies’ 2025 calendar, even with No. 6 Oregon visiting to end the year. If the Huskies want their home-winning streak intact for the Ducks in November, they’ll have to break another program precedent.
Since 1967, the Dawgs are 0-4 when hosting the nation’s No. 1 team. Three of those losses (1967, 2005, 2007) came against the USC Trojans, while the fourth came in 1969 against the Buckeyes.
“[It] hasn’t happened in the last 18 years,” Fisch said of hosting the nation’s top team. “We recognize it’s going to be an incredible challenge.”
The program’s only victory against a top-ranked team came in 1961, when the Huskies beat No. 1 Minnesota in the Rose Bowl by a score of 17-7.
There will be all sorts of historic significance at play during Saturday’s game, and a Husky win would set multiple program records. If the Huskies are indeed able to pull off the upset, it’ll likely result in part from the rocking atmosphere present at every game played inside Husky Stadium.
“I think we have the ability to be the loudest stadium, and that’s what I’m looking forward to seeing,” Fisch said.
The Huskies and Buckeyes will kick off from ‘The Greatest Setting in College Football’ at 12:30 p.m. on CBS.