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Washington Huskies have no margin for error if they want a bowl game this season

By Ethan Lee

Oct 26, 2024; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Washington Huskies quarterback Will Rogers III (7) looks to throw the ball during the second quarter of a game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images
Oct 26, 2024; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Washington Huskies quarterback Will Rogers III (7) looks to throw the ball during the second quarter of a game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images / Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images
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Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies are struggling a bit at the moment. With a 4-4 record two-thirds of the way through the regular season, Washington has done a few things well, a few things unsuccessfully, and the Huskies definitely need to find a way to split their last two games if they hope to make it to a bowl this season.

No big deal, right? 

Following up last season’s thrilling race to the College Football Playoff national title game was always going to be a tough thing to do with all that Washington lost from last season, but things really look rough for the Huskies in recent weeks. 

UW has some talent. The Huskies have demonstrated that. But for one reason or another, that talent underachieves a bit when playing away from Husky Stadium.

Now, it is worth noting that Washington has a tough schedule full of challenging opponents. There’s also an important caveat to place on this season in that this is functionally a brand new team from what we witnessed in Seattle last season.

Fisch had to rebuild the roster in a matter of weeks and his coaching staff didn’t do a bad job. But, when half your roster features brand new faces, it’s hard to expect wins at a high level on a week-by-week basis. And with all of the success that Washington saw last season, it’s hard to accept less-than-ideal results.

Will the Washington Huskies make it to a bowl in 2024?

It’s honestly kinda wild to think about how the Washington Huskies might miss out on making a bowl game this season, but that’s the situation that we’re in. UW has struggled with execution and penalties at times throughout the season. The Huskies have troubles on special teams and scoring once they make it to the redzone.

That makes it challenging to win games. Unsurprisingly, Washington is now 4-4 overall and 2-3 in Big Ten play. All three of those Big Ten losses have come in the last four weeks and they’ve all been road games. Now, what do the Huskies have up ahead? 

At the moment, the remainder of the 2024 Washington Huskies schedule looks like this:

  • Home vs. USC Trojans (4-4 overall, 2-4 Big Ten)
  • Away vs. No. 3 Penn State Nittany Lions (7-0 overall, 4-4 Big Ten)
  • Home vs. UCLA Bruins (2-5 overall, 1-4 Big Ten)
  • Bye week 
  • Away vs. No. 1 Oregon Ducks (8-0 overall, 4-0 Big Ten)

No big deal, right?!

That’s a tough slate to try to navigate, but Washington needs to find a way to get two wins out of that bunch to be able to make it to a bowl. Anything more than that becomes something to brag about, because then the Huskies will have found a way to tarnish the season of a national title contender.

And spoiling the success of others is always a thing to celebrate in college football.

But how winnable are these games? Do the Huskies really have much of a shot here? According to ESPN’s matchup predictor, here’s what that looks like:

  • Home vs. USC Trojans (32.2 percent chance of winning)
  • Away vs. No. 3 Penn State Nittany Lions (10.7 percent chance of winning)
  • Home vs. UCLA Bruins (71.6 percent chance of winning)
  • Bye week 
  • Away vs. No. 1 Oregon Ducks (11.5 percent chance of winning)

That’s not great. Not great at all. There is no room for error here. Fisch and the Huskies need to play pretty dang good football to end the season at .500. And again, anything better than that is just another opportunity to brag. Here’s to hoping that this goes well for UW.

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