UW’s fate will be decided in the season’s final weeks, just as Chris Petersen predicted
If you go back and listen to the audio, you’ll hear Washington head coach Chris Petersen say it over and over again.
He said it after the Huskies lost to Oregon and after they beat Colorado. He said it after the shocking loss to Cal. He said it when UW was in the driver’s seat for a Pac-12 North title and when it wasn’t.
There was no use guessing or prognosticating or looking ahead, he said, because there was so much football left to play.
Petersen reminded reporters of his words on Thursday, the final time he’ll meet with the media before Saturday’s home finale against Oregon State. UW has one more game remaining after that, the Apple Cup on Nov. 23. Win both, and the Huskies will be headed to the Pac-12 championship game.
Everything has come down to the final weeks, just like Petersen said it would.
“It’s always about the last month,” he said. “It’s about the last couple weeks. That’s what it just comes down to. There’s all these twists and turns and there’s so much football.
“You lose Game 1 and the world’s going to come to an end. No, it’s not. There’s a lot of football to be played and there’s two regular season games. And we’ll see how that goes. There’s a lot of ball left.”
The Huskies are coming off a bye week, and while Petersen has said he would’ve preferred an off-week closer to the middle of the season, the time away did give UW a boost heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.
“It was good to kind of get away from football for all of us, not just me,” said running back Myles Gaskin, who missed two games with an injury before returning on Nov. 3 against Stanford. “Just kind of reboot and be ready for the end of the season and these last couple of games.”
Petersen said the Huskies had a “good, energetic” practice on Thursday. That energy, he said, is the key to UW’s success. Everything comes down practices for Petersen. And ever since the 12-10 loss to Cal, they’ve been running at a higher level.
After the defeat, UW bounced back to beat Stanford 27-23 at Husky Stadium. Even though the offense dropped off in the second half, the Huskies opened the game by scoring touchdowns on their first three offensive possessions.
Jake Browning finished 16-of-27 for 194 yards and a touchdown against the Cardinal while Gaskin rushed for 152 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries.
“If we practice at a high level, I think we’re going to play at a high level,” Petersen said. “We’re going to make improvements and I think we did. We still got a lot of ball here. It’s not like the season’s over.”
Petersen still wants to see the Huskies making progress. That’s difficult to do this late in the season, particularly for veteran players who have already taken so many reps in their careers But in Petersen’s mind, that’s what earns championships.
“You cut practices back and you’re still building skill,” Petersen said. “The elite (teams) can do that. The common ones just kind of stay the same at this point in the season. We obviously need to take the next step and I think we’re working hard on that.”
Extra points
UW announced a home-and-home series with Michigan State on Thursday. The Huskies will host in 2028 before traveling to East Lansing in 2031. The Spartans and Huskies have met just three times, most recently in the 1997 Aloha Bowl in Honolulu. UW won, 51-23, and leads the series 2-1. ...
Petersen said Thursday that he’s “not necessarily” committed to holding tight end Hunter Bryant to a four-game maximum this season. Bryant, a 2017 ESPN freshman All-American, returned from injury to play for the first time this season against Stanford. Per NCAA rules, he can play in three more games and still redshirt. But if UW makes the Pac-12 championship, it would have four games left.
This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 2:57 PM with the headline "UW’s fate will be decided in the season’s final weeks, just as Chris Petersen predicted."