UW Set For 'Salute To Service' Game vs. Purdue

Saturday, November 15

Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium

4:00 p.m. PT

University of Washington

Purdue

Photo by: Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures

November 10, 2025 | Football

Full UW Notes (PDF)Gameday Central

THE GAME: The Washington football team (6-3 overall, 3-3 Big Ten) returns home to Husky Stadium this Saturday to take on Purdue (2-8, 0-7) for the first time since the 2002 Sun Bowl game. Kickoff is set for 4:00 p.m. PT and the game will air on FS1 television. The contest will also mark the program's annual "Salute to Service" game as the Huskies honor those who serve and have served the country. Washington and Purdue have played one another 10 times, with the more recent two coming in bowl games – the 2001 Rose Bowl and the 2002 Sun Bowl. The last time the Boilermakers visited Husky Stadium was in 1989. The following Saturday, Nov. 22, the Dawgs travel to face UCLA at the Rose Bowl, before wrapping up the 2025 regular season Nov. 29, vs. Oregon, back in Seattle.

QUICK HITTERS: Husky RB Jonah Coleman, one of six finalists for the Paul Hornung Award, is sixth in the nation in scoring (10.0 points per game); third in total touchdowns (15) and rushing touchdowns (13); and ninth total points (90) ... Coleman has new career highs for attempts (24 vs. Colo. St.), rushing TDs (5 vs. UC Davis), receptions (8, vs. Maryland), and receiving yards (104 vs. WSU) this year ... Husky QB Demond Williams Jr. is currently No. 5 in the nation in completion percentage and No. 14 in pass efficiency ... Williams is currently the FBS active career leader in pass efficiency (165.91), which would rank No. 12 in NCAA-FBS history ... Washington won 24-20 Oct. 4 at Maryland, despite trailing 20-0 ... it was the seventh 20-point comeback in UW history and the first on the road since the 1993, 24-23 win at California ... Washington has outscored opponents 94-28 in the fourth quarter this season ... only three of eight UW opponents has scored in the final quarter this year ... Washington ranks No. 6 in the nation in third-down conversions and No. 15 in team passing efficiency ... the Huskies are also No. 23 in rushing defense and No. 28 in scoring defense ... Washington has won 24 of its last 25 home games ... the Huskies have outscored opponents in all four quarters this season, including 94-28 in the fourth quarter ... the current UW roster includes players from 19 different states, as well as in Australia and Canada.

TELEVISION: The UW-Purdue game will air on FS1, with Dan Hellie and Spencer Tillman on the call. For more on how to watch online, go to www.foxsports.com/live.

RADIO: All Washington football games will air on the Washington Sports Network from Learfield, with Tony Castricone (play by play), former Husky tight end Cameron Cleeland (analyst) and former UW basketball player Elise Woodward (sidelines) on the call. Radio coverage begins four hours before kickoff on the network's flagship station – Seattle's SportsRadio KJR 93.3 FM – with "Husky Gameday" live from The Zone for Husky home games. Statewide coverage on the 17-station Washington Sports Network begins two hours before kickoff. The entire broadcast is available worldwide on the Huskies Gameday mobile app and the Varsity app. The UW broadcast of this game will also air on Sirius/XM channel 389 (app). Additionally, the Husky Football Coach's Show airs each game-week Monday during the season at 6:00 p.m. PT, live from JOEY Kitchen in University Village.

GRADUATES: A total of 12 Huskies head into the 2025 season already having earned their undergraduate degree, whether from UW or from another university before transferring to UW. Here's the list: CJ Christian (S), Zach Durfee (DE), Makell Esteen (S), Geirean Hatchett (OL), Milton Hopkins (DE), Deshawn Lynch (DL), Dyson McCutcheon (S), Quentin Moore (TE), Simote Pepa (DL), Logan Sagapolu (DL), Anthony Ward (LB), Carver Willis (OL).

ACADEMIC SUCCESS: Following the most recent academic quarter (spring, 2025), the UW football program posted some impressive results. The Husky football team's cumulative GPA for the quarter was 3.27, highest ever in program history. Additionally, 26 football players made the Dean's list, including the following 22 current team members: Xe'Ree Alexanders, Deven Bryant, Jonah Coleman, Elinneus Davis, Decker DeGraaf, Kade Eldridge, Jonathan Epperson Jr., Omari Evans, Luke Gayton, Zachary Henning, Luke Luchini, Jacob Manu, Dyson McCutcheon, Paul Mencke Jr., John Mills, Ephesians Prysock, Jack Shaffer, Austin Simmons, Anterio Thompson, Rainen Vines-Bright, Beck Walker and Demond Williams Jr.

IN THE CFP ERA: The era of the four-team College Football Playoff is gone, but that 10-season stretch (2014-2023) is instructive in terms of illustrating the teams that operated at the top level of the sport during that timespan, and Washington is one of those teams. Over that 10-year stretch, only 15 different programs earned a berth in the CFP semifinals, and only eight reached the tournament more than once. With two CPF berths in the four-team era (2016 and 2023), Washington is one of those eight. Only six teams made more than two appearances: Alabama (8), Clemson (6), Ohio State (5), Oklahoma (4), Georgia (3) and Michigan (3). For what it's worth, six more teams made their CFP debut in the 12-team bracket in 2024, but UW remains one of (now) 10 teams to have appeared in the CFP more than once, when counting the 2024 data.

B1G TIME: As has been well documented over the last couple of years, Washington officially joined the Big Ten Conference ahead of the 2024-25 school year, effective on Aug. 2, 2024. The Huskies were joined be fellow former Pac-12 programs Oregon, UCLA and USC in making the move to the B1G, which now includes 18 schools. Washington was one of four founding members of the Pacific Coast Conference (along with Cal, Oregon and Oregon State), and, along with Cal, was one of just two teams that were a part of that league (which changed names to the AAWU, Pac-8, Pac-10 and Pac-12) for the entirety of its full-fledged existence from 1915 to 2024.

FUTURE SCHEDULES: In October, 2023, the Big Ten revealed 18 football teams' home and away, conference opponents for the next for the following five seasons (2024-28). Here are the UW's home and road, Big Ten games, for the coming three years:

2026: home – Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Penn State; road – Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, Purdue, USC
2027: home – Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, USC; road – Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, Rutgers
2028: home – Michigan, Northwestern, UCLA, Wisconsin; road – Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio State, Oregon

HUSKIES vs. BOILERMAKERS HISTORY: Washington and Purdue have faced one another a total of 10 times, with UW holding a 7-2-1 record vs. the Boilermakers. UW lost the first meeting, in 1961, and tied the next the follow-ing season, before winning seven in a row, a stretch that ran through the 2001 Rose Bowl game. Purdue won the most recent meeting, at the 2002 Sun Bowl.

The Huskies, fresh from a national championship year in 1960, opened the '61 season at home vs. Purdue, with the visitors winning, 13-6. The Boilers got two Skip Ohl field goals and a 30-yard touchdown run from Dave Miller to take a 13-0 lead, and then held off UW, which managed only a 15-yard TD pass from Bill Siler to Jim Stiger early in the fourth. The fol-lowing year, also in Seattle in season opener, the game finished in a 7-7 tie. UW's Bob Mon-roe scored on a two-yard run in the first, and Purdue's Tom Yakubowski scored from two yards out in the second to account for the final score. UW missed two late field-goal at-tempts that could have broken the tie.

A decade later, UW and Purdue once again met, in 1971 and 1972. In '71, Washington fought to claim a 38-35 victory in a thriller that pitted start QBs Sonny Sixkiller and Gary Danielson against one another. Sixkiller went 24-for-48 for 387 yards (breaking his own school record for passing yards), with two TDs and three interceptions. Danielson 11-for-23 for 183, one score and two picks, but Sixkiller's 33-yard toss to Tom Scott with 2:29 left in the game proved the winner. The following year in West Lafayette, the two quarterbacks squared off once again, and UW won, 22-21, on a field goal with 2:04 to play. Down 21-7, the Huskies scored 15 in the final quarter. Danielson rushed for 213 yards in the loss.

The series was renewed over four consecutive seasons, 1987-1990, with the Huskies win-ning all four. In 1987, Husky quarterback Chris Chandler passed for 200 yards and three touchdowns in a 21-10 Husky win in Seattle. The following year at Rose-Ade Stadium, Wash-ington out-slugged the Boilermakers in a 20-6 win, despite just 294 yards of total offense.

In 1989, the 15th-ranked Dawgs rolled to a 38-9 win in Seattle, with Cary Conklin passing for 215 yards and three touchdowns. Greg Lewis rushed for 165 yards in the win. The following year back in Indiana, Washington pulled out a 20-14 win, thanks to a fourth-quarter, 35-yard TD pass from Mark Brunell to Orlando McKay, overcoming that had once been a 14-7 Purdue edge. Lewis rushed for 101 yards while Brunell passed for 150 and ran for 76.

It wasn't until the end of the 2000 season when the Huskies and Boilermakers once again squared off on the gridiron, this time in the 2001 Rose Bowl game, which feature another matchup of high-profile QBs: Washington's Marques Tuiasosopo and Purdue's Drew Brees, the MVPs of the Pac-10 and Big Ten Conferences. With injured teammate Curtis Williams watching from the press box less than three months removed from the devasting injury that would eventually take his life, the Huskies took a 14-0 lead on runs from Braxton Cleman and Tuiasosopo, but Purdue cut the lead to 14-10 by half. In the third quarter, the Boilers tied the score at 17-17, but a John Anderson field goal and touchdowns from Willie Hurst and Todd Elstrom gave the Huskies a 34-17 lead. A late Purdue score narrowed the gap. Tuiasos-opo was the game's MVP, and the Huskies finished the season 11-1 and No. 3 in the final AP poll.

Two seasons later, the teams once again met in a bowl, this time at the 2002 Sun Bowl in El Paso. Washington took a 17-0 lead in the first quarter, but Purdue stormed back, trailing 17-14 at half. The Boilermakers then outscored the Huskies, 17-0, in the third period and coast-ed to a 34-24 win, reversing the Rose Bowl score from two years earlier. Kyle Orton passed for 283 yards for Purdue, while Cody Pickett notched 272 for UW.

DEMOND'S BIG DAY: UW quarterback Demond Williams Jr. turned in a career performance in Washington's 38-19 win over Rutgers on Fri., Oct. 10, passing for 402 yards while rushing for 138. In doing so, he became the first Husky, second Big Ten player and 16th QB in NCAA-FBS history to pass for 400-plus yards and rush for 100 or more in a game. His 138 rushing yards were fourth-most ever by a Husky quarterback (his was just the 12th 100-yard rushing performance by a QB in UW history), and his 538 yards of total offense broke Michael Penix's record of 529, set in 2022 vs. Arizona (516 passing, 13 rushing). His 402 passing yards were 15th-most in UW single-game history.

ROSTER TURNOVER: Like at a lot of programs in this day and age of college football, Washington's roster has seen a good deal of turnover in the last few years, unsurprisingly, given that UW has had four head coaches in seven years. However, in terms of class years, the 2025 Husky football roster is relatively balanced. At the start of the season, UW's 103-man roster includes 29 true freshmen, 15 redshirt freshmen, 19 sophomores, 18 juniors, and 22 seniors. However, taking into consideration how many years players have been at UW provides a different picture, as 77 of the 103 are playing their first (47) or second (30) at Washington in 2025. UW's roster also includes 14 third-year Huskies, seven fourth-year (including Anthony Ward, who spent two years at UW before going to Arizona for two seasons), four fifth-year (including Geirean Hatchett, who spent last season at Oklahoma), and one sixth-year roster member (Makell Esteen, whose first year at UW was 2020).

ALASKA AIRLINES FIELD AT HUSKY STADIUM: The Oregon game on Nov. 5, 2011, marked the final game in Husky Stadium prior to major renovations that were completed in summer, 2013. The Huskies re-opened their home field with a 38-6 win over then-No. 19 Boise State on Aug. 31, 2013. The 2024 season marks the 104th season of play in Husky Stadium. Original construction on the facility was completed in 1920 when Washington played one game in the new campus facility. UW's all-time record in Husky Stadium stands at 422-186-21 (.688). Washington is 67-17 (.798) in home games since the stadium re-opened in 2013.