UW Opens 2025 Football Season With First-Ever Game Vs. Rams

Saturday, August 30

Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium

8:00 p.m. PT

University of Washington

Colorado State

UW Opens 2025 Football Season With First-Ever Game Vs. Rams

August 25, 2025 | Football

Gameday Central Get Football Tickets UW Game Notes

THE GAME: The Washington football team opens the 2025 football season Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. PT in the Huskies' first-ever meeting with Colorado State. The game will air on Big Ten Network. The Huskies enter their second season under head coach Jedd Fisch, who led a 2024 UW team that returned just two starters to a 6-7 record and a berth in the Sun Bowl. Colorado State went 8-5 last season and wrapped up the year with a trip to the Arizona Bowl. The following Saturday, September 6, Washington hosts UC Davis in another first-time matchup. That game also kicks off at 8:00 p.m. and will air on BTN.

QUICK HITTERS: Entering the 2025 season, Washington has won 20 consecutive home games, the longest home win streak in modern school history (the longest-ever home winning streak, 45 games, was from 1908-1917, part of UW's NCAA-record 64-game unbeaten streak) ... the current UW roster includes players who list hometowns from 19 different states, as well as in Australia and Canada ... UW's 103-man roster includes 47 players who are in their first season as a Husky, and (including those 47), 77 who are in their first or second year in the Purple and Gold ... whereas last season, the opening-day Husky roster did not include a single offensive lineman who'd ever started a game for Washington, this season's roster includes seven such o-linemen.

HOME OPENERS: The Huskies are 99-29-5 in home openers (whether the first game of the season or not), a percentage of .763. Washington did not play any home games in the 1890 or 1893 seasons. That mark includes a 28-game streak of home-opener wins that ran from 1908 to 1935. Before falling to Air Force in the 1999 home opener, Washington had won 13 straight such games since having fallen to Oklahoma State on Sept. 7, 1985. The Huskies had won their last 11 home openers, dating back to a loss to No. 11 LSU in 2009, prior to a loss to Montana in the 2021 debut. Washington has won its last three home openers, including a victory over Weber State to open the 2024 season.

TELEVISION: The Washington-Colorado State game will air on Big Ten Network, with Mark Followill, Lincoln Kennedy and Alyssa Charlston calling the action. For more information on how to watch online, go to www.bigten.org/btn/about.

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 137 or 197). Additionally, the Husky Football Coach's Show airs each 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 Alexander, 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, Raiden 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. THE MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE: The Huskies and Rams have never before met on the football field, but the Huskies do have a fairly long history vs. the teams that will make up the Mountain West Conference for 2025 (five MWC teams are scheduled to leave for the Pac-12 following the 2025-26 school year, including Colorado State). Washington has played all but three (CSU, New Mexico and UNLV) of the 12 schools that comprise the MWC in football. All totaled, the Huskies are 31-12 against current MWC members, having most recently beaten Boise State in the 2023 season-opener. Here's the breakdown: 2-6 vs. Air Force; 3-2 vs. Boise State; 3-1 vs. Fresno State; 4-2 vs. Hawai'i; 1-1 vs. Nevada; 3-0 vs. San Diego State; 10-0 vs. San Jose State; 3-0 vs. Utah State; and 2-0 vs. Wyoming.

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 Washington was 2020).

STARTING EXPERIENCE: For the second year in a row, it's fair to say that UW did not return a large number of starters from the previous year. However, the Husky roster DOES include a surprisingly large number of players with starting experience – nearly all from last year. Not counting specialists (Grady Gross has been UW's "starting kicker" for two seasons), and not counting the current Huskies who started for other college programs before transferring to UW, Washington has 20 different current players who have started in a Husky uniform – 12 on offense (with 70 UW starts between them) and eight on defense (32).

In addition to the 20 current player who have started for Washington, the 2025 Husky roster includes 21 players (some of them the 20 who have since started for UW) who have started at least once for another four-year college: LB Taariq "Buddah" Al-Uqdah (21 starts at Washington State), LB Xe'ree Alexander (7 at UCF, 6 at Idaho), OL Drew Azzopardi (6 at San Diego State), S CJ Christian (19 at FIU), RB Jonah Coleman (7 at Arizona), Tacario Davis (22 at Arizona), Zach Durfee (11 at Sioux Falls), TE Kade Eldridge (1 at USC), WR Omari Evans (6 at Penn State), WR Kevin Green Jr. (2 at Arizona), OL Geirean Hatchett (1 at Oklahoma), QB Kai Horton (1 at Tulane), LB Jacob Manu (27 at Arizona), S Alex McLaughlin (23 at NAU), DL Simote Pepa (3 at Utah), CB Ephesians Prysock (16 at Arizona), DL Logan Sagapolu (1 at Miami, Fla.), DL Anterio Thompson (12 at WMU), DL Ta'ita'i Uiagalelei (13 at Arizona), EDGE Isaiah Ward (11 at Arizona), and OL Carver Willis (18 at Kansas State).

All totaled, as of the start of the 2025 season, UW had 33 different players with a combined total of 330 career starts at the four-year college level.

HOME vs. NON-CONFERENCE: Washington has been very tough to beat in home, non-conference games over the last several decades. Going back to (and including) the 1981 season, the Huskies have posted a 79-14 record against nonconference foes in Husky Stadium. Those 14 losses have come to Montana (2021), Nebraska (2010), LSU (2009), BYU (2008), Oklahoma (2008), Ohio State (2007), Notre Dame (2005), Fresno State (2004), Nevada (2003), Air Force (1999), Nebraska (1997), Notre Dame (1995), Colorado (1989) and Oklahoma State (1985). Notable wins wins during that stretch include victories over No. 11 Michigan State in 2022, No. 19 Boise State in 2013, No. 22 Boise State in 2007, No. 11 Michigan in 2001, No. 4 Miami in 2000, and No. 12 Nebraska in 1992. Prior to the 2004 loss to Nevada, Washington hadn't lost a home game to a non-league opponent since falling to Air Force, 31-21, on September 18, 1999. The Huskies had won 10 such games before that Nevada loss. UW had a 20-game home, non-conference win streak broken in 2021, but have won eight in a row since that loss.

SEASON OPENERS: Washington is 92-37-6 all-time in season openers, good for a mark of .704. Since 1989, Washington has posted an 22-13 record in season openers – 15-2 at home, 7-9 on the road, 0-2 neutral site. In the 35-season span dating back to 1989, the Huskies have opened vs. a ranked team 13 times (5-8): vs. No. 15 Stanford in 1993 (W, 31-14), at No. 17 USC in 1994 (L, 24-17), at No. 20 Arizona State in 1996 (L, 45-42), vs. No. 19 BYU in 1997 (W, 42-20) at No. 8 Arizona State in 1998 (W, 42-38), vs. No. 11 Michigan in 2001 (W, 23-18), at No. 12 Michigan in 2002 (L, 31-29), at No. 2 Ohio State in 2003 (L, 28-9), at No. 21 Oregon in 2008 (L, 44-10), vs. No. 11 LSU in 2009 (L, 31-23), vs. No. 19 Boise State in 2013 (W, 38-6), at No. 23 Boise State in 2015 (L, 16-13), neutral vs. No. 9 Auburn in 2018 (L, 21-16).

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 418-185-21 (.699). Washington is 63-16 in home games since the stadium re-opened in 2013.