Dawgs Set To Battle UC Davis Saturday Night

Saturday, September 6

Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium

8:00 p.m. PT

University of Washington

UC Davis

uw vs colorado state 2025 endzone celebration

September 01, 2025 | Football

Full UW Notes Gameday Central

THE GAME: The Washington football team (1-0) takes on UC Davis (1-0) this Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. in the first-ever meeting between the two. The game will air on Big Ten Network. The Huskies opened the season with a 38-21 win over Colorado State last Saturday. The Aggies began the year with a "no contest" (due to weather) vs. Mercer, but then got a 31-24 win at Utah Tech last Saturday. Following the game, the Huskies will have a week off before traveling across the state for the 117th Apple Cup, at Washington State on Sept. 20.

QUICK HITTERS: Washington has won 21 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) ... last season, the Huskies totaled more passing yards than rushing yards in all 13 games ... vs. Colorado State, the Huskies rushed for 283 yards and passed for 226 ... a total of 22 players saw their first action in a Husky uniform last Saturday vs. Colorado State ... among that group were six true freshmen: CB Dylan Robinson, WR Raiden Vines-Bright, S Rylon Dillard-Allen, EDGE Devin Hyde, OG John Mills and WR Dezmen Roebuck ... UW has won nine straight and 29 of its last 30 non-conference home games ... UW QB Demond Williams Jr. is now 100-for-129 passing in his college career, good for a .780 completion percentage ... Husky RB Jonah Coleman set a new career-high with 24 carries vs. Colorado State ... his 177 rushing yards vs. the Rams were just two yards shy of his career-high ... 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.

TELEVISION: The Washington-UC Davis game will air on Big Ten Network, with A.J. Kanell, Marcel Reece and Alyssa Charlston-Smith 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 119 or 195). 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 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

FIRST TIME vs. UC DAVIS: Washington and UC Davis have never faced one another in football. While the Huskies have a fairly lengthy history against other Big Sky Conference programs (though much of it is vs. Idaho and Montana, which were both in the same conference at UW for many years), the Dawgs have never faced the Aggies. While UC Davis has played one game vs. Oregon and two vs. UCLA (while those schools were in the Pac-12), this game will mark the Aggies' first-ever vs. a Big Ten program, at the time of the game.

HUSKIES vs. THE BIG SKY: The Huskies have played games against seven of the 12 teams that currently comprise the Big Sky Conference in football, though five of those teams (Weber State, Eastern Washington, Portland State, Idaho State and Sacramento State) have faced the UW for the first time within in the last 14 years. Washington has twice edged Eastern Washington in games at Husky Stadium: 30-27 in 2011 and 59-52 in 2014. The Huskies have gone 3-0 vs. Portland State: 52-13 in 2012 (at Lumen Field), 41-3 in 2016, and 52-6 in 2022. The Huskies also beat Idaho State, 56-0 in 2013, and Sacramento State, 49-0, in 2015. Last year, UW opened with a win over Weber State, 35-3. The two current Big Sky opponent the Huskies have played many more times than the others are Montana and Idaho, which were both members of the Pacific Coast Conference (precursor to the Pac-12) along with the UW for majority of those meetings. The Huskies are 17-2-1 all-time vs. the Grizzlies in a stretch of games that ran from 1920 to 1951, and then re-started in 2017. Washington is 36-2-2 vs. Idaho, having played the Vandals somewhat regularly between 1900 and 1973, and then seven times since 2000. Washington has won 19 straight vs. Idaho, dating back to a tie in 1938. Montana left the PCC after the 1950 season, while Idaho was a member until 1959. Combined the UW is 61-4-3 all-time against current Big Sky teams.

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 had 20 different current players who had started in a Husky uniform – 12 on offense (total of 70 UW starts) and eight on defense (32).

In addition to the 20 current player who had 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 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 an 80-14 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 nine in a row since that loss.

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 419-185-21 (.687). Washington is 64-16 (.800) in home games since the stadium re-opened in 2013.