Huskies & Huskers To Meet In Lincoln On Halloween Night - University of Washington Athletics

Saturday, October 31

Lincoln, Neb.

5:00 p.m. PT

University of Washington

Nebraska

uw defense celebrates after a play vs. Utah State 2026

October 26, 2026 | Football

UW Game Notes (PDF)Gameday Central

THE GAME: After a week off that followed a 38-26, Friday night road win at Purdue, the Washington football team (4-3, 1-3 Big Ten) returns to action this Saturday night, when the Huskies head to Lincoln, Neb., to face Nebraska (5-2, 2-2) on Halloween. The game will kick off at 7:00 p.m. CT / 5:00 p.m. PT and will air on the Big Ten Network. The Cornhuskers also had a bye this past Saturday, following two heartbreaking, three-point losses to Indiana and Oregon. Washington and Nebraska have played one another 10 times, most recently in 2011 at Memorial Stadium. Washington, which will have played only one home game in the month of October, returns to Husky Stadium the following Saturday, Nov. 7, to take on Penn State for Homecoming. That game will mark the Nittany Lions' first visit to Seattle in 105 years, when Penn State played the seventh-ever game at Husky Stadium.

QUICK HITTERS: After playing four home games over the course of 21 days (Sept. 6-26) to begin the season, UW will now play just one home game (last Friday vs. Iowa) over a span of 41 days (Sept. 27-Nov. 6) ... following the Iowa game, UW will go 28 days before playing host to Penn State for Homecoming on Nov. 7 ... Husky punter Hunter Green is No. 5 in the FBS and No. 1 in the Big Ten in punting average (47.9 yard per punt, on pace for No. 2 in UW history) ... Green's career average of 45.9 (on 229 career punts) ranks No. 2 among active NCAA Division I (FBS and FCS) punters ... in the 2026 opener, UW held Washington State to no successful third-down conversion attempts, in 11 tries ... the last time a Husky opponent failed to convert a single third-down conversion in a game was in the Huskies' memorable, 16-13 win over USC in 2009 ... Washington has had five different first-year players start multiple games this year: DL Derek Colman-Brusa, EDGE Ramzak Fruean, OT Kodi Greene, CB Jeron Jones, and RB Brian Bonner Jr. ... those five have combined to make 28 starts in 2026 ... last season, first-year players (i.e., true freshmen) made 44 starts for the Huskies, who are on pace to break that record once more this season ... UW QB Demond Williams Jr. surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards in the Utah State game, and now has 1,076 ... he's the third UW QB to rush for 1,000 career yards, joining Jake Locker (1,939) and Marques Tuiasosopo (1,495).

TELEVISION: The UW-Nebraska game will air on the Big Ten Network, with Wayne Randazzo, Rhett Lewis and Caroline Hendershot on the call. For more info, go to: bigten.org/btn/watch-live/.

RADIO: All Washington football games will air on the Washington Sports Network from Learfield, with Elise Woodward (play by play), former Husky tight end Cameron Cleeland (analyst), and Dave Mahler (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 Go Huskies mobile app and the Varsity app. The UW broadcast of this game will also air on Sirius/XM channel 257.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS: Washington's football players have continued to perform at the highest academic levels, as the program continues to post impressive cumulative team GPAs. Last school year (2024-25), the UW football team achieved a team grade-point average of 3.31 in both the fall and winter quarters, and then wrapped up the year with a 3.27 in the spring quarter. In the spring quarter, a whopping 31 members of the UW roster earned a place on the Dean's List, and 49 of the players on the 2026 roster were on the Dean's List at least once in 2025-26 (most of them multiple times): Deji Ajose, Xe'ree Alexander, Buddah Al-Uqdah, Aiden Anderson, Dash Beierly, Elijah Brown, Jace Burton, Quaid Carr, D'Aryhian Clemons, Derek Colman-Brusa, Lowen Colman-Brusa, Charlie Crowell, Parker Cross, Decker DeGraaf, Kolt Dieterich, Luke Dunne, Kade Eldridge, Soane Faasolo, Jake Flores, Hunter Green, Kayden Greene, Kodi Greene, Landen Hatchett, Devin Hyde, Justin Hylkema, Ksani Jiles, Jacob Lane, Jayden Limar, Jacob Manu, Kai McClendon, Hunter McKee, Julian McMahan, Bodpegn Miller, John Mills, Ryken Moon, Hayden Moore, Baron Naone, Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, Donovan Robinson, Dylan Robinson, Tyler Robles, Victor Sanchez Hernandez, Champ Taulealea, Sam Vyhlidal, Beck Walker, C.J. Wallace, Isaiah Ward, Jordan Washington, and DeSean Watts.

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, and one of just two programs to reach the four-team CFP under two different head coaches (Oklahoma was the other). 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, and another five were first-time selections in 2025, but UW still remains one of just 11 teams to have appeared in the CFP more than once, when counting the latest 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 through 2026.

CAPTAINS: The following players have been named captains for the 2026 season: Drew Azzopardi, Elinneus Davis, Landen Hatchett, Jacob Manu, Alex McLaughlin, John Mills and Demond Williams Jr. Hatchett and Williams were also captains in 2025. Mills in believed to be the first second-year/sophomore captain in program history.

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 two years:

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. CORNHUSKERS HISTORY: Washington's history vs. Nebraska covers 10 prior meetings and dates back 101 years, to the teams' first meeting, in 1925. The Cornhuskers hold a narrow lead in the series, with five wins, four losses and one tie.

The first UW-Nebraska game was held in Lincoln on Oct. 17, 1925. UW was 4-0, having outscored its opponents, 253-10 (including two wins in one day on October 3. Nebraska had opened with a win at Illinois and a loss at Missouri. The game ended in a 6-6 tie on touchdowns from Nebraska's Avard Mandery and UW star George Wilson. Washington went on to finish the regular season undefeated before a 20-19 loss to Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

The teams met again the following season in Seattle in the Huskies' traditional Thanksgiving game, which came just five days after the visitors had beaten NYU in Lincoln. A crowd of 25,000 at Husky Stadium watched UW hold off a late Nebraska drive to win, 10-6. Husky captain George Guttormsen caught a pass from Elmer Tesreau to take a 7-0 lead before Nebraska's Edward Howell scored on a run in the second quarter, followed by a missed PAT. A Gene Cooke field goal in the second wrapped up the scoring, and Nebraska drove to the Husky four-yard line before being thrown for a loss on the game's final play.

In 1967, coach Bob Devaney's Nebraska squad visited Jim Owen's Huskies to open the season, and left with a 17-7 win in front of 57,000 in Seattle. The visitors took advantage of a fumbled punt return to take a 7-0 lead on a rush from Dick Davis shortly after the miscue. Frank Patrick scored on the Huskers' next drive to increase the lead to 14-0, before UW QB Tom Sparlin scored on a 48-yard run and Nebraska got a field goal to account for the final score before half.

It wasn't until 1991 that the Huskers and Huskies met again, in a win that proved to be a major milestone in the UW's 12-0 season. The game, Sept. 21, 1991, in Lincoln, saw the Huskies fall behind, 21-9, in the third quarter. But Washington scored four straight TDs to earn a 36-21 win. Beno Bryant (139) and Jay Barry (110) both rushed for 100 yards, while Billy Joe Hobert passes for 283.

The next season in Seattle was also a memorably one, as the Huskies first-ever true night game, on Sept. 19, 1992. After Tommie Smith sacked the Nebraska QB in the endzone for a safety late in the first, UW got three TDs in the second and won the game 29-14.

The Huskers came back to Seattle in 1997, in a game that saw UW starting QB Brock Huard leave the game in the first quarter, due to an ankle sprain. Ahman Green and Joel Mackovicka each rushed for a129 yards and Scott Frost added 112 more as the visitors won, 27-14. Marques Tuiasosopo passed for 270 yards and two TDs in his debut for UW.

In 1998 in Lincoln, Nebraska buried the Dawgs, 55-7, as UW turned the ball over six times and allowed 434 rushing yards.

In 2010, the Huskies and Nebraska played one another twice – in the regular season and again in the Holiday Bowl. Sept. 18, 2010, in Seattle, the Cornhuskers handed the Huskies a 56-21 loss. Taylor Martinez, Roy Helu Jr. and Rex Burkhead all rushed for 100-plus yards while UW quarterback Jake Locker was limited to just 4-of-20 passing for 71 yards.

At season's end, however, the Huskies earned some measure of revenge in San Diego, breaking Washington's eight-year bowl drought in impressive fashion. Led by Locker and tailback Chris Polk, Washington beat Nebraska, 19-7, limiting NU to just 91 rushing yards. Polk ran for 177 yards and a score while Locker added 83 rush yards and the other UW touchdown.

The most recent meeting came one season later, in 2011 in Lincoln, where Nebraska rolled up 309 rushing yards in a 51-38 win. New Husky QB Keith Price passed for 274 yards and four touchdowns in the loss.