Dawgs Return To Road To Face Michigan State In East Lansing

Saturday, November 14

East Lansing, Mich.

1:15 p.m. PT

University of Washington

Michigan State

UW defensive player make a tackle at Nebraska, Oct 31 2026

Photo by: Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures

November 09, 2026 | Football

Ful UW Notes (PDF)Gameday Central

THE GAME: The Washington football team (5-4 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) heads into the season's home stertch this Saturday, when the Dawgs travel to East Lansing to take on Michigan State (3-6, 1-5) in the two teams' first meeting as fellow Big Ten members. The game will kick off at 4:15 p.m. ET / 1:15 p.m. PT and will air on the Big Ten Network. Both of the Huskies' two conference victories this year have come on the road, at Purdue and at Nebraska. Michigan State broke a five-game conference losing streak last Saturday agianst rival Michigan, in Ann Arbor, kicking five field goals in a 15-6 victory. UW and MSU played in each of the Huskies' last two seasons (2022 and 2023) as member of the Pac-12 Conference, but have not yet faced off in Big Ten play. After the trip Spartan Stadium, UW returns home to face Indiana before capping the regular season with a trip to Autzen Stadium to face rival Oregon the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

QUICK HITTERS: Husky punter Hunter Green is No. 6 in the FBS and No. 1 in the Big Ten in punting average (48.1 yard per punt, on pace for No. 2 in UW history) ... Green's career average of 46.1 (on 243 career punts) ranks No. 2 among active NCAA Division I (FBS and FCS) punters ... UW ranks No. 7 in the nation in team interceptions, with 12 ... both Dezmen Roebuck (4th) and Chris Lawson (7th) rank among the top-seven in the Big Ten in receptions per game ... 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 35 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 1,147 ... 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-Michigan State game will air on the Big Ten Network, with Chris Vosters, 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. SPARTANS HISTORY: Washington and Michigan State have played one another only five times – twice in Seattle, twice in East Lansing, and once in Honolulu. UW leads the series, 4-1. In reverse chronological order, here's a look at those five meetings:

UW 41, Michigan State 7 • Spartan Stadium • Sept. 16, 2023
The Huskies, who would go on to the CFP title game, rolled to a 41-7 victory in East Lansing in Michigan State's first game after the suspension of coach Mel Tucker. The 8th-ranked Huskies scored two touchdowns in the opening period and three more in the second to send many of the Spartan fans home by halftime. Husky tight end Jack Westover had a career day, scoring three of those first-half TDs on passes from Michael Penix Jr., who was 27-for-35 for 473 yards and four scores, all inside of the first three quarters. The Husky offense rolled up 713 yards of total offense and 29 first downs. Michigan State recorded 263 yards of total offense and earned their only points via a 99-yard drive in the fourth quarter.

UW 39, Michigan State 28 • Husky Stadium • Sept. 17, 2022
Even after two successful games to open the schedule, Washington truly introduced its new quarterback and new offense to the wider world in week three of the 2022 season, beating the Spartans, 39-28, in a game the Huskies led 39-14 into the second half of the fourth quarter. In his third game as a Husky, Michael Penix Jr. completed 24-of-40 passes for 397 yards and four touchdowns, three of them to Ja'Lynn Polk, who finished with 153 receiving yards on six catches. The Huskies opened the game with a seven-play drive that resulted in an eight-yard TD pass to Polk. After the Spartans kept the Huskies out of the endzone with a goal-line stand, Washington got a safety to make it 9-0. In the second quarter, the Huskies got a rushing TD from Cam Davis, and a pair of TD passes from Penix, to Wayne Taulapapa and Polk. Michigan State got on the board with a pass from Payton Thorne to Keon Coleman. In the third quarter, TD receptions from Polk sandwiched another Thorpe score, to Tre Mosley, to send the game into the fourth quarter with UW with that 36-14 lead. The Spartans got a pair of TDs in the final seven minutes of the game to close the gap.

UW 51, Michigan State 23 • Aloha Bowl, Aloha Stadium • Dec. 25, 1997
The Huskies wrapped up the 1997 season with a convincing win over the Nick Saban-coached Spartans, led by numerous big plays and 193 rushing yards and two TDs from tailback Rashaan Shehee. The win broke a three-game losing streak that had ended the Huskies' regular season. Along with Shehee's big day, the Huskies got 179 passing yards and two touchdowns from quarterback Brock Huard, while both Tony Parrish (56 yards) and Lester Towns (66 yards) returned interceptions for touchdowns. (Towns would go on to work for Saban at Alabama.) Additionally, fullback Mike Reed scored on a 64-yard run in the third quarter.

UW 42, Michigan State 16 • Husky Stadium • Sept. 19, 1970
The 1970 season opener is still a memorable game for Husky fans as it marked the debut of quarterback Sonny Sixkiller, who had burst on to the scene at the 1970 Spring Game, which followed a dreadful 1969 season (1-9), which had been marked by sluggish, run-heavy offense. Against the Spartans, Sixkiller completed 16 of 35 passes for 276 yards, three interceptions, and three touchdowns, in just three quarters, before the second string took over. On the game's fourth play, Sixkiller connected with Ira Hammon for a 59-yard touchdown pass. Later in the first, Sixkiller threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown to tie the game at 7-7, but in the second quarter, Sixkiller connected with Bo Cornell on a five-yard TD toss. Early in the third, UW made it 21-7 thanks to a 37-yard connection with Hammon. Halfback Mark Wheeler provided another highlight, running for a 48-yard score. Sixkiller would go on to become one of UW's all-time fan favorites and appeared on the cover of the Oct. 4, 1971, edition of Sports Illustrated.

For more on the landmark UW-MSU 1970 game, go to GoHuskies.com/1970s. For stats & recaps from all of these games, go to GoHuskies.com/FBArchive.

Michigan State 27, Washington 11 • Spartan Stadium • Sept. 20, 1969
Washington opened the 1969 season facing a challenging, three-game non-conference slate with games at Michigan State and Michigan (the team remained in Michigan for the entire week), before taking on Ohio State in Seattle. The '69 season would prove to be a tumultuous one for the Huskies, who won the Apple Cup to finish 1-9. The year opened in East Lansing in front of 63,022 fans, who watched the Spartans come back from a 9-7 deficit through three quarters to win 27-11, thanks to a 20-point fourth quarter. Quarterback Bill Triplett rushed for two scores (one of them on the first play of the final quarter go give MSU the lead), while running backs Don Highsmith (143) and Eric Allen (113) each topped 100 yards. Don Law added a 70-yard interception return and halfback Tom Love threw a 29-yard TD pass to Frank Foreman. UW's lone touchdown was a second-quarter, 20-yard run from Luther Sligh. The Huskies also got a field goal from Ron Volbrecht and then score two points in the final quarter on a safety.