Saturday, September 26
Seattle, Wash.
8:00 p.m. PT
University of Washington
vs
Minnesota
Dawgs Open Big Ten Play With First Game Vs. Gophers Since 1977
September 21, 2026 | Football
THE GAME: The Washington football team (3-0) opens the 2026 Big Ten Conference schedule this Saturday, Sept. 26, as Minnesota (2-1) makes its first trip to Husky Stadium in nearly a half century. KIckoff is at 8:00 p.m. PT on FOX television. The game is the Huskies' fourth home contest in a row to open the 2026 season. They'll head to USC on Oct. 3, for their first road game. The Huskies and Golden Gophers squared off 17 times between 1936 and 1977, but haven't met in 49 years, even though Washington has been a member of the Big Ten for two-plus seasons. The Huskies are ranked No. 23 in the USA Today coaches' poll, and are one spot out of the latest AP Top 25.
QUICK HITTERS: The Huskies are plus-6 in turnovers this year (seven takeaways, one turnover) ... only four FBS programs have a larger margin: New Mexico (11), Colorado State (8), Notre Dame (8) and UMass (7) ... Washington will open the season with four straight home games for the first time since 2022 and just the second time since 1976 … all four games will be played in September ... in '22, UW played host to Kent State, Michigan State, Portland State and Stanford to begin the year, followed by a September game on the road, Sept. 30 at UCLA … in '76, the Huskies opened with Virginia, Colorado, Indiana and Minnesota, but seasons started later in those days, and that Minnesota game was played on Oct. 2 … along with Indiana, Michigan and Louisville, UW is one of four Power 4 programs with four home games in September in 2026 … in the 2026 season opener, UW held Washington State to no successful third-down conversion attempts, in 11 tries (WSU did convert its lone fourth-down attempt) ... 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 started four first-year players in the WSU game, three on defense (edge Ramzak Fruean, defensive tackle Derek Colman-Brusa and nickelback Jeron Jones) and one on offense (left tackle Kodi Greene) ... another, RB Brian Bonner Jr., started vs. Utah State ... all five of those first-year players started vs .EWU ... UW QB Demond Williams surpassed passed 1,000 career rushing yards in the Utah State game, and now has 1,043 ... 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-Minnesota game will air on FOX television, with Jack Kizer and Mark Helfrich on the call. For more info, go to: https://foxsports.com/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 176 or 231.
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.
CONFERENCE OPENERS: The Huskies have posted a very good record in conference openers over the last 10 seasons (2016-2025), going 8-2 in those games. Of course, that time span includes eight seasons in the Pac-12 Conference and two in the Big Ten, and includes Husky teams led by four different head coaches. The only two conference-opener losses came at home vs. California in 2019 (a 20-19 loss to the Bears), and a 24-6 loss to defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Ohio State last season. It also includes the following wins: home vs. Northwestern in 2024, home vs. Cal in 2023, home vs. Stanford in 2022, home vs. California in 2021, home vs. Oregon State in 2020, at Utah in 2018, at Colorado in 2017, and at Arizona in 2016. This Saturday's Big Ten opener vs. Minnesota will mark the eighth year in a row that the Huskies will have opened the conference season at home.
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. GOLDEN GOPHERS HISTORY: Washington and Minnesota have a surprisingly long history, considering that the two teams have not played one another in nearly a half-century. The Huskies and Golden Gophers have squared off 17 times in a series that dates from 1936 to 1977, with Minnesota holding a 10-7 advantage. Just one of those 17 meetings came in a bowl game, the historic 1961 Rose Bowl. Minnesota won the first seven games (spanning 1936-49) vs. the Dawgs, who have gone 7-3 since then (1950-77).
The first-ever meeting was the Huskies' 1936 season opener, in front of 40,000 fans at Husky Stadium on Sept. 26, 1936. Minnesota, led by legendary coach Bernie Bierman bested coach Jimmy Phelan and the Huskies, 14-7, breaking a 7-7 tie with a fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Andy Uram to Ray King. Minnesota went 7-1 that year and won the national title, while the Huskies went 7-2-1 and were ranked No. 5 in the final AP poll, with its only other loss coming to Pitt in the 1937 Rose Bowl.
Two years later, the two teams met in the Twin Cities, with the Gophers blanking the Huskies, 15-0, to begin Phelan's toughest season at UW (the Huskies finished 3-5-1). Another two years later, in 1940, they played once again at Memorial Stadium, with the Gophers earning a 19-14 victory over a UW team that finished 7-2-0 and ranked No. 10 in the final AP Top 20.
Minnesota's dominance in the series continued throughout the 1940s, as the Gophers won 14-6 in 1941 in Seattle; 7-6 in 1947 in Minneapolis; 20-0 in 1948 in Seattle; and 48-20 in 1949 in Minneapolis.
After seven straight losses, the Huskies opened a four-game winning streak over the Gophers on Sept. 30, 1950, the second game of that season, and the second game ever played after the completion of the south upper deck at Husky Stadium. A record crowd of 49,704 watched an unranked Husky squad upset the No. 18 Gophers, 28-13. Hugh McElhenny led the way for UW, with 90 rushing yards and a touchdown while UW All-America QB Don Heinrich was 10-for-20 for 91 yards.
On Sept. 19, 1951, in Minneapolis, McElhenny led 8th-ranked UW to a 25-20 win, rushing for 119 yards and scoring three times. In 1952 in Seattle, Heinrich and the Huskies built a 19-6 lead and held on for a 19-13 victory. The Huskies' fourth straight win in the series came in Minneapolis in 1955, a 30-0 UW victory.
The Gophers picked up victories in 1956 (34-13 in Minneapolis) and 1957 (46-7 in Seattle), but the Huskies earned a 24-21 victory in Seattle in 1958, essentially ending the two-decade long stretch of frequent, regular-season meetings between the two.
On Jan. 2, 1961, the No. 6 Huskies and No. 1 Gophers met in the Rose Bowl Game, where Husky quarterback Bob Schloredt earned Rose Bowl MVP for the second straight season in leading Washington to a 17-7 victory, rushing for one Husky TD while passing for the other. As there were no polls after the regular season in those days, Minnesota won the AP and UPI national championship, while Washington claims the Helms Foundation title for 1960.
The Huskies and Gophers had one more home-and-home series in 1976 and 1977, with each team posting a home win. Washington won, 38-7, in Seattle in '76, while Minnesota returned the favor in '77, winning 19-17.
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 2026 season marks the 106th 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 425-187-21 (.688). Washington is 71-18 (.798) in home games since the stadium re-opened in 2013.
QUICK HITTERS: The Huskies are plus-6 in turnovers this year (seven takeaways, one turnover) ... only four FBS programs have a larger margin: New Mexico (11), Colorado State (8), Notre Dame (8) and UMass (7) ... Washington will open the season with four straight home games for the first time since 2022 and just the second time since 1976 … all four games will be played in September ... in '22, UW played host to Kent State, Michigan State, Portland State and Stanford to begin the year, followed by a September game on the road, Sept. 30 at UCLA … in '76, the Huskies opened with Virginia, Colorado, Indiana and Minnesota, but seasons started later in those days, and that Minnesota game was played on Oct. 2 … along with Indiana, Michigan and Louisville, UW is one of four Power 4 programs with four home games in September in 2026 … in the 2026 season opener, UW held Washington State to no successful third-down conversion attempts, in 11 tries (WSU did convert its lone fourth-down attempt) ... 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 started four first-year players in the WSU game, three on defense (edge Ramzak Fruean, defensive tackle Derek Colman-Brusa and nickelback Jeron Jones) and one on offense (left tackle Kodi Greene) ... another, RB Brian Bonner Jr., started vs. Utah State ... all five of those first-year players started vs .EWU ... UW QB Demond Williams surpassed passed 1,000 career rushing yards in the Utah State game, and now has 1,043 ... 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-Minnesota game will air on FOX television, with Jack Kizer and Mark Helfrich on the call. For more info, go to: https://foxsports.com/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 176 or 231.
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.
CONFERENCE OPENERS: The Huskies have posted a very good record in conference openers over the last 10 seasons (2016-2025), going 8-2 in those games. Of course, that time span includes eight seasons in the Pac-12 Conference and two in the Big Ten, and includes Husky teams led by four different head coaches. The only two conference-opener losses came at home vs. California in 2019 (a 20-19 loss to the Bears), and a 24-6 loss to defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Ohio State last season. It also includes the following wins: home vs. Northwestern in 2024, home vs. Cal in 2023, home vs. Stanford in 2022, home vs. California in 2021, home vs. Oregon State in 2020, at Utah in 2018, at Colorado in 2017, and at Arizona in 2016. This Saturday's Big Ten opener vs. Minnesota will mark the eighth year in a row that the Huskies will have opened the conference season at home.
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. GOLDEN GOPHERS HISTORY: Washington and Minnesota have a surprisingly long history, considering that the two teams have not played one another in nearly a half-century. The Huskies and Golden Gophers have squared off 17 times in a series that dates from 1936 to 1977, with Minnesota holding a 10-7 advantage. Just one of those 17 meetings came in a bowl game, the historic 1961 Rose Bowl. Minnesota won the first seven games (spanning 1936-49) vs. the Dawgs, who have gone 7-3 since then (1950-77).
The first-ever meeting was the Huskies' 1936 season opener, in front of 40,000 fans at Husky Stadium on Sept. 26, 1936. Minnesota, led by legendary coach Bernie Bierman bested coach Jimmy Phelan and the Huskies, 14-7, breaking a 7-7 tie with a fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Andy Uram to Ray King. Minnesota went 7-1 that year and won the national title, while the Huskies went 7-2-1 and were ranked No. 5 in the final AP poll, with its only other loss coming to Pitt in the 1937 Rose Bowl.
Two years later, the two teams met in the Twin Cities, with the Gophers blanking the Huskies, 15-0, to begin Phelan's toughest season at UW (the Huskies finished 3-5-1). Another two years later, in 1940, they played once again at Memorial Stadium, with the Gophers earning a 19-14 victory over a UW team that finished 7-2-0 and ranked No. 10 in the final AP Top 20.
Minnesota's dominance in the series continued throughout the 1940s, as the Gophers won 14-6 in 1941 in Seattle; 7-6 in 1947 in Minneapolis; 20-0 in 1948 in Seattle; and 48-20 in 1949 in Minneapolis.
After seven straight losses, the Huskies opened a four-game winning streak over the Gophers on Sept. 30, 1950, the second game of that season, and the second game ever played after the completion of the south upper deck at Husky Stadium. A record crowd of 49,704 watched an unranked Husky squad upset the No. 18 Gophers, 28-13. Hugh McElhenny led the way for UW, with 90 rushing yards and a touchdown while UW All-America QB Don Heinrich was 10-for-20 for 91 yards.
On Sept. 19, 1951, in Minneapolis, McElhenny led 8th-ranked UW to a 25-20 win, rushing for 119 yards and scoring three times. In 1952 in Seattle, Heinrich and the Huskies built a 19-6 lead and held on for a 19-13 victory. The Huskies' fourth straight win in the series came in Minneapolis in 1955, a 30-0 UW victory.
The Gophers picked up victories in 1956 (34-13 in Minneapolis) and 1957 (46-7 in Seattle), but the Huskies earned a 24-21 victory in Seattle in 1958, essentially ending the two-decade long stretch of frequent, regular-season meetings between the two.
On Jan. 2, 1961, the No. 6 Huskies and No. 1 Gophers met in the Rose Bowl Game, where Husky quarterback Bob Schloredt earned Rose Bowl MVP for the second straight season in leading Washington to a 17-7 victory, rushing for one Husky TD while passing for the other. As there were no polls after the regular season in those days, Minnesota won the AP and UPI national championship, while Washington claims the Helms Foundation title for 1960.
The Huskies and Gophers had one more home-and-home series in 1976 and 1977, with each team posting a home win. Washington won, 38-7, in Seattle in '76, while Minnesota returned the favor in '77, winning 19-17.
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 2026 season marks the 106th 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 425-187-21 (.688). Washington is 71-18 (.798) in home games since the stadium re-opened in 2013.
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/ FootballSunday, October 04
Sunday, October 04
Sunday, October 04
Sunday, October 04
