18 Reasons There's No Place Like Home for Huskies

One year in, the University of Washington football team doesn’t seem familiar. The Pac-12 blew up. The Husky’s coaching staff has changed. The staff has been emptied. The Huskies are no longer even in contention for a national championship or conference championship, let alone ranked in the polls.

But through all this internal chaos, one thing remains true: It’s still hard for anyone but the guys in purple shirts to win at Husky Stadium.

With USC coming to Montlake on Saturday for the first time in five years, the Huskies will emerge with the nation’s second-longest home winning streak at 18 wins, a tally surpassed only by Georgia’s 28 straight home win streaks.

The streak isn’t necessarily a topic of conversation among players, but the venue never gets old, according to UW coach Jedd Fisch, who has both won four games and lost as a one-time visitor at Husky Stadium during that span.

“We talk about how excited we are to play at home,” he said.

UW hasn’t lost its home haunts for 1,068 long, winding days and three uninterrupted seasons. They hosted visitors like Michigan, Michigan State, Boise State, Oregon and Fisch’s 2022 Arizona team and lived to tell about it.

They can’t win on the road in the Big Ten, but the Huskies still have the home run of LSU’s 14 straight wins in Baton Rouge, Oregon’s 13th straight in Eugene and Liberty’s 12th straight in Lynchburg, Virginia. He holds a home record.

The Ducks actually lost just one game in seven seasons at Autzen Stadium; In 2022, UW went 37-34 and 37-1 during that span.

HUSKIES’ 18-MATCH HOME WIN STRIKE
1. Kent State, 45-20	The series began with Kalen DeBoer’s debut at UW.
2. Portland State, 52-6	The Huskies took on current UW center D’Angalo Titialii.
3. Michigan State, 39-28	This was the first of three crowds to storm the field during the streak.
4.Stanford, 40-22	DeBoer’s first Pac-12 win was decisive.
5.Arizona, 49-39	Jedd Fisch contributed to the streak with a guest appearance.
6. Oregon State, 24-21	On a windy day, the Huskies escaped imminent disaster.
7. Colorado, 54-7	The Buffs lost the year before Deion Sanders took over.
8. Boise State, 56-19	UW made a good Broncos team look like a piece of cake with Ashton Jeanty.
9.Tulsa, 43-10	The Golden Tornado could use Steve Largent.
10. California, 59-32	Jeremiah Hunter’s TD catch wasn’t enough to stop UW before it got to Montlake.
11.Oregon, 36-33	Husky fans rushed the field for the second time during the winning streak.
12.Arizona State, 15-7	UW trailed the entire game before Powell saved this game with pick 6. Covers 89 yards.
13.Utah, 35-28	Alphonzo Tuputala made it a little tougher by giving up a 76-yard pick at the 1.
14. Washington State, 24-21	Grady Gross’ field goal secured the 14th victory.
15. Weber Case, 35-3	The Wildcats were the team that scored fewer points than the opposing team during the winning streak.
16. Eastern Michigan, 30-9	Zach Durfee did his part to extend the streak with 2.5 sacks.
17. Northwest, 24-5	The Huskies earned their first official Big Ten win, their 17th in a row.
18. Michigan, 27-17	A third crowd rushed the field after avenging the championship game.

In summary, the Huskies put together a winning streak by beating 18 different opponents after losing their final game of the 2021 season, 40-13, to Washington State at the Apple Cup in Seattle.

And all this time, not only has UW been on the right side of the ledger, but only five of the 18 games have resulted in one-score results; The Huskies beat Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State by wide margins. A goal on each trip, Utah by a touchdown and Arizona State by eight points.

On average, the Huskies won these games by scoring 34.8 points to their opponent’s 18.2 points. During this streak, Fisch’s Arizona team has accumulated the most points by a visitor at Husky Stadium, with 39 points in 2022.

The coach said the advantage of the Huskies playing at home is their outstanding fan base, student body and brilliant facilities.

While UW doesn’t look like the team that accomplished great things in 2023, it still holds the Big Ten’s longest home winning streak after Michigan’s 31-12 loss to Texas in Ann Arbor at the start of the season ended its streak of success. at 23.

The Longhorns were on an 11-game home winning streak until a 30-15 loss to Georgia two weeks ago in Austin.

All that home cooking results in a UW team that can’t survive the Big Ten outposts of Piscataway, New Jersey, Iowa City or Bloomington, Indiana, but dares everyone to come to the double-decker ballpark. Lake Washington and leave in the win column.

“We’re at Husky Stadium,” Fisch said, “it’s a phenomenal place to play ball.”

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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