No. 10 Huskies Make First Trip To UCLA Since 2013

Saturday, October 6

Pasadena, CA

4:30 PM

University of Washington

UCLA

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

October 01, 2018 | Football

Full UW Notes with Depth Chart Buy Tickets

THE GAME: The Washington football team (2-0 Pac-12, 4-1 overall) travels the Rose Bowl to play UCLA (0-1, 0-4) for the first time since the 2013 season, meaning this is the first time the Huskies have played on the road against the Bruins under head coach Chris Petersen. Kickoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. PT and the game will air live on FOX television. The Huskies played the Bruins in Seattle in 2014 and 2017, and didn't play UCLA at all in 2015 or 2016, making this their first trip to the Rose Bowl Stadium in five years. UW enters the game ranked No. 10 in both the AP Top 25 and the coaches' poll. The Huskies return to the road the following week to face Oregon in Eugene on Oct. 13.

QUICK HITTERS: Jake Browning broke the UW career passing yards record in the BYU game, passing Cody Pickett ... Browning's 10,347 career yards are 16th in Pac-12 history ... with 86 career touchdown passes, he's 8th in Pac-12 history ... Browning is just the sixth player in Pac-12 history to account for 100 touchdowns (86 pass, 14 rush) ... Sept.1 vs. Auburn, Myles Gaskin became the UW's all-time leading rusher, moving past Napoleon Kaufman, who had held the record since 1994 ... Gaskin enters the BYU game with 4,493 yards, 6th-most in Pac-12 history ... Gaskin scored his 52th career touchdown against BYU, extending his school record ... his 48 career rushing TDs (he has four receiving TDs) rank 6th in Pac-12 history ... UW has allowed just one pass TD this year, and that came on the first drive of the first game (vs. Auburn) ... Taylor Rapp leads the nation with three fumble recoveries ... against ASU, Ben Burr-Kirven notched 20 tackles, most by a Husky since 1996 ... Burr-Kirven is 3rd in the nation in both forced fumbles and fumble recoveries and 13th in total tackles ... Byron Murphy is 10th in the nation in passes defended ... for the first time since 1995, UW did not have a true freshman play in its season opener ... against North Dakota, however, four true freshmen saw action: DL Tuli Letuligasenoa, LB Jackson Sirmon, LB MJ Tafisi, OLB Zion Tupuola-Fetui ... only five players (none of them true freshmen) made their UW playing debut against Auburn in Atlanta: OL Henry Bainivalu, PK Peyton Henry, OL Jaxson Kirkland (started at RG), OLB Ariel Ngata and TE Cade Otton ... 12 more Huskies saw their first action against North Dakota: the aforementioned true freshmen, plus TB Malik Braxton, DL Josiah Bronson, WR Terrell Bynum, WR Alex Cook, TE Michael Neal, OL Cole Norgaard, OLB Joe Tryon, PK Sebastian Valerio ... Washington enters the week No. 1 in scoring defense (11.6 ppg).

TELEVISION: The Washington-UCLA game will air live to a national audience on FOX with Brian Custer (play-by-play), Ben Leber (analyst) and Jen Hale (sidelines) providing the commentary. The broadcast can also be found on FOXSportsGo.com and the FOXSports app.

RADIO: The Washington IMG College Network, with its flagship station KOMO AM-1000 and FM-97.7, will carry the live broadcast of every football game on 17 Northwest radio stations. First-year play-by-play man Tony Castricone and color analyst Damon Huard are joined by sideline reporter Elise Woodward. The UW broadcast of the game will also air on Sirius (108) and XM (386) satellite radio, and is also available via TuneIn.com and the TuneIn app.

THE YOUNG AND THE OLD: Washington has been a notably and demonstrably young team the last several years and, while the Huskies have gotten distinctly more experienced across the board, the roster still skews slightly towards youth. The 2018 roster includes 43 freshmen and 21 sophomores, compared to 21 seniors and 28 juniors, meaning just under 57 percent of the players have three or more years of eligibility left. At the same time, Washington has 54returning lettermen and, not counting specialists, 29 different Huskies have started at least one game during their career.

THE DEFENSE: Over the last three years, Washington's defense has been, statistically, the best in the Pac-12 and one of the top units in the nation. The Huskies have led the Pac-12 in total defense for three years in a row, climbing the national rankings each year, capped by a No. 8 national finish last season. The UW has also paced the Pac-12 in scoring defense the last three seasons, finishing fifth in the FBS last season. Last year, the Huskies were also fourth in the nation in rushing defense and fifth in the country in turnover margin.

ONE-TWO PUNCH ON OFFENSE: In seniors Jake Browning and Myles Gaskin, the Huskies return the most prolific quarterback-running back tandem in the nation, in terms of career statistics, at the start of the 2018 season. Gaskin's 4,055 career rushing yards entering the year were most in the nation among returning FBS players, nearly 900 yards ahead of the next-closest (Appalachian State's Jalin Moore, 3,170 yards). Gaskin's 45 career rushing touchdowns were also most in the nation among FBS returners. Gaskin entered his senior season ranked 9th in Pac-12 history in rushing TDs and 11th in rushing yards. He's seeking to become the 10th FBS player ever (and first in Pac-12 history) to rush for 1,000 or more yards in four seasons. Meanwhile, Browning's 9,104 career passing yards entering the year were second-most among all FBS returners, while his 78 career TD passes (already a UW record) were tops in the country. Browning's entered the season ranked No. 12 in Pac-12 history in career TD passes (and only 11 from making the top four), while his yards total ranked No. 27 (about 1,700 yards away from the top 10).

HUSKIES vs. BRUINS HISTORY: UCLA enjoys a 9-game edge in the series, with 40 wins, 31 losses and two ties in 73 all-time games against Washington. The Bruins have taken that lead relatively recently, having won 13 of the last 17, with many recent games having been comebacks. Last season, the Huskies won, 44-23, behind 169 rush yards from Myles Gaskin and 94 more from Lavon Coleman. Prior to last year, the most recent UW-UCLA game was in 2014, when the Bruins racked up 476 yards in a 44-30 win. The year prior in Pasadena, UCLA held on for a 41-31 win despite the Huskies out-gaining the Bruins in total offense. Cyler Miles came off the bench for injured starter Keith Price and threw for 149 yards and two scores while UCLA's Myles Jack rushed for four touchdowns. Prior to that, the Huskies and Bruins hadn't played one another since 2010 (UW didn't face UCLA or ASU in 2011 and 2012). That previous meeting was a rare Thursday night contest in Seattle, with the Huskies beating the Bruins, 24-7, as UCLA was held off the scoreboard after the first quarter. Chris Polk rushed for 138 yards and Jesse Callier added 107 in what was mostly a defensive game (UW out-gained UCLA 321 to 163 yards). In 2009 in Pasadena, the Bruins held off the Huskies' comeback attempt for a 24-23 victory. In 2008, UCLA pulled away late for a 27-7 win. But in 2007 in Pasadena, the Bruins beat the Huskies, 44-31, in a game that featured 41 combined points scored in the fourth quarter after a 10-10 tie at the half. The Huskies got the win in 2006 in Seattle, coming back from 16-0 behind to win, 29-19. In 2005, the Bruins needed a fourth-quarter comeback to secure a 21-17 win as the Huskies led 10-0 at half and 17-7 after three quarters. In 2004 in Seattle, Maurice Drew ran for 322 yards and five touchdowns as the Bruins came back from a 24-7 deficit to win, 37-31. In 2003 at the Rose Bowl, 18th-ranked Washington built a 16-7 halftime lead, but the Bruins stormed back to win going away, 46-16. UCLA's 39 second-half points were the most ever against a Husky team in a second half. In 2002, the Bruins parlayed a 24-14 halftime lead into a 34-24 win. In 2001, the Bruins won, 35-13, as tailback DeShaun Foster rushed for 301 yards in a game the Huskies played without injured starting quarterback Cody Pickett (the only game Pickett missed after separating his right shoulder the previous week vs. USC). In 2000, with a 35-28 win, Washington broke the Bruins' three-game winning streak in the series. UCLA had won games in 1997, 1998 and 1999 to take the series advantage, which, prior to the '97 meeting was tied at 27-27-2. In 12 of the last 17 meetings (all but 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007) between Washington and UCLA, one or both of the teams has been ranked. Going by ranking alone, the Bruins managed to upset the Huskies in four of those games – most notably the 1990 loss at Husky Stadium that knocked aside the UW's national title hopes. In that '90 game, the unranked Bruins handed No. 2 Washington a 25-22 loss. In the next meeting in 1993, 22nd-ranked UCLA beat the 12th-ranked Dawgs, 39-25. Prior to 2004, the most recent "upset" was in 1999, when an unranked UCLA team beat No. 22 Washington, 33-20. The UW-UCLA series first got underway in 1932, when the Huskies posted the first of four straight shutouts against the Bruins. UCLA got its first win in the series in 1938 with a 13-0 win in Los Angeles.

THE PAC-12: Prior to the 2011 season, the Pac-10 Conference added Utah and Colorado to expand to the Pac-12. Washington, which along with California is one of two schools who have been in the conference since its founding in 1915, plays in the Pac-12 North, along with the other three Northwest schools (Oregon, OSU, WSU) and Stanford and Cal. Under current plans, each school will play all five division rivals, plus four of six teams in the other division each season. The first two seasons, the Huskies did not face UCLA or Arizona State. In 2013 and 14, the Huskies didn't face Utah or USC. In 2015 in 2016, neither UCLA nor Colorado were on the UW schedule, while the Huskies don't face USC and Arizona in 2017 or 2018.

THE 100-YARD FACTOR: Since the 1947 season, Washington is 213-66-3 (.760) when a Husky player rushes for 100 yards in a game. The Huskies were 8-0 in such games in 2016, were 5-1 in 2017 and are 1-0 this year.

HISTORY LESSON: Successfully rushing the football and winning go hand-in-hand for the Huskies. Since 1990, UW has rushed for 200 yards in a game 114 times. The Huskies' record stands at 97-16-1 (.856) in those contests. Since 1995, UW is 72-13-1 (.843) when rushing for 200 yards.