No. 15 Dawgs Head To Berkeley To Face Golden Bears

Saturday, October 27

Berkeley, CA

3:30 PM

University of Washington

California

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

October 22, 2018 | Football

Full UW Game Notes

THE GAME: The Washington football team (4-1 Pac-12, 6-2 overall) travels to the Bay Area to take on California (1-3, 4-3) Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. and the game will air on FS1 television. The Huskies enter the game ranked No. 15 in the latest AP Top 25 and No. 13 in the coaches' poll, having beaten Colorado last Saturday in Seattle. Cal broke a three-game losing streak with a 49-7 win at Oregon State last week.

QUICK HITTERS: Jake Browning broke the UW career passing yards record in the BYU game, passing Cody Pickett ... Browning's 11,005 career yards are 8th-most in Pac-12 history ... with 89 career touchdown passes, he's 7th in Pac-12 history ... Browning is just the sixth player in Pac-12 history to account for 100 touchdowns (104 total: 89 pass, 15 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 Cal game with 4,678 yards, 6th-most in Pac-12 history ... Gaskin scored his 54th career touchdown against UCLA, extending his school record ... his 50 career rushing TDs (he has four receiving TDs) rank 5th in Pac-12 history ... Taylor Rapp leads the nation with three fumble recoveries, while Ben Burr-Kirven and Tevis Bartlett are tied for third in the nation in forced fumbles ... against ASU, Burr-Kirven notched 20 tackles, most by a Husky since 1996 ... Burr-Kirven's 108 total tackles (most in the nation) are already 24 more than his 13-game total of last year, which led the team ... 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 ... cornerback Kyler Gordon played at Oregon, becoming the fifth freshman to see action in 2018 ... Letuligasenoa also played against Colorado, but the other four have played in just one game each ... UW has outscored opponents 229-125 this year and, in quarters two and three (combined), UW is outscoring its opponents 120-42 this season ... UW is 31-7 over its last 38 games ... Washington hasn't allowed a team to score 40 points in its last 52 games and, during that same span, has allowed over 30 only four times ... over those 52 games, UW has outscored opponents, 1,799-919 ... UW enters Cal week ranked No. 10 in scoring defense (15.6), No. 12 in third-down conversions (.486), No. 14 in passing yards allowed (174.3), No. 16 in total defense (308.6), and No. 19 in completion percentage (.662).

TELEVISION: The Washington-Cal game will air live to a national audience on FOX with Tim Brando (play-by-play), Spencer Tillman (analyst) and Holly Sonders (sidelines) providing the commentary. The broadcast can also be found on FOXSportsGo.com and the FOXSportsGo 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 (136) and XM (207) 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. GOLDEN BEARS HISTORY: Washington and California are the only two teams that have played in what is now the Pac-12 Conference in every season since the league was founded in 1916. As that would indicate, they've played one another quite often. The Huskies hold a 54-39-4 record in the all-time series, which began in 1904. Last season, UW held Cal to 93 yards of total offense in a 33-7 win. In 2016 in Berkeley, Jake Browning threw for six TDs and 378 yards on 19-for-28 passing to lead UW to a 66-27 win. John Ross totaled 208 receiving yards and Dante Pettis added 104 more, while each scored three TDs. In 2015 in Seattle, Cal built a 27-7 lead over the UW and then held the Huskies off for a 30-24 win. In 2014 in Berkeley, a 100-yard fumble return from Shaq Thompson and an 86-yard pass to Ross were the key plays in a 31-7 Husky win. In 2013 in Seattle, UW earned a 41-17 victory behind 241 rushing yards from Bishop Sankey and 376 passing from Keith Price. In 2012, the UW earned a 21-13 win thanks largely to second-half TDs from Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Sankey. In 2011 in Seattle, the Huskies held on a late goalline stand to preserve a 31-23 victory as Price threw for three TDs in the Pac-12 opener. In 2010 in Berkeley, the Huskies beat the Bears, 16-13, on the final play of the game, a one-yard run from Chris Polk. In 2009, the Huskies closed out their season with a 42-10 win over the Bears in Seattle. Jake Locker passed for 248 yards and three TDs and rushed for 77 and two more scores. In 2008, Cal won in Berkeley, in another season finale as Jahvid Best ran for 311 yards and four TDs in a 48-7 Bears win. In 2007, the 37-23 Husky victory broke a streak of five straight Cal wins in the series. Prior to that five-game losing streak, the Huskies had won 19 consecutive games in the series, a streak that began with a 50-31 win in 1977. Before 2002, the last Cal win had come in 1976. Cal and UW first met in 1904, battling to a 6-6 tie in a game played in Seattle. In both 1915 and 1916, they played one another twice each year, with unbeaten Gil Dobie's Washington team sweeping the four games. In 1917, Cal broke the UW's 63-game unbeaten streak (still an NCAA record) with a 27-0 win in Berkeley. Other big games in the series include the 1937 game, when the unranked Huskies held No. 1 Cal to a 0-0 tie in Seattle. In 1991, the Bears probably came as close as anyone to beating Washington that national championship season, as Mike Pawlawski's last-gasp pass into the endzone was batted down in a 24-17 UW win. Washington has also posted four of its nine biggest comebacks in history against California. The biggest ever was in 1988, when the Dawgs trailed 27-3 before rallying to win, 28-27. In 1981, Washington was down 21-0 in the third quarter before coming back for a 27-26 victory. A 20-point comeback in 1993 (24-23) and a 14-point rally in 1999 (31-27) also rank on the list. In 2001, the Huskies trailed 21-7 in the first quarter, but came back to earn a 31-28 victory in Berkeley.

HUSKIES vs. BAY AREA SCHOOLS: Washington has a combined, all-time record of 109-82-8 vs. opponents from the San Francisco Bay Area. Washington is 55-39-4 against Cal, 42-42-4 vs. Stanford, 10-0 vs. San Jose State, 1-1 vs. St. Mary's and 1-0 vs. Santa Clara. The Huskies haven't played Santa Clara since 1935 and St. Mary's since 1947. Since 1977, UW is 59-17-0 vs. Bay Area teams: 28-5 vs. Cal, 23-12 vs. Stanford and 8-0 vs. San Jose State.

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 214-66-3 (.761) 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 2-0 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 115 times. The Huskies' record stands at 98-16-1 (.856) in those contests. Since 1995, UW is 73-13-1 (.845) when rushing for 200 yards.