Dawgs Travel To Rutgers For First 2024 Road Game

Friday, September 27

Piscataway, N.J.

5:00 PM

University of Washington

Rutgers

Jonah Coleman hurdles northwestern defender 2024

September 23, 2024 | Football

Full UW Notes (PDF)

THE GAME: The Washington football team (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) plays its first road game of the season (and first in nine games) this week as the Huskies travel to Piscataway, N.J., to take on Rutgers (3-0), Friday night at 5:00 p.m. PT/8:00 p.m. ET, on FOX television. The Dawgs last played a road game Nov. 18, 2023, at Oregon State, and have played four home games and four neutral-site games since. Rutgers, which had an off week on Sept. 14, is playing its Big Ten opener. The two teams have met twice – in the 2016 and 2017 season openers, the latter of those also coming on a Friday night in New Jersey. Following the Rutgers game, UW returns to Seattle to play host to Michigan on Oct. 5.

QUICK HITTERS: Washington has won 17 consecutive home games, the second-longest, current home win streak in the nation, and tied for the second-longest in school history ... the Huskies' eight-game road win streak is tied for the fourth-longest current road streak in the nation ... UW has also won 16 conference games in a row (though, of course, the Huskies have changed conferences) ... the Huskies have not allowed a touchdown in three of four games this season ... among active FBS players, Rogers ranks No. 1 in career attempts (1,987), completions (1,385), and completion percentage (.697); and No. 2 in passing yards (13,363) and TDs (102) ... 34 players made their Husky debut in the Weber State game, including nine true freshmen ... four more players saw their first UW action vs. EMU ... UW has just two turnovers through four games ... only four FBS teams with four games played this season have fewer ... not counting the four-game 2020 season, the Huskies have won 10 or more games in five of the last seven seasons ... Washington is 75-27 since the end of the 2015 season, and 28-4 since the end of 2021 ... the current UW roster includes players who list hometowns from 19 different states, as well as in Germany and Canada ... UW's 110-man roster entering the year includes 25 true freshmen, 20 redshirt freshmen, 16 sophomores, 27 juniors, and 22 seniors ... the Husky roster includes five players in their sixth season at UW: DL Jacob Bandes, RB Cameron Davis, S Kamren Fabiculanan, LB Drew Fowler, and LB Alphonzo Tuputala ... those five are playing for their fourth different head coach in 2024.

TELEVISION: The Washington-Rutgers game will air on FOX, with Tim Brando, Devin Gardner and Josh Sims calling the action. For more information on how to watch, go to www.foxsports.com/live.

RADIO: All Washington football games will air on the Washington Sports Network from Learfield, with Tony Castricone (play by play), former Husky tight end Cameron Cleeland (analyst) and former UW basketball player Elise Woodward (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 16-station Washington Sports Network begins two hours before kickoff. The entire broadcast is available worldwide on the Huskies Gameday mobile app and the Varsity app. The UW broadcast of this game will also air on Sirius/XM channel 83 or 372. Additionally, the Husky Football Coach's Show airs each Monday during the season at 6:00 p.m. PT.

B1G TIME: As has been well documented over the last year-plus, Washington has officially joined the Big Ten Conference ahead of the 2024-25 school year, effective on Aug. 2, 2024. The Huskies are 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 to 2024.

FUTURE SCHEDULES: Last October, the Big Ten revealed 18 football teams' home and away, conference opponents for the next for the next five seasons (2024-28). Here are the UW's home and road, Big Ten games, for the coming four years:
2025: home – Illinois, Ohio State, Oregon, Purdue, Rutgers; road – Maryland, Michigan, UCLA, Wisconsin
2026: home – Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Penn State; road – Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, Purdue, USC
2027: home – Maryland, Michgan State, Nebraska, Oregon, USC; road – Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, Rutgers
2028: home – Michigan, Northwestern, UCLA, Wisconsin; road – Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio State, Oregon

HUSKIES IN THE EAST: Washington's trip to Rutgers will mark the Huskies' easternmost game in school history (tying the Dawgs' trip to Rutgers in 2017, of course). While the Huskies have played a number of non-conference games at the home of Big Ten teams, Washington has played very few games in locations that can reasonably be considered the "East Coast." When the Huskies opened the 2007 season at Syracuse, it marked their easternmost road game ever to that point in time (it was the Dawgs' second trip to play the Orange as they also played there in 1977), as Syracuse is, in terms of its longitude, east of both Durham, N.C. (where the UW played Duke in 1973), and Miami, Fla. (where the Huskies have played vs. Miami and in the Orange Bowl game), the next two closest competitors for the Huskies' easternmost games of all time. Piscataway is about one-and-a-half degrees of longitude further east than Syracuse. Only four FBS programs are located east of Rutgers: UConn, UMass, Army and Boston College; while only three FBS programs are west of UW: Oregon, Oregon State and Hawai'i.

HUSKIES vs. THE SCARLET KNIGHTS: Washington and Rutgers have faced off just twice in both programs' lengthy histories, and both pretty recently. The Huskies and Scarlet Knights played in the season-opener in both 2016 and 2017. Here's a look at those two games:

Washington 48, Rutgers 13
September 3, 2016, Husky Stadium
Washington opened the 2016 season with its first-ever match-up with Rutgers last Sept. 3 at Husky Stadium, earning a 48-13 victory. Husky quarterback Jake Browning opened his record-setting season with a solid outing, completing 18-of-27 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns, while the Huskies got help on special teams in the form of a touchdown on a kickoff return from John Ross and another on a Dante Pettis punt return. For Ross, it was a fabulous debut after a year off due to injury as, along with that 92-yard kick return, he also scored on Browning passes of 38 and 50 yards. The Huskies scored 24 points in the first quarter to take what proved an insurmountable lead. Browning hit Chico McClatcher on a 43-yard toss for the first TD of the season to get things started. Defensively, the Huskies were led by 12 tackles from Keishawn Bierria and 11 from Azeem Victor.

Washington 30, Rutgers 14
September 1, 2017, High Points Solutions Stadium
UW made the return trip in the home-and-home with Rutgers to open the 2017 season. After the Knights scored a touchdown to open the game, the UW took a 10-7 lead into the locker room at halftime thanks to a Tristan Vizcaino field goal and a 61-yard punt return TD from Dante Pettis (the eventual NCAA career punt return TDs record-holder, who also returned a punt for a TD vs. Rutgers in 2016. UW scored the first 17 points of the second half, as scoring passes from Jake Browning to running backs Lavon Coleman and Myles Gaskin sandwiched another field goal from Vizcaino, who after a second Rutgers TD, tacked on a third to close out the scoring. The star of the game, however, was RS-freshman cornerback Byron Murphy, who notched two interceptions in his collegiate debut.

ROSTER TURNOVER: One main storyline for the 2024 UW football team has been about the amount of change that has occured since the end of the 2023 season. In fact, UW has just two returning, regular starters back from '23 (LB Alphonzo Tuputala and CB Elijah Jackson), and the Huskies lost 41 letterwinners off of last year's team, while adding 59 new players to the roster since the end of last season. On the depth chart for the season-opener in 2023, 44 players were listed on offense and defense. Just 11 of those 44 are still on the Husky roster (and just two of those 11 are on offense). In the season-opener vs. Weber State, a total of 34 players saw their first action in a Washington uniform. Nine of those 34 were true freshman.

GRADUATES: A total of 21 Huskies head into the 2024 season already having earned their undergraduate degree. Here's the list: RB Sam Adams II, S Cameron Broussard, DL Jacob Bandes, LB Carson Bruener, TE Owen Coutts, RB Cameron Davis, S Makell Esteen, S Kamren Fabiculanan, LB Drew Fowler, S Justin Harrington, WR Jeremiah Hunter, WR Giles Jackson, DL Deshawn Lynch, OL Gaard Memmelaar, TE Quentin Moore, QB Will Rogers, DL Logan Sagapolu, WR Camden Sirmon, OL D'Angalo Titialii, LB Alphonzo Tuputala, OL Enokk Vimahi.

MORE LONG PLAYS: Over the last several years, Washington has been one of the top teams in the nation in terms of long scrimmage plays. And, while the players and coaches have largely changed, that's no different in 2024. Through four games, UW has 73 plays of 10 yards or longer (t-11th in FBS), and 23 of 20 or longer (t-18th). UW running back Jonah Coleman is tied for fourth in FBS with 21 scrimmage plays of 10 or more yards, and tied for eight in the country with 15 rushes of 10-plus yards.

NFL CONNECTIONS: Much has been made of the UW coaching staff's NFL connections, including that coordinators Steve Belichick (Bill) and Brennan Carroll (Pete), as well as analyst Luke Del Rio (Jack) and GA Jake Lynch (John), are all sons of prominent NFL coaches and GMs. Three other staff members – Scottie Graham, Vinnie Sunseri and quality control analyst Caleb Wilson – played in the NFL. Also, graduate assistant Dom Caldwell's uncle, David, is a longtime NFL executive, having served as the Jaguars general manager, among other roles. UW's player roster also includes a number of sons of former NFL players: Sam Adams II (Sam), Carson Bruener (Mark), Roice Cleeland (Cam), Quentin Moore (Mark), Russell Davis II (Russell), Dyson McCutcheon (Daylon; plus grandfather, Lawrence), and Justice Williams (Roland). Lastly, Daniyel Ngata (Joseph), Ryan Otton (Cade), and Keleki Latu (Laiatu) each have older brothers who are active NFL players.