Dawgs & Scarlet Knights Set For Friday Night Fight

Friday, October 10

Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium

6:00 p.m. PT

University of Washington

Rutgers

Tickets From $25 - $150

October 06, 2025 | Football

Full UW Notes (PDF)Gameday Central

THE GAME: The Washington football team (4-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) returns to Seattle to take on Rutgers (3-2, 0-2). For the second season in a row, the Dawgs and Scarlet Knights will play on a Friday night. The game kicks off at 6:00 p.m. at Husky Stadium and will air on either FS1 or FOX, dependent on the MLB playoffs schedule (FS1 is default; FOX if all division series have ended). Rutgers is the third straight UW opponent coming off of a bye week, and the third of five UW will play this season. The following weekend, Washington travels to face Michigan in Ann Arbor in a FOX-TV Big Noon Kickoff game.

QUICK HITTERS: Washington won 24-20 last Saturday at Maryland, despite trailing 20-0 ... it was the seventh 20-point comeback in UW history and the first on the road since the 1993, 24-23 win at California ... Husky RB Jonah Coleman leads the nation in scoring (13.2 points per game), rushing touchdowns (10), touchdowns (11) and total points (66) ... Coleman also ranks No. 4 in all-purpose yards and No. 15 in rushing ... he has new career highs for attempts (24 vs. Colo. St.), rushing TDs (5 vs. UC Davis), receptions (8, vs. Maryland), and receiving yards (104 vs. WSU) this year ... Husky QB Demond Williams Jr. is currently ninth in the nation in completion percentage and 13th in pass efficiency ... Washington already has 121 yards in punt returns this season ... last year, in 13 games, Washington compiled just 93 punt return yards ... as a team, Washington ranks No. 7 in FBS in third-down percentage (.569) and No. 16 in turnover margin (+1.00 per game) ... UW has just two turnover this years ... Washington has outscored opponents 73-10 in the fourth quarter this season ... only one of five UW opponents has scored in the fourth quarter this season ... Washington's last eight true road games have been announced sellouts ... the current UW roster includes players who list hometowns from 19 different states, as well as in Australia and Canada ... UW's 103-man roster includes 47 players who are in their first season as a Husky, and (including those 47), 77 who are in their first or second year in the Purple and Gold ... whereas last season, the opening-day Husky roster did not include a single offensive lineman who'd ever started a game for Washington, this season's roster included seven such o-linemen.

TELEVISION: The UW-Rutgers game will air on either FOX or FS1 (depending on MLB Playoffs schedule), with Noah Reed & Robert Smith on the call. For more on how to watch online, 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 17-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 84. Additionally, the Husky Football Coach's Show airs each game-week Monday during the season at 6:00 p.m. PT, live from JOEY Kitchen in University Village.

GRADUATES: A total of 12 Huskies head into the 2025 season already having earned their undergraduate degree, whether from UW or from another university before transferring to UW. Here's the list: CJ Christian (S), Zach Durfee (DE), Makell Esteen (S), Geirean Hatchett (OL), Milton Hopkins (DE), Deshawn Lynch (DL), Dyson McCutcheon (S), Quentin Moore (TE), Simote Pepa (DL), Logan Sagapolu (DL), Anthony Ward (LB), Carver Willis (OL).

ACADEMIC SUCCESS: Following the most recent academic quarter (spring, 2025), the UW football program posted some impressive results. The Husky football team's cumulative GPA for the quarter was 3.27, highest ever in program history. Additionally, 26 football players made the Dean's list, including the following 22 current team members: Xe'Ree Alexanders, Deven Bryant, Jonah Coleman, Elinneus Davis, Decker DeGraaf, Kade Eldridge, Jonathan Epperson Jr., Omari Evans, Luke Gayton, Zachary Henning, Luke Luchini, Jacob Manu, Dyson McCutcheon, Paul Mencke Jr., John Mills, Ephesians Prysock, Jack Shaffer, Austin Simmons, Anterio Thompson, Rainen Vines-Bright, Beck Walker and Demond Williams Jr.

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. 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, but UW remains one of (now) 10 teams to have appeared in the CFP more than once, when counting the 2024 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 to 2024.

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 three years:

2026: home – Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Penn State; road – Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, Purdue, USC
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. THE SCARLET KNIGHTS: Washington and Rutgers have faced off just three in both programs' lengthy histories, and all pretty recently. The Huskies and Scarlet Knights played in the season-opener in both 2016 and 2017, and in the fifth game of the 2024 season (as Big Ten opponents for the first time in the series). Here's a look at those three 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.

Rutgers 21, Washington 18
September 1, 2017, SHI Stadium
In a game marked by missed opportunities for the Huskies, the Scarlet Knights picked up their first win over the UW on a Friday night "Blackout" game in New Jersey, 21-18. After an early 3-0 lead, the Huskies never held the lead after Rutgers scored its first touchdown early in the second quarter. A TD pass just before halftime increased that lead to 14-3. In the third, Will Rogers connected with Denzel Boston on a 51-yard toss, but Rutgers answered early in the fourth. However, Washington, which had missed two field goals earlier in the game, had another miss (albeit on a 55-yard attempt) on what would have been a game-tying score on the game's final play. UW, led by 148 rushing yards from Jonah Coleman and 306 passing yards from Rogers, outgained the Knights, 521-299, but the missed field goals and untimely penalties proved to be the difference.

HISTORIC COMEBACK: Last Saturday's 24-20 win at Maryland marked just the seventh time in UW history that the Huskies won a game after trailing by 20 or more points. It's the first such game since 2020, when the Huskies trailed Utah (at Husky Stadium), 21-0, and won, 24-21. It's the first such win on the road since the UW's famous victory at California in 1993, when Washington trailed 20-0, and 23-3, and won, 24-23. Here are the seven UW games in which the Huskies have overcome a 20-point deficit to win:

Deficit    Score    Time     Qtr.     Final      Opponent     Site                                      Date
24          3-27      9:03       3rd       28-27     California       Seattle                          11/12/1988
21           0-21      12:31       3rd       27-26     California       Berkeley, Calif.               10/10/1981
21           0-21      3:42       1st        28-27     UCLA            Pasadena, Calif.             10/28/1989
21           0-21      0:42      2nd      24-21     Utah              Seattle                         11/28/2020
21           0-21      1:41        2nd      22-21     Purdue          West Lafayette, Ind.        9/23/1972
20          0-20     11:25       3rd       24-20    Maryland       College Park, Md.            10/4/2025
20          3-23      7:25       3rd       24-23     California       Berkeley, Calif.                10/9/1993

ROSTER TURNOVER: Like at a lot of programs in this day and age of college football, Washington's roster has seen a good deal of turnover in the last few years, unsurprisingly, given that UW has had four head coaches in seven years. However, in terms of class years, the 2025 Husky football roster is relatively balanced. At the start of the season, UW's 103-man roster includes 29 true freshmen, 15 redshirt freshmen, 19 sophomores, 18 juniors, and 22 seniors. However, taking into consideration how many years players have been at UW provides a different picture, as 77 of the 103 are playing their first (47) or second (30) at Washington in 2025. UW's roster also includes 14 third-year Huskies, seven fourth-year (including Anthony Ward, who spent two years at UW before going to Arizona for two seasons), four fifth-year (including Geirean Hatchett, who spent last season at Oklahoma), and one sixth-year roster member (Makell Esteen, whose first year at Washington was 2020).

STARTING EXPERIENCE: For the second year in a row, it's fair to say that UW did not return a large number of starters from the previous year. However, the Husky roster DOES include a surprisingly large number of players with starting experience – nearly all from last year. Not counting specialists (Grady Gross has been UW's "starting kicker" for two seasons), and not counting the current Huskies who started for other college programs before transferring to UW, Washington had 20 different current players who had started in a Husky uniform – 12 on offense (total of 70 UW starts) and eight on defense (32).

In addition to the 20 current player who had started for Washington, the 2025 Husky roster includes 21 players (some of them the 20 who have since started for UW) who have started at least once for another four-year college: LB Buddah Al-Uqdah (21 starts at Washington State), LB Xe'ree Alexander (7 at UCF, 6 at Idaho), OL Drew Azzopardi (6 at San Diego State), S CJ Christian (19 at FIU), RB Jonah Coleman (7 at Arizona), Tacario Davis (22 at Arizona), Zach Durfee (11 at Sioux Falls), TE Kade Eldridge (1 at USC), WR Omari Evans (6 at Penn State), WR Kevin Green Jr. (2 at Arizona), OL Geirean Hatchett (1 at Oklahoma), QB Kai Horton (1 at Tulane), LB Jacob Manu (27 at Arizona), S Alex McLaughlin (23 at NAU), DL Simote Pepa (3 at Utah), CB Ephesians Prysock (16 at Arizona), DL Logan Sagapolu (1 at Miami, Fla.), DL Anterio Thompson (12 at WMU), DL Ta'ita'I Uiagalelei (13 at Arizona), EDGE Isaiah Ward (11 at Arizona), and OL Carver Willis (18 at Kansas State).

All totaled, as of the start of the 2025 season, UW had 33 different players with a combined total of 330 career starts at the four-year college level.

ALASKA AIRLINES FIELD AT 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 2024 season marks the 104th 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 420-186-21 (.687). Washington is 65-17 (.793) in home games since the stadium re-opened in 2013.