Dawgs Play Host to Ohio State in Big Ten Opener

Saturday, September 27

Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium

12:30 p.m. PT

University of Washington

Ohio State

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Jonah Coleman hyping up the team apple cup 2025

Photo by: Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures

September 22, 2025 | Football

UW Game Notes (PDF)Gameday Central

THE GAME: For the 30th time in program history, the Washington football team (3-0) takes on a defending national champion as No. 1-ranked Ohio State (3-0) comes to Montlake this Saturday. Kickoff is at 12:30 p.m. PT and the game will air on CBS television. It's the first Big Ten meeting between the two teams, which have played one another 12 times, most recently in the 2019 Rose Bowl. The contest will also mark the Huskies' 16th game against a No. 1-ranked team (and their third such match-up in just the last 18 games). Following the OSU visit, the Huskies travel to face Maryland Oct. 4.

QUICK HITTERS: UW has won 22 consecutive home games, the longest home win streak in modern school history (the longest-ever home winning streak, 45 games, was from 1908-1917, part of UW's NCAA-record 64-game unbeaten streak) ... Husky RB Jonah Coleman, despite having played just three games, leads the nation in both total points (60) and touchdowns (10) ... Coleman also ranks No. 2 in all-purpse yards and No. 8 in rushing ... he has new career highs for attempts (24 vs. Colo. St.), rushing  TDs (5 vs. UC Davis) and receiving yards (104 vs. WSU) this year ... Husky QB Demond Williams Jr. is currently third in yards per attempt, fourth in pass efficiency, fifth in total offense, sixth in completion pct., and sixth in yards per completion ... Washington already has 106 yards in punt returns this season ... last year, in 13 games, Washington compiled just 93 punt return yards ... Washington has scored on 23 of 29 possessions this season, and that 29 includes three possession in which UW took a knee to end a half or a game ... the Huskies scored a touchdown on 12 staight possessions over games two and three and scored (TD or FG) on 17 in a row ... Washington has outscored opponents 52-0 in the fourth quarter this season ... 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-Ohio State game will air on CBS, with Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and Jenny Dell calling the action. For more information on how to watch online, go to www.cbs.com/live-tv/.

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 108 or 197. 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, Raiden 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. BUCKEYES HISTORY: Washington and Ohio State have played one another 12 times, dating back to their first game, in 1957. Eleven of those 12 games have come in the regular season, with the most recent being the 2019 Rose Bowl, following the 2018 season. The Huskies are 3-9 all-time vs. the Ohio State. Six of the 11 regular-season meetings were played at Husky Stadium, with five at Ohio Stadium. Here's a quick rundown of those 12 games:

The first UW-OSU game was played in Seattle in the third week of the season, with the Buckeyes winning, 35-7. UW scored the game's opening touchdown in the second quarter, but it was all OSU after that. OSU rushed for 290 yards and held UW to just eight first downs. That Buckeye team went on to win the national title. The following year in Columbus, in another week three game on Oct. 4, 1958, UW visited Columbus, with the Buckeyes claiming a 12-7 win. Don McKeta gave UW a 7-0 edge in the first, but UW would score no more. After cutting the lead to 7-6 late in the first, OSU didn't get the lead until Donald Clark scored on a four-yard run following a blocked Husky punt.

The two teams played another home-and-home series in 1965 and 1966. The '65 game (Oct. 2) was another third-week game, in Seattle. UW got rushing one rushing TD from Ron Medved and two more from Don Moore to build a 21-14 lead. OSU scored late in the third, but the PAT failed, leaving UW up by a point. With 59 seconds to go, Robert Funk's 27-yard field goal won the game for the home team. UW earned its first win in the series the following year, on Oct. 1, 1966, in Columbus, winning 38-22. Moore put on a show for the 80,241 fans in the Horseshoe, rushing for 221 yards and two scores on 30 carries. Jeff Jordan added three more rushing TDs for the Huskies.

The two foes played a one-off game in Seattle in 1969, with the defending national champs (and 1969 Big Ten champs) and No. 4-ranked Buckeyes beating an overmatched Husky team (UW went 1-9 that season), 40-7. The Huskies opened that ill-fated season with games at Michigan State and Michigan, followed by the home game vs. OSU.

It wasn't until Sept. 13, 1986, that the two squared off again. The Buckeyes had opened the season with a 16-10 loss to No. 5 Alabama in the Kickoff Classic in New York, with the game was the Huskies' opener. The No. 17 Huskies won the game over No. 10 OSU, 40-7, thanks largely to a 24-point second quarter. Washington led by QB Chris Chandler, passed for 204 yards and rushed for 204. OSU followed the loss with nine straight wins.

The Huskies and Buckeyes played one another three years in a row in the 1990s. The first, week two of the '93 season. No. 16 Ohio State beat No. 12 UW in that one, 21-12, in Columbus. OSU took a 7-0 lead on the opening drive and never trailed, limiting the Dawgs to just 277 yards of total offense.

Sept. 10, 1994, in Seattle, No. 25 Washington came out on top of No. 16 OSU, 25-16, as Napoleon Kaufman rushed or 212 yards on 32 carries. Washington built a 22-0 lead before the Buckeyes got on the board. On Sept. 16, 1995, back in Columbus, 10th-ranked OSU beat No. 18 Washington, 30-20, behind a 212-yard, two-score outing from eventual Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George.

In 2003, under new coach Keith Gilbertson, No. 17 UW opened the season at defending national champion No. 2-ranked OSU, with ESPN College Gameday on hand. OSU jumped on the Huskies for a 28-9 win, having led 21-0 at half.

The most recent UW-OSU game was in the 2019 Rose Bowl, following the 2018 season. UW, the Pac-12 champ, was ranked No. 9, while the Buckeyes (12-1) were Big Ten champs and ranked No. 5, playing in coach Urban Meyer's final game with the program. A 20-point fourth quarter from UW wasn't enough to overcome OSU's 28-3 advantage, and the Buckeyes won, 28-23. Myles Gaskin rushed for 121 yards for UW, while Jake Browning passed for 313.

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 420-185-21 (.688). Washington is 65-16 (.802) in home games since the stadium re-opened in 2013.
OFFENSIVE DRIVE SUCCESS: Washington has had 29 possessions this season, scoring on 23 of them. Here's a look at all 29 (plays – yards – time – result):

vs. Colorado State
6 – 59 – 2:22 – TD
10 – 28 – 5:29 – Punt
7 – 88 – 3:32 – TD
8 – 49 – 4:03 – Punt
6 – 25 – 1:50 – Fumble
1 – 6 – 0:04 – End of half
7 – 59 – 3:35 – TD
9 – 69 – 4:51 – TD
11 – 56 – 4:30 – FG
5 – 52 – 2:38 – TD
6 – 8 – 3:18 – End of game

vs. UC Davis
3 – 60 – 1:20 – TD
6 – 70 – 2:55 – TD
12 – 663 – 5:39 – TD
11 – 62 – 4:12 – TD
6 – 65 – 2:52  – TD
9 – 56 – 3:18 – TD
7 – 90 – 2:41 – TD
9 – 64 – 4:03 – TD
13 – 93 – 7:52 – TD

at Washington State
9 – 75 – 4:07 – TD
5 – 53 – 2:18 – TD
4 – 75 – 2:03 – TD
11 – 42 – 4:56 – FG
5 – 35 – 2:20 – TD
11 – 75 – 4:49 – TD
3 – 28 – 1:15 – TD
4 – 8 – 2:08 – TD
1 – -2 – 0:15 – End of Game