From a white-out to a black-out.
After suffering a 35-6 loss to then-No. 6 Penn State last Saturday in the Nittany Lions’ annual white-out game in University Park, Pa., Washington will return home for its own black-out night when they take on UCLA (4-5 overall, 3-4 Big Ten) on Friday in Seattle.
The usually purple-clad Huskies (5-5, 3-4) instead will don black uniforms, and fans are also encouraged to wear black.
“Some great uniforms coming out,” Washington coach Jedd Fisch said. “So excited about that.”
The Huskies this season have played in a black-out at Rutgers (Sept. 27), a stripe-out at Iowa (Oct. 12) and a red-out at Indiana (Oct. 26) before last Saturday’s white-out.
They lost all of those games, although they are 5-0 at Husky Stadium.
Washington likely needs to defeat UCLA to become bowl eligible as its last game of the regular season is Nov. 30 at No. 1 Oregon.
The Huskies have had a short turnaround after not getting back to Seattle until 5 a.m. Sunday following their game at Penn State.
“Short week, a little bit of a cram session,” Fisch said. “But as I told the staff, ‘Sleep Saturday.'”
Quarterback Will Rogers is expected to start against UCLA after getting benched at halftime last weekend for Demond Williams Jr.
“Will was a victim of circumstances, a little bit,” Fisch said. “He was 10-for-13 in the first half, just we weren’t able to get anything going.”
The Bruins have won three in a row, including a 20-17 decision against visiting Iowa last Friday. They have games remaining against rival Southern California and Fresno State as they try to qualify for a bowl game.
The win over the Hawkeyes was UCLA’s first in four tries at the Rose Bowl this season.
“I didn’t want to make too big of a deal about us being back home, but we kind of treated this game like a road game,” Bruins coach Deshaun Foster said. “I just think my guys, they came out and they earned the right to win. Just in how they practiced (last) week and I think as long as we continue to do that, this team can really just take off.”
UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers started his collegiate career at Washington in 2020 — he was named the Huskies’ offensive scout squad MVP — before transferring to Westwood the next year.
