Washington’s journey to last season’s Pac-12 championship required a victory against the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and eventual No. 1 NFL Draft pick. Also, two wins against a Heisman finalist who wound up the No. 12 pick, and another against a quarterback among the best in college football this season.
Through the first four games of its inaugural Big Ten schedule, Washington has, perhaps appropriately, seen more opposing talent at tailback than quarterback.
The Huskies’ first four conference opponents — Northwestern, Rutgers, Michigan and Iowa — happen to be the bottom four teams in the league in total passing and yards per attempt, and those schools constitute four of the bottom five teams in passing efficiency. In fact, I’m using their team rankings, rather than individual quarterback rankings, because both Northwestern and Michigan have already used multiple starters.
It hasn’t been quite like facing Caleb Williams, Bo Nix and Cam Ward. That’s about to change after the Huskies’ bye week, though, because their remaining five games feature some of the top passers in the league, and certainly the top passers on their Big Ten schedule this season. In UW’s final five games, the Huskies will face three of the league’s top four quarterbacks, in terms of passing efficiency, and four of the top seven in total passing yards.
Even after its 40-16 loss at Iowa, Washington still leads FBS in completion percentage allowed, and ranks second nationally in yards per attempt allowed and third in pass efficiency defense. The upcoming schedule will challenge those marks to a greater degree than what UW has faced to this point.
Last week, for example, Iowa rushed 37 times and passed only 14. The week prior, Michigan rushed 37 times and passed 25. Next week’s opponent, No. 16 Indiana, has passed for more yards than the Hawkeyes and Wolverines combined.
“We’re going to see a substantial difference in what we’re defending, and it’s going to be a great responsibility and great challenge to keep the defense continuing to play well,” UW coach Jedd Fisch said. “Offensively, we’ve got to find ways to score more than 24 points a game. We’re going to try to get to 30. We’re going to have to see. Because I think these next few weeks, the type of offenses we’re going to play, we’ll have more possessions, because it won’t be as long of the ground and pound.”
Here is a look at each of the opposing quarterbacks on Washington’s remaining schedule.
