WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Lest you’d forgotten what winning looks like, accompany the Washington Huskies back to the visitors locker room late Friday night at Ross-Ade Stadium, as fine a place as any to get right when all has gone wrong.
Ramzak Fruean, injured with his right knee in a brace, is waving a towel and shouting.
Demond Williams Jr., out for this game with a rib injury, is all smiles jogging behind Dezmen Roebuck, who skips ahead. Elijah Brown, Williams’ replacement at quarterback, can’t stop smiling, either.
Before this frustrating season, news of Washington’s 38-26 victory in this game — against this team — might have been met with a shrug, if not some mild angst at such a lacking margin.
Now? The Huskies’ handling of Purdue instead marks their best win this season, and extinguishes the worst of those thoughts you might have allowed into your psyche as Iowa laid waste to UW last week on both sides of the ball.