Washington opened this season at No. 17 in the preseason Associated Press (AP) top 25 poll. Despite starting the season 3-0, they’ve since completely fallen out of the poll, and the Huskies have a lot to prove in this week’s Big Ten opener against the Gophers.
The Huskies played in the 2023 National Championship game under former head coach Kaelen DeBoer, which was the final year of the four-team College Football Player era. Jedd Fisch was hired as DeBoer’s replacement that offseason. He went 6-7 in 2024, 9-4 last season, and this year feels like a key point of his Washington tenure.
Sep 12, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Washington Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch, left, shakes hands with his players following a Washington victory against the Utah State Aggies at Husky Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
“Jedd Fisch has done a really good job; I’ve known him for a very long time. Heather and his wife are friends. Just a ton of respect for what he does and how he does it. He’s a great playcaller, an offensive mind. Coach Walters on the other side; he was the head coach at Purdue, coordinator at Illinois. So we have a lot of familiarity with him,” Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said on his weekly radio show on Tuesday.
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Despite the Huskies’ undefeated record, many experts are doubting whether or not they’ll come anywhere close to their preseason expectations. Star quarterback Demond Williams has accounted for 79.7% of their total offense through three games, masking some issues that could come up against better competition.
Washington’s nonconference schedule ranked as the third easiest in all of FBS football. Wins of 14 points, two points and 32 points at home over Washington State, Utah State and Eastern Washington didn’t exactly instil confidence that Fisch’s program is ready to take the next step as a legit College Football Playoff contender.
“They got a really good football team, man, and I’ll tell you what, they’ve done a really good job building their roster. I know they’ve got a few injuries here and there. I think everybody does in the country. We do too. At the end of the day, we gotta go out and play our best football; we really do,” Fleck continued
The current betting odds have Washington favored by around 10 points, which means that the experts expect the Huskies to roll. But the Gophers already have a loss under their belts, and they have a rivalry game for the Little Brown Jug looming in Week 5 against Michigan. A loss would extend their road losing streak to six games, and it would put them in a big 2-2 hole to start 2026.
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Minnesota and Washington are two states with more similarities than you think, but their football programs are currently in two very different spots. Both head coaches should face plenty of pressure heading into Saturday’s game, but for very different reasons.
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This story was originally published by Bring Me The Sports on Sep 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the MN Gophers section. Add Bring Me The Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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