For Washington Huskies fans familiar with Rose Bowl appearances and sold-out stadiums and all the other trappings of the program’s charmed run under coach Don James, the 2017 season might feel something like those halcyon days.
Last season, en route to their first conference championship in 16 years, the Huskies stomped their fiercest rivals, Washington State and Oregon, by a combined score of 115-38. But they lost to USC, one of two defeats – the other to Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals – that blemished what was still a breakthrough season.
The Trojans, of course, did not win the league, or even their division, losing the South to Colorado despite beating the Buffaloes head-to-head; early-season losses to Stanford and Utah doomed them to second place.