Now they need to just wait for the final verdict to come in on Sunday before begin preparations for the playoff.
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Washington is ranked fourth in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, and the dominant title-winning performance figures to have secured one of the four spots in coach Chris Peterson’s third year at the helm.
He threw for 2,633 yards and USC freshman record 26 touchdowns with a 68 percent completion rate and eight passes intercepted. Running backs Myles Gaskin (29 carries, 159 yards) and Lavon Coleman (18 carries, 101 yards, touchdown) led an attack that racked up 265 yards and averaged 4.9 yards per carry.
OH (8-5) never led and didn’t do much on offense until the final quarter, but the Bobcats still came achingly close to their first MAC championship since 1968. Only one bad loss to USC other than that it’s been a Fantastic season for the Huskies.
WMU became the first undefeated team to win the MAC title game since Marshall in 1999. Regardless of which team gets the bid out the Pac-12, they could wind up playing the Big Ten champion, which is all sorts of nuts. Stanford was a top-10 team at the time. It was a Fantastic night for the Huskies. And after the teams traded punts, UW pretty much put things out of reach on a highlight reel touchdown catch by John Ross.
“I always hoped that wherever I was we’d be able to play for championships”, MacIntyre said.
And now, Liufau and the Buffs will face Washington sophomore quarterback Jake Browning, the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year. Don’t lose to Stanford or Utah.
Question the nonconference schedule all you want, but Washington has done what it needs to do to turn a conference title into a national championship chance. Washington’s defense has done a good job of containing him.
How good are the Huskies?
Record-wise Washington comes into the game 11-1 while Colorado is 10-2. Both these teams defeated OR at some point during the 2016 season, in the two seasons since the Ducks last played for the PAC-12 title they’ve seen two rivals in this game.
What about Browning? The quarterback didn’t have his best night, but he didn’t have to.
The foundation for Washington’s breakthrough 2016 season was laid previous year, when coach Chris Petersen turned to a true freshman at quarterback and running back. “Our pass game was, uh, awkward, for lack of a better way to say it”.
The Buffaloes were dominated on both sides of the football tonight. Potoa’e finished with one tackle, though it was for a loss.
Liufau refused to blame the mistakes on his ankle, saying instead that “I really missed up, to say the least”.
Then the Washington defense clamped down.
Through 30 minutes of play, the Buffaloes trail Washington 14-7.
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There’s no doubt about that.
