Washington Football: Game-by-game predictions for 2017
By Zach Bigalke
In 2016, Washington’s highest-scoring road game of the year came in Berkeley. On the first Saturday of November, the Huskies put up over 700 yards of total offense. Jake Browning threw for six touchdown passes and nearly 400 yards. Dante Pettis threw another TD pass on a trick play, while Myles Gaskin and Lavon Coleman each punched one in on the ground.
Much of the same defense is back for the Golden Bears, for better or worse. California went 5-7 in the fourth and final year for Sonny Dykes as head coach. Missing out on the postseason was the final straw, and now Justin Wilcox will look to rebuild a team that used to be a consistent Pac-10 middleweight that occasionally threatened for conference titles under Jeff Tedford.
By the first weekend of October, though, they will have already played North Carolina, Ole Miss, USC and Oregon. California could be beat up and ripe for the picking once again.
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Prediction: Washington 62, California 19 (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12)
Thus it makes some sense to expect a similar scoreline to last year’s game. Cal, though, does not have its own talented quarterback from last season. That could make things tough against a secondary that will be looking to rebound after playing at less than championship level at Corvallis the week before. Huskies fans will see what might be their biggest blowout of the year.