Washington Football: Best, worst, and most likely scenarios for 2021

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Dec 5, 2020; Seattle, Washington, USA; Stanford Cardinal linebacker Gabe Reid (90) pressures Washington Huskies quarterback Dylan Morris (9) during the second quarter at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /

Worst-case scenario

The worst-case scenario for Washington this season still means a bowl berth in Jimmy Lake’s first full year, but it wouldn’t be pretty.

Washington would open the season with a convincing win over Montana and that would give the Huskies and their fans confidence heading into a Michigan matchup, but that’s where it’ll go wrong. A loss at Michigan will happen and it’ll be a somewhat ugly one, ripping that confidence away just two weeks before conference play begins.

The Huskies will rebound to beat Arkansas State and improve to 2-1, but they’ll play an ugly game or two against Cal or Oregon State, winning both but not convincingly. They’ll be 4-1 before hosting UCLA and they’ll lose that one as the Bruins will be red-hot.

A win over Arizona is a given and then Stanford will beat the Huskies in Palo Alto to drop them to 5-3 overall. That comes at a bad time because the Huskies face Oregon and Arizona State back-to-back and I think the worst case is that they split these two games and sit at 6-4.

To end the year, they would lose to Colorado on the road in a demoralizing way and then finish up with a win over Washington State to limp into bowl season at 7-5.

Worst case: 7-5, 5-4 Pac-12

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