Full details for Saturday’s contest between the No. 8 Washington Huskies and the FCS Portland State Vikings.
The No. 8 Washington Huskies will look to close out their nonconference schedule on a high note when they host the Portland State Vikings on Saturday evening at Husky Stadium.
Washington was expected to be one of the most improved teams in the nation and has looked the part so far, breezing past Rutgers and Idaho to open the season. Jake Browning has completed 41 of his 55 passes for 581 yards and eight touchdowns on the season, as the Huskies piled up 107 points between the two games.
Portland State, which made the FCS playoffs at 9-3 last year, opened the season with a win over Central Washington before being blown out 66-35 by San Jose State. Quarterback Alex Kuresa has accounted for over 500 yards and four touchdowns while sharing playing time with Paris Penn.
Washington isn’t projected to have much trouble on Saturday evening and will look to improve in some areas before getting into Pac-12 play. Full details for Saturday’s matchup are below.
Date: Saturday, September 17
Start Time: 8:00 p.m. Eastern
Location: Seattle, WA
Stadium: Husky Stadium
TV Info: Pac-12 Network
Stream: Pac-12 Live
1. This is the last tune-up for the Huskies.
Even with two games against inferior competition, the Huskies have been impressive so far. The defense was the strength of the team last year and looks strong once again, while no other team in the nation has scored at least 40 points in each of their last five games.
The voters decided that Washington’s dominant performance against Rutgers was enough to move it up six spots from a preseason No. 14 ranking. Still, we haven’t really learned anything about the 2016 Washington Huskies, and probably won’t on Saturday either.
Of course, the schedule is about to get much tougher as the Huskies enter Pac-12 play. Washington will travel to Arizona, a place where it has historically trouble winning, next week before hosting Stanford in perhaps the biggest game of the year for the conference.
The best thing for the Huskies on Saturday would be to keep up the domination with a clean start, and avoid injury heading into a tougher part of the schedule.
2. The Vikings have caused some trouble for the FBS.
As a few of Washington’s conference rivals can attest, Portland State isn’t exactly a pushover FCS squad.
Portland State marched into Pullman a year ago and beat a Washington State team that won nine games. The Vikings also crushed North Texas in the largest ever victory for a FCS squad over a FBS team, and gave Cal all it could handle back in 2013.
This year’s team doesn’t have the defense to challenge Washington – San Jose State racked up 642 yards – but the offense could be interesting. Portland State usually utilizes two quarterbacks at the same time and features a scheme similar to Chris Ault’s pistol at Nevada.
The Vikings figure to throw some different looks at the Huskies, which could cause a little bit of trouble in the first half.
3. The biggest area Washington to improve on is the run game
With two through victories, there aren’t a lot of glaring weaknesses for Washington at the moment. If nothing else, the Huskies could benefit from getting their running game going prior to conference play.
While much of the attention was focused on the talented young defense and Browning in 2015, running back Myles Gaskin also emerged as a potential star as a freshman. Gaskin wasn’t a highly-touted recruit, but racked up 1,302 yards and 14 touchdowns to pace an offense that struggled at times.
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So far this year, Gaskin has only 27 carries for 124 yards. While Washington looks to be saving him for bigger games, Gaskin hasn’t generated much, and the offensive line has looked a little off in run blocking.
Saturday would be a great chance for that to improve, as Washington will need Gaskin to be at his best against Stanford and other conference opponents.