Washington dominates Colorado to claim Pac-12 title

The No. 4 Washington Huskies scored first and last and too many times in between as they ran away with the Pac-12 Conference Championship, defeating the No. 8 Colorado Buffaloes 41-10 in Santa Clara. “They want UW for playoff implications or anything like that”. Myles Gaskin picked up 159 yards on the night while backup Lavon Coleman added another 101 on the ground in addition to finding the end zone.

In his third season, Petersen took Washington to new heights – even if he’s in a familiar spot.

Just a week prior, the Huskies’ running game was grounded in the first quarter of the Apple Cup against Washington State, totaling just 22 yards on six carries.

Quarterback Jake Browning had one of his worst outings of the season despite having the stage he needed to possibly get invited to NY for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. And that wasn’t even the first time in a seven-day period that Washington had an aspect of its offense stumble out of the gates in a game that it won handily, either. With the defeat, any hopes of a College Football Playoff berth came to an end. Under rules established when the playoff was created, the Granddaddy would select the next-highest-ranked team from the Pac-12. It has two top-10 wins. It’s not the Huskies’ fault OR went 4-8, and they overwhelmed another top-10 team in Colorado.

Let’s be honest: the Huskies are one of the four best teams in the nation. The Big Ten’s MI sits at No. 5.

What about USC? What about the Trojans? Considering that Washington handed the Buffaloes their worst loss of the season on Friday night, it’s tough to see any scenario where No. 5 MI overtakes them in the final CFP standings.

That would likely send Washington State to the Holiday, Utah to the Foster Farms and Stanford to the Sun.

The case for USC: Its eight-game winning streak trails only Alabama and Western Michigan. The Tigers (11-1) don’t have as many quality wins as MI, who has stopped Colorado, Wisconsin and Penn State – all teams that were in the top 10 this week. MI might be better than Washington, but it does not matter one bit.

If he’s able to return the Buffaloes will have their chances against the Huskies.

How good are the Huskies?

“That’s up to them”, quarterback Jake Browning said. This was vindication of a program building out west under coach Chris Petersen. The Buffs went from 1-8 to the 8-1, the Pac-12 Championship game and a No. 8 ranking in one season.

That team finished 11-1 and won the Rose Bowl. The committee isn’t going to put in a three-loss Virginia Tech team, even with a league title, and Clemson will have two damaging losses (to No. 25 Pitt and the Hokies) and no conference title.

LEO JACKSON III, DE (Foothill College, Decatur, Georgia): Registered time on Colorado’s defensive line against the Huskies. If Washington draws the Crimson Tide, then it’ll be a heavy underdog, just like everybody else.

Ranked No. 14 in the preseason AP poll, the Huskies were not, in fact, overrated. He gave that team a reason to believe.