Fiesta Bowl matchup: PSU vs. Washington
said. “We always have. We always will.”
The Nittany Lions and Washington entered the season as contenders for a berth in the four-team College Football Playoff, but neither qualified after finishing 10-2.
Penn State ranks seventh in Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring offense [41.6 points per game] and scoring defense [15.5 per game], while the Huskies are No. 17 in scoring [36.9 per game], first in rushing defense [92.33 yards per game] and sixth in scoring defense [14.5 per game].
Franklin’s early assessment of the Washington defense: “They are big, they are strong, they are physical, they are fast.”
Both teams will enter the game with a new offensive coordinator. Ricky Rahne assumed those duties for Penn State after Joe Moorhead was named head coach at Mississippi State last week and Jonathan Smith, who had filled that role at Washington since 2014, has moved on to Oregon State.
Under Smith, the Huskies had a diversified, balanced offense this season. They averaged 221.8 yards per game passing and 189.83 rushing, 106.83 of which were contributed by junior Myles Gaskin.
“We do different things, depending on the team we’re seeing,” Huskies coach Chris Petersen said. “We do what we have to do to give our players the best chance to win the game.”
Penn State’s volatile offense will be challenged by Washington’s stingy defense, which is anchored by nose tackle Vita Vea and rarely yields the kind of bigyardage plays the Nittany Lions generate with regularity.
This will be the third alltime meeting between Penn State and the Huskies. The Nittany Lions recorded a 217 victory in Seattle in 1921 and a 13-10 decision in the 1983 Aloha Bowl.
Penn State, which previously played in the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the 1996 season, was established as an early 4½-point favorite against Washington.
The oddsmakers’ opinions won’t influence the outcome of the game, though. Nor, for that matter, will any of Penn State’s previous successes in the Fiesta Bowl.
Even the one that ranks among the program’s alltime high points.
“The history is great, but the reality is that all that’s going to matter is the two teams that are lining up this year,” Franklin said. “At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to the team that is most prepared to play in that game.”