TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
Washington new to bowl, but coach is not
Penn State might have all the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl experience, but Fiesta first-timer Washington has Chris Petersen.
And when it comes to the Fiesta Bowl – or any game, for that matter – Petersen counts for a lot.
The fourth-year Washington coach is 2-0 in Fiesta appearances, both with Boise State, including a 43-42 overtime clash against Oklahoma in January 2007. Has it
really been a decade since Petersen’s Broncos pulled off the hook-and-ladder and Statue of Liberty to stun the Sooners?
“I can’t tell you how excited we are to be here,” Petersen said Monday night after Washington left snowy Seattle late and arrived almost two hours behind schedule. “We didn’t know where we were going for a handful of days and when we heard we were coming here, we couldn’t have been more pleased.
“We know what type of bowl this is. A handful of our coaches have had an opportunity to come here a few different times, and it’s spectacular.”
Petersen also won in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl with Boise State, 17-10 over TCU in a pairing of unbeaten teams. And he was in metro Phoenix for the Cactus Bowl in January 2015, capping his first season at Washington, when the Huskies lost 30-22 to Oklahoma State.
It’s a measure of how far Washington has progressed under Petersen that it is playing in a second straight New Year’s Six bowl after consecutive double-digit-win seasons. The Huskies reached the College Football Playoff semifinals last season, losing 24-7 to Alabama in the Peach Bowl.
For Petersen, not getting back to the CFP final four does not detract from the value of playing in a major bowl against No. 9 Penn State, which, like the No. 11 Huskies, is 10-2.
“There’s probably more than four teams out there that are really, really good teams and on any given day could be one of the better teams in the country,” Petersen said. “I know Penn State fits that mold so we’ll have to play our best football. We know what the challenge is going to be so any time you’re matched up like that, you get really excited to play.”
Penn State is undefeated in six Fiesta Bowl appearances, the most recent of which was in 1997. All of those were played at Sun Devil Stadium. Both of Petersen’s Fiesta wins were at University of Phoenix Stadium, where the 47th Fiesta Bowl will kick off at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Petersen, 53, is the second-winningest FBS active coach (minimum five years) behind Ohio State’s Urban Meyer. He is 129-28 in 12 seasons for a .822 winning percentage (Meyer is .850). Five of his assistants came with him from Boise State including defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski.
Since the end of the regular season, Washington has lost offensive coordinator Jonathan Smith, now Oregon State’s head coach. Matt Lubick, a former Arizona State assistant, will call plays during the Fiesta Bowl. Lubick is co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach.
Speaking of ASU, Washington suffered its first loss here against the Sun Devils, a 13-7 upset Oct. 14. The Huskies are 4-1 since with their other loss to No. 13 Stanford (30-22) and a decisive Apple Cup win over No. 18 Washington State (41-14) to end the regular season.
Washington will be facing Penn State for just the third time and the first since the 1983 Aloha Bowl. The Nittany Lions lead the series 2-0.
“It’s kind of always the same when you go to a game of this magnitude,” Petersen said. “There’s not any weaknesses. You put tape on, that’s why we’re matched up against these guys in a game like this. This is one of the better teams in the country. There’s not somewhere where you go we can get them on this. You’re going to have to make plays.”