For the second season in a row the Washington Huskies could surprise college football fans, according to Phil Steele magazine.
After up an “embarrassing” 4-8 season in 2021, the Huskies let go of head coach Jimmy Lake.
Without giving a final record Steele told The Fan 104.3 that Washington and Wisconsin are his two surprise teams this season.
“They’ll be in nobody’s top 10 to start the year,” he said.
He noted that the Huskies have a talented roster. In fact, the talent on hand last season left Steele projecting Washington as the 9th team in the nation and tops in the Pac-12 Conference in 2021.
Part of his reasoning for a quick turn around on Montlake could be that he rates the Husky’s strength of schedule 81st in the country, missing USC and Utah plus hosting Michigan State.
Other than the talent on hand, there are other factors for optimism given the recruiting classes from Chris Petersen that new coach Kalen DeBoer inherited, holes appear to have been plugged with transfers, and the team is rebounding health-wise.
Steele, like most prognosticators, was left scratching his head for reasoning for Washington’s shocking poor performance last season, saying that the pandemic-shortened, four-game season in 2020 skewed his tabulations.
