The match-up between these two teams has always been competitive no matter the talent and record both have going into the games. This will be a game for bragging rights, not just on the season, but with the overall record tied at 44-44-4, the winner will have the upper hand in match-up history. Home field advantage doesn’t mean much between these two teams as the UW is 22-21-3 while playing the Cardinal in Seattle.
Between the two programs there have been 32 conference championships, 25 different head coaches, four claimed national championships, and one Heisman winner.
While there are 92 games to look over to dig deep into the history of these two programs going head-to-head, there are five that stand out or are more memorable than the others.
5. 2020 Stanford Over Washington 31-26
Stanford shocked first-year head coach, Jimmy Lake, by taking down the previously undefeated No. 22 Washington Huskies in Seattle by a final score of 31-26. The Cardinal converted 10-of-13 3rd down attempts and went 2-for-2 on 4th down. The Huskies were down 24-3 going into halftime before nearly completing their second straight comeback of over 20 points. The game was played in an empty stadium due to COVID-19 and would be the last game the Huskies played in that 2020 season.
4. 1994 Stanford Over Washington 46-28
This season looked to be another year that the Huskies could potentially make a run at another national title as the program experienced the “Whammy in Miami.” Stanford helped to ensure that didn’t happen. Jim Lambright dropped what was the longest win streak for the No. 12 Washington Huskies over the Cardinal after 10 games in this match-up against Bill Walsh. It was a major victory for Stanford as they were in the midst of their second-consecutive losing season. Walsh would go on to retire at the end of the 94 season.
3. 1977 Washington Over Stanford 45-21
Bill Walsh led his team to snap the 10-game win streak over the Huskies in 1994, but it merely was returning the favor since Don James did the exact same thing in 1977. James lost to Walsh the two years prior and would only lose to the Cardinal once more in his entire tenure at Washington. Snapping the double-digit win streak Stanford had over the Huskies set the tone for how both programs’ seasons would play out. Warren Moon helped lead the UW to a conference championship with Stanford finishing in second place in the Pac-8 with this game being the deciding factor on who played in the Rose Bowl and who played in the Sun Bowl.
2. 2011 Stanford Over Washington 65-21
David Shaw had his first year with the Cardinal in this game, facing third-year Husky head coach Steve Sarkisian. Stanford’s three running backs, Stephan Taylor, Tyler Gaffney and Anthony Wilkerson rushed for a school-record 446 yards to blow past No. 25 Washington. It was the then 7th ranked Cardinal’s most impressive victory all season. The running backs and the Heisman Trophy hopeful, Andrew Luck, extended, what was, the nation’s longest winning streak to 15 games. This would be the largest margin of victory against the Washington Huskies to date.
1. 2016 Washington Over Stanford 44-6
The No. 10 Huskies handed the No. 7 Stanford Cardinal its worst loss since a 41-3 setback against Arizona State in 2007. Washington claimed its largest victory over a top 10 team since beating No. 6 Wisconsin by 36 in 1959. Washington held Heisman hopeful and currently one of the best running backs in the NFL, Christian McCaffrey, to just 49 yards on 12 carries, 30 yards on five catches, and zero touchdowns. Fans rushed the field to celebrate with the team in what was the 7th largest crowd in Husky Stadium history with over 72,000 people in attendance. The Washington Huskies have never beat the Cardinal by such a large margin as in this game.
