Pac-12 football schedules announced for UW Huskies, WSU Cougars
Oct 3, 2020, 10:16 AM | Updated: Oct 29, 2020, 11:02 pm
(Getty)
Pac-12 football is officially back for 2020, and the conference unveiled the schedule for its 12 teams Saturday morning, with the UW Huskies opening the year on the road at Cal while the WSU Cougars will play at Oregon State. Both opening games for the Washington teams will be on Nov. 7.
Related: Pac-12 football season to kick off in November
Initially, the Pac-12 announced a conference-only schedule for 2020 due to COVID-19, but then the conference announced the season would be pushed back to early 2021. But now, with other conferences playing already, the Pac-12 is back for 2020, though in a more limited capacity with each team having just seven games, all against conference opponents.
Both the Huskies and Cougars will be playing the other five Pac-12 North teams, as well as one Pac-12 South team, as part of a seven-game schedule, and an opponent for the seventh and final week of the season will be determined at a later date. For UW, the Huskies play Arizona Week 3 (Nov. 21) and WSU will play USC on Friday, Dec. 4.
“The schedule announced today is highlighted by exciting and tough matchups that will showcase the depth of our Conference and position our teams well for (College Football Playoff) consideration and postseason bowl opportunities,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott in a press release. “Importantly, our return to football competition will continue to place the health and safety of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 football as the highest priority.”
The annual Apple Cup rivalry, one of the Pac-12’s longest rivalries, between the UW Huskies and WSU Cougars will once again be played on the week of Thanksgiving on Friday, Nov. 27, commonly referred to as “Black Friday.” The game is usually the final regular season matchup for both teams, but this year, it will be played in Week 4.
The Pac-12 Championship Game is set for Friday, Dec. 18. The rest of the Pac-12 teams will also be playing that weekend on Saturday, but the schedule for that week will be determined at a later date, likely when it is known what the Pac-12 Championship matchup is.
Here’s the full schedule for the Huskies, Cougars, and the rest of the Pac-12:
🚨 ANNOUNCED 🚨 The 2020 #Pac12FB Schedule‼️🏈
More info ➡️ https://t.co/is8iNnKAn8#BackThePac pic.twitter.com/EztU2bMgZe
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) October 3, 2020
New coaches for 2020
Both UW and WSU have new head coaches for the 2020 season.
Chris Petersen retired after coaching the Huskies from 2014 to 2019 while Mike Leach left the Cougars for Mississippi State after running the program from 2012 to 2019.
UW has a familiar face at head coach in Jimmy Lake, who served as defensive coordinator from 2016 to 2019. He initially started as Petersen’s defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator when he was head coach at Boise State in 2012 and 2013, and followed Petersen to UW in 2014, where he coached defensive backs exclusively in 2014 and 2015 and coached that group along with his defensive coordinator duties in 2016 and 2017. This is his first head coaching gig.
For WSU, the Cougars went out and hired someone with head coaching experience in Nick Rolovich, who ran the show at Hawaii from 2016 to 2019, where he went 28-27. The Rainbow Warriors won the Mountain West’s West Division in 2019 and Rolovich was named the conference’s Coach of the Year. He, like Leach, employs a pass-heavy, high-scoring offense, but instead of the “air raid,” he has employed the “run and shoot.” He coached current Seahawks practice squad wide receiver John Ursua, a seventh-round pick by Seattle in 2019, at Hawaii.
For more information on the Pac-12 football schedule, visit this link.