SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Make the right call, selection committee. Put newly anointed Pac-12 champ Washington in the College Football Playoff. No need to wait until Sunday to make up your minds, either.
The now 12-1 Huskies handled your eighth-ranked Colorado Buffaloes, 41-10, here Friday. It marked the seventh time in 10 games against conference opponents that Washington has won by more than three touchdowns.
The kind of pain Chris Petersen used to inflict on poor Mountain West and WAC opponents at Boise State, he is now unleashing on the Pac-12. Time to find out what he’s got in store for Nick Saban and Urban Meyer.
No doubt much of the viewing public — especially those affiliated with Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State — tuned in looking for reasons to discredit the Huskies’ playoff credentials. Washington refused to give them fodder.
Despite star QB Jake Browning finishing just 9-of-24 for 118 yards, Washington won comfortably for much the same reason it won its first 11 — it can do a little bit of everything.
The Huskies can run the ball between the tackles, as they did early and often with tailbacks Myles Gaskin (29 carries for 159 yards) and Lavon Coleman (18 carries for 101 yards). They make game-swinging defensive plays like safety Taylor Rapp’s pair of interceptions (one a pick-six) shortly after halftime to break open what was then a close game.
And of course, they have human highlight reel John Ross.
Would Washington stand a chance in a semifinal game against Alabama? … Who knows? Would anybody?
But Washington is a 12-1 champion of a Power 5 conference. We’ve had seven of those over the past two years and they all made the playoff.
The Huskies played four of the committee’s Top 25 opponents and beat three of them. Only Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson (if it beats Virginia Tech) will be able to claim more.
And coming into the Pac-12 Championship, the Huskies had held a lead over their opponents nearly 80 percent of the time. No team in the country — not even No. 1 Alabama — could claim more.
There are “concerns” about the Huskies’ schedule strength, as committee chair Kirby Hocutt has said a couple of times in recent weeks. But they weren’t concerning enough to keep them out of the top 4 this week. Why should that change after crushing a Top 10 opponent?
Certainly whichever of Wisconsin or Penn State wins Saturday’s Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis (FOX, 7 p.m. ET) -– especially if it’s a convincing performance like Washington’s — will argue it’s more deserving. Of the two, the Nittany Lions would have a more compelling argument since it would be their second win over one of the committee’s Top 10 teams.
This was Washington’s first.
But the committee did not feel the two were particularly close as of Tuesday, placing them three spots apart. It’s hard to imagine what kind of Herculean performance Penn State could put on against Wisconsin that would trump the clinic Washington put on here.
Hocutt made it seem like Washington was vulnerable with his repeated comments Tuesday night about the “small margin” between the Huskies and No. 5 Michigan.
But there was nothing small about the margin of Washington’s last game. It wasn’t a playoff argument for the Huskies. It was a closing statement.
