Washington and Rutgers may be on opposite sides of the country, but some Huskies coaches are plenty familiar with the New Jersey flagship university.
The Huskies (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) are set to travel to Piscataway, N.J., for their first road game as a member of the Big Ten Conference on Friday night against Rutgers (3-0, 0-0).
Washington head coach Jedd Fisch grew up in Livingston, N.J., less than an hour from the state university, and defensive coordinator Steve Belichick is a Rutgers alum.
“We’ve got to play our best football,” Fisch said. “We’ve got to bring our brand of football that we’re trying to work though in our process — being disciplined, being physical.”
The Huskies did that Saturday, opening their Big Ten slate with a 24-5 victory against visiting Northwestern. Belichick’s defense limited the Wildcats to 112 yards of total offense and made goal-line stands on back-to-back possessions in the second half.
Washington’s offense clicked early, taking a 17-0 lead less than five minutes into the second quarter as Will Rogers III threw 46- and 13-yard scoring strikes to Denzel Boston. The Huskies ran into penalty problems and stalled in the second half until Jonah Coleman scored on an 8-yard run with 5:58 remaining.
The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 26-23 victory at Virginia Tech in which Jai Patel made a 24-yard field goal with 1:56 left. Athan Kaliakmanis threw for a season-high 269 yards, Kyle Monangai and Samuel Brown V combined for 144 yards rushing and three touchdowns and Ian Strong had a career-high 110 yards receiving.
That gave Rutgers a 3-0 start under coach Greg Schiano for a fourth consecutive season.
Schiano said he knows his offense will face a tough task Friday against Belichick, the son of the legendary New England Patriots coach, Bill Belichick.
“Steven Belichick, who we all know well — really, really proud of what he’s doing. My goodness, they’re No. 1 in the league in defense. … But I don’t want to be proud of him Friday night. I want to be proud of him after Friday night,” Schiano said. “No one else really plays defense like that. It’s unique, very much like the New England package. He’s put his own slant on it, but it’s a challenge.”
–Field Level Media
