In its unique black uniforms with gold trim, the University of Washington football team looked more like Purdue or Vanderbilt than the Huskies. Yet these guys also came away looking their best like a bowl team in beating UCLA 31-19 Friday night at Husky Stadium to earn their sixth win and become playoff eligible.

Shreveport or El Paso, anyone?

In a game filled with mistakes and injuries, the Huskies (6-5 overall, 4-4 Big Ten) never trailed, but were pushed most of the time in what was also billed as the Ethan Garbers’ reunion game, featuring former UW quarterback turned Bruin around by keeping his team (4-6, 3-5) close until the final quarter.

And, finally, it could have been Demond Williams Jr.’s coming out party as the freshman quarterback came off the bench to replace struggling senior Will Rogers and led the Huskies on three scoring drives during of the last quarter and a half to conclude this one. and extend UW’s winning streak to 20 games, second-best in the nation behind Georgia, now at 28 straight games.

After a national championship game and the rebuild that followed, UW just swept the Los Angeles schools and got a reward from Michigan under Jedd Fisch’s new coaching staff and the playoffs seem like reward enough for reconstruction.

“In our first year with a team that none of us knew, with a lot of players that none of us had played together and few of us knew them, and they came from everywhere to beating USC, Michigan and UCLA, those are big wins for our program,” Fisch said. “I’m really proud of our guys for getting these wins. It’s a big deal.”

With only one regular season game left at Oregon in two weeks after a bye, there will be plenty of lobbying efforts to make Williams the starting quarterback. He completed 7 of 8 passes for 67 yards and a touchdown throw to fellow Decker DeGrasf and ran 6 times for 31 yards to keep the Bruins from rolling back.

Veteran Jonah Coleman came into his own by passing all rushers with 95 yards and 2 scores on 21 carries and surpassing the 1,000 yard barrier, now at 1,008. He seemed to work well with the freshman QB.

“He’s a young guy, but he obviously moves with his legs and things like that,” Coleman said of Williams. “One thing he shows up with is a confidence like no other.”

To reach the finish line, the Huskies relegated starting linebacker Carson Bruener to a limited role due to his shoulder injury, lost edge rusher Zach Durfee to what appeared to be another defensive issue. shoulder, lost safety Makell Esteen to an unspecified injury and had a starting center. D’Angalo Titialii leaves the field temporarily due to a hand injury. There was no word on anyone’s current health.

Defensively, Arizona transfer Russell Davis II had a monster game at Edge Rusher in his third outing with Husky after returning from injury, racking up 3 sacks and a forced fumble. Senior linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala led his team in tackles with 10 in his last home appearance. Even Bruener, although relegated in almost one out of three series while suffering physically from the previous game at Penn State, finished with 8 tackles.

“I can’t wait to take a nap tomorrow,” Fisch joked after getting his team ready to play in just one week after being humiliated at Penn State.

Early on, the game was a punt fest for the first five drives, an uneventful, if not boring, exchange of possession for each team until UCLA’s Brady Richter livened things up considerably by hitting his third. The punter kicked the ball almost sideways into the UW bench, traveling it just 17 yards.

Sitting on the UCLA 36, the home team turned that special teams blunder into instant points. The Huskies got into the end zone pretty quickly letting their two best running backs do what they do best.

After Coleman’s 2-yard run, Cam Davis, who scored in his last home game, took a screen pass on the left side and ran through an open route 19 yards to the UCLA 15. On the next play, Coleman took a throw right and charged to the goal line, where he followed right tackle Drew Azzopardi and carried a Bruins tackle into the end zone. With 3:51 left in the first quarter, the Huskies led 7-0.

With punts falling out of fashion after the first wave, the Bruins responded with an 11-play, 65-yard drive for Mateen Bhaghani’s 28-yard field goal. UCLA had to settle for the 3-pointer when Husky freshman linebacker Khmori House completed a third-and-6 pass from the 10. At 13:38 of the second quarter, the Bruins pulled within 7- 3. House would have perhaps his best night as a Husky, creating a key turnover later and finishing with 4 tackles.

Avoiding the punt made things a little dicey for UW. Facing a fourth-and-1 from their own 45, the Huskies went for the first down and an Adam Mohammed run was stuffed by UCLA linebacker Oluwafemi Oledejo for a 1-yard loss.

However, the Bruins were unable to capitalize on this heady defensive position. They had the ball for six plays before giving it back immediately.

At the UW 17, Garbers’ fullback dropped to pass on a second-and-9 play, brought the ball back and edge rusher Russell Davis II took it away from him cleanly, dribbled it down the field on a few meters while trying to recover it and finally fell on it on the 31st.

During a first half of continued errors, the Huskies drove down the field until Rogers carelessly threw one into the end zone and it was intercepted by cornerback Bryan Addison. Yet the UW got a serious reprieve here. Rogers was blatantly hit in the back by Oledejo after dropping the ball, the passer was called and he made the Bruins pay.

Rogers got the ball safely into the hands of tight end Keleki Latu, who raced 8 yards to the end zone, diving over offensive guard Landen Hatchett for the final yard. With 3:46 left in the half, the Huskies had a 14-3 lead and Latu, whose older brother Laiatu was an edge rusher at UW and UCLA, scored his first Montlake touchdown.

“When I caught the ball, I saw this green grass,” Latu said, referring to the open space on the artificial surface. “I’m going for it no matter what.”

The Bruins still had an answer before the break. They drove 65 yards, aided by a pass interference call on Ephesians Prysock, for a 1-yard TD pass from Garbers to freshman Kwazi Gilmer with 49 seconds left. The teams headed to the locker room with the Huskies leading 14-10.

The break did nothing to clean up a sloppy game. In fact, the errors came in succession to open the second half.

Rogers carelessly threw interceptions on the first two UW drives, putting the Bruins at the 25 and 39, respectively. Still, UCLA was not at all opportunistic. The visitors settled for Bhaghani’s 40-yard field goal to make it 14-13 and gave the ball back after the second turnover.

From the UW 28, Bruins tight end Jack Pederson caught an 8-yard pass in the flat but had his legs taken away by House and the ball went out before hitting the ground and was recovered by the senior safety Kam Fabiculanan. It was another welcome bailout.

Unsurprisingly, Williams Jr. replaced Rogers off target and he settled it all, moving the Huskies down the field for Grady Gross’ 41-yard field goal and a 17-10 margin with 3:16 left in the third quarter. Rogers has now only played four and a half quarters in UW’s last two games. He finished with 13 completions on 21 attempts for 115 yards and his only touchdown throw and those two baffling interceptions.

Williams ater led two scoring drives in the fourth quarter in which he hit DeGraaf with a 3-yard TD pass with 5:44 remaining and led the Huskies on a 2-yard run to the end zone by Coleman, who now has 9 touchdowns. depending on the season,

Trailing 31-13, Garbers led the Bruins to two late, meaningless touchdowns. He completed 27 of 44 passes for 267 yards and two touchdowns against his former team.

“We talked a little bit,” Tuputala said of on-field interactions with his former teammate. “He made me do a little spinning motion. It made me a little sick. I went to the next room and, thank God, I was sent back.”

The Huskies now have two weeks to celebrate their good playoff fortune and do their best to find a way to beat undefeated No. 1 Oregon (10-0, 7-0) at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, or at least. keep it close to you. An upset there would be much bigger than any game of bowls.

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