The Huskies are 10-3 and Pac-12 Champions

The University of Washington Huskies beat the University of Utah Utes last night in the Pac-12 Championship game. The game was played in Santa Clara, California.

When the top two defenses in the Pac-12 meet,  you expect a low-scoring game. And last night was a very low scoring game, finishing at 10-3 for the Huskies. The only touchdown was a pick 6 interception that the defense ran in for six points. All other points were field goals.

The Huskies could move the ball slightly better than the Utes, but still had trouble getting into the red zone let alone the end zone. Often they would go for it on fourth down and only made it once, if I remember right. The Utes held Myles Gaskin to only 71 yards of rushing. It's unusual for him to have less than 100 yards in a game.

But the Huskies did the same to the Utes, holding them to one field goal in the third quarter. It was a defensive grind of a game and Utah's multiple turnovers made the difference, including the one ran in for a touchdown.

The crowd seemed to be mostly Utah fans and they were rude. They booed loudly when the Huskies ran onto the field. They booed during the trophy presentation ceremony. They shouted and booed if they didn't like a call by the officials.

What's Next:

The Huskies will play in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day for the first time since 2000. They would have played there in 2016 except they went to the CFP bowl game. They will play the winner of tonight's Big-10 Championship game between Ohio State (heavily favored) and Northwestern. So they will likely play a very tough Ohio State, unless by some miracle Ohio State goes to the CFP. For that to happen, someone like undefeated Alabama would have to lose their game today.

However, #1 Alabama plays #4 Georgia. One of them has to lose. But Ohio State is #6 so it's unlikely they would move up enough to go to the CFP.

The Polls:

The AP top 25 college football poll comes out at 11:00 AM PST tomorrow. The final CFP committee rankings will come out at noon PST tomorrow.

Coaches:

So far, the only coach in the Pac-12 that has been fired is Colorado's Mike MacIntyre. The Athletic Director at USC said they aren't going to fire their coach despite a losing season.  I'm always nervous this time of year that someone is going to try to lure Husky coach Chris Petersen away.