All In the Family
Three-star 2027 defensive back Angelo Smith, brother of Jeremiah Smith, commits to Ohio State.
Improvement week is over. It’s time for Ohio State’s Big Ten gauntlet to begin.
Washington
Huskies
The 2025 Buckeyes get not only their first conference test but their first road challenge this Saturday on a West Coast trip to Washington. The Huskies played for a national championship in 2023, but shed most of their talent from that squad and only managed a 6-7 record with a Sun Bowl loss in their first year under Jedd Fisch, formerly of Arizona, in 2024.
Washington looks like a better team than that in 2025, even if looks can be deceiving this early in the season. The Huskies are riding high off a 59-24 win over rival Washington State in the Apple Cup, and could have one of the better offenses in the Big Ten this year. It could be the stiffest test for Matt Patricia and this year’s Ohio State defense to date, given how Texas has struggled on that side of the ball.
There should be a massive advantage for Ohio State’s offense against Washington’s defense, but Husky Stadium will no doubt bring the juice for a program with a chance to make a statement. Big Ten play is here.
One of the Nation’s Best Running Backs
Jonah Coleman is really, really good at running with a football in his hands. Through three games, the Washington back has 51 carries for 347 yards (6.8 per carry). He has nine rushing touchdowns, which leads the nation even though the Huskies have already had their first off week.
Coleman is a threat catching the football out of the backfield, too. He’s Washington’s second-leading receiver, in fact, with eight receptions for 150 yards and a score. The former Arizona Wildcat isn’t new to production on the ground, rushing for 1,053 yards in his first year at Washington in 2024, but things have been elevated to another echelon in 2025. It’s been clear since the Huskies’ first game, when he gouged Colorado State for 177 rushing yards and two touchdowns during a 38-21 win.
“Jonah is a really, really good back,” Fisch said after that game on Aug. 30. “And he’s gotten better and better and better. And so, I think that tonight was probably his best night running the football that I’ve had him, for four years. And my expectation is that he’ll continue to run the football at that level.”
Coleman followed that up by rushing for 111 yards and a school-record-tying five touchdowns on 15 carries against UC Davis. Washington State limited Coleman to 59 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries, but he caught six passes for 104 yards and a touchdown against the Cougars.
Speaking of the passing game:
Where There’s a Williams, There’s a Way
Ohio State and Washington both have a second-year quarterback who’s turning heads. For Demond Williams Jr., the signal-caller for the Huskies, the rise began as a freshman.
Williams started getting looks in relief of redshirt senior starter Will Rogers, formerly of Mississippi State, in the second half of Washington’s 2024 campaign. He went 39-of-53 for 369 yards and three touchdowns through the first 11 games of the season off the bench. Then, heading into Washington’s 11th game at Oregon, Fisch made the call to bench Rogers for Williams.
The Huskies didn’t hold a prayer against No. 1 Oregon and lost 49-21 that night, but Williams still impressed. He finished 17-of-20 for 201 yards and a score. His Sun Bowl performance was even better, even if it also came in a 35-34 loss to Louisville, as he finished 26-of-32 for 374 yards and four touchdowns, showing why Fisch opted for him to close the season as the quarterback of the future.
Through three games in 2025, Williams hasn’t thrown an interception. He’s 50-of-68 (73.5%) for 778 yards, a gaudy 11.4 yards per pass attempt, and six touchdowns. He ignited the skies against the Cougars to the tune of a season-high 298 yards and 15.4 yards per pass attempt, completing four touchdowns and adding 88 rushing yards with a score. Oh yeah, Williams is a dual-threat too, with 220 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns already this campaign.
Boston Tea Party in Seattle
A potential first-round pick in the 2026 NFL draft gives Williams a premier weapon to target in the passing game.
Washington wide receiver Denzel Boston is a physical beast at the position, standing 6-foot-4 with a 210-pound frame. He’s fantastic at using his size to both wall defenders off and high-point footballs to win contested catches, and he has great speed, too. He’s used those tools to amass 16 receptions for 249 yards and three touchdowns, all team-highs.
Boston also posted 63 receptions for 834 yards and nine touchdowns last season in a Washington offense that probably wasn’t as good as this year’s unit. The Huskies are No. 2 in the nation with 55.7 points per game, No. 10 with 536 total yards per game and, thanks to Coleman and Williams, No. 9 with 260 rushing yards per game.
Rushing numbers that great speak to a strong offensive line as well, led by multi-year starters at left tackle (Carver Willis, a Kansas State transfer), center (Landen Hatchett), right guard (Geirean Hatchett, an Oklahoma transfer) and right tackle (Drew Azzopardi).
With how quarterback Arch Manning has sputtered for Texas, shutting this Washington offense down could be a real statement for Ohio State if the Silver Bullets are at their most lethal this weekend.
Questions on Defense
Washington’s defense was middling in 2024. The Huskies finished 55th in scoring defense (23.8 points allowed per game) and 28th in total defense (328.4 yards allowed). But multiple key pieces from that unit are gone, most notably star linebacker Carson Bruener, who had 104 tackles and three interceptions.
The Huskies were No. 2 nationally in pass defense last season, but lost star safety Kamren Fabiculanan and cornerback Thaddeus Dixon, the latter to the transfer portal. Washington State found serious success through the air. Although Cougar quarterback Zevi Eckhaus tossed two interceptions, he finished 25-of-36 (69.3%) for 277 yards and two touchdowns.
Julian Sayin is of a higher caliber than Eckhaus, not to mention Ohio State’s best-in-nation receiving corps. It could be a big night for the passing attack, especially if the Buckeyes can establish the ground game on the road.
A Live Mascot Who’s a Very Good Boy
Since 1922, Washington has been assigned a leader of the pack to rally fans and caution foes. There have been 14 such leaders, bastions of beauty, courage and fortitude.
I speak, of course, of the Huskies’ live dog mascots that take the field and cheer – or more accurately, bark – the team onward at home games and bowl games. Washington’s current head doggo, Dubs II, began service as a puppy in 2018 after a “Passing of the Collar” ceremony marked the retirement of Dubs I following 10 seasons of service from 2009-18.
Washington’s borkiful tradition is as old as the Husky nickname itself, with the first live dog mascot, Frosty I, attending football games alongside his Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brothers in 1922, the same year Washington selected “Huskies” as their new nickname. The Indians, Vikings and Sundodgers (because it rains a lot in Seattle, I suppose) all predated Washington’s Husky moniker. Each of the mascots has been an Alaskan Malamute, believed to be the strongest of all the Husky breeds.
There has been drama surrounding the live dog mascot in the past. Denali, named the sixth live Husky mascot in 1958, was the first to be cared for by an “official handler.” The problem? He wasn’t Husky enough for the Huskies.
“Although he was tall and muscular with a masked face, Denali did not look like a Husky and did not attend a single football game during his tenure,” Washington’s athletic website reports. “According to Harry Cross, the official handler at that time, Denali was given to the UW by the University of Alaska student body, who chose him out of a big litter. He turned out to look like an overgrown fox terrier, not much like a Husky.”
The following mascot, King Chinook, was adopted one year later in 1959. He was incredibly social and required a large crowd to keep him corralled on the sidelines at games. He got loose during a game against Illinois in 1962 and sprinted into the Fighting Illini’s huddle, sniffing players and licking hands as officials called a timeout so handlers could usher him back to the sideline.
Though they can sometimes be rascals, Washington’s live mascots have brought cheer to countless thousands and are frequent attendees at charity events to raise support for various causes. Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?
