10 notes from No. 20 Washington’s stunning season-opening loss to Montana
The No. 20 Washington Huskies ran out of their tunnel Saturday evening, to the sound of the siren and the cheers of tens of thousands of fans, looking to open their schedule with a win over visiting Montana.
But, they walked back up the tunnel about three hours later staring down a much different result — a 13-7 loss, and an 0-1 record to start the 2021 season.
Here are 10 more notes from their stunning season-opening loss to the Grizzlies, and how the rest of the weekend wrapped up around the Pac-12:
▪ The last time Montana beat the Huskies before Saturday? 1920. So, more than 100 years ago. That was the first meeting between the two programs, and the Grizzlies completed an 18-14 win over visiting Seattle. Over the next century, the Huskies won 16 of 17 games, with one 6-6 tie breaking up their victories in 1929. They had won the past 10 consecutive meetings — including six shutouts — and posted a 63-7 win in the most recent meeting in 2017.
Per the NCAA, the Huskies’ loss to Montana was the first defeat of a ranked FBS team by an FCS team in five years. It was also the sixth loss by an FBS team to an FCS team already this season — all occurring in a three-day span over the weekend. Eastern Washington’s double-overtime win over UNLV on Friday is included in that list.
▪ Following the first drive of the game, which ended with a 1-yard rushing touchdown by second-year starting quarterback Dylan Morris, the Huskies didn’t reach the red zone again, and seven of their 13 offensive drives stalled in their own territory. The end result was 291 yards of total offense — 226 through the air, and only 65 on the ground — and only the one score.
Here’s what UW coach Jimmy Lake had to say about the offensive performance afterward: “We’ve definitely got to be way better than that, that’s for sure,” he said. “Those guys know that. We didn’t run the ball well enough, we didn’t throw the ball well enough, we didn’t protect well enough.
“We had some opportunities with short fields. Our defense did a good job of stopping them backed up, and we would start our possession on their side of the field … and to come away with no points is unacceptable. So, we’re going to have to go back to work tomorrow and get that done.”
▪ Richard Newton and Cameron Davis were listed as the starting tailbacks on UW’s depth chart this week, and were the only two who played, with Newton starting in the backfield on the opening drive. Newton had the majority of the carries, finishing with 17 for a team-high 62 rushing yards. Davis carried the ball four times and had 8 yards. Wide receiver Giles Jackson carried the ball twice for 19 yards. Newton and Davis also contributed in the passing game, Newton with four catches on five targets for 23 yards and Davis on three catches on four targets for 29.
▪ Tight end Cade Otton led the Huskies in receiving — he was also UW’s leading receiver in its four-game shortened season last fall — hauling in eight of nine targets for 82 yards. He caught Morris’ longest completion of the game on a 25-yard pass on a fourth-and-10 on UW’s final drive.
▪ Seven players caught passes for the Huskies — including Otton, Newton, Cameron Davis, Taj Davis (six catches, 59 yards), Jackson (four catches, 15 yards), Ja’Lynn Polk (one catch, 13 yards) and Devin Culp (one catch, five yards) — but of those seven, only the two tight ends in Otton and Culp, and two tailbacks in Newton and Cameron Davis had caught passes in a game for UW entering the season.
Polk is in his first season after transferring from Texas Tech, and was the only wideout listed as a starter to play, but exited early and was replaced by Sawyer Racanelli, who has yet to tally his first career catch. Jackson is also in his first season after transferring from Michigan. And Davis, who led the Huskies with 12 targets, was also playing his first game. Two of the Huskies’ listed starters at wide receiver, Terrell Bynum and Rome Odunze, did not play.
▪ After allowing a field goal on Montana’s opening drive, the Huskies’ defense held the Grizzlies in their own territory until the fourth quarter, and allowed only 127 yards on the ground and 105 through the air, while also forcing seven punts and a turnover on downs. Linebacker Jackson Sirmon led the Huskies with nine tackles including 0.5 for losses, while cornerback Kyler Gordon, linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio, linebacker MJ Tafisi, defensive lineman Tuli Letuligasenoa and linebacker Cooper McDonald also had tackles for losses. McDonald finished with the Huskies’ only sack in the fourth quarter.
▪ The excitement of fans returning to Husky Stadium for the first time since the 2019 Apple Cup was surely dampened by the result, but the boats did return to the harbor ahead of the Saturday evening kickoff, the parking lots were packed again pregame, and the announced attendance for the season-opener was 64,053, or more than 90 percent of capacity. Among those in the stands was former UW quarterback Jake Browning, who was shown on the video screen in the south end zone during the second quarter.
▪ Two of the biggest contributors for Montana in this game played their high school football less than 50 miles away from Husky Stadium.
Cam Humphrey, an Issaquah High School product and a sixth-year redshirt senior for the Grizzlies, won the starting job at quarterback this fall, and guided Montana to the thrilling win in his homecoming.
The offensive numbers weren’t overwhelming on either side — Humphrey finished 12-of-23 passing for 105 yards, added 18 rushing yards on six carries — but it was Montana’s offense, led by Humphrey, that broke through in the fourth quarter and produced the decisive score.
Humphrey’s 21-yard connection with Mitch Roberts on the first play of the quarter brought the Grizzlies to midfield for the first time since their first-quarter field goal, and Humphrey completed three more passes of 12, 14 and 11 yards during the drive before diving into the end zone, arm outstretched, for a 4-yard touchdown that gave Montana its first and the game’s final lead. Humphrey is now 6-0 as a starter in the past three seasons for Montana.
Former Auburn Mountainview standout Gavin Robertson, also in his sixth college season, and fourth with the Grizzlies after transferring from Arizona, hauled in two interceptions. They came on passes thrown behind the intended receiver, and tipped up into the air into the redshirt senior safety’s waiting hands.
Robertson’s first interception ended what started as a promising drive for the Huskies late in the first half, and the second, in the final moments of the third quarter, led to Montana’s game-winning drive.
Robertson was a member of The News Tribune’s 2016 Western 100 class, and is a former TNT All-Area player.
▪ Montana lists eight more players with Washington ties on its roster, and six of them appeared in Saturday’s game. … Skyview’s Cole Grossman completed a pair of catches for 11 yards at tight end. … Safety Nash Fouch, a former Woodinville standout, finished with four tackles, including bringing down Otton after a 25-yard gain in the fourth quarter, two plays before Montana’s game-clinching interception. … Hazen’s Corbin Walker had two tackles at cornerback, including stopping Giles Jackson for a loss after a short completion. … Defensive end Jacob McGourin, a Cheney product, recorded one tackle, dropping Newton in the backfield for a 2-yard loss. … Peninsula’s Cody Kanouse and Camas’ Michael Matthews also played. … Hockinson’s Peyton Brammer and Skyview’s Skyler Martin are the other two Washington natives on Montana’s roster, but were not listed on the participation chart.
▪ How did the Pac-12 perform as a whole this week? Well, the Huskies weren’t the only team in the conference to end the weekend with a troubling loss. Overall, Pac-12 teams finished 6-6, and teams in the North Division accounted for five of the losses.
The weekend started well enough. On Thursday, No. 24 Utah topped preseason Big Sky favorite Weber State with a 40-point performance, and No. 25 Arizona State put up 41 points in a rout of Southern Utah. Colorado held Northern Colorado off the scoreboard in the first half on its way to a convincing win.
Saturday produced a few more victories. A week after routing Hawaii, UCLA closed out a statement win over No. 16 LSU. No. 15 USC pulled away from San Jose State in the second half. And No. 11 Oregon rallied late against Fresno State, winning by a touchdown in a game where former Huskies quarterback Jake Haener finished 30-of-43 passing for 298 yards, and scored both a passing and rushing touchdown.
But, Saturday also accounted for all six of the conference’s losses. Stanford lost to Kansas State. Then Oregon State lost to Purdue. UW dropped its stunning loss to Montana. Cal lost to Nevada. Arizona lost to BYU. And the night ended when Washington State watched its 12-point fourth-quarter lead slip away in the final moments against Utah State, resulting in the Pac-12 North’s fifth loss of the day.
