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Washington and Colorado are both first-time contestants in the Pac-12 football championship game, but one of them is more of a surprise than the other.
Merely climbing out of the bottom of the Pac-12 South was viewed as a potential achievement for Colorado going into the season. Washington was receiving so many compliments that coach Chris Petersen almost bristled about the favorable forecasts in the summer.
Colorado's stunning rise and Washington's ability to live up to expectations have brought them together in Friday night's title game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The Huskies had to validate what people thought of them. The Buffaloes had to believe in themselves as potential conference champions "when nobody else thought we even should be talking [about] that," coach Mike MacIntyre said.
This is the first time a North school other than Stanford or Oregon has played for the championship in the six years of the expanded conference. In the South, Colorado's arrival makes Utah the only program that has not reached this stage.
The stakes in Santa Clara go beyond the Pac-12 trophy, making this game worth watching until the end — even if Washington is leading. Among the issues are how big the No. 4 Huskies' winning margin needs to be for them to secure a College Football Playoff berth and how much of a defeat No. 8 Colorado can absorb and still remain ahead of No. 11 USC in the CFP standings. If Washington is in the Playoff, the Rose Bowl will replace the Huskies with the next-highest-ranked team from the Pac-12.
Petersen is not much of a self-promoter, but he said, "I have confidence that the powers-that-be will get this right."
Washington is favored Friday and is loaded with more individual talent than Colorado. The Huskies had nine players (one is injured) named to the All-Pac-12 first team to the Buffaloes' one.
Yet the teams' statistical rankings and their results against Utah in the second half of the season endorse a good matchup. The Huskies are No. 4 in the Pac-12 in total offense and No. 2 in total defense; the Buffaloes are No. 5 offensively and No. 1 defensively.
Washington needed a punt-return touchdown late in the game to win 31-24 at Utah in late October, while Colorado used a defensive touchdown in the fourth quarter to create some cushion in a 27-22 victory over the Utes last weekend in Boulder. Both games were fairly even statistically.
The Huskies' improvement this season is nothing like Colorado's sudden success, but Washington was only 4-5 in Pac-12 play last year before some talented young players developed and Petersen's culture took hold in his third season.
"I think when people hear our message and what we're about, good guys get that figured out quickly," Petersen said.
MacIntyre started from a lower point than Petersen and went 2-25 in conference play in his first three seasons. That record included a 38-23 loss to Washington in the teams' last meeting in 2014.
Colorado kept improving behind quarterback Sefo Liufau, who's among the seniors being rewarded this season. "Sometimes, the right things don't happen in guys' careers. This has definitely worked out the right way," MacIntyre said.
And now, Liufau and the Buffs will face Washington sophomore quarterback Jake Browning, the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year.
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