By Omar Noujoum

Would you consider the Washington Huskies among the powerhouse programs in college football? Yeah, probably not. They’re not Ohio State, they’re not Florida State, and they sure as hell aren’t Alabama.

It’s been 25 years since Washington last won a national title, and 15 years since they captured a Rose Bowl crown. It’s been a decade of disappointment and disgust for Husky fans, but under Chris Petersen, the good times might be on their way back.

The Tyrone Willingham Era (Cringing Encouraged)
2006 – The 2006 season provided plenty of false hope for Husky fans, as it looked like Willingham would grab the program by the horns and lead it out of the weeds. Willingham started his tenure of terror in 2005 by leading UW to a 2-9 record, so a 5-7 finish in 2006 was a step in the right direction. Still, the 2006 season left much to be desired. One-possession losses always add salt to the wound, and the 2006 season featured losses to #2 USC (26-20) and #11 California (31-24). The loss to USC was particularly heartbreaking, as QB Isaiah Stanback failed to get off a snap before time expired after leading the Huskies inside the red zone.

2007 – Four-year starters at QB in college football are both rare and exciting. In 2007, a new man took the helm of the Huskies offense, and he’d be one of the best to do it in school history. Redshirt freshman Jake Locker set the tone for his career, passing for over 2,000 yards while nearly eclipsing 1,000 on the ground. Fans called him the savior, the prophet, the next big thing, all of the clichés. Despite those vibes, and despite a 2-0 start, which included an upset over #20 Boise State, the Huskies took a step back. The team finished 4-9, and missed out on a bowl game yet again, for the third straight year under Willingham. Yeah, Husky fans were starting to get sick and tired of Tyrone, but darker days were on the horizon.

2008 – Rock Bottom. An Absolute shit show. An abomination, as Stephen A. Smith would put it. DJ Khaled would say that they played themselves. 2008 was the culmination of everything terrible, all coming together into a 12-game schedule. The Huskies became the first Pac-10 team to go 0-12, and it took only the first seven losses until the university announced that at season’s end. Tyrone Willingham would be banished and a replacement would be hired. Thank goodness for that. Husky fans rejoiced when they got word of that news, but it didn’t mean that the suffering was over. The season was a complete lost cause, going down as one of the worst seasons in history by a team from a Power Five conference.

Steve Sarkisian Arrives, Stars, Stalls, Leaves
2009 – The head-coaching search prior to the 2009 season ended with what many considered a fantastic hire. The program was able to poach Offensive Coordinator Steve Sarkisian away from USC. Sark was well regarded as an offensive expert, and had worked first-hand with first round pick and soon-to-be stud QB Mark Sanchez (LOL). Sark unleashed his pro-style offense on the Pac-10, and one week after ending the nations’ longest losing streak (15 games), Sark’s Dawgs were able to upset #3 USC in a thriller. Jake Locker stamped his name all over that game, and that season, developing quite the rapport with now-Seahawk WR Jermaine Kearse. Locker then proceeded to shock the world in the offseason, announcing that he would remain at Washington for his senior season. At the time, many experts had pegged Locker as the first overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.

2010 – At long last! A bowl game! Sheesh, it had been five full seasons of Huskies fandom for young me, but finally, I got to witness my squad play a bowl game. And not only did they play that bowl game, they handled Nebraska pretty easily to finish the season 7-6 and Holiday Bowl Champions. It wasn’t Pac-10 Champions, but it was a start. The team was going in the right direction under Sarkisian. Jake Locker would be graduating and moving on to the NFL, but surely better days were to come, right…?

2011 – Remember how I mentioned that Sarkisian’s Huskies began to stall? This is example number one. Sure, Jake Locker left. There was a hole to fill. But in stepped sophomore Keith Price, and he became a star. Price’s number rivaled those of Locker (3063YDs, 33TDs/11INTs), and calmed Husky fans worried that with the departure of Jake Locker, the team would be back to square one. Oh but the fans were far from worry free. The defense was atrocious. Led by Defensive Coordinator Nick Holt, the Huskies defense got steamrolled by multiple opponents, including in the Alamo Bowl, where Heisman Trophy Winner Robert Griffin III and Baylor hung 67 points on the board. Holt was fired after that debacle. Another 7-6 season left much to be desired for the Huskies and their fans heading into 2012.

2012 – Can you say, three-peat? Despite knocking off two top-10 foes in Stanford and Oregon State, once again, the Huskies finished the season with a record of 7-6. Is 7-6 bad? No, not at all. Some teams would even consider it good. But going 7-6 for the third year in a row made Husky fans antsy. The promise of Sarkisian’s bunch started to wear off. QB Keith Price regressed after a monster sophomore season. 2013 had the feel of a put up or shut up mentality. The Huskies needed to improve.

2013 – Just when it seemed as if Sarkisian should be canned, the Huskies made a step in the right direction, posting a 9-4 record and their second bowl win under Sarkisian. The first step of Sarkisian’s plan that he laid out in his opening press conference when hired was to compete for Pac-12 (now expanded) championships. The Huskies did enough in 2013 not quite to compete for that title, but to make the experts consider them as a possibility in 2014. They would have to do it with yet another QB however, as Keith Price graduated following the 2013 season.

Enter: Chris Petersen
2014 – Just when things were heating up, Steve Sarkisian got a call from down south. After assuring his players that he would not be leaving the program, in one fell swoop, he was headed back to USC, this time with the title of Head Coach. The move shocked the Huskies program, and angered many players who felt that Sarkisian jumped ship in an asshole manner. Nonetheless, the coaching search was on once again, and this time, the University pulled in Chris Petersen. Petersen had starred at Boise State, with an absurd winning percentage and countless upsets. The question that remained was would his success carry over to the Pac-12. In his first season, Petersen’s Huskies finished at 8-6, led by a defense which put four starters into the NFL, all drafted within the first two rounds. In wasn’t a banner performance by any means, but college coaches often need a year or two to get settled.

2015 – “Rebuilding”. It’s a dreaded word in sports. No one wants to hear that his or her team is rebuilding, because it usually means that at least for now, your team sucks. Prior to the 2015 season, the Huskies were dubbed as a program in rebuild mode, still adjusting to the style of their second-year head coach. It made sense too.

UW was recovering from losing a boatload of talent to the NFL, and was set to start a true freshman at QB in Jake Browning. The result wasn’t quite one of a team in flux. 7-6 isn’t a flashy record. After all, it’s the official record of Steve Sarkisian. But considering how young the starting lineup was and how much the defense, which finished first in the Pac-12, had to replace, 2015 was a raving success.