A lot is on the line Friday night when Washington takes on Purdue at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.
The Huskies (3-3, 0-3) have yet to win a Big Ten game this season, with three consecutive losses to Minnesota, USC, and Iowa, the last of which was more of a bludgeoning than just a defeat at home last Friday. On the other side, the Boilermakers have flipped the script from what they proved to be in 2025, with second-year coach Barry Odom fresh off consecutive league wins at Illinois and at home against Minnesota last Saturday.
UW's first trip to West Lafayette as a member of the Big Ten isn't the first time the West Coast program has traveled to the Hoosier State. First in 1972, a 22-21 victory for the Huskies under then-coach Jim
Owens, and then in 1988 and 1990 with legendary coach Don James at the helm, the Boilermakers have never beaten UW at home.
In fact, Purdue has only beaten Washington twice ever on the gridiron. A 13-6 victory in Seattle in 1961 and a 34-20 Sun Bowl win in 2002 are all the Boilermakers have against the longtime Pac-12 school.
While the history book and all-time records get thrown out once the whistle blows for the opening kickoff at 5:00 p.m. PT (8:00 p.m. ET) on Fox, there is essential context as to why Jedd Fisch can't add another wrong first with a fourth straight conference defeat Friday night.
For the Huskies, who have won just two road conference games since Fisch took over as head coach in January 2024, falling under .500 with three other away matchups at Nebraska, Michigan State and Oregon isn't a hole the team can dig out from under to make a fifth straight bowl game.
Of the three, only the Spartans and first-year coach Pat Fitzgerald boast a losing record (2-4) entering Week 7. The two remaining home games against Penn State and defending national champion Indiana are greater challenges in the second half of the season, which become even more irrelevant with a defeat in West Lafayette on Friday night.
With third-year Stanford transfer Elijah Brown expected to start at quarterback in place of injured starter Demond Williams Jr., and only half a game of tape in purple and gold this season, Fisch and Co. have the potential to do to the Boilermakers what Odom's team did at home last Saturday to Minnesota, who gave the Huskies everything they had in a 27-24 victory in late September.
Although a loss at Ross-Ade Stadium wouldn't statistically eliminate UW from postseason play, the mountain would grow from Mount Rainier to Mount Everest with no relief in sight.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: History vs Hot Streak: Something Must Give Between Washington, Purdue
