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Penn State makes its longest road trip of the season this week, visiting the Washington Huskies for the first time in 105 years. Nittany Lions head coach Matt Campbell is highly unlikely to bring up runway length at the State College Regional Airport before the 2,600-mile trip.
That said, here's the early look at Saturday's Penn State-Washington game.
Washington will host the Nittany Lions for a 3:30 p.m. ET (12:30 local) kickoff at Husky Stadium. FS1 has the broadcast, and the game will stream on FOX One.
Penn State (4-4) makes the road trip following a 31-17 win over Purdue, ending its four-game Big Ten losing streak. Washington (5-3) is a game ahead of Penn State in the conference standings following a 17-10 win at Nebraska.
The Huskies opened as a 2.5-point favorite over the Nittany Lions, according to DraftKings, which set the over/under at 44.5 points. Washington is a slight -112 favorite on the money line, where Penn State is -108.
Penn State is 4-0 in its series against Washington, which dates to 1921. That year, the Nittany Lions and Washington have played just four times, with the Nittany Lions winning all four meetings.
Penn State has not played the Huskies in Seattle since their first meeting in 1921. That year, the Nittany Lions boarded a train in Pittsburgh right after tying the Pitt Panthers 0-0- for the trip to Washington. Penn State then defeated the Huskies 21-7 to finish the season 8-0-2.
The Nittany Lions defeated Washington in two bowl games: 13-10 in the 1983 Aloha Bowl and 35-28 in the 2017 Fiesta Bowl, where Saquon Barkley rushed for 137 yards and two touchdowns.
Penn State routed Washington 35-6 in their first Big Ten meeting in the 2024 Penn State White Out, as Tyler Warren scored two rushing touchdowns and quarterback Drew Allar went 20-for-28 for 220 yards.
Penn State turned its bye into a reset week, emerging with a 14-point win over the Boilermakers that represented its best Big Ten performance of the season. The offense rolled up 457 yards and a nearly 27-minute advantage in time of possession.
Led by first-time starting back Cam Wallace (135 yards), the Nittany Lions also rushed for 269 yards, more than they had in their three previous Big Ten games combined. Wallace was a revelation, averaging 6.1 yards per carry, and fellow back Carson Hansen had his best game at Penn State (17 carries, 96 yards). Pro Football Focus undervalued Penn State's offensive grades in its weekly report.
Defensively, Penn State allowed Purdue just 175 total yards, 38 on a fluky third-down pass that resulted in the Boilermakers' only offensive touchdown. Running back Fame Ijeboi (11 carries, 20 yards) wasn't a factor, and quarterback Ryan Browne went 4-for-22 after a 6-for-7 start.
"I've watched this team grow every single week.," Campbell said. "There's not been a week that this
group hasn't. Maybe [at] Northwestern there was a setback, but from that point on, this group has done an unbelievable job growing itself forward.
"... I just felt a different energy coming off of Michigan. To watch this team be able to get rewarded with a win, and not only a win, but playing its best four quarters together of team football, that part's exciting. And it's great for those guys to earn the right to celebrate tonight and get ourselves back and see where we can take this."
Washington scored two touchdowns, one on a pick-6, in the last 90 seconds to steal a 17-10 win from Nebraska. The Huskies have some momentum with a two-game win streak following three consecutive losses.
Former Washington starting quarterback Demond Williams Jr. played a key reserve role, throwing a touchdown pass to Chris Lawson with 1:30 left. On Nebraska's ensuing series, Alex McLaughlin returned the Huskies' third interception of the game 48 yards for the clinching touchdown in the final minute.
Washington held Nebraska's offense to 10 points in the Black Out game despite giving up 387 total yards. The Huskies' offense certainly didn't steal the show, totaling just 267 total yards (32 on the ground) and replaced starter Elijah Brown with Williams in the second half.
Washington's quarterback situation will be a storyline Saturday. Williams sustained a fractured rib against Iowa in early October that led to the change. He did not play in Washington's win over Purdue the following week but returned to go 7-for-13 against the Cornhuskers.
“I felt we needed a spark," Washington coach Jedd Fisch told reporters in Lincoln after the game. "I felt that the way they were playing us, what they were doing coverage-wise, we needed the ability that Demond has, and that's the ability to be able to make a play with his feet."