UCLA 2025 Football Opponent Primer: Washington

The UCLA Bruins are entering their second season in the Big Ten Conference with the hopes of erasing last season's 5-7 record from memory by improving in every facet.

In DeShaun Foster's first full offseason at the helm in Westwood, the Bruins did just that -- improved and restructured nearly every facet of the program from the field to the coaching staff.

With that being said, let's take start taking a look at UCLA's 2025 season opponents and how ESPN's Bill Connelly previews them ahead of the season, moving on to the Bruins' week 13 against the Washington Huskies.

According to ESPN's football power index (FPI), Washington is expected to be around the same level team as the Bruins this season, winning a projected 6.3 games (3.8 in the Big Ten), being the 39th-ranked team in college football.

Here's what Connelly had to say about Jedd Fisch and the Huskies ahead of this season:

"You need more than 153 dropbacks to create an accurate, predictive sample of what you're going to be capable of moving forward. For most freshmen, that's good, as their first 153 dropbacks probably aren't successful.

"But for Demond Williams Jr., it took only that many for him to build serious excitement.

"Williams started the last two games of a relative lost season for the Huskies and went 0-2 because the defense gave up 84 combined points. But he completed 43 of 52 passes for 575 yards, 5 touchdowns and only 1 interception, and not including sacks, he rushed for 137 yards and another score. He took an eye-popping 15 sacks in those two games -- he was clearly still learning what he could and couldn't get away with at the college level -- but still produced an 84.3 Total QBR, which would have been nearly Kurtis Rourke-like over an entire season.

"If Williams is genuinely good -- and doesn't take a million sacks -- then there's a legitimate chance for a second-year leap for the UW offense. He'll have a relatively experienced line in front of him and a skill corps that includes 1,000-yard back Jonah Coleman (and a physical backup in sophomore Adam Mohammed), receivers Denzel Boston and Penn State transfer Omari Evans, and another sophomore in big-play tight end Decker DeGraaf. The overall depth of experience on offense will be minimal, but there are mountains of upside.

"With Williams, the offense has a pretty wide range of outcomes, but the range for the defense might be even larger because of newness. Only five of 15 players with 200-plus snaps return, and Ryan Walters replaced Stephen Belichick (who left to coach for his dad at North Carolina) at coordinator. Walters was a successful defensive coordinator at Missouri and Illinois before bombing as Purdue's head coach. Fisch aimed for known disruptors in the portal and found quite a few, such as tackles Ta'ita'i Uiagalelei (Arizona) and Simote Pepa (Utah), linebackers Jacob Manu (Arizona), Taariq Al-Uqdah (Washington State) and Xe'Ree Alexander (UCF), corner Tacario Davis (Arizona) and safeties CJ Christian (FIU) and Alex McLaughlin (Northern Arizona). There aren't many proven returnees, but edge rusher Isaiah Ward and corner Ephesians Prysock are solid.

"Fisch generated lots of traction in his second season at Arizona, and it's not hard to envision something similar happening at UW. But he'll need to hit on a lot of transfers, and he'll need his faith in a guy with 153 dropbacks wholly rewarded."

Washington at this point of the season will be a huge test for the Bruins, especially if they drop a few games on their way. This four-game stretch to close out the season could be the difference between making a bowl game and not.