The perception of No. 10 Washington’s showdown with No. 7 Stanford on Friday night is easy to spin.
A program that won its last national championship 25 years ago and hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl since 2000 can announce its arrival as a Pac-12 and College Football Playoff contender under third-year coach Chris Petersen. We can even throw in a montage of Mark Brunell, Steve Emtman and all those big, bad Huskies from the early 1990s to back it up.
Too bad third-year coach Chris Petersen doesn’t share that perception. He spent the offseason down-playing the expectations around the program, and one game can’t change that.