<
>

Hype, realized: Washington blows out Stanford for signature win

play
Washington routs Stanford (1:33)

Washington QB Jake Browning throws for three touchdowns and runs for another three, and the Huskies dominate Stanford 44-6. (1:33)

SEATTLE -- Chris Petersen, with a 5-0 record and a win over a top-10 team under his belt, is going to be utterly annoyed.

That record and Friday night's 44-6 win over No. 7 Stanford are only going to drum up more Washington hype, more questions about the Pac-12 title march and more considerations about the College Football Playoff.

And that means Petersen is going to be asked about something other than the 10th-ranked Huskies' looming matchup with Oregon next Saturday or how they dominated Stanford in every facet of the game. He's not going to like that. Not one bit.

Petersen has been a master at avoiding the noise surrounding his team -- the team that fielded more than a handful of future NFL studs on the defense and an offense that brought back four starters on the line, as well as the quarterback and running back.

But no questions about the hype, please.

"We have as much hype as the new Pokemon game that no one knows anything about but thinks it's really cool," Petersen said at Pac-12 media days in July. "That's us."

Except two months later, Pokemon has faded into the background and the Huskies are just stepping into the limelight. And the thumping of perennial powerhouse Stanford doesn't do much to silence the noise. Nor does the fact that the Huskies' defense sacked the Cardinal eight times. Or the fact that the Washington offensive players made Stanford look as though its defenders had forgotten how to tackle.

The Huskies came into this game knowing it would be their first real measuring stick. Their 4-0 record seemed a bit inflated -- wins over FCS Portland State and soon-to-be-FCS Idaho, as well as Rutgers. A week ago, Washington needed overtime to take care of business on the road against Arizona. Now, they leave this game against Stanford as the favorite in the Pac-12.

But Petersen probably will continue to cover his ears and use his tunnel vision as best as possible to ignore all the hype, even the kind of deafening noises that are guaranteed with a 38-point win over the incumbent champ.

"I put no stock in it, you know," Petersen said in July. "I'm a voter on the top 25 football teams, and it's a complete waste of time and crapshoot for the first five weeks."

But the only crapshoot about this Week 5 game: The No. 10 ranking for the Huskies was clearly too little hype for the team out of Seattle. And with an unrelenting attack, Washington dethroned the Pac-12 torchbearer -- the team that had been to three of the past four Rose Bowls -- and swiftly occupied that position.

And yes, there are a lot of headlines and lights and hype there, Petersen.

The coach will take your questions now.