A later start to the NFL season, gave No. 19 Washington a national television audience for its 24-10 Apple Cup victory against Washington State on Sunday.
But the Huskies (1-0) have one fewer day to prepare for Saturday’s home game against Utah State (0-1) in Seattle.
“We’ve got to move on and we’ve got to get to tomorrow’s practice, start preparing, game planning,” Huskies coach Jedd Fisch said. “Traditionally, we’re able to do this on a Sunday, but based on the fact that it’s already Monday, we got to get going.”
Demond Williams Jr. completed 24 of 35 passes for 268 yards and a touchdown and rushed for a team-high 61 yards and another score on seven carries to lead the Huskies past their in-state rivals.
The defense limited Washington State to 242 yards, forced three turnovers and didn’t allow a third-down conversion.
But Fisch lamented Washington’s missed opportunities and self-inflicted wounds with 12 penalties for 130 yards.
Personal fouls by the Huskies on defense twice wiped out stops on third-and-long and also negated another turnover. The offense failed to score from the 1-yard line on the last play of the first half and the Huskies also missed a 29-yard field-goal attempt.
“I felt like there was a lot out there that we can learn from,” Fisch said. “So our team will certainly learn from them, but it’s nice to learn with a win. And it’s nice to learn with the Apple Cup.”
The Huskies appear to have lost their top two running backs for the foreseeable future. Quaid Carr suffered a hand injury that Fisch said would require surgery and Jayden Limar is expected to miss significant time with an elbow injury. Starting wide receiver Christian Moss sustained an undisclosed injury and his status this week is uncertain.
Sixth-year senior Trey Cooley, who previously spent time at Louisville, Georgia Tech and Troy, and freshman Brian Bonner are expected to get most of the carries Saturday.
Utah State suffered a 29-17 loss to Idaho State of the FCS on Saturday in Logan, Utah.
Not exactly the way the Aggies wanted to start the season with back-to-back road games looming against ranked opponents — they play at No. 20 Utah next weekend — on the schedule.
“We played exactly as we were prepared to play,” Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall said.
McCae Hillstead was 15-of-30 passing for 178 yards with two TDs and three interceptions before being replaced by backup Grady Brosterhous, who threw another pick.
Mendenhall revealed Hillstead was dealing with a forearm injury.
“His arm was bothering him. It was bothering him increasingly as the game went on, it was affecting his throws,” Mendenhall said. “He’s just tough, and I think he was hesitant to tell us the magnitude of which it was kind of hurting him.”
Hillstead’s status for Saturday’s game is uncertain.
The Aggies were penalized 11 times for 83 yards and went 1 for 4 on fourth-down opportunities, including being stopped at the Idaho State 1-yard line early in the second half.
Javen Jacobs rushed for 80 yards, nearly half of the Aggies’ total of 162 on the ground.
“The whole team has a sense of urgency now, just to prove to ourselves and to all the fans and everybody that we were much better than what we put on display this past weekend,” Jacobs said. “It really just comes down to not hurting ourselves.”
