By the end of their trip to Seattle, UCLA players might feel like playing Nirvana on their headphones while sipping lattes with a bear foam design on top.
Everywhere they’ve gone this season, the Bruins have made themselves at home. There’s no doubt they’ve played their best football on the road. A team with a sub-.500 record has gone 3-2 in away games, with the losses coming against No. 4 Penn State and No. 22 Louisiana State.
They’ll need to be in top form again Friday evening at Husky Stadium.
Washington has won 19 consecutive home games — the longest home win streak in modern school history — and will have a “Blackout” theme on the night it honors its seniors, a handful of whom have played for four head coaches going back to Chris Petersen.
Having dropped all five road games this season, the Huskies have been equally dominant at home, their 5-0 record including victories over nationally ranked Michigan and the football program formerly known as USC.
“It’s just rocking, just the stadium that the fans take pride in,” UCLA coach DeShaun Foster said of Washington’s home stadium. “You know, it’s going to be loud, it’s going to be at night, it might be cold. So, you know, just a little bit of I think that they just play into it, kind of like the Seahawks. So, it’s a big challenge for us, but we’ve played in some hostile environments this whole season, so it shouldn’t be anything that we’re not prepared for.”
Here are five things to watch when the Bruins (4-5 overall, 3-4 Big Ten) face the Huskies (5-5, 3-4) at 6 p.m. PST in a game televised by Fox:
