College Football

‘Go Dawgs baby’: Husky fans soak up spotlight as Seattle businesses prepare for extended season

SEATTLE — The University of Washington Huskies taking down the Oregon Ducks Friday night is still at the top of fans’ minds Saturday.

The team is now the Pac-12 champions, their perfect season is just the cherry on top. Their fans filled bars for the game Friday, and some continued to ride that train into Saturday afternoon.

The Saturday viewers came to scope out the Huskies’ potential competition on New Year’s Day and to still ride the high of beating the Ducks twice.

“I feel absolutely amazing. The most wins we’ve ever had in a season,” said Tristan McDevitt, an avid Huskies fan.

He said he’s still buzzing with excitement after capping off their season with a 34-31 win over the Ducks.

“Well, I was screaming. I hope everyone else in my apartment complex didn’t hear too much. A few expletives but you know, beating Oregon twice in one season, to be the last Pac-12 champions ever just means a lot. I think it means a lot to the city,” said McDevitt.

But not everyone in the Queen Anne Beer Hall Saturday was riding that wave.

A Cougars fan joked, “I wish they both lost.”

Bama fan, Pierce McLawhorn said the obvious, “Here to watch the Tide you know, Roll Tide everybody out there.”

He added, “Huge stakes, season on the line right here. can’t really get much bigger than this.”

The Huskies won’t know who they’re going up against in the NCAA Championship until Sunday morning. The armchair experts are watching Saturday’s matchups so they’ll have some opinions on who they’d like to see the Dawgs tally their 14th win of the year against.

“I’d love to see us play Michigan and call it the last Rose Bowl, the last real Rose Bowl ever in Pasadena, I think that would mean a lot to the Pac-12 as a send-off,” said McDevitt. “Penix for Heisman. Make it happen, Go Dawgs baby.”

A longer season means more work for one Seattle business, and that’s a good thing. The crew at ‘Simply Seattle’ said they prepped for the aftermath of Friday’s game for weeks but had to wait for the game clock to run out before they could jump into action.

“We had the whole team out watching the game but as soon as the clock hits 0. it’s showtime,” explained Simply Seattle’s General manager, Jacob Smidt.

Showtime for him means firing up the t-shirt presses.

“We’ve got probably five or six different designs that we’ll be printing around the clock for the next 72 hours+,” said Smidt. “It can definitely be a couple hundred an hour. We’re going to have thousands of T-shirts to ship.”

The newest shirts, hot of those presses have a big gold 13-0, marking the Dawgs’ historic run.

Even if that last game had McDevitt’s and other fans’ heart rates up for some of the game.

“Then the start of the second half was a little rough,” said McDevitt. “Defense has been playing better the last few weeks, Penix is the best player in the nation, he’s going to win the Heisman, so I think we have a shot.”

‘Simply Seattle’ shirts are set to ship out on Monday. Sunday, after the College Football Playoff rankings are announced, the Huskies’ head coach will host a press conference.