Have the Washington Huskies ever been this good?

Were they not supposed to be this good when the state of Washington's prodigal athlete son Jake Locker took the reigns as a redshirt freshman back in 2007? Of course they never were, and certainly never sniffed these heights under Steve Sarkisian. And while the final score may have been 70-21, it was never even really that close.

The Huskies were already up 21-0 by the time the first quarter had even finished, but the Ducks did make it interesting when they clawed to get seven points on the board and even made a few stops after to get the crowd into it at least for a brief moment. In the end they could not stop anyone in a white jersey, and headed into the tunnel down 35-7 at half.

Jake Browning and Myles Gaskin were unstoppable, as Browning completed 22 of 28 passes for 304 yards and six touchdowns in the air. Browning also added two rushing touchdowns to tie the Husky record for TD's in a game with 8. Gaskin averaged an eye-popping 12.3 yards per carry rushing for 197 yards and a TD. Even Jamal Dotson looked unstoppable, blazing past Oregon defenders and running over the Wing Foot's. 

Therefore, with the UW's ascension into the national conversation, and his epically efficient game, Browning inevitably has entered the Heisman conversation. And certainly has to be the front-runner for Pac-12 Player of the Year at least, with Christian McCaffrey getting only 35 yards on the ground and five in the air in a 42-16 defeat to Washington State.

Browning's numbers certainly will only inflate, as Washington's remaining games are all winnable, with a couple games definitely headed towards the lopsided one we saw Saturday in Eugene. Utah does stand in the way ranked 21st, and WSU is playing decent, and showed they too can beat Stanford handily. While Washington isn't out of the woods yet, anything less than a victory in the Pac-12 championship game would not only be unexpected, but a disappointment. Crazy how much things can change within barely a year.

And what's even scarier is that the Huskies will be like this for at least another year. Browning and Gaskin are only sophomores, after being starters as true freshmen last year. This 2016 team could be the start of a new era in Montlake, a possible dynasty the Pac-12 hasn't seen since USC, or at least Stanford most recently until they apparent implosion this year.

Image: Flickr/McD22