In its unique black uniforms with gold trim, the University of Washington football team looked more like Purdue or Vanderbilt than the Huskies. However, these guys also came out best looking like a bowl team as they beat UCLA 31-19 on Friday night at Husky Stadium to earn their sixth win and become eligible for the postseason.

Shreveport or El Paso anyone?

In a mistake-filled, injury-riddled game, the Huskies (6-5 overall, 4-4 Big Ten) never trailed, but were pushed for the most part in what was also called reunion game with Ethan Garbers, with the former UW Quarterback turned Bruin holding his team (4-6, 3-5) close until the final quarter.

And finally, it might have been Demond Williams Jr.’s coming-out party as the freshman quarterback came off the bench for struggling senior Will Rogers and led the Huskies with three unanswered drives in the last quarter and a half to wrap this one up. Above.

After a national championship game and the rebuild that followed, UW swept the Los Angeles schools and got redemption from Michigan under Jedd Fisch’s new coaching staff, and the postseason seems like reward enough.

“In our first year with a team that none of us were familiar with, with a lot of players that none of them had played together and not a lot of us knew, and they came from all over to beat USC, Michigan and UCLA, these are big wins for our program,” Fisch said. “Very proud of our guys getting those wins. It’s a big deal.”

With one regular season game remaining at Oregon in two weeks after a bye, there will be plenty of lobbying for Williams to become the starting quarterback. He completed 7-of-8 passes for 67 yards and a TD toss to fellow freshman Decker DeGrasf and ran 6 times for 31 yards to keep the Bruins from falling.

Jonah Coleman passed the 1,000-yard mark with 95 yards and 2 scores on 21 carries and surpassed the 1,000-yard mark, now with 1,008.

“He’s a young guy, but he’s obviously moving his feet and things like that,” Coleman said of Williams. “One thing he goes out there with is confidence like no other. There’s no doubt when he comes on the field, he’s going to get the job done.”

To get to the finish line, the Huskies had starting linebacker Carson Bruener relegated to a limited role with his shoulder injury, lost tight end Zach Durfee to what appeared to be another shoulder problem, a lost safety Matell Esteen to an unspecified injury and had a starting center. D’Angalo Titialii leaves the field temporarily with a hand injury. No one’s current health status was discussed in the future.

Defensively, Arizona transfer Russell Davis II had a monster game at edge rusher in just his third outing with the Huskies, posting 3 sacks and a forced fumble, while senior linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala and- led the team in tackles with 10 in his last home appearance. Even Bruener, though relegated to nearly every third series while suffering physically from the previous game at Penn State, finished with 8 tackles.

Early on, the game was a scrimmage for the first five drives, an uneventful if not boring exchange of possessions for each side, until UCLA’s Brady Richter livened things up considerably with a third-down conversion. The punter hit the ball almost sideways into the UW bench, with it traveling just 17 yards.

Set up on the UCLA 36, the home team turned that special teams gaffe into instant points. The Huskies got to the end zone pretty quickly, letting their first two runners do what they do best.

After Coleman’s 2-yard run, Cam Davis, who drew the kickoff in his final home game, took a screen pass to the left side and scampered down an open lane for 19 yards to the UCLA 15. In the game next, Coleman took a field trip to the right and charged toward the goal line, where he followed right tackle Drew Azzopardi and carried a Bruins tackler into the end zone. With 3:51 left in the opening quarter, the Huskies were up 7-0.

With the game out of steam after the early flurry, the Bruins responded with an 11-play, 65-yard drive for Mateen Bhaghani’s 28-yard field goal. UCLA had to settle for a 3-pointer when Husky freshman linebacker Khmori House knocked down a third-and-6 pass at the 10. At the 13:38 mark of the second quarter, the Bruins went up 7-3 . House would have perhaps his best night as a Husky, creating a key turnover late and finishing with 4 tackles.

Giving up the deck made things a little dangerous for UW. Facing a fourth-and-1 at their own 45, the Huskies went for a first down, and an Adam Mohammed run was stuffed by UCLA linebacker Oluwafemi Oledejo for a 1-yard loss.

However, the Bruins could not capitalize on this dizzying defensive position. They had the ball for six plays before giving it back.

At the UW 17, Garbers dropped back to pass on a second-and-9 play, brought the ball back and edge rusher Russell Davis II stripped it cleanly, dribbled it down the field for several yards as he tried to get her out and finally fell for her on the 31st.

In a first half of continuous mistakes, the Huskies drove up the field until Rogers sloppily threw one into the end zone and was intercepted by cornerback Bryan Addison. However, UW got a serious reprieve here. Rogers was hit in the back by Oledejo in flagrant fashion after dropping the ball, the passer was called and made the Bruins pay.

Rogers put the ball safely in the hands of tight end Keleki Latu, who ran 8 yards to the end zone, going over the top of tight end Landen Hatchett for the final yard. With 3:46 left in the half, the Huskies had a 14-3 lead and Latu, whose older brother Laiatu was a UW and UCLA linebacker, had his first Montlake touchdown.

“When I caught the ball, I just saw that green grass,” Latu said, referring to the open space on the artificial surface. “I’ll jump in no matter what.”

The Bruins had one more answer before halftime. They moved 65 yards, aided by an interference call on Ephesians Prysock, for a 1-yard TD pass from Garbers to freshman Kwazi Gilmer with 49 seconds left. The teams headed to the locker room with the Huskies on top 14-10.

The break did nothing to clean up a sloppy game. In fact, the mistakes came in flurries to open the second half.

Rogers sloppily threw interceptions on UW’s first two drives, putting the Bruins at the 25 and 39, respectively. UCLA was far from opportunistic, however. The visitors settled for Bhaghani’s 40-yard field goal to pull within 14-13 and gave the ball back after the second conversion.

From the UW 28, Bruins tight end Jack Pederson caught an 8-yard pass in the flat, but his legs were pulled by House and the ball splashed out before hitting the ground and being recovered by senior safety Kam Fabiculanan . It was another welcome save.

Unsurprisingly, Williams Jr. replaced the untargeted Rogers, and he set things up, leading the Huskies on Grady Gross’ 41-yard field goal and a 17-10 margin with 3:16 left in the third quarter. Rogers has now played just four and a half quarters in UW’s last two games. He finished with 13 completions on 21 attempts for 115 yards and his only TD toss and those pair of troubling interceptions.

Williams ater led a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives in which he hit DeGraaf with a 3-yard TD pass with 5:44 left and led the Huskies on a 2-yard run into the end zone by Coleman, who now has 9 touchdowns. per season,

Down 31-13, Garbers led the Bruins to a pair of late, meaningless touchdowns. He finished 27-for-44 passing for 267 yards and a pair of TDs against his old team.

The Huskies now have two weeks to celebrate their postseason good fortune and try hard to find a way to beat No. 1 and undefeated Oregon (10-0, 7-0) at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, or at least keep him close. An upset would be much bigger than any bowl game.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington