Kalen DeBoer and the Washington Huskies take part in perhaps their most important game of the season thus far Saturday afternoon.

You can say that for every game, of course. But this time it means a little more. The Huskies draw No. 8 Oregon, perhaps the top team in the conference alongside DeBoer’s Huskies.

The Ducks, like Washington, have an electric player at QB in Bo Nix, who has led the Ducks to a 5-0 record with wins over Colorado and Texas Tech.

For DeBoer, just the opportunity to be 5-0 heading into a game of this magnitude is exciting. He insists that the Huskies have worked to get to this point, but embracing the challenge and enjoying the opportunity is at the forefront of their minds as Saturday approaches:

“The thing for us is we wanted to make sure this weekend was big, so I’m proud of the way the guys have weekly gone about taking care of business. You saw this as hopefully inevitable that it came to this point, just a lot of respect for what Oregon is doing with their season too. Happy that this is a big week because we’ve done everything to make it that. If we slip up anywhere along the way it wouldn’t be what it is. Excited for this opportunity. That’s what it is; it’s a challenge but it’s an opportunity. That’s what our guys came here to do is be a part of games like this and moments like this and build the program to this point. So embracing it is how we look at it.”

Here’s more from DeBoer:

The Huskies and Ducks face off at 12:30 p.m. PT in what could be a battle for the best squad in the conference.