Chris Petersen had Washington in major bowl games seemingly every season once he got things up and running. Kalen DeBoer is tasked with returning the Huskies to that kind of level.

UW wants to play in significant games when the calendar turns to December and then to January. Given the start it has enjoyed in DeBoer’s first season at the helm, national college football analysts are thinking it might be able to do just that right away. With Washington sitting at 4-0 heading into Week 5, The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy has UW pegged to go to a New Year’s Six bowl game.

McMurphy’s latest bowl projections have the Huskies facing Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl.

This year’s Cotton Bowl is to be played on Monday, Jan. 2 in Arlington, Texas.

Washington has never appeared in the game before. McMurphy has USC playing in the Rose Bowl, Utah in the Alamo Bowl, and Oregon in the Las Vegas Bowl.

The Huskies beat Stanford 40-22 on Saturday to open Pac-12 play with a win and remain unbeaten on the year. UW flexed its muscles in the game, going up 30-7 at one point. Washington has held at least a 20-point lead in every game so far this season, and it has scored at least 39 points in every game, marking the first time that’s happened in any given year since 1944.

Washington is one of just 21 remaining unbeaten FBS teams. It hits the road for the first time this season on Friday to battle UCLA (7:30 p.m. PT; ESPN).