Whipping Stanford 44-6 on Friday validated Washington to a national audience. That impressive, all-around performance inspired a No. 5 national ranking, the Huskies' highest perch since 2000. The program is officially on the College Football Playoff radar as the new Pac-12 front-runner.

That's nice, and Washington fans are prepared to appreciate it, just not yet. After a weekend of euphoria, backslaps and ear-to-ear grins, all of that winnows into background noise as teeth clench, eyes narrow and eyeballs turn south to Eugene, Oregon.

The Ducks. Or, more accurately, the Hated Ducks.

Washington's traditional rival is Washington State, and that one can get pretty heated, but the Huskies reserve their bitterest bile for Oregon. And likewise. No two fanbases troll each other more on the West Coast. And it's not even close.

In Washington's much-hyped preseason -- widely mocked by Oregon fans -- the linchpins to the schedule were obvious to all. The first two weekends of October, the Huskies would play the only two teams that have won the Pac-12 title since expansion, the owners of the North Division since its creation in 2011. Without question, beating Stanford, the Pac-12 champion three out of the past four years, was more important intellectually, as the Cardinal looked like the more formidable foe as preseason conference favorites and a top-10 team.

Beating Oregon on Saturday won't move the needle nationally, as the unranked Ducks are presently riding a three-game losing streak and look like a national power in decline. That result, however, would knock down a longstanding and painful emotional barrier built upon a 12-game losing streak. It would be the only way to deliver contentment to the long-suffering soul of the fanbase.

"That's 100 percent correct -- 110 percent correct," said longtime Washington booster Bill Fleenor. "[The losing streak] is the worst. We can handle a loss to USC. We put up with the Cougars one week a year. But we despise Oregon 52 weeks a year."

Fleenor then noted for supporting evidence that, while it would have benefited the Huskies for Oregon to have won at Washington State on Saturday, it was physically impossible for him -- and just about every Washington fan -- to root for Oregon under any circumstances.

"In a lot of ways, it makes no sense," he said. "But most Husky fans won't cut Oregon any slack. We don't have that feeling for any other school, and it isn't going to change, quite frankly."

Fleenor, "a young 65," he said, transfered from Oregon State to Washington after watching the 1969 Apple Cup. He hasn't missed a home game since then. We met in 1999 when I was a writer at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, but things didn't start off great for us. One of my first big stories was a feature lauding then-Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, which was written in nearly complete ignorance of the passion of the Ducks-Huskies rivalry.

His long, frustrated, "Welcome to Seattle... now let me explain something," email response perfectly captured how a highly successful businessman, a rational actor in all areas of his life can be possessed by the passion of college football.

Those draped in green and those in purple both agree when the rivalry's bitterness began. In 1948, Washington not only voted for California and not Oregon to represent the Pacific Coast Conference in the Rose Bowl, the Huskies advocated against the Ducks cause. Oregon fans have never forgiven the Huskies for the slight.

That ill-will was amplified on the Oregon side by Washington's subsequent domination of the series. From 1949 to 1993, the Huskies went 34-10-1 against the Ducks, winning 11 conference titles and a national championship along the way. Huskies fans mostly laughed at the Ducks.

In 1994, however, with Washington seemingly on the cusp of another comeback victory in Eugene, Ducks defensive back Kenny Wheaton intercepted a pass from Damon Huard and returned it 97 yards for a touchdown. It became known as "The Pick," and was the biggest play of the season in the Ducks' run to their first Rose Bowl in 37 years.

Biggest play of the season? Heck, in program history. It is replayed just before kickoff of every Oregon home game, always to boisterous cheers. The Pick and the Rose Bowl run legitimized Oregon, and it transformed the rivalry, making the bad feelings mutual. From 1994 to 2002, the Ducks won five of eight games against the Huskies, while along the way building the conference's best facilities due to donations from Nike founder Phil Knight.

Still, after Washington posted its second consecutive blowout win in the series in 2003, no one could have projected what would happen next.

Oregon has won every game since and nearly all in blowout fashion. The average score during the winning streak was 42.3 to 18.5. Just one of the games -- the Ducks' 26-20 win last year -- was decided by fewer than 17 points. Along the way, Oregon played for two national titles and won the conference four times.

“All that stuff is in the past," third-year Washington coach Chris Petersen said. "None of that has to do with this team.”

Fair point. Vegas agrees. The Huskies are favored by more than a touchdown in no longer fearsome Autzen Stadium, where a Pac-12 visitor is trying to win for the fourth time in six games.

Petersen, who coached at Oregon from 1995 to 2000, isn't the sort to over-indulge in rivalry talk. He's not an "enthusiasm unknown to mankind," hyperbole guy. He's also good friends with embattled Ducks coach Mark Helfrich. He's not going to work the 12 years of misery angle, digging for some sort of special motivation inside his locker room.

Yet the Huskies are perfectly aware of their fanbase's angst and desperate desire to reestablish what they feel is a natural order in the rivalry. When asked whether he is cognizant of Huskies fans hate for Oregon, sophomore quarterback Jake Browning, who's from the Sacramento area, quickly and succinctly answered, "Yes."

When asked to expand on that brief thought, he replied, "Both sides hate each other. That’s how it is.”

He then added after a pause, “We’re going to come in with a lot of hype after [the win over Stanford]. If I’m Oregon, 'I’m thinking this is perfect. They are going to be coming off a big win and maybe overlook [us].' We’re not going to do that.”

Fleenor and other Huskies fans sure hope not. He said the fanbase feels even more unified behind Petersen than it did back in the glory days with legendary coach Don James. He also vacillates between confidence heading to Eugene and fretting about overconfidence.

In the end, though, he three times makes a point that can't help but make neutral observers grin.

Speaking for all long-suffering Washington fans -- and being fully aware of an Oregon audience -- he concluded, "We just feel vastly superior to Oregon."