With No Apples, Huskies Line Up Utah in Saturday Night Replacement Game

Jimmy Lake's UW team will host the match-up and pursue a third consecutive victory.

The University of Washington football team will meet Utah in a replacement game for the cancelled Apple Cup, hosting the Utes on Saturday night in Husky Stadium with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.

The teams will play in Seattle for the second consecutive year, 12 months after Kyle Whittingham's Utes beat the Huskies 33-28 with a furious fourth-quarter rally.

Hopefully.

Utah (0-1) finally opened its season last weekend with a home game against USC, which it lost 33-17. The Trojans since have reported that one of their players on the travel roster tested positive for COVID-19 and their athletic facilities were shut down on Tuesday.

The Utes' first two games against Arizona and UCLA were canceled because of the pandemic, as was a Sunday game at Arizona State.

If its able to play the Huskies, Utah will have a new starting quarterback.

Sophomore Cam Rising was lost for the season against USC after getting strip-sacked in the second quarter, having a Trojan defender fall on him and suffering a shoulder injury.

The Utes will go with newcomer Jake Bentley, who transferred in from South Carolina, where he started 33 games. In a relief role against USC, Bentley completed 16 of 28 passes for 171 yards and a touchdown, with a pair of interceptions.

The Huskies were in need of another game when Washington State pulled out of the Apple Cup because of virus concerns, with the rivals not playing for the first time since 1944.

UW officials were in talks with BYU throughout Monday, but each school wanted to play the game at their home stadium, plus the Huskies were committed to facing a Pac-12 team if one became available.

The Huskies have looked impressive in their two outings, beating Oregon State 27-21 and Arizona 44-27.