Here We Go Again: Huskies, Cougars Slug It Out for 114th Time
PULLMAN, Wash. — Late Saturday night in the Palouse, when typically only the Coug and the Sports Page taverns are open in this remote corner of the country's most northwestern state, the Washington and Washington State football teams will battle it out at Martin Stadium for the right to feel athletically, socially and geographically superior, and not necessarily in that order.
A lot has happened since these two rivals got together 12 months ago at Husky Stadium, when full-time head coaches were nowhere to be found that evening, nor was a UW offense that turned up missing all season.
The Huskies have had to live all year with their worst beating in the longstanding 13-decade and 113-game series with rival WSU, a 40-13 paddling that really stung in so many ways.
UW players talk about seeking payback for a flag-planting gesture in Seattle that is commonplace for the Cougars on every ESPN Game Day TV show. Good luck with that. Besides, the chief flag-planter, quarterback Jayden de Laura, played this season for Arizona and dislikes the Cougars — "It's personal," he said memorably — and, for that matter, the UW made him a 49-39 loser in Husky Stadium a month ago.
So much for getting revenge. The Huskies can knock on every door in the Palouse, but they won't find de Laura lounging on a couch anywhere or much evidence he even played there.
Both teams have new head coaches in the UW's Kalen DeBoer and WSU's Jake Dickert, the latter bumping up from interim status, and both proving to be decided upgrades over their predecessors, the fired Jimmy Lake and the dismissed Nick Rolovich, respectively.
Dickert supposedly was a temporary coach when he went head to head with the Huskies' interim guy, Bob Gregory, a former WSU linebacker and the UW defensive coordinator. One the Apple Cup was over, Dickert received an enthusiastic job offer largely pushed through for the Montlake beatdown.
Lake was let go for shoving a player and for too many losses, Rolovich for his refusal to follow a state vaccine mandate. It's interesting that the ever stubborn Rolovich no doubt would have suspended any player who defied him in the manner that he pushed back from his employers.
A Husky fan does his best Darth Vader imitation at Martin Stadium.
James Snook/USA TODAY Sports
Dickert is one of those low-key but well-organized guys who's just simply a good fit for WSU (7-4 overall, 4-4 Pac-12), quickly putting the program on solid footing, same as DeBoer for the 12th-ranked Huskies (9-2, 6-2).
These coaches come from similar Midwest backgrounds and there's been professional crossover with Dickert, a Wisconsin native. In 2011, he replaced current UW co-defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell as a South Dakota assistant coach when Morrell left to become the head coach at Montana Tech.
"I'm certainly aware of Jake," DeBoer said. "Coach Dickert has done an awesome job at a lot of places. He's lived in some of the same cities that I have and I've been aware of his path, and have great respect for what's he accomplished and what he's continued to do at Washington State this year, as well."
OK, so we now have an Evergreen state college football love fest from Lake Washington to the Snake River. In other words, a gridiron pillow fight.
Quarterback-wise, the well-regarded Cameron Ward transferred in from Incarnate Word to WSU to replace the hardly missed de Laura, while Michael Penix Jr. left Indiana for the UW to become the nation's leading passer with 3,869 yards in his 11 outings.
Watching from the sideline this weekend will be UW redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Huard, who was thrown to the Cougars turned Wolves a year ago and intercepted four times in his one and so far only collegiate start.
DeBoer told reporters this week he'd previously been to Pullman just once before, flying in and out on behalf of Fresno State while unsuccessfully trying to recruit the son of Bill Moos, the former WSU, Oregon and Nebraska athletic director and standout Cougars offensive lineman.
A Cougar fan, hard hat and all, braves the elements in Pullman.
James Snook/USA TODAY Sports
So here we are with two accomplished and well-fortified football teams, with the Huskies trying to sneak into the Pac-12 championship game and a great bowl game and the Cougars looking for a competitive postseason game.
To get to the title game in Las Vegas, the UW needs a near impossible series of events to happen: Beat the Cougars, have Oregon State defeat Oregon and Colorado upset Utah, which collectively isn't going to happen. Better prepare for option No. 2 ... watching the league season-ender on TV.
Snow is in Pullman's weekend forecast, after all, because why not? It's tradition.
This marks the 114th playing of this brotherly blood-letting, with the Huskies holding a 74-33-6 series advantage, and a 19-14-1 edge in Pullman, but the Cougars, most importantly, enter with a one-game win streak.
While this Apple Cup might prove friendlier than most with its old-school-values football leaders in place, it certainly won't be any less competitive.
ESPN cameras will be there to show it to the night owls back East. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Temperatures will hover in the 30s. A well-bundled crowd and a handful of bowl scouts should be in attendance.
However, the biggest challenge on Saturday night might just be this: to see if everyone can get this football free-for-all over in time to make last call at the Coug or the Sports Page.
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