Cougars Hope Schedule Allows For Fast Start Early Momentum Could Be Key To Return Visit To Big Bowl Game

Washington State’s football team will defend its first Pacific-10 Conference championship with six home games in Pullman this season, including the Apple Cup.

The schedule also includes a rare Friday home game, the season opener against Illinois on Sept. 4. That’s the eve of the Labor Day Weekend.

“I’m excited about playing Illinois on a Friday,” coach Mike Price said. “It is a unique and inventive approach and will be fun for the Cougs.”

Last year, when the Cougars went to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 67 seasons, they opened with victories against traditional nemeses UCLA and Southern Cal that set the tone for a 10-2 campaign.

This season’s early going seems quite a bit easier. After Illinois, the Cougars travel to Boise State and then host neighbor Idaho, a team they haven’t played since 1989.

In January, the NCAA gave Idaho’s football program two years to meet the 17,000-average season attendance for home games required for Division I-A status. That means games against Idaho, whose campus is 8 miles east of the WSU campus, will count toward the six-win minimum needed to qualify for postseason bowl games.

The Apple Cup, on Nov. 21, is the traditional season finale. Last year they beat the Huskies in Seattle to clinch the Rose Bowl berth.

Season tickets go on sale Monday. The six-game package costs $109 if ordered before April 1 and $119 after that.

For the University of Idaho, 1998’s schedule has a little bit of everything - the old, the new and the renewed - and likely is the most challenging the Vandals have played in years. “It will be a challenge,” fourth-year head coach Chris Tormey said. “This is the most difficult schedule the University of Idaho has played in the last 25 years.”

Idaho opens with a home game against regional rival Eastern Washington, which advanced to the NCAA Division I-AA semifinals last season before losing to eventual national champion Youngstown State.

The Vandals then begin an odyssey that sends them on the road for seven of their final 10 games and matches them against three 1997-98 bowl teams - Washington State, Louisiana State and Utah State.

“There’s a lot of excitement about the renewal of that rivalry,” Tormey said of the Washington State game. “I know our kids are really excited to play Washington State.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WSU’s 1998 SCHEDULE Sept. 4 Illinois Sept. 12 at Boise State Sept. 19 Idaho Sept. 26 at California Oct. 3 at UCLA Oct. 10 Oregon (Homecoming) Oct. 17 USC Oct. 24 bye Oct. 31 Arizona State Nov. 7 at Arizona Nov. 14 at Stanford Nov. 21 Washington

UI’s 1998 schedule Sept. 5 Eastern Washington Sept. 12 at San Jose State Sept. 19 at Washington State Sept. 26 at Louisiana State Oct. 3 Idaho State (Homecoming) Oct. 10 at Arkansas State Oct. 17 at Utah State Oct. 24 Nevada Oct. 31 at North Texas Nov. 7 New Mexico State Nov. 14 bye Nov. 21 at Boise State