Step Aside, Dawgs WSU Receiver’s Biting Remarks Launch Apple Cup War Of Words

What would the 90th Apple Cup be without some good old-fashioned bulletin-board material?

After our Sunday night conversation with Washington State receiver Chris Jackson, no one will ever know.

“I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the Huskies get in my way of going to the Rose Bowl,” Jackson said.

In the unlikely event that Washington needed any motivation for Saturday’s football game in Seattle, well, let Jackson explain. “UW is never going to give us any respect, and I think we need to go into it just the same way they’re looking at it - you know, I don’t have an ounce of respect for them,” Jackson said. “I think they have talented players just as anyone does, but I don’t have much respect for them as people or as players. I just want to go in there, study film on them and go do what we set out to do, go in and kill them.”

Put up some big numbers, in other words.

“Without having to say overrated, they were supposed to be one of the best secondaries in the nation going into the year, but we’ve seen teams that don’t have as good an offense as we do put up 40 points on them,” Jackson said, “so we’re looking forward to studying them pretty well and going out to put 40, 50 points on them.”

Is that any way to address an upcoming opponent, especially a 6-1/2-point favorite like Washington? On the other hand, perhaps such a wide point spread validates Jackson’s no-respect diatribe.

“It’s different,” Jackson explained. “They bring the hatred out in us.

“It’s just like, I don’t think we would sit here and say anything about how we’re going to kill them and we don’t have no respect for them, but just over the past two years, it’s the things that they say and how cocky they are, that they were looking for a national championship ring and they’re going to the Rose Bowl and their cross-state rivals, Washington State, are dogs.”

Jackson’s comments seemed strangely out of character, as if his judgment might have been temporarily altered by the mild concussion he suffered during Saturday’s 38-28 victory over Stanford.

Then again, maybe it’s just Apple Cup week.

“I can predict what they’re thinking right now,” Jackson pressed on. “I’m sure Coach (Jim) Lambright is telling them they lost two in a row, and I don’t think UW has lost three games in a row in I don’t know how many years.

“And I know they’re probably looking at going into the Apple Cup and taking out all their frustrations on us,” he added. “Like, yeah, they’re not going to the Rose Bowl, they’re going to knock us out of the chance to go and that would make their season. I know they’re going to try to take all their frustrations out on us and blow us out. I know Lambright has them pumped up over there.”

If Lambright doesn’t, Jackson certainly will.

The scent of roses

The Rose Bowl race has been simplified to such a degree that even the media can figure it out.

Here’s the deal:

Washington State makes its first appearance in 67 years if the Cougars win Saturday’s Apple Cup in Seattle and one of these two scenarios takes place: UCLA beats USC, or Arizona upsets Arizona State.

The Cougars also can go to Pasadena with an Apple Cup loss, but only if UCLA and ASU also lose their regular-season finales.

UCLA will go if the Bruins beat USC and WSU loses. ASU goes if it beats Arizona and UCLA loses.

And the Huskies will go if they buy tickets. We said it, but only because WSU coach Mike Price wouldn’t, and Jackson didn’t think of it.

Price was more than happy Sunday to bask in the previous day’s victory over Stanford, and his team’s 9-1 record was another popular topic. But the ninth-year WSU coach seemed determined to avoid reveling in Washington’s unexpected plunge to 7-3 and spoiler status.

Price seemed to pull it off, too, with the only potential slipup coming when someone asked if he had viewed a tape of Washington’s 52-28 loss to UCLA.

“You know, I watched some of it and ended up falling asleep last night and the TV was watching me,” Price revealed.

The Huskies were lackluster, to be sure, but could they have been that uninspiring?

“No, no, that absolutely didn’t have anything to do with it,” Price clarified. “We’ve got four recruits here this weekend and I had to be up for 8 o’clock breakfast this morning, so I had to make sure I got my sleep.”

Notes

The Cougars jumped to 11th in both polls after being ranked 13th by the coaches and 14th by the media last week… . Saturday’s Apple Cup will be televised live at 12:30 p.m. by ABC on a regional basis. USC-UCLA shares the same time slot and is ABC’s other regional game… . Price reported no serious injuries… . When WSU quarterback Ryan Leaf struck a Heisman pose after the Stanford game, Price couldn’t help but smile. “Ryan said it was kind of selfish, but gosh, it was fun,” Price said. “And isn’t that kinda what it’s about? Sometimes we take everything so seriously that, boy, a guy can’t relax for just a second. That was kind of refreshing to see.”

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