Apple Cup has ‘nice’ start

Everyone is so nice to each other the Monday of Apple Cup week, it’s as if they’ve all been sedated.

Monday was no different. Take the head coaches, for instance. To kick things off, Washington’s Keith Gilbertson and Washington State’s Bill Doba got on the phone and chatted like the old friends they are. Doesn’t anyone throw bottles anymore?

“We kind of kidded each other about how bad we are,” the Cougars leader said.

Wisecracked Gilbertson, “We were both crying.”

Collectively, this pair of second-year coaches has just five wins among them in 20 outings – reasons to shed a few tears. Gilbertson’s Huskies are 1-9, matching the worst record in the UW’s 115 football seasons. That’s why the ousted coach will be job-hunting next Monday.

“I respect him very much,” Doba said. “He’s an excellent football coach. Sorry it didn’t work out for him.”

Looks like the Huskies have the Cougars right where they want them – playing the sympathy card – while trying to extend their six-game winning streak in this frenzied rivalry Saturday in Pullman.

From there, the two coaches went straight to confession while meeting with statewide reporters, admitting to a few shortcomings.

Doba suggested that WSU, an 11 1/2 -point favorite, probably would have had trouble defeating the Huskies had the teams met earlier this month.

“Had we not beaten UCLA two weeks ago, we would have been struggling with that issue,” he acknowledged.

Gilbertson came clean as well when addressing the Huskies’ recent upper hand in the state series.

“In ‘99 and 2000 we had the best football players and since then, it’s been pretty even,” the ousted coach said. “The last two years, I think we’ve been damn lucky, I’ll be honest with you.”

Before plotting a defensive game plan for UW, Doba might want to re-check his scouting information. Asked about the Huskies’ current quarterback, he said:”I think Cory Paus has improved a little bit each week.”

At last check, Paus was selling insurance in Los Angeles after finishing his eligibility at UCLA, while his younger brother, Casey, has struggled mightily as the UW signal caller this season.

Paus, Gilbertson said, will retain the starting job, though he served up three more INTs against Cal.

The question being asked accurately, if not somewhat slyly, of everyone involved in this game was this: Do the Huskies, no matter how bad they are this season, still have their Pac-10 cousins in their back pocket?

That inquiry got smirks in Seattle, a bit of throat-clearing in the Palouse.

“They’re definitely looking at it going against them a little bit,” UW linebacker Evan Benjamin said. “The last couple of years, they were definitely one of the best teams in the Pac-10, if not the nation.”

Responded Cougars senior offensive tackle Calvin Armstrong, “I don’t think we are. They’ve just made some nice plays down the stretch. Mentally, we have to leave everything on the table for this game.”

The shorthanded Huskies are still setting the table, working on the only thing they know that works, flustering the WSU psyche.

Benjamin even had the audacity to insist he and his teammates save their football hatred for the Oregon Ducks rather than the Cougars.

“Between us and Oregon, we really don’t like each other,” he said. “With Washington State, you want to beat them, but after the game you go and talk to them. It’s different. Some of these guys are friends you have from high school.”

While everything seemed peaceful, leave it to a Canadian to get his juices flowing. WSU defensive end Adam Braidwood of Delta, British Columbia, never wanted to go to the UW, not after seeing the Huskies win the 2001 Rose Bowl. He prefers playing for an underdog, but he’ll be line up for the favorites Saturday.

“I don’t want to leave here without beating them,” Braidwood, a junior, blurted out. “I think this is going to be the year we do it. I’m tired of losing to them. I didn’t know what the rivalry was like until we lost. Then it was like, I don’t ever want to lose to them again.”

The Huskies are listening to it all, enjoying someone else’s frustration for a change.

“Somebody is going to go home disappointed, and it’s not going to be us,” Benjamin said.