A massive underdog, here’s how WSU can knock off UW in 117th Apple Cup
PULLMAN – If you blinked, you might have missed the scoff Josh Meredith let out. After a Washington State practice earlier this week, a bright light from a camera shone in his face, illuminating the senior wide receiver’s reaction to hearing the betting line for this weekend’s Apple Cup.
Washington is favored by about 20.5.
So a moment after expressing his apparent distaste for that figure, Meredith moved on to another thought: What would a win in the 117th Apple Cup, set for 4:30 p.m. on CBS, mean to the Cougars?
“It would definitely feel special,” said Meredith, whose WSU team is hosting the rivalry game for the first time in three years. “You might walk down the street and there might be a couch on fire, who knows? It’s gonna make the town have a blast.”
To pull an upset of that magnitude, Washington State (2-1) will have to play some of its best football of the season, hosting a Washington (2-0) club that boasts one of the country’s best offenses. UW leads the all-time series 76-34-6, but a year after winning the Apple Cup trophy with a last-second win in Seattle, the Cougs are seeking to win two straight installments for the first time since 2007-08.
For the second consecutive season, the circumstances around the game will be different. Last season’s Apple Cup was the first nonconference version, on account of Washington heading to the Big Ten and joining 10 other programs in departing the Pac-12 in 2023. Since then, the leftover programs in WSU and Oregon State have committed to rebuilding the conference, which will relaunch next season.
Still, the Apple Cup has remained intact. WSU and UW are under contract to play the series until at least 2028, with the game alternating sites each season. The game may not come with the same stakes as it once did – to varying extents, support for the series’ continuation has waned from fans of both teams – but if ticket availability is any indication, it still carries the same kind of anticipation.
Saturday’s game at Gesa Field isn’t just sold out. It will also be the stadium’s first time selling beer and wine, following approval from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. The new development comes with several stipulations, like no stadium reentry and no alcohol in the student section, but it does figure to energize the environment.
External factors aside, WSU has bigger questions to answer. The big one: Who will start at quarterback? The Cougars went with third-year sophomore Jaxon Potter for each of their first three games, but after he threw three interceptions in the first half of a blowout loss to North Texas last weekend, coach Jimmy Rogers told reporters on Monday that the team would hold a QB competition – another one – to determine the starter for the Apple Cup. Candidates included Potter, fifth-year senior Zevi Eckhaus and redshirt freshman Julian Dugger, he said.
But two days later, Rogers revealed that coaches had already selected their starter on Sunday. As it turns out, they didn’t hold the kind of competition Rogers described.
It was the latest chapter in what has been a rocky quarterback saga to begin Rogers’ first season at WSU. During fall camp, coaches declined to announce a starting QB ahead of their season opener against FCS Idaho. Only a couple weeks later, they’re doing the same. It’s unclear if they really intend on making a change. Are they just conducting a little gamesmanship?
The Cougs will likely make their decision based on what they want out of the position. If Rogers places the kind of importance on reading coverage he seemed to indicate earlier in the week, maybe he’ll go with Eckhaus, who played three seasons of FCS ball as well as last year’s Holiday Bowl. If he thinks UW’s defense could be vulnerable against a mobile quarterback, perhaps he’ll go with Dugger.
But it’s also possible coaches stick with Potter, who looked sharp in his first two outings. Not until he started on the road for the first time in his career did he look wobbly. Could coaches roll him back out at Gesa Field, where he looked far more comfortable to open the season?
In an unsurprising development, Rogers declined to say who will take the field on Saturday.
“Is it ideal? It’s not. I’m living in an un-ideal situation,” said Rogers, whose team could also get wide receiver Devin Ellison back from injury to make his season debut. “But the reality is, I gotta continue to improve what we can improve, and that’s offensively. We gotta get better, and we gotta have production. I wish the situation was different, but it’s not. Right now, my job is to be honest, give honest dialog, give honest opportunity.”
No matter who starts under center, they’ll be taking on a UW defense that looks a little vulnerable, at least more so than its offense, which ranks among the nation’s best. The Huskies permitted 21 points in a season-opening win over Colorado State. They rebounded a week later with a sterling showing to beat FCS UC Davis.
Can the Cougars establish a credible rushing attack against that unit? That much may play an outsize role in Saturday’s outcome. WSU has generated just 206 rushing yards, sixth fewest nationwide, which has rendered its offense nearly one dimensional, forcing Potter to make deep coverage reads that he might not need to if his team’s running game commanded more respect from defenses.
That falls on WSU’s running backs, Kirby Vorhees and Angel Johnson, but it also falls on the team’s offensive line. On one occasion last weekend, left guard Johnny Lester missed a block that led to a loss of yards. On another, backup tight end Luke Leighton did the same, digging holes on offense that the Cougs could ill afford.
If the Cougars can turn all those problems around, they might have a chance at scaling the mountain, at defanging a Washington team that has looked ironclad through two games. Quarterback Demond Williams pilots the Huskies’ offense, one of the nation’s most potent. The WSU quarterback who takes down this UW team might live forever in program lore. Good luck determining who that will be before kickoff.