Happy Tuesday Coug Fans!
Can you believe Apple Cup week is already upon us?
I am having a hard time staying focused knowing that in a few short days I will be heading east to catch not only the first Apple Cup of significance in a few years, but will also get a chance to check out our basketball team taking on one of the elite teams in the country!
Today I wanted to share with you my favorite Apple Cup in recent memory.
Read on for more.
2005 was one of the more trying seasons in recent WSU history. We opened the season with blowout wins over Idaho, Nevada-Reno, and Grambling State. Then the conference slate began. We lost tons of nailbiters, including a loss to UCLA in overtime on Homecoming behind an unbelievable performance from Maurice Jones-Drew. We played like total garbage and coughed one up against an awful Stanford squad. We lost a shootout to Oregon behind some freak hail mary’s to Jordan Kent. Against Arizona State on Dad’s Weekend we took the go-ahead points off the board late in the game, went for it on 4th and goal, and lost. I traveled to Berkeley and watched us lose another heartbreaker, after battling back in the 3rd Quarter behind the strength of Jason Hill and Alex Brink. I went down to Corvallis and watched us blow a monster lead to the Beavs, when Will Derting and Jason Hill went down with injuries. I believe we didn’t play Arizona that year, and we were smashed in LA by the Trojans.
So as you can see, I had been to every game that season except at Nevada and USC and I was feeling an unbelievable sense of dread going into our first match-up against Ty Willingham and the Huskies. Granted we had won our first Apple Cup in ages the year before in Pullman, but bad memories of the 2003 Apple Cup loss in Seattle raced through my head the entire week.
First off we won the WSU/UW fundraising contest and the Space Needle donned our colors that week. Then the tailgate started off great, and we were doing our best to piss off Husky Nation, no pun intended.
Yep, taking a leak on the Dawgs.
The game went back and forth and with a few minutes left the Huskies looked to have us stopped, ahead 22-19, until our punt team took the field. They muffed the punt, and this happened.
My good pal Brian came up with the muffed punt and LucasCoug got a little excited. We were down cheering in the east end zone, jumping up and down and I accidentally knocked over this collapsable fence.
I thought for sure the Seattle Police Officer who was standing on the field was going to kick me out and I would miss the final plays of the game. Turns out the cop was a Wazzu alum, so he just winked at me and said “Go Cougs!” and had the fence put back up.
The next drive Alex Brink lobbed a bubble screen to his left and this went down.
That’s my old roomate their in the black beanie, Brando, whom I occasionally mention in posts. He was on the equipment staff.
From there, the Cougs Defense held Stanback & Co. to a turnover on downs, and Husky Stadium turned into a mob scene!
My friends Ben and Brandon even wound up on the goalposts! Needless to say, singing the Fight Song on The Ave at Earl’s with a bar totally devoid of Husky fans will always be engrained in my memory!
What was your favorite Apple Cup?
Go Cougs!
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