Caple: This Apple Cup will be weird, but don’t give up on it yet

This year’s Apple Cup is about to be the weirdest ever.

This is true for many reasons: the schools are in different conferences; the game is being played in September; the game is being played at Lumen Field (and likely with many empty seats); the television broadcast is airing exclusively on Peacock; Washington State’s old athletic director wears purple button-ups to football games now.

Brock Huard: ‘Don’t call it the Apple Cup’

It might not be the worst Apple Cup ever, as both teams already have won two games this season. But at least in 2008, students could walk to the game from their dorms, the temperature at kickoff was 41 degrees and the sun set at 4:08 p.m., the way the college football gods intended.

Strange as this new reality might be, I’m glad the schools are still playing one another, and remain hopeful that when the game returns to campuses next year — it goes Pullman (2025), Seattle (2026), Pullman (2027), Seattle (2028), and after that, we’ll see — it won’t feel so … meh, as Saturday’s matchup threatens to.

I say that partially due to this being a non-conference game, and partially due to lagging ticket sales. A firm number has been difficult to pin down, considering the schools aren’t solely in charge here; both were given a presale allotment, though Lumen Field/First & Goal is selling to the general public. Word from UW is an estimated attendance somewhere in the low-to-mid 50,000s — Lumen’s capacity is 68,740 — but even that is part guesswork. Cougfan.com reported a smaller number last week. We’ll see what walk-ups look like.

Like nearly every great college rivalry, this game belongs on campus, but compromise landed it at a neutral site this year. Apple Cups in even-numbered years are supposed to be played in Pullman, but Washington’s decision to join the Big Ten meant a new conference schedule, and the Huskies happened to be assigned four home games and five away games in their inaugural season.

That meant UW couldn’t play the Apple Cup in Pullman this year without sacrificing a seventh home game, and there was no way WSU, left behind by the Huskies’ break from the Pac-12, was about to play a second consecutive Apple Cup at Husky Stadium. So they agreed — with soon-to-be Washington athletic director Pat Chun still working at WSU, as it was — to meet at Lumen this one time and split ticket revenue down the middle, hoping for something like $4 million per school, while preserving the rivalry for at least another five years. They priced tickets — not part of either school’s season packages — in the same neighborhood as last year’s meeting at UW. Fan response wasn’t super favorable.

This isn’t to suggest the game should lack intrigue. Both teams are unbeaten and should feel relatively encouraged by the way they performed in the first two weeks, though this is by far the toughest game yet for either school. If the Huskies win, it will be further evidence that coach Jedd Fisch’s rebuild is progressing on schedule, and they’ll need only three Big Ten victories to clinch a bowl trip in this transition year. If the Cougars win, they should believe they can win every game left on their schedule (or, at least, there should be no reason to believe they can’t).

That, and it would rank as perhaps WSU’s most delicious Apple Cup victory ever, considering, well, circumstances.

You might never quite get used to this game being played closer to Labor Day than Thanksgiving, but maybe next year’s return to campuses will reengage the tradition-minded enough to be glad it still exists. And who knows where further realignment might find these schools down the road?

That’s why I think the five-year renewal can be a good thing, and hope the series remains festive enough to be worth extending beyond 2028, when the time comes.

I also hope Saturday’s game — a 12:30 p.m. kickoff, at least — is the last ever played between these schools at Lumen Field.

And that your Peacock stream glitches only during commercials.

• Hey, speaking of intrigue, when was the last time that a pre-Apple Cup narrative concerned the rushing production of WSU’s starting quarterback? John Mateer, a third-year sophomore, netted 197 yards on 21 attempts in last week’s 37-16 victory over Texas Tech, including a 68-yard run (press play on the video below to watch), one week after he snapped off a 40-yarder in a 70-30 blowout of Portland State. He set a single-game WSU record for rushing yards by a quarterback, and his output marked just the eighth time that a WSU quarterback has rushed for 100 yards in a game; the last was Timm Rosenbach in 1987.

The 6-foot-1, 219-pound quarterback hails from Little Elm, Texas, a town of about 55,000 in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Mateer beat out transfer Zevi Eckhaus for the starting job after featuring as a part-timer behind Cam Ward the past two seasons. The No. 119-ranked quarterback in the 2022 recruiting class, Mateer twice set the single-season passing record at Little Elm High, but received only one other FBS offer, from New Mexico State, before committing to former WSU offensive coordinator Eric Morris.

Mateer completed 11 of 17 passes for 352 yards and five touchdowns against Portland State, but managed only 9 of 19 for 115 yards with a touchdown and an interception against TTU. For what it’s worth, Pro Football Focus had the Cougars with three dropped passes in that game.

Ward gave the Huskies trouble with his mobility, but wasn’t really used as a pure runner. Mateer gained 150 yards against Texas Tech on designed runs, per PFF, and also scrambled six times for 62 yards (he was sacked once for a loss of 15, which accounts for the difference).

Fisch said he watched most of the WSU-TTU game at home on Saturday night. He certainly noticed Mateer.

“You just saw this guy making play after play,” Fisch said.

Mateer’s rushing ability is complemented by that of true freshman tailback Wayshawn Parker, who has carried 19 times for 165 yards and two touchdowns.

As far as game-planning against a dual-threat QB, Fisch said: “In this case, what are you going to limit him to do? Are you going to force him to become just a thrower? Are you going to allow him to throw, but not run? Are you going to have him run, but not throw? The dual threat is a real deal. It makes it challenging. It makes it hard.”

UW’s defense ranks fourth nationally in yards per pass attempt allowed (albeit against suspect competition). Think that might inform their approach against Mateer?

• Even if this year’s Bizarro Apple Cup doesn’t captivate like it used to, the Huskies still see the trophy every day when they sit in their team meeting room. That, linebacker Carson Bruener told reporters on Tuesday, is motivation enough, even for so many new players and transfers who might not be familiar with the rivalry.

“It’s something that I look at every single day,” Bruener said. “It means a lot to me. I’ve grown up a Husky fan. I’ve been at almost every single Apple Cup I could’ve attended. … It means a lot to me, and I kind of just tell everyone about that, and just say, ‘hey, look in the case, and we’ve got to make sure that trophy stays there.’”

The Apple Cup

UW Huskies (2-0) vs. WSU Cougars (2-0)

• 12:30 p.m. Saturday
• Lumen Field (Seattle)
• WSU Radio Network Broadcast: Seattle Sports app, 710 AM, 770 AM (pregame at 10:30 a.m.)
• TV (streaming): Peacock

This article was originally published at OnMontlake.com, the home for Christian Caple’s full UW Huskies football coverage. Subscribe to On Montlake for full access to in-depth UW coverage.

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