The game that begs for a reason: Commentary

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Nov 30, 20170

This one mattered.

WSU has been blown out the past three years in the Apple Cup, but in two of them they were not expected to win.

Last year, U.W. was No. 4 in the country, the year before Falk was not there and neither was Hylinski. While a closer look showed WSU was embarrassed in all aspects of both the 2015 and 2016 games, it was largely filed away as understandable.

Until now. The 2017 blowout allows for no alibis, no attempts at an alibi, and brings into question previous ones.

WSU this year had the same record as the Huskies, was in the driver's seat to win the conference and already beat the two other best teams, USC and Stanford.

Leach's Cougars have beaten or competed with every team in the (down) conference the past three years, except for U.W. – against which they can't even get off the bus without faltering.

There has to be a reason why. An actual reason, not a vague statement about defensive schemes or “trying to do too much.”

It's time to call the WSU Department of Psychology.

Of all rivalries, why would it be far-fetched that psychology would play a major role in this one?

It's in the locations, Seattle vs. Pullman. The Emerald City vs. farm towns of the Palouse.

What is the intimidation factor in Columbus, Ohio vs. Ann Arbor, Mich.? Not much. What about Tuscaloosa, Ala. and Auburn, Ala.? Barely any. Gainesville, Fla. and Tallahassee? Anything to speak of? What about Eugene, Ore. and Corvallis? No real difference.

But U.W. and WSU are something else. The Apple Cup is the Dawgfather (Don James) coaching from a raised stand on the shores of Lake Washington against Jim Walden and his one-Willie Nelson song-commute to Martin Stadium.

This difference is so stark, it must affect players who come here from thousands of miles away.

They must feel it through other students, professors, the townspeople, the alumni.

Husky players have said as much in postgame interviews the past two years.

“I saw reticence in their eyes,” said one U.W. player of last year's over-in-the-first-quarter game.

“I think it was fear,” said another of the dropped balls by WSU receivers last weekend, referring to the swarming, eight-deep Husky secondary.

This is what makes this rivalry so great. But it's time for WSU to acknowledge it, at least behind the closed doors of Johnson Tower (psychology department).

Otherwise, it's another offseason of, 'oh-we-got-blown-out-of-the-Apple Cup-for-no-reason.'

Without question this was the biggest game of Leach's tenure in Pullman. WSU just had to beat a good, but struggling Husky team to advance to meet USC, whom they already beat, for the conference championship. In a normal year, that would mean the destination of all destinations, the Rose Bowl. This year, the Rose Bowl is part of the playoff, so that's not there. Regardless, WSU got run from the opening bell of the Apple Cup and now the Pac-12 championship game will feature two teams the Cougars beat.

So WSU slinks back to the practice fields in Pullman to get ready for something called the Foster Farms Bowl, most likely, which will surely draw meager ticket sales, because fans are not really interested in that.

They are interested in a real bowl, or no bowl, with their team acquitting themselves against U.W.

Not in a random way like 2012, but in the era we're in now that U.W. is back to their place of being a top program in the glimmering city and hometown WSU is winning a lot of games. The time is ripe for this culture-divide rivalry to be contested again.

So while the late Elson Floyd, Bill Moos and new WSU president Kirk Schulz could not bring themselves to a stipulate in Mike Leach's contract for him to pretend he respects the halftime interviewer when he's on national television, or run the ball at least 15 times per game, perhaps Schulz can add this: he must enlist Johnson Tower in all things Apple Cup.

After all, $160 million spent on the stadium, the 84,000 square-foot football operations building and closet-full of uniform color combinations from Nike have not solved it.