Apple Cup 2013 - WSU Cougars vs UW Huskies

The time has come once again. The leaves have fallen, there's a cool frost in the air, and the smell of turkey and pies fill the air, it can only mean one thing when you live in the great Pacific Northwest. Its time for the Apple Cup!

The Apple Cup for those of you who don't know, is the biggest in-state rivalry game in Washington, where the Washington State Cougars take on the Washington Huskies. This game has been played since 1900 and this will be the 106th meeting between the two schools. This is also the first time since 2002 that the (7-4)Huskies and (6-5)Cougars both have winning records and both are pretty safe bets to be bowl-bound.

Last year the Apple Cup was in Pullman, WA and boy was that a wild show. The game started pretty good for the Cougars, going into halftime with a 10-3 lead. Then the Huskies went for the kill putting up 21 unanswered points in the 3rd to give them the lead 28-10 going into the 4th quarter. That's when things seemed to fall apart for the Huskies, who allowed the Cougars to put up 18 unanswered points of their own including a successful 2-point conversion to tie the game up 28-28 and sent the game to overtime after a missed field goal attempt by the Huskies at the end of regulation. In overtime Husky QB Keith Price threw an INT on his first pass attempt that helped set up a game winning field goal for the Cougars for the win, final score 31-28.




DEAN RUTZ / The Seattle Times

 

The Huskies are coming into this game after one of their biggest wins in the history of the university against a conference opponent (Pac-12), when they put up 69 points and 692 yards against the Oregon State Beavers (Also the most the Huskies have scored in a game since 1944 against Whitman, final score 71-0). The Freshman QB did not halt the offense one bit, albeit he only threw for 162 of UW's total 692 yards and one TD. The real star of the show and the season for the Huskies is junior RB Bishop Sankey out of Spokane, WA, rushing for 179 yards on 23 carries and three TD's. Sankey is ranked 4th in rushing yards with 1,575 and tied for 6th in TD's with 18 (17 rush, 1 rec). He is now tied with Nip Kaufman (Former UW RB 1991-'94) with 34 rushing TD's and will still have two more games to try and capture the title since they became bowl eligible with their win over Colorado on Nov. 9th. After the blowout win over the Oregon State the Huskies were already looking ahead to the Apple Cup, and getting revenge for their gut wrenching loss last year. The Huskies may be starting freshman QB Cyler Miles for the second straight game since their starting QB Keith Price may not be fully ready to go after suffering a shoulder injury against UCLA the week prior.

DEAN HARE — AP Photo

The Cougars are fresh off a win over Utah in which they became bowl eligible for the first time since 2006, but have not played in a bowl game since their last winning season in 2003 (Holiday Bowl - Win over Texas 28-20). QB Connor Halliday is 3rd in the nation in passing yards with 3,905 and has 26 TD's with 19 INT's. The Cougs love to throw the ball averaging 372 passing yards per game, 5th in the nation and ranked 123rd in rushing, averaging only 60 yards per game. The win over (4-7,1-7 Pac-12)Utah showcased the passing attack even more with sophomore WR Dom Williams catching 5 receptions for 154 yards and 2 TD's. They were able to rack up 578 yards with 488 coming thru the air in that game. Halliday threw the ball in the endzone 4 times in that game with no turnovers while on the other side of the ball Utah QB Adam Schulz threw two pick-6's which helped the Cougs come out with he win 49-37.

This Friday after your done with Black Friday shopping, or up from the great rest you got from last nights food fest be sure to check out the Apple Cup 12:30 PST on Fox. I will be in attendance and enjoying every second of it. This game will be a good one and the points should rack up quick with both teams averaging over 30 points per game. A big question in this one will be whether Keith Price will be starting at QB or if Cyler Miles will get his 2nd start of his collegiate career. I believe the Huskies are going to run away with this one and when I say run away with it I mean it I mean it. The Huskies have a much better defense than Utah and LB Shaq Thompson, who returned a INT for an 80 yard TD, will be a major x-factor in this game and if he can keep up his good play and the running game continues to thrive like last week (3 RB's rushing over 100 yards) then they will come out with a victory and have revenge from last year's embarrassing finish.

Joe Nicholson - USA Today Sports

Prediction:
UW over WSU 41-27

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