Gameday Guide: Apple Cup

Everything To Know

• Cougs prepare to assert in-state dominance over th …

• Critical Info

• Gamblin’

• Injury Impact

  • Washington

  • WSU

• Key matchups

• What I’ll be watching for

• What you can watch for: Gameday Bingo!

• Other games of interest

Cougs prepare to assert in-state dominance over the Huskies

Apple Cup 2024: The game that very few of us wanted that most of us will still watch anyway, only this time, with way more emotion than before!

It’s being played at a “neutral” site that very likely will be only about 60% full. It’s being broadcast on a service that lots and lots of people do not currently subscribe to, which means lots of folks are going to realize that they aren’t able to watch the game … right about the time they get ready to tune in and watch.

Hooray for college football in 2024!

That said, it’s still the Apple Cup, and it’s still a chance to pull one over on the treasonous Huskies — and, of course, stake our claim as a serious force to be reckoned with this season.

Twelve months ago, it would have been hard to fathom the Cougs being on relatively even footing with the Huskies. And, maybe they still aren’t. But WSU has certainly been the more impressive of the two teams through the first two weeks of the season. While the Cougs annihilated FCS Portland State and beat up Big 12 Texas Tech, Washington struggled to find its footing offensively against both FCS Weber State and MAC foe Eastern Michigan. Both games were pretty … meh.

The pollsters and gamblers, though, aren’t exactly buying that WSU has closed the gap with Washington, despite their relative struggles. The Huskies are ranked by the coaches and receiving votes in the AP, while WSU continues to be completely ignored; the Cougs didn’t even receive a single vote in either poll. And Vegas seems to have coalesced around the Huskies as a 5.5-point favorite. That’s significantly less than the 8.5 it opened at, but it dipped under 5 and has since been bet back up. The money is behind the Huskies.

I’m weirdly confident about our chances. Maybe that’s foolhardy. But this team feels like it’s got something special going, and Washington looks very vulnerable. Additionally, there are going to be a bunch of dudes in Crimson who were thisclose to knocking Washington out of the playoffs last year and have to feel like they were robbed to some degree by that fourth down play where the Huskies were aided by blatant holding.

That team was a two-TD underdog and they took Washington to the wire. They know the Huskies aren’t all that. And they’re going to be out for blood.

Will the new crop of Huskies — with their car salesman coach and plethora of transfers facing a daunting Big Ten schedule — treat this with the same intensity the Cougars are sure to?

Critical Info

• Kickoff time: 12:30 p.m.

• Location: Lumen Field — Seattle, Washington

• How to watch: Peacock (subscription required!)

Gamblin’

as of Friday evening, via vegasinsider.com

• Spread: Washington -5.5

• Moneyline odds: WSU +175, UW -210

• Over/Under: 54.5

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