Wazzu’s Apple Cup win a contrast of cultures

Two players with over $1.2 million in collective name, image and likeness earnings met two players with 10 combined seasons on the Palouse. As history will tell, the Palouse tenure won the day.

Facing fourth-and-goal on the 1-yard line, Washington quarterback Will Rogers took a shotgun snap and ran to his right. Washington State senior edge Andrew Edson bull rushed Rogers, prompting him to lateral to running back Jonah Coleman up the right sideline. Senior linebacker Kyle Thornton wrapped his arms, strengthened by six years on the Palouse, around Coleman to force him out of bounds and seal WSU’s 24-19 Apple Cup win Saturday in Seattle.

Thornton said WSU’s coaches had planned for him to be the one to make the play on Coleman with the game on the line. The pressure weighed on his mind, but he was prepared.

“My eyes were on him the entire time, because he was my man,” Thornton said. “And it was just like, all right, it’s ‘Me versus you.’ And as soon as the ball gets snapped, he darts off to the sideline. And immediately I’m like, ‘Okay, this is interesting,’ because we were anticipating something up the middle, and Eddie (Andrew Edson) and Ansel (Din-Mbuh) do a great job of widening it all the way out to the sideline.

“I approach with a straight, clear shot all the way to him. I finally see him deal it, and it’s just like, ‘All right, let’s get him down. Get him out. Get him down.’ And next thing I know, the crowd erupts. And I’m like, ‘Oh my god, we just did it.’”

The first person Thornton hugged after making the play? His strength coach Ben Iannacchione, who helped mold the very arms that made WSU history.

Rogers and Coleman were playing just their third game in the purple and gold after accomplished careers at Mississippi State and Arizona, respectively. They are earning hundreds of thousands through NIL deals this season, according to On3Sports.

Edson, a Mt. Si High School alumni, became a Coug in 2021. Thornton, WSU’s sixth-year senior linebacker, walked on to the late Mike Leach’s WSU team in 2019.

Money isn’t everything.

Husky fans may say that UW lost this game more than WSU won it.

They’ll point to UW’s 16 penalties, costing the Dawgs 135 total yards.

They’ll crucify first-year Husky coach Jedd Fisch for a puzzling speed-option call on fourth-and-goal, which Fisch said was his “got-to-have-it” play.

Both are valid criticisms of the Huskies’ performance, but it is not like WSU was mistake-free either.

WSU quarterback John Mateer threw an interception with 8:14 left on the clock and nearly threw another on the next drive before it was ruled an incomplete pass upon review.

WSU’s offense could not ice the game on its own terms and failed to score in the game’s final 20:06 after it took a 24-16 lead. The Huskies put one through the uprights to make it a five-point game, but the Cougar defense shut down the Dawgs in the red zone.

The Cougs also left points off the board that could have made the end of the game a whole lot less stressful.

Kicker Dean Janikowski has missed two-thirds of his last nine field goals dating back to last year. He missed another one Saturday.

Mateer had the best opening drive of the season, but freshman running back Wayshawn Parker was stuffed on a fourth-and-2 run. Seven, or at least three, points from that drive would have been nice to have for the Cougs.

But that’s the thing: You could say “What if” about everything under the sun. You could play “Monday (or Tuesday morning in this case) quarterback” until the cows go home. None of that changes the fact that the Apple Cup went home with the Cougs right back to “cow country.”

UW and WSU’s in-state rivalry is often bitter. The big city on the west side of the state vs. a country town eight miles away from Idaho. A globally competitive public university vs. a state school. Big budget and first-class faculties vs. small-budget, few resources.

Washington, in general, has had more money, more influence and higher-ranked recruits than Wazzu.

Which makes the 34 times the Cougars have won the Apple Cup, especially as college football has grown increasingly exclusive, all the more impressive.

After a century of treating WSU like its little brother (and having the head-to-head record to prove it), UW joined the Big Ten, putting WSU’s Power Five status on life support.

To UW’s credit, Fisch has done a remarkable job of rebuilding the Huskies’ roster after they lost 21 of their 22 national championship starters and their head coach to Alabama.

When Kalen DeBoer left, the Huskies lost any opportunity to celebrate a season that ended in the national championship game, and immediately went into rebuild mode. Fisch recruited a slew of talented guys and hired the sons of former NFL coaches Brennan Carroll (son of Pete Carroll) and Steve Belichick (son of Bill Belechick) as his offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively.

UW had the money to get that done in such little time. It’s impressive, but in the modern landscape of college football, it’s what it needed to do to survive its first year in the Big Ten.

WSU coach Jake Dickert has leaned into the Cougs’ underdog mentality. He has referenced the Cougs playing “Moneyball” — a term coined by author Michael Lewis as the title of his book about how the Oakland Athletics put together one of baseball’s best teams in the early 2000s with one of the smallest budgets by prioritizing certain strengths like on-base percentage, even when other teams overlooked guys.

Dickert and the Cougs have done something very similar. They have found guys who are overlooked by the bigger schools, but still possess all the talent, traits and competitiveness that can win football games.

Just look at their record.

“We’re 3-0 versus the Big Ten,” Dickert said after the Apple Cup.

The two crowning-achievement wins of Dickert’s first two seasons came versus Wisconsin. That’s special for any coach, but especially for Dickert who grew up in Wisconsin.

This Big Ten win feels a little different for Dickert.

“This was a lot to get here, and we’ve been through a lot to win that football game,” Dickert said. “And those moments are possible here at Washington State, right? That’s what I want everybody to understand. Like it just takes more and more investment.”

Investment in people like QB John Mateer.

Third-year Coug Mateer added yet another chapter to his already legendary Cougar career with a 245-yard passing performance and two-rushing touchdowns of over 20 yards. Mateer was far from perfect — the Cougs were shut out for the final 20 minutes — but he made a slew of remarkable plays and etched his name into WSU lore by joining the exclusive club of fewer than 30 Cougar QBs to win the Apple Cup.

Mateer’s spark was fourth-year wide receiver Josh Meredith, who racked up nearly 50 yards on the Cougars’ opening drive. The San Diego native finished with 111 yards on seven catches and a diving touchdown, which he caught at the 9-yard line before making a couple Dawgs miss on his run and dive into the end zone.

“I got to give a lot of respect and love towards (former WSU wideout) Lincoln Victor,” Meredith said. “He’s my mentor. He’s always told me, ‘Your time’s gonna come, your time’s gonna come.’ And like today, the switch switched. So it was my turn. Ball came to me, made the plays when I needed to.”

Mateer and Meredith have known each other for years and in the Seattle sunshine, their connection shined bright.

If Mateer and Meredith don’t have that multi-year connection or if Meredith doesn’t learn behind Lincoln Victor for the past three years, perhaps their go-ahead touchdown doesn’t happen.

“Me and Josh (Meredith have) been working together since I got here,” Mateer said. “I don’t know why today was the day, but that’s how it is for a lot of these guys. … He’s a good ball player.”

One of Dickert’s mantras this year is “Always us, never them.”

In the biggest, brightest moment, with UW representing the forces trying to throw WSU to the wayside, the Cougs didn’t worry about all that.

“Some people don’t think we belong, but we’re not worried about that,” Mateer said. “We’re worried about playing ball, 11-on-11 who we get on the field.”

Given everything UW has done to WSU from leaving the conference, to hiring their athletic director in March, to rejecting Wazzu as its true rival, Saturday’s Apple Cup win was sweet for the Cougs and all who care about them.

Sweeter than a Cosmic Crisp.