Instant reaction to developments on and off the pitch…
1. WSU’s Big Wins
If there has been a better 60 hours in Washington state sports history, we don’t know.
Thursday morning: Pac-12 expansion secures home for Cougars after 13 months of drifting in realignment play.
Saturday afternoon: One of the greatest Apple Cups ever, in which the Cougars outplayed Washington, outplayed Washington as a coach, outplayed Washington as a quarterback, and celebrated a 24-19 victory at Lumen Field.
In fact, let’s expand the period to eight and include WSU’s loss to Texas Tech on Sept. 7 in what, at the time, seemed like an audition.
It seems like months ago, but just last weekend, Washington State and Oregon State formed a two-team conference with an uncertain future.
Every matchup with an opponent from a powerful conference — Texas Tech of the Big 12 and Washington of the Big Ten — seemed like a chance for the Cougars to prove they belonged.
But Thursday morning, security was in full swing, in the form of a raid on four Mountain West schools. With the Pac-12 poised to hold its own, the pressure on WSU (and Oregon State) to impress seemed to have dissipated.
Then came a narrow victory over their rival — over the school that played a leading role in the Pac-12’s collapse on Aug. 4, 2023. The Cougars were tougher, more physical, more creative and more resilient.
“It’s a hell of a win,” coach Jake Dickert said. “I’m really proud of the Cougs all over the world. Coming to this neutral field, it’s just awesome.”
Would they trade an Apple Cup win for a Power Four berth? Sure. They’d trade 10 Apple Cup wins for a Power Four berth. But in the real world, the Cougars have had to make the best of a brutal situation.
After a multitude of twists and turns over 13 months, they produced a memorable week.
As a result, the Cougars are 2-0 against Power Four opponents, 3-0 overall and are halfway to bowl eligibility with nine games remaining.
They wanted to be relevant this season above all else. So far, so good.
2. Rotten Apple
The Cougars didn’t win the Apple Cup on their own. They had help from Washington, which looked exactly like a team with a new coach, a revamped starting lineup and a one-way ticket to the middle of the Big Ten standings.
The Huskies committed 16 penalties and had two offsides penalties that allowed WSU to run the clock down in the final minute.
But before that undisciplined debacle, Washington had a chance to take the lead with a first-and-goal from the 9-yard line with two minutes left. That eventually turned into a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line.
In the biggest play of the season so far, they used a lemon: a slow-developing quarterback option on the short side of the field in which Will Rogers threw to halfback Jonah Coleman too close to the sideline for Coleman to make any positive yardage.
Give at least one of your key playmakers, Coleman and receiver Giles Jackson, a fair chance to win the game.
“It’s my fault. I made a bad decision,” coach Jedd Fisch told reporters after the game. “We didn’t execute our decision. We lost the game, so I take that as a fault.”
It was shaping up to be a tall order for the Huskies, given their newly revamped roster and WSU’s huge motivational advantage.
This also proved to be a difficult task. season for the Huskies, given the roster situation and competition in the Big Ten.
That said, Saturday’s performance fell short of an acceptable standard.
3. It’s more like that
Four hours later, on Interstate 5, Oregon announced its arrival on the scene.
After two surprisingly poor performances against Idaho and Boise State, the Ducks looked like the team we expected to see all along – a team that was expected to contend for the Big Ten title and the national championship.
They were unstoppable on offense, unwavering on defense and decimated Oregon State 49-14 in a rivalry game that meant as much to the Beavers as the Apple Cup meant to the Cougars.
Quarterback Dillon Gabriel looked comfortable for the first time, the offensive line was in sync and Oregon averaged 9.3 yards per play.
The Beavers have struggled to generate offense, which could quickly become a trend as opponents get a better idea of quarterback Gevani McCoy’s tendencies.
In other words: We’re not sure OSU has enough playmakers to reach the six-win mark that guarantees a bowl berth — even against a schedule loaded with Mountain West teams.
4. The next generation
The Hotline plans to track the success (or failure) of the four schools expected to join the Pac-12 in the summer of 2026 — and some of the contenders to fill the seventh and eighth spots.
We won’t cover them all here, but a few are worth highlighting:
— UNLV is making a strong case to be a member of the team in its second year under coach Barry Odom. The Rebels won nine games last year and are 3-0 this season after an impressive win at Kansas. (They also beat Houston, which nearly beat Oklahoma.)
— Memphis, another possible Pac-12 addition — though the Tigers are much less likely than UNLV to accept a bid — improved to 3-0 after a win at Florida State.
— Of the four schools that accepted membership invitations this week, one was inactive (Boise State), one was winning (Fresno State) and two lost (Colorado State and San Diego State).
5. Temperature control in the desert
One of the Arizona schools is undefeated, and it’s the one that was picked to finish last in the Big 12.
Arizona State’s narrow escape against Texas State on Thursday night continued an impressive early-season performance for second-year coach Kenny Dillingham.
The Sun Devils are 3-0 for the first time since 2019 thanks to running back Cameron Scattebo and an opportunistic defense.
Meanwhile, Arizona, which was picked fifth in the Big 12, lost its first game since midway through last season — and it was a particularly bad loss, in our opinion.
Yes, Friday night road games are tough, but logistics don’t entirely explain the 31-7 loss at Kansas State.
In fact, they didn’t get very far.
Arizona was outscored 17-0 in the second half, dominated at the line of scrimmage throughout the game and didn’t look like it belonged on the same field as one of the Big 12 favorites.
The Sun Devils and Wildcats haven’t completely swapped roles — the sample size is far too small to draw conclusions — but the gap between the teams certainly looks significantly smaller than we’d expect.
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