U-Dub Names New Coach

Early this week, the Washington Huskies named Kellen DeBoer as it's new football coach.  DeBoer had been coach at Fresno State for two seasons.

Second year head coach Jimmy Lake was fired during the season, one that the Huskies would love to forget. 

Cougar Men's Basketball Team Beats Huskies

CJ Elleby scored 34 points to lead the Washington State Cougars to a 79-67 win over cross state rival Washington.  The victory ended a 4 game skid in games with the Dawgs. It was especially satisfying after the Cougar football team was beaten by the Huskies in last fall's Apple Cup. 

Legendary Cougar Basketball Coach George Raveling, who coached when I went to school there was honored at the game.  Raveling was the first African American coach in the conference. 

With this win, the Cougs are now 14-10 on the season and 5-6 in Pac 12 play. 

Huskies Blow Out Cougs In Apple Cup

WSU and Washington came into the Apple Cup with identical records (9 wins, 2 losses), but before the game, it looked like 2 different seasons,  a season of disappointment for the Washington Huskies with wins against teams like Fresno State and Montana, much smaller schools, while the WSU Cougs could celebrate wins against Stanford, USC, and Utah, putting a Pac 12 championship into their sites. 
No one saw this coming, all Cougar hopes were crushed in a 41-14 Washington victory. The game was not even as close as the score would indicate as both the Cougar offense and defense looked absolutely impotent.  Luke Falk, thought by some as a Heisman Trophy candidate threw 3 interceptions and lost one fumble.  He was sacked 5 times.
Seattle Times columnist Matt Calkins wrote a particularly cruel column saying the Apple Cup is not even a rivalry.  Indeed the numbers bear that out as the Huskies have won 72 times compared to WSU's 32.  It's safe to say that is an insurmountable lead even bigger that so called Civil War were this year Oregon blew out Oregon State 69-10.  However, the Cougs do have some memorable wins, minimizing the overwhelming numbers in our minds.

GO COUGS!

The Washington Huskies stand in the way of the Cougs chances of winning a PAC 12 championship.

Mike Hopkins Named Husky Hoops Coach

It has been announced that Mike Hopkins, an assistant coach for Syracuse, has been named head coach of the Washington Huskies Men's Basketball team. He had been thought to be the successor of Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim upon his retirement.  Hopkins has worked under Boeheim since  1996.  It will be interesting to see how Husky fans react to this news. It seems like he has no ties to the Northwest and some may question his sense of loyalty.

KJR Kosher For Cougs Again

Not so very long ago, listening to Sports Radio 950 was a passion you could share with all of your sports buddies.  Water cooler discussion were based on what outrageous thing Mitch or Softy may have said during a particular broadcast day. 
In 2002, KJR won the rights to broadcast Washington HuskyFootball and Basketball, as a consequence, the station became something of an unabashed booster of the Husky programs.  While I continued to listen, many WSU Cougs abandoned the station.
Yesterday, it was announced the U-W sports were returning to KOMO1000.  Does that mean Cougs will come back?  Time will tell.

Go Cougs!

The Washington State Cougars take on the Washington Huskies tonight in the 2013 Apple Cup.

Legendary Coach Don James Dies

Don James, the University Of Washington's winningest football coach has died.  His record while coaching the Huskies was 153-58-2.  His marquee season was in 1991 when his Dawgs was 12 and 0 and shared the national championship with his alma matter Miami.  James coached at the U-Dub from 1975-1992 and guided the team to 6 Rose Bowls. 
He will be deeply missed. 

WSU Flag Controversy Sparks Cougar Huskie Rivalry

Every Saturday during ESPN's Gameday, the WSU Cougar flag waves in the background as college football talking heads analyze the day's slate of games.  Every week during the college season, the show takes place from a designated college campus where the most important game of the week in ESPN's eyes will take place.
This week the University Of Washington will be chosen.  The rivalry between the Huskies and Oregon Ducks is vicious, however heartbreaking for the Dawgs.  The Ducks have won the last nine years.  But it's more than the Ducks that are angering the Dawgs.  Dawg fans are angry about the Coug flag flying in the background of the Gameday and a wacky radio host on KJR has even encouraged fans to destroy the flag.  WSU and University Of Washington are the state's traditional rivals.  Now Cougs, who have their own game against the Oregon State Beavers are lashing out.
So the end result is even though both Washington schools are playing Oregon's finest, the trash talk is now turned toward each other!

Cougs Win Apple Cup

WSU quarterback Jeff Tuell passed for 350 yards as the Cougars overcame an 18 point deficit to stun the bowl bound Washington Huskies 31-28.  The Cougars, in the midst of a nightmare season seemed to be on the way to a 9th straight loss, when they scored 18 straight points to send the game into overtime.  Andrew Furney hit a 27 yard field goal to end the game.
Because of the tradition of the Apple Cup pitting the state's two largest universities, the Cougars end the season on a somewhat happy note in spite of a 3-9 record.  This season, the first under coach Mike Leach, who turned into a polarizing figure with some of his methods of handling players.

Rotten Apple Cup Results In Husky Win

Apple Cup 2009 will go down as a match where a win starved Washington Husky team trounced the even more inept Washington State Cougars 30-0. While the Cougar defense played with heart in the first half, holding the Huskies to 10 points, the offense could not rise to the challenge, playing 3 quarterbacks, two with injuries and never getting inside the Husky 33 yard line. Suddenly, Washington's record looks better at 4 and 7, while the WSU Cougars are in need of evaluating their program to see if their is a way out of this slump.

No Go For Apple Cup At Qwest

The controversial plan to make Qwest Field the permanent home for the Apple Cup has been abandoned after athletic directors from both Washington and Washington State failed to agree
on how tickets would be allotted between the two schools.

Apple Cup Today

The Apple Cup will start shortly. Whereas, in the past, it had bowl significance, this year it stands as a symbol of the state of Washington's frustration with it's athletic programs. It caps off a year where the Sonics left town, the Mariners finished last, the Seahawks cannot buy a win and both the Cougars and Huskies where trounced weekly by their opponents.

Thrillah In Pull-manila: Cougs Squeak By Dawgs

The Washington State Cougars' recent dominance of the Washington Huskies in Men's Basketball continued last night with a 76-73 victory in Pullman. It took two overtimes to put the Dawgs away in a nail biter that showed Washington is not as bad as it's record seems to indicate. The Cougs seemed flat at first but rallied to tie at the end of regular time. Kyle Weaver missed a shot that would have sealed a Cougar regulation time victory. Weaver was the game's leading scorer with 20 points.

Cougars Are In The Big Dance

The Washington State Cougars are in the NCAA tournament for the 5th time in it's their history. They will play Oral Roberts this Thursday.
The Cougs will fill the 3rd seed in the Eastern Regional, their games will be at 11:30am, in Sacramento. Don't be surprised if I turn up sick on that day.
On a related note, the Washington Huskies, who finished hot beating UCLA, were overlooked in by the NIT, the consolation tournament. That is probably the best thing that can happen to the programs at the stage it is at because they will start next season angry and out to prove themselves.