107th UW-WSU Game On Tap Saturday Night

The Game: The Washington football team (7-5 overall, 3-5 Pac-12) caps the 2014 regular season with the annual Apple Cup, Saturday night in Pullman vs. Washington State (3-8, 2-6). Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. and the game will air live to a national audience on FOX Sports 1. The Dawgs enter the game after a number of big plays lifted them to a 37-13 win over Oregon State last Saturday, making the UW eligible for a bowl game for the fifth straight season. WSU fell at Arizona State last Saturday. The two cross-state rivals first met on the gridiron in 1900 and first played for the Apple Cup trophy in 1962.

Quick Slants: Washington leads the nation with seven defensive touchdowns (four by Shaq Thompson, two from John Timu, one from Travis Feeney) ... Temple, FIU and Georgia Tech have each scored six, and two other teams have five ... Washington ranks second in the nation with 45 sacks... senior Hau’oli Kikaha, who has broken both the UW season and career sacks records, leads the nation (tied) with 17.5 sacks ... Kikaha also leads the nation in tackles for loss (23.5) ... Danny Shelton ranks 11th in TFLs (16.0) and 19th in sacks (8.5) while Andrew Hudson (10 sacks) ranks 9th ... with 23 takeaways and 13 turnovers, the Huskies’ turnover margin of plus-10 is tied for 9th in the nation ... the Huskies’ 14 fumble recoveries are fourth-most in the nation ... with a 146.5 rating, Husky QB Cyler Miles ranks No. 22 in the nation in pass efficiency, two spots ahead WSU’s Connor Halliday, 18 spots higher than Stanford’s Kevin Hogan, 30 spots in front of OSU’s Sean Mannion and 33 places ahead of Arizona’s Anu Salomon ... UW opponents have just 43 punt returns yards while UW punt returner Dante Pettis has 288 by himself ... Pettis scored on an 87-yard punt return at Colorado, the first punt return for a TD by a Husky since 2003 ... Shelton and Shaq Thompson share the national lead (with four others) for fumble recoveries, with four ... Thompson has scored four defensive touchdowns this season (plus two more on offense) ... Thompson’s 100-yard fumble return at Cal is one of just five 100-yard plays in UW history ... John Ross has two of those five with his 100-yard kick return last season vs. BYU and this season vs. UCLA ... Ross’ six touchdowns this season have had an average length of 71.2 yards ... Ross (WR and CB) and Thompson (LB and TB) have each started on offense and defense this season ... UW has had eight true freshmen play this year: DB Budda Baker, DL Will Dissly, DB Darren Gardenhire, DB Naijiel Hale, DB Sidney Jones, WR Brayden Lenius, WR Pettis and PK Tristan Vizcaino ... Baker, Jones, Hale, Pettis and Lenius have started.

Television: The Washington-WSU game will air live to a national audience on FOX Sports 1 with Joe Davis (play-by-play), Joey Harrington (color) and Kris Budden (sideline) providing the commentary.

Radio: The Washington IMG College Network, with its flagship station KOMO AM-1000 and FM-97.7, will carry the live broadcast of every football game on 18 Northwest radio stations. Longtime play-by-play man Bob Rondeau and color analyst Damon Huard are joined by sideline reporter Elise Woodward. The WSU broadcast of the game will also air on Sirius (92) and XM (198) satellite radio.

Huskies vs. Cougars History:  The Washington-Washington State series dates back to 1900, when the teams played to a 5-5 tie in Seattle, but only since 1962 has the winner been awarded the Apple Cup trophy. Prior to the institution of the Apple Cup trophy, the winner of the Washington-WSU game was awarded the Governor’s Trophy from 1934 to 1961. Washington holds a commanding 68-32-6 edge in the 106-game series, including a 36-15 record in Apple Cup games. The UW is 39-15-5 against WSU in games played in Seattle, Washington is 9-7 in games played in WSU's Martin Stadium as the first UW-WSU game wasn't played there until 1982 (WSU's "home" games against UW were played in Spokane from 1950 to 1980 and Martin Stadium opened in 1972). UW is 29-15-1 in away games in the series, including games played in both Spokane and Pullman. The Huskies have won 11 of the last 16 Apple Cups. Last season in Seattle, the Huskies overcame a 10-3 halftime deficit in a 27-17 victory. Bishop Sankey led the Dawgs with 200 rushing yard on 34 carries while Keith Price completed 15-of-20 for 181 yards. In 2012 in Pullman, WSU overcame an 18-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime, then won 31-28 in overtime. In 2011 at CenturyLink Field, the UW won, 38-21, behind 291 yards and three TD passes from Price. In 2010, Washington beat the Cougars, 35-28, in a tightly-contested game in Pullman. The winning score came on a 27-yard pass from Jake Locker to Jermaine Kearse with 44 seconds remaining. In 2009, the Huskies posted the first Apple Cup shutout since 1964 with a 30-0 win over the Cougars at Husky Stadium, breaking a two-game losing streak in the series. In 2008 in Pullman, the Cougars prevailed, 16-13, in double overtime. The year before at Husky Stadium, Alex Brink passed for 399 yards and hit Brandon Gibson with a pair of fourth-quarter TDs to lead WSU to a 42-35 win. The Huskies broke another two-game losing streak with a 35-32 win in Pullman in 2006. In 2005 at Martin Stadium, the Cougars beat the Dawgs, 28-25, behind a solid performance from Brink, who threw for two TDs and ran for another. Before that, in 2003, UW pulled a third-straight upset (by AP ranking) in the series when an unranked Husky team notched a 27-19 win over No. 8 Washington State. In 2002 in Pullman, in a game that surely ranks as one of the most memorable ever in the series, Washington shocked the No. 3 Cougars with a triple-overtime, 29-26 win, despite trailing by 10 with only 4:30 to play. In 2001, when the two teams met at Husky Stadium, the 16th-ranked Huskies upset the No. 9 Cougars with a 26-14 win. 

Washington-WSU Ties:  Washington defensive line coach/special teams coordinator Jeff Choate worked on Mike Leach’s first WSU staff as the linebackers coach in 2012. There’s only one player on the Washington roster from the east side of the state of Washington: sophomore Drew Before, from Spokane/Shadle Park HS. While there’s just the one Husky from the eastern side of the state, there are plenty of Cougar players from this side of the Cascades. And of course, a number of Huskies and Cougars played with or against one another in their high school days. The UW’s Kasen Williams attended Skyline High with WSU’s Peyton Pelluer (whose brother Cooper and uncle Steve both played at UW). Husky cornerback Naijiel Hale and WSU’s Chandler Leniu were classmates at St. John Bosco in L.A. UW’s Shaq Thompson and Cougar Darryl Paulo were teammates at Sacramento’s Grant High while UW’s Korey Durkee went to Gig Harbor HS, as did WSU’s Beau Glover. Huskies Connor O’Brien and Dane Crane attended Santa Margarita Catholic in Orange County, as did WSU’s Nick Begg, Riley Sorenson and River Cracraft. Huskies Budda Baker, Shane Bowman, Jake Eldrenkamp, Sean Constantine, Mitch Johnson, Max Richmond, Morgan Richey and Michael Kneip all went to Bellevue HS with WSU’s Nate DeRider. Husky freshman Drew Sample and Coug sophomore Isaac Dotson teamed together at Bellevue’s Newport High while Husky Joe Mathis and Coug Jeff Farrar went to Upland High. UW’s Marvin Hall and Jaydon Mickens both went to L.A.’s Dorsey High with WSU’s Jeremiah Allison and Daquawn Brown while UW’s Ben Riva and WSU’s Sam Flor both went to Seattle’s O’Dea HS. Lastly, Husky Drew Schultz went to Olympia High with Jeff Waldner while UW kicker Cameron Van Winkle and WSU’s Jacob Tweten attended Mount Si.

Dawgs and the Northwest:  Washington’s most-played rivalries are against the other three other northwest Pac-12 schools. The Huskies have faced Washington State 106 times, Oregon in 107 games and Oregon State on 99 occasions. Washington owns the advantage in all three series. The Huskies lead the Ducks 58-44-5, Washington State 68-32-6 and Oregon State 61-34-4. Combined, Washington has a 187-110-15 (.623) record against its northwest rivals. Washington has played all three of the Northwest teams in a season on 85 prior occasions. Over those 85 seasons in which Oregon, OSU and WSU were all on the UW schedule, the Dawgs have swept all three 28 times. In the meantime, the Huskies have lost to all three in the same season on only seven occasions.