Suddenly, the stakes in the 95^th renewal of the Apple Cup will be high for both sides.

The Pac-10 title, of course, awaits the Cougars if they win. But for the 6-5 Huskies there's the ignoble fate of being one of the few UW clubs over the last quarter-century to finish without a winning record. Victory also assures them what seemed impossible before they launched their rampage over the Oregon schools: A bowl-game invitation.

In crushing the favored and No. 23-ranked Ducks 42-14 on Saturday, the Huskies looked like the high-flying team everyone thought they'd be when the season began.

After a first quarter in which they fell behind 14-0, the Dawgs --- on both sides of the ball --- never looked back. The defense stifled Oregon's O --- to the point that Duck QB Jason Fife completed just 3 of 19 passes following his 7 of 10 first quarter.

On offense, the notoriously ho-hum running game came to life, racking up 160 net yards --- 117 from Rich Alexis. That forced the Duck D to play honest all day. And the results were devastating for Oregon. Reggie Williams caught 14 Cody Pickett passes for 196 yards and three TDs.In the process, the sophomore Williams broke Mario Bailey's Husky record for career receiving yards and Pickett eclipsed Ryan Leaf's Pac-10 single-season record for passing yards.

Against the Cougars next week, Pickett will be gunning to become the first QB in Pac-10 history to toss for 4,000 yards in one season.

The Huskies' work against the Ducks also worked against the Cougars in the Byzantine BCS rating system. The Ducks, by virtue of the Husky loss, no longer qualify as a "quality win" for the 9-1 Cougars, who entered the weekend a precarious No. 3 in the BCS.

More concerning for Coug fans, though, should be the fact the Huskies are playing their best football since losing that nail-biter at Michigan in Week One.

Indeed, an Apple Cup that many a national pundit were all but giving the Cougars a few weeks ago now is shaping up like a donnybrook --- especially so in light of the fact the Cougars struggled at home to beat these same Ducks while the Huskies rolled in hostile Eugene, albeit without the worry of injured Onterrio Smith or Fife being any where near his standard level of accuracy.

Washington has scored 83 points their last two games, having thumped Oregon State 41-29 a week ago.

They've piled up an average of 384 yards. And on defense, they've come up with nine turnovers in the two games.

At Oregon, the Huskies also accomplished something they haven't done in more than a year: Win a road game. Not since ASU in Tempe last October have the Dawgs won away from Husky Stadium.

Now it's on to Pullman for a clash that many folks last summer predicted would be for the Pac-10 crown. It still is for the Cougars. And for the Huskies, it's a final chance at redemption for a season that got off track in Ann Arbor.

Either way, it's looking like the paint swappin' will be at its all-time best.

Each week, Fox Sports Net's Tom Ramsey gives FOXSports.com his thoughts and opinions about college football. This weekend, Tom will be in Pullman, Washington to call the Apple Cup between the Washington Huskies and the Washington State Cougars at 6:30 p.m. ET, 3:30 p.m. PT on FOX Sports Net.

  Magic Time of Year
Just Win Baby!

That's the mantra this week as we approach the best weekend in College Football -- Rivalry Weekend!

USC vs. UCLA, Michigan vs. Ohio State, Oregon State vs. Oregon, Cal vs. Stanford, and of course, Washington vs. No. 3 Washington State, which will be aired on Fox Sports Net. Oh, and let's not forget Harvard vs. Yale, those Ivy Leaguers get after it too.

Apples to Apples
Let's explore the Apple Cup for a moment. Wazzu (9-1) appears headed for a berth in the Rose Bowl, though they have two tough tests left. The first one comes this weekend vs. the Huskies (6-5) of UW. If the Huskies prevail, they all but assure themselves of playing in a warm weather environment over the holidays. WSU controls its own destiny, sort of. With a victory, they lock up at least a share of the Pac-10 title and earn a berth in the Rose Bowl. If WSU wins their two remaining games, coupled with an Ohio State loss this weekend to rival Michigan, it's conceivable that the Cougars get one of the two slots reserved for the BCS Championship Game in the Fiesta Bowl.

You've heard them on Fox Sports Net calling the Pac-10 Game of the Week. But now, FSN's Dynamic Duo of Tom Ramsey and Steve Physioc will really get to cut loose when they step into the Jungle on Wednesday, November 27 to fill in for Jim Rome. Go to Rome's Homepage to find showtimes and the affiliate closest to you.

But wait, did I just acknowledge the BCS? Yep, that would mean WSU would leap-frog a Buckeyes team that beat the Cougars 25-7 earlier this year in Columbus. Oh well, welcome to my (our) respective nightmare. Wouldn't it just be easier to take the top four victorious teams from each of the four major bowls and conduct a three game playoff?? OK, OK, I have now said it for the 100th time this season, officially!! Whew, I feel better.

Ring that Bell
UCLA controls its own destiny too, kind of, sort of. If they win their remaining two games (coupled with a Wazzu loss to UW), they capture a share of the Pac-10 Championship and will be the Rose Bowl representative. What are the chances of this happening? Got a crystal ball? If I were Bob Toledo (and I know Toledo well enough to say this) I'd position the upcoming game vs. USC as my Championship game, period. Why? It is, always has been, and always will be for the City Championship of Los Angeles. The emotions run so deep in this game, it becomes a surreal game marked by big plays, where heroes will be created and expectations will be met, or crushed.

Memory Lane
The cascade of emotion of this game has never escaped me. I started all four of the games during my UCLA Bruin career, though it's funny I can only remember two of them, and ideally, just one. Can you say, "Sir, I have no recollection?" Well, the one I can remember is the sweetest, a 22-21 victory in 1982 that propelled us into the Rose Bowl against Michigan, a game we subsequently won, 24-14. What a moment in 1982! To this day, UCLA DL No. 40 Karl Morgan is still my personal hero (I told him that in a recent phone conversation), he was the co-captain with me that year and Karl was the one to sack Southern Cal QB Scot Tinsley to end the game.

As I say now, "IT'S ALL GOOD". It was then, and it is now.

How strange is this story? This week, the requests for print and radio and TV interviews surrounding the big game was an all-time high, but this is where I have a challenge. I started approximately 35 games for UCLA over a four-year career, and all I can remember vividly is about 5-6 games, four of them are USC games. What's up with that? Someone asked me the other day what portion of the game do I actually remember, well, in 1979 I remember No. 42 Ronnie Lott and No. 49 Dennis Smith. Nightmares! 1980 - I remember Jeff Fisher, and Freeman McNeil (thanks Jeff!). In 1981, George Achica ruined our trip to the Rose Bowl. Thank goodness for Karl Morgan in 1982.

True story, we're in pregame warmups for the 1982 game, and Karl and I are leading stretches for the team, and Karl comes over to me and whispers, 49-14. I respond with, yep, 49-14. That just so happened to be the score from our freshman debacle against the Trojans, and needless to say, we were the ones that had 14.

Bottom line on rivalry games: The victories are sweet, the losses are heart-breaking, and the bragging rights for a win last in perpetuity.

The Picks
Here's my breakdown of this week:
WSU wins out, they just too darn good, and Mike Price won't allow them to falter down the stretch. USC ekes out a hard-fought win against the Bruins. The difference is experienced QB Carson Palmer. Oregon State beats Oregon, the Ducks aren't the same without Onterrio. Ohio State loses to Michigan, giving Washington State a BCS berth. USC gets the Rose Bowl nod and Pac-10 Commish Tom Hansen gets $25 million dollars to distribute to the league. Remember I said, "IT"S ALL GOOD".

My Heisman finalists:

Or how about this query of sheer brilliance: Will field position be a factor in Saturday's Apple Cup?

If you had any doubts, the answer to the former is yes (just look at film from last year's Cougar Apple Cup fiasco for proof) and the answer to the latter is no --- emphatically so

"I do not own anything purple, nor will I ever," Price quipped. "The only thing I like purple is that purple Gatorade."

Yup. It seems that the most-talked-about Apple Cup this side of 1997 has reached the point where everything that can be said has been

Aside from Price's forecast that the much-anticipated battle between Cougar senior corner MarcusTrufant and Husky sophomore receiver Reggie Williams won't decide the game --- the kicking game and play of the offensive and defensive lines will --- there wasn't a whole lot of grist to come out of Price's final press conference before the pads go on for real.

He said Williams got the best of Trufant a year ago, so Trufant is "challenged and excited" to have another shot at the Huskly swifty.

Last season Williams caught some six of his 11 balls when matched up with Trufant. Of course, the crimson faithful will note that Trufant was, at that time, playing with a cast on his broken arm and getting his first start in weeks.

Price half-joked that Saturday's match up between Trufant, a likely first-round draft pick come April, and Williams might just be the launch pad for the two of them cracking heads for another 15 years in the NFL.

Asked if he had his pre-game pep talk prepared, Price delivered it: "There's the door, go play."

He wasn't kidding "These guys are self-motivated. They don't need it. There will be no Knute Rockne," Price said.

Not all teams are like that, he added. "Sometimes I've had to say the first one out the door gets to start."

Apple Cups are special, Price said, so he concludes each practice by telling stories and reading the team letters of encouragement from former Cougar players. Steve Gleason and Joe Gecas, for instance, were among the "old-timers'" whose words were read Thursday.

Price said he loves to relay the story about Cougar center Paul Wulff (now the head coach at EWU) refusing to let an appendectomy keep him out of the 1989 Apple Cup. The story grows more dramatic each year, Price quipped. "I've got it now to where the ambulance pulls up on the field before kickoff and Paul gets out with a scalpel sticking out of his side."

OTHER PRICE COMMENTS

Any apprehension about having had a bye week before this game?

"No, I think it's to our advantage."

Have you talked with Ryan Leaf lately?

"Just this week ... He'll be at the UCLA game."

Any recruiting prospects going to be on hand?

"Eight to nine will be here on official trips, plus a full complement on unofficial visits."

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"If Gesser was the quarterback at Florida and Florida was 9-1 with its only loss in September they would already be etching his name on the (Heisman) trophy." -- Andy Bagnato, Chicago Tribune

SLAPPING THE LEAD DAWG

Just how far has Rick Neuheisel's star fallen in the eyes of those fickle Husky fans? Last week at the annual silent auction at St. Joseph School, located just two miles from Husky Stadium, a football autographed by Neuheisel sat without a single bid for 20 minutes while Sonics and Mariners stuff was skyrocketing all around. The auction time-clock was extended twice and still the ball only attracted three bids, going for half its stated value of $300.

APPLE CUP KICKOFF

3:30 pm, Martin Stadium

TV

Live on Fox Sports Net, plus replays on Sunday and Monday.

Tribune/Kyle Mills
Two months ago, it would have been a stretch to say Mawuli Davis would be the Cougars' starting middle linebacker and the front seven's leading tackler. But that's exactly what he is.

Straight out of nowhere; Having arrived at WSU with no fanfare and just one year of eligibility, Mawuli Davis has burst onto the scene as the Cougs' most pleasant surprise

PULLMAN -- When a college football player transfers to another school after his junior season in hopes of getting more playing time, he can usually count on (a) getting less playing time, (b) moving down in the Sagarin ratings, (c) abject poverty or (d) a whole lot of losses.

So why is Mawuli Davis starting at middle linebacker, under full scholarship, for the No. 3 team in the country?

"Divine intervention," he says.

On a Washington State team that has adopted surprise as its stock in trade, the single most surprising player is Davis, a squat, dreadlocked senior who couldn't crack the starting lineup at New Mexico State.

With only one remaining year of eligibility, he turned his back on a scholarship at that Sun Belt Conference school in 2001 and, against all apparent logic, enrolled as a walk-on at a school in a more prestigious conference, the Pac-10.

At 5-foot-10 and 226 pounds, he lacks the stature and speed of a conventional middle linebacker, but at Pullman he accomplished what he had evidently failed to accomplish at Las Cruces, N.M. -- impress coaches with his field vision, his intelligence and his sonar for the football. And maybe his verbal facility as well, because that's the first thing you notice when you talk to this soft-spoken advertising major from inner-city Oakland, Calif.

He and two brothers were raised by a single mother, a hair stylist who christened her middle son with a Ugandan name, Mawuli (pronounced Muh-WOO-lee). A large image of her is tattooed on his right forearm.

Davis has a theory about places like Oakland. They expose you to a wide variety of experiences, both good and bad, and you can use those experiences as a springboard, to move in any of various directions.

"It's easy to grow up in the inner city and not spread your wings," he says. "There are a lot of people who have never traveled outside the city limits. The youth back home have a tendency to live for today and not for tomorrow -- of not focusing on the future."

As part of his effort to defy that syndrome, Davis spent the millennium in the Middle East. His girlfriend, a theology student, was spending a year at Ben Gurion University in Israel, and Davis visited her for three weeks while on Christmas vacation from New Mexico State. "That pretty much broadened my horizons," he says. He was particularly struck by certain street scenes in Jerusalem, little outbursts of conflict that seemed religious in nature, though he couldn't be sure.

For whatever reason, he felt no reluctance to leave New Mexico State when he found he wasn't happy there.

The closer you look at Davis' story, the more you shake your head at his combinatin of good instincts and good fortune. He initially signed with Cal State Northridge, but was forced to leave because of a transcript technicality.

That seemed unlucky -- until Northridge dropped its football program after last season.

Now Davis finds himself starting for a 9-1 team that is one victory away from a Rose Bowl berth. The Cougars play host to Washington at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

Davis had chosen Washington State partly through the contacts of his former high-school coach in Oakland, and partly because the linebacker knew a few players on the Cougar team.

As a transfer, he served a mandatory one-year layoff in 2001, playing on the defensive scout team. He was slow in filling out his financial-aid application, and money got tight. The refrigerator in his apartment was often empty and Davis lost maybe 15 pounds.

But teammates were beginning to notice him. Members of the first-unit offense would say, "This guy's not very big and not very fast, but he keeps making plays. He keeps making tackles."

After 2002 spring camp, coaches still weren't convinced. In fact, they went out of their way to sign two junior-college linebackers, Kevin Sperry and Don Jackson, who kept Davis off the two-deep chart through preseason camp.

In the third game of the season -- a dismal 25-7 loss at Ohio State -- Davis took the field late in the game and caught everyone's attention with his spirited play.

Then everything sped up. Davis vaulted into the starting lineup the following week against Montana State, and he made nine tackles a week later at California. "It just goes to show you," WSU defensive coordinator Bill Doba says. "I don't care who you are, a scholarhip player or a walk-on. If you play the best, you're going to play."

A few days later, Davis gave a senior speech to the team -- something about making the best of your situation. When he was done, coach Mike Price said, "Mawuli, I'd like you to come into my office tomorrow to sign a scholarhship."

"I was shocked," Davis recalls.

Price recently evoked Davis in explaining why the Cougars are doing less junior-college recruiting these days.

"We go out and recruit the two best linebackers we could possibly sign last year in Donnie Jackson and Kevin Sperry," the coach said. "Then Mawuli Davis is our starter. That doesn't make too much sense. I'm not taking anything away from Jackson and Sperry, because they're really good players. But why did we have to recruit one of those guys when we had Mawuli Davis sitting right on our front porch?"

Davis has a particular fan in Bradley Petek, the sixth-grade son of WSU communications instructor Daniel Petek.

At the beginning of the fall semester this year, when Davis was still a third-stringer, the elder Petek noticed the linebacker was enrolled in his ad copy-writing class, and he mentioned the fact to his son.

This interested Bradley, because he himself plays middle linebacker for his tackle football team.

As the semester progressed, Petek continued to talk about Davis, and Bradley watched with interest as the linebacker cracked the starting lineup and became the Cougars' second-leading tackler.

Bradley has yet to meet Davis -- stay tuned, because a meeting seems inevitable -- but when the boy's sixth-grade teacher assigned him an English paper recently, he whipped out an essay entitled, "My Friend Mawuli," basically telling the linebacker's success story, based on newspaper articles, his father's remarks and the boy's own imagination.

"I call him my friend," Bradley explained in the paper, "because I respect what he has accomplished through hard work and an honest desire to succeed as a good person and football player."

"I have learned a lot of things about Mawuli," he wrote. "Like Mawuli in Ugandan means, 'There is a God.'

"But I will learn a lot more when we someday meet."

Lewiston Tribune Online 11/23/02

Particularly juicy slice; Apple Cup promises to be intriguing as always, yet in ways contrary to Husky-Cougars trend

PULLMAN -- As usual, the Apple Cup offers a vivid study in contrasts -- but not the usual ones.

One team, coming off an oddly timed open date, has been tinkering and plotting for this game for two weeks.

The other team experienced an exhilarating victory last week against a kind of alter-rival, and it occasioned a 20-minute on-field celebration.

One team can clinch its second Rose Bowl berth since 1930.

The other is trying to avoid its worst Pac-10 Conference record since 1988.

One head coach grew strangely tight-lipped this week. The other was garrulous as ever.

Will the Cougars be rested or rusted?

Can the Huskies deign to act as spoiler?

Whatever else can be said about the 95th collision of Washington State and Washington, which begins at 3:30 p.m. today before a sellout crowd at Martin Stadium, it's not a cut-and-dried Apple Cup.

"If you can't get motivated for this one, you've gotta be dead," WSU coach Mike Price said.

OK, but there's a qualifier for every thesis about this game.

The Cougars can sew up the Pac-10 championship with a win, but they have some leeway in that regard. They can lose and still clinch the Rose Bowl date by beating UCLA on Dec. 7.

Ranked third in the country, they can also stay in contention for a national title with a win. But they still need help.

And the vagaries of the Bowl Championship Series rankings make it difficult to define exactly what kind of help they need. How much would they really benefit if Michigan upsets No. 2 Ohio State today? Nobody seems to know.

Washington's motivation isn't crystal-clear either.

The Huskies are eligible for a bowl, but it won't be a major one, win or lose. And they are hardly accustomed to deriving incentive from popping the Cougars' bubble. This is the first time since 1951 that a ranked WSU team has played an unranked Washington club.

Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel has obviously given this question some thought: How to motivate a team whose dreams are shattering left and right. So he is imploring the Dawgs to win what he calls the Northwest championship, by adding a victory over WSU to its previous wins over the two Oregon schools in the conference.

Last week furnished such contrasting gateways to the Apple Cup for these teams. For the first time Price can remember, he enters a rivalry game after an open date. That gave him an opportunity to tinker with his offensive repertoire, but how much does he really want to tinker? He seemed to overload the Cougars' circuitry with new ploys before last year's Apple Cup.

Meanwhile, Washington got bowl-eligible last week with a 42-14 victory at Oregon, a team that has almost usurped the Cougars as UW's primary rival. Will that leave the Huskies drained or refreshed? Without question, they are more confident than they were two weeks ago, when they were mired in a three-game losing streak.

"In the situation we find ourselves in, we don't have a choice," Neuheisel said. "Emotionally, there's a lot left. And we're going to have to muster up everything we've got."

Neuheisel surprised Seattle media Monday by growing terse at various times during his weekly news conference. He gave relatively full answers about his own team, but he often responded vaguely to questions about the Cougars.

After taking a couple of widely quoted digs at Oregon last week, he was evidently going to great lengths to establish a tone of reticence for this other grudge match.

When pressed for reasons for this reticence, he reeled off a series of innocuous one- and two-word answers.

And every monosyllable was one more little mystery about the 95th Apple Cup.

Rotten Apple Cup to the core
Nothing is more painful than what might have been

By GREG WITTER
Cougfan.com Executive Editor

PULLMAN -- What is it about the Apple Cup that brings out the sloppiest in Washington State?

For the second straight season, the Cougars brought a 9-1 record -- and the role of favorite --- into its annual showdown with Washington and wound up folding like the proverbial Kmart deck chair. But this one, in front of a packed and vocal Martin Stadium crowd, was far different than a year ago. Despite a plethora of mistakes and a frustrating inability to capitalize on opportunities, WSU still lead by 10 with just more by three minutes left and the Huskies pinned on their on eight.

Indeed, it seemed that destiny would be fullfilled on this chilly Palouse night, even though the Cougs lost starting runningback Jermaine Green in the first half and then field general Jason Gesser in the fourth quarter.

We won't punish you with the painful details, but in the end, Washington's unrelenting pass rush -- which had sacked and pressured up a storm all day -- came through again. With the Cougars trailing 29-26 in the third and final overtime period, back up quarterback Matt Kegel lost the ball amid a flurry of Husky defenders as he reared back to pass. The Huskies recovered, controversy ensued, and then the officials signaled what we had all feared: Game over. Season of destiny undone.

The Huskies tasted victory for the fifth straight time in this series, forcing WSU to weight until December 7 at UCLA to try to clench a Rose Bowl berth.

Ironically, the Cougars led 17-7 at halftime -- the same score that Washington led by on this same field 20 years ago this week when they were the nationally prominent team looking to secure the Pac-10 title.

The Huskies, themselves mighty sloppy most of the day, nonetheless played tough and controlled ball most of the second half.

The Cougars, though, imploded on offense. Compounding the misery of it all, the game appeared all but won by the Cougars when Husky punter Derrick McLaughlin dropped a snap deep in his own end of the field with just more than seven minutes left to play. Coupled with a UW penalty, the Cougars took over at the Husky one.

An offsides penalty pushed the Cougars back to the six, a running play went for little, and then Kegel was sacked, forcing the Cougars to settle for a Drew Dunning field goal making it 20-10.

That wasn't the only giant opportunity squandered by the Cougars. They drove to the Husky one-yard line just before the end of the first half and came away with nothing after muffing the snap on a Dunning field goal attempt.

The list of Cougar miscues, both big and small, will no doubt haunt the faithful for decades to come. Two of the most critical came via pass interceptions -- one thrown by Gesser on his first pass of the day that set the Huskies up for their first touchdown, and the second thrown by Kegel late in the fourth quarter leading to a John Anderson field goal that knotted the game at 20 with seconds left in the game.

While not perfect, the Cougar defense played a stout and spirited game, repeatedly bailing out the sputtering Cougar offense. Though in the end, you had to wonder what might have been if they hadn't roughed Anderson earlier in the game on what would have been his fourth missed field goal attempt of regulation play. On the retry, he made it.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Such was the maddening way this game played itself out.

Husky players partied at midfield like they just one the national title. Their fans snickered at their Cougar counterparts with the age-old taunt of "Couged it."

For the unwashed, that's a term dating to the Jim Sweeney-era, derisively saddled on WSU for its inexplicable ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Indeed.

Lewiston Tribune Online 11/24/02

Tribune/Kyle Mills
Washington State quarterback Jason Gesser grimaces in pain as he is brought down by Washington defensive tackle Terry Johnson in the fourth quarter.

Apple Cup runneth over; Gesser's injury, controversial ending send Cougars reeling

PULLMAN -- The ending was as strange as the game itself. The officials huddled and discussed the issue, then one of them switched on his microphone and explained to the capacity crowd that it had just witnessed "a backward pass."

"And Washington recovered that backward pass," he said.

On that note, Washington State's crazy dreams of a national championship came to an end Saturday night.

The Huskies erupted in celebration, the crowd watched in confused silence, and the Cougars tried to come to terms with a 29-26 triple-overtime loss that will halt their two-week spree as the No. 3 team in the country.

By ruling that Matt Kegel's first-down play in the third overtime was a "backward pass," officials were saying it wasn't a pass at all -- it was a fumbled lateral. They were saying Washington defensive end Kai Ellis hadn't batted down a forward pass, but had caused and recovered a fumble. They were saying the game was over.

And Cougars coach Mike Price had a hard time accepting that.

"It was a pass," he said. "The ball was knocked backward, but it was a batted pass. It's an unforgivable mistake as far as I'm concerned."

Several observers who watched the replay said it was difficult to tell if the pass was heading forward or backward, since Ellis grabbed the ball as soon as it left Kegel's hand. The ball wound up on the ground moments later, further confusing the issue.

By that time, both teams had shifted into survival mode, befitting a late afternoon and evening that included 22 penalties, 13 field-goal attempts, a worrisome ankle injury to WSU's quarterback Jason Gesser and a series of postgame incidents that left several people injured (see story on Page 1A).

The Cougars (9-2, 6-1) can still qualify for the Rose Bowl by defeating UCLA in their regular-season finale Dec. 7, but this loss dashes their hopes of climbing from No. 3 in the Bowl Championship Series rankings and gaining a berth in the national championship game.

Even a Rose Bowl date is looking less than assured, primarily because of Gesser's high ankle sprain, suffered early in the fourth quarter when the quarterback was sacked by Terry Johnson. Postgame X-rays indicated no fracture, but the recovery time for a high ankle sprain is generally listed as four to six weeks.

The Cougars led 17-10 at the time of the injury and 20-10 on Drew Dunning's 22-yard field goal with 4:41 remaining.

But the Huskies offense, star-crossed for much of the game, rallied for 10 points in the final 3:13 of regulation, getting a particular spark from a superb 48-yard reception by Reggie Williams, setting up Cody Pickett's 7-yard touchdown pass to Paul Arnold.

Kegel, seeing action for the first time since Nov. 7, struggled in Gesser's stead, throwing a pivotal interception to Nate Robinson that gave UW possession on the Cougar 35-yard line. That set up John Anderson's 27-yard field goal with 15 seconds left to force overtime.

Anderson and Dunning traded field goals in the first two overtimes, then Anderson boomed a 49-yarder on the first possession of the third OT, moments before Ellis' game-ending play.

"We had lots of opportunities and they had lots of opportunities, and it seemed like nobody wanted to win the game," WSU offensive tackle Calvin Armstrong said. "It seemed like we were going to play forever or something."

On an overcast evening before a crowd of 37,600, both defenses played marvelously, both offenses sputtered, and Washington's special-teams crew used overtime to transform from goat to hero.

Anderson's five consecutive field goals in the second half and extra periods -- from 35, 27, 34, 46 and 49 yards -- came after he had missed from 50, 51 and 34.

And Washington punter Derek McLaughlin committed a blunder that may go down in Apple Cup lore, catching a snap from center deep in Husky territory in the fourth quarter and inexplicably dropping the ball. He then kicked it forward like a soccer player, incurring a penalty that gave WSU possession on the 1-yard line.

And the Cougars mustered nothing but a field goal from it. For the second straight Apple Cup, they played miserably in short-yardage situations, in this case immediately going backward on a false-start penalty, one of several late errors that evidently stemmed from the offense's unfamiliarity with Kegel.

"Kegel came in and it was a different type of cadence," WSU center Tyler Hunt said. "One of those offsides, I can blame on myself. On the 1-yard line, I didn't snap the ball -- I didn't hear it."

Washington (7-5, 4-4) took a major step toward salvaging a disappointing season, extending its winning streak to three games and claiming its fifth straight Apple Cup. No one on the WSU roster has defeated the Huskies.

Pickett completed 35 of 57 passes for 368 yards, one TD and no interceptions, hitting Williams 12 times for 169 yards.

Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel offered a view of Ellis' final play that conflicted with both Price's and the officials'. He thought it should have been ruled an interception -- that the throw was forward but that Ellis established possession before dropping the ball.

"I am really proud of my football team," Neuheisel said. "We've been criticized throughout the season, which is a byproduct when you're not playing well. Our hard work has paid off."

Washington State players were generally less critical of the final call than was Price. The offense tended to blame itself, partly for failing to score a touchdown after halftime and partly for slipping into a conservative attitude.

"As a whole, we were playing not to lose the game, instead of playing to win," Hunt said. "When you do that, it usually doesn't work out too well. We have no one to blame but ourselves. That's why it hurts so much."

Washington                7        0        3        10        3        3        3        --29

Washington State       3        14       0         3         3       3         0       --26

First Quarter
Wash--Pickett 1 run (Anderson kick), 8:45.
WSt--FG Dunning 34, 3:51.

Second Quarter
WSt--Green 2 run (Dunning kick), 13:18.
WSt--Moore 67 pass from Gesser (Dunning kick), 10:07.

Third Quarter
Wash--FG Anderson 35, 2:56.

Fourth Quarter
WSt--FG Dunning 22, 4:41.
Wash--Arnold 7 pass from Pickett (Anderson kick), 3:13.
Wash--FG Anderson 27, 0:15.

First Overtime

Wash--FG Anderson 34.
WSt--FG Dunning 42.

Second Overtime

WSt--FG Dunning 32.
Wash--FG Anderson 46.

Third Overtime

Wash--FG Anderson 49.

A--37,600.

	WSU	Washington
First downs	19	26
Rushes-yards	39-104	37-19
Passing	246	368
Comp-Att-Int	19-32-2	35-58-0
Return Yards	0	26
Punts-Avg.	3-33	2-43
Fumbles-Lost	4-3	5-1
Penalties-Yards	10-69	12-88
Time of Possession	28:00	32:00

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING--Washington, Alexis 18-72, Cleman 8-20, Tuiasosopo 1-2, McLaughlin 1-(minus 5), Pickett 9-(minus 70). . Washington St., Riley 2-54, Tippins 11-51, Green 5-11, Smith 7-5, Darling 1-3, Gesser 10-(minus 4), Kegel 3-(minus 16).

PASSING--Washington, Pickett 35-57-0-368, McLaughlin 0-1-0-0. Washington St., Gesser 14-24-1-226, Kegel 5-7-1-20, Henderson 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING--Washington, Williams 12-169, Frederick 6-71, Reddick 6-57, Alexis 4-27, Arnold 3-30, Ware 2-3, Tuiasosopo 1-19, Pickett 1-(minus 8). Washington St., Bienemann 6-64, Riley 6-52, Bush 5-40, Moore 1-67, Smith 1-23.

Cougfan.com - Posted Nov 24, 2002

Cougfan.com - Posted Nov 25, 2002

Monday morning perspective
Make no mistake, WSU meltdown was team effort

Steve Juve - 11/25/02 - on this Apple Cup game and the "controversy."

Next up ... UCLA