SEATTLE — The night before the strangest Apple Cup game in recent memory was contested at a neutral site and as a nonconference meeting for the first time in more than 60 years, Kingston Fernandez was given a task.
Washington State football coach Jake Dickert wanted cigars for his staff to celebrate if the Cougars prevailed. And he tasked his assistant director of operations with making sure they were on hand.
“I texted him yesterday and said, ‘Don’t tell any of the coaches, but be ready,'” Dickert said Saturday night, his celebratory cigar sitting on the table in front of him.
The Apple Cup was reclaimed by Washington State on Saturday behind three total touchdowns from quarterback John Mateer and a late goal-line stand in a 24-19 win over rival Washington.
Mateer ran for two scores and threw for another, and the Cougars stopped the Huskies on a fourth-and-goal run from the 1 with 1:07 remaining to take home the in-state rivalry’s trophy for just the third time since 2008.
It will be housed on the third floor of the Washington State football complex. Dickert would like to keep it there permanently.
“I think we might retire this trophy. I think it’s a Pac-12 trophy. I think that might stay in our place a long time and we’ll bring a new one next year,” Dickert said.
The realignment chaos of the past year threatened to end the rivalry game with Washington now in the Big Ten and Washington State’s Pac-12 uncertainty. The Cougars did find some future security this week with news that the Pac-12 is starting to rebuild thanks to the addition of four schools from the Mountain West Conference in 2026.
Winning the game felt more meaningful to the Cougars this time after being left out in the reshuffling of schools, conferences and allegiances. And while purple may have outnumbered crimson in the crowd for the game played at Lumen Field, the home of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and not far from Husky Stadium, the Cougars were the ones celebrating on the turf at the end.
“Coach kept saying we worked 9 1/2 months for this moment, just trust our preparation and everything,” Mateer said, referencing last November’s 24-21 loss to the Huskies. “Looking back on those 9 1/2 months to come out here and perform, and it wasn’t our best, and we still got it done.”
Mateer ran for touchdowns of 23 and 25 yards and threw a 16-yard touchdown to Josh Meredith in the third quarter that gave the Cougars (3-0) a 24-16 lead. Mateer finished 17-of-34 passing for 245 yards and added 62 yards on the ground.
The 25-yard touchdown run came on third-and-20 in the final seconds of the first half and was a significant momentum swing that gave the Cougars a 17-13 halftime lead. Mateer’s run to the end zone capped a 91-yard drive, and Washington State never trailed again.
“End of the half and end of the game, we let up seven points on third-and-20 and we didn’t score on fourth-and-1 one the 1. That’s the story,” first-year Washington coach Jedd Fisch said.
The fourth-and-1 play Fisch referred to will be debated for a long time in Apple Cup lore. The Huskies reached the Washington State 10, and on third-and-goal, Denzel Boston was forced out at the 1, setting up the final play.
After a timeout, the Huskies (2-1) called an option play to the short side of the field, and Jonah Coleman had nowhere to go, getting stopped for a 2-yard loss.
Washington State defensive lineman Andrew Edson said that the Huskies are “not really a speed option team, for them to run that I was kind of surprised. But, you know, we stopped it.”
Coleman, who topped 100 rushing yards in the first two games of the season, was limited to 75 yards on 14 carries for the Huskies, who lost to Michigan in last season’s College Football Playoff final to cap two seasons under coach Kalen DeBoer before he left for Alabama to replace the retired Nick Saban.
Will Rogers threw for 314 yards and a touchdown for Washington on Saturday, and Giles Jackson had eight catches for 162 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown in the first quarter. The Huskies were forced to settle for field goals on three trips inside the Washington State 25, though, and that proved the difference.
After being fairly clean with penalties the first two games, Washington’s discipline was awful. The Huskies were called for 16 penalties — third most in school history — for 135 yards, and several were critical calls that kept drives alive for the Cougars.
“It’s never fun losing, especially to a rival, and just kind of feeling the pressure of the success some of my other teammates have had,” Rogers said. “I want to win; that’s all I really care about.”
The Apple Cup matchup was one of two games Saturday pitting a remaining Pac-12 member against a defector to the Big Ten, but the result was much different in the other one.
Oregon State, which is one of only two current Pac-12 members with Washington State, hosted the ninth-ranked Oregon Ducks in a game formerly known as “The Civil War.” The visiting Ducks took just an eight-point lead into halftime but poured it on in the second half, scoring 27 unanswered points to pull away for a 49-14 blowout of the Beavers.