The Apple Cup used to close a season. This year it opened one instead, and Washington needed a wild fourth quarter to put away a Washington State team that had no business hanging around this long.
Washington opened its year with the rivalry it normally ends on, and that alone made Sunday unusual — the Apple Cup now kicks off a five-year scheduling arrangement born out of the Pac-12's collapse, rather than closing out November. That meant Demond Williams Jr., Washington's dual-threat quarterback and a team captain coming off a 9-4 season and a bowl win, threw his first pass of the year against a Washington State team starting a redshirt sophomore, Caden Pinnick, under a first-year head coach in Kirby Moore. On paper, a ranked Washington team hosting a rebuilt Cougars roster in a season opener looked as lopsided as this series has been in years.
+Returning starter Demond Williams Jr., dual threat
+Ranked, coming off a 9-4 season and bowl win
+Season-opening Apple Cup at home
−Leading rusher Jonah Coleman gone to the NFL
−Unproven backfield committee, no established starter
−Replacing its best offensive weapon with a rotation
The bigger swing factor for Washington was never really the quarterback spot — it was the backfield. Jonah Coleman, the engine of last year's run game, is now with the Denver Broncos, and Adam Mohammed's transfer to Cal left Jedd Fisch piecing together a committee of Quaid Carr, Oregon transfer Jayden Limar and Trey Cooley, who was working back from a knee injury. Washington State, by contrast, came out of fall camp with its defense — edge rushers Matyus McLain and Linus Zunk, safeties Jaylen Thomas and Jeremiah Bernard — looking like the strength of the roster, well ahead of an offense still sorting out a rebuilt interior line. That certainty gap is a big reason the pregame market leaned so hard toward the home side across the board.
None of that stopped Washington State from making a game of it. Washington built a 10-0 lead by halftime, both teams went quiet for a scoreless third quarter, and then the fourth quarter is where this game actually happened — Washington State's only points of the day and 14 of Washington's 24 both came in that final period, turning what looked like a laugher into a business-like 24-10 finish.
For three quarters, Washington State's defense lived up to its camp reputation, holding a Washington offense that was still breaking in that new backfield to just 10 points and a third-quarter shutout. Pinnick, making his first career start on the road, couldn't find enough answers to match it until the fourth quarter, when the Cougars' offense finally got untracked against a Washington defense that had also cooled off after halftime.
Sunday's Apple Cup pulled a Polymarket chat room running at nearly four times the season's median crowd — appointment viewing for a game that wasn't supposed to be this competitive on paper. For a rivalry now permanently parked on opening weekend instead of the season finale, a 14-point game decided by a wild fourth quarter is a decent advertisement for keeping it there.
