Fisch reminds Huskies: Cougars have won in Seattle 17 times
Washington opens the season with 7 captains and a coach reciting Apple Cup history to his own team, then hosts Washington State as a 22.5-point favorite on a Sunday the rivalry has never seen before.
Seven captains, and one of them already wore the armband somewhere else
Washington handed out seven captaincies this week — quarterback Demond Williams Jr. and center Landen Hatchett return from last year's group, joined by five first-timers: linemen Drew Azzopardi and John Mills, linebacker Jacob Manu, defensive lineman Elinneus Davis and safety Alex McLaughlin, per Yahoo Sports. It's one more than Jedd Fisch named heading into last season, and it tracks with the tone he set on the first no-pads day of camp: "I look at this, truly, like study hall," he told reporters, per the Spokesman-Review, as he opens his third season on Montlake.
Manu isn't new to the job. He captained Arizona in 2023, the year he led the Pac-12 with 116 tackles and added 6.5 sacks on his way to first-team all-conference — reuniting with Fisch, who coached him there, per Yahoo Sports. Mills, meanwhile, has gone from lineman to one of the louder voices in the building this offseason, the kind of shift a program notices before it ever shows up on a stat sheet.
There was never a real quarterback competition to settle. Williams posted the 10th-best passer rating in the country last season at 161.0 — a number that cratered to 107.8 in the losses where defenses sat on his legs, which is exactly the problem camp existed to fix. By reps taken in team periods, it's fixed: Williams is comfortably the starter, with Elijah Brown next and Dash Beierly third, per 247Sports' camp wrap-up, and he spent the week acting like the captaincy meant something beyond a vote — handing out JLabAudio headphones to every player on the roster under the caption "The Seattle sound, issued by QB1."
Fisch to his team: the Cougars have won in Seattle 17 times
Fisch spent Monday's press conference doing something coaches rarely do in a 22-point spread: reminding his own team how often it has lost this exact game at home. "Spent a lot of time talking about the Apple Cup this morning. Talked about the importance of it, talked about the rivalry itself," he said, before getting specific: "There were 17 times that they came into Seattle in the home stadium and won, and we have to understand that as we're getting ready for this game," per Yahoo Sports. It's the same coach who, after keeping starters in for last year's Apple Cup, explained the decision as "We want the Apple Cup back in Seattle; that was the statement."
Washington State's own quarterback question is settled, and it isn't a mystery pick. First-year coach Kirby Moore — a former Husky graduate assistant in 2015 and 2016 — has named UC Davis transfer Caden Pinnick the starter over returners Julian Duggar and Owen Eshelman. Pinnick finished top 10 nationally in passing touchdowns (32), passing yards (3,206) and completion percentage (69.6%) at the FCS level last year, per SWX Local Sports, and he's already stood in Husky Stadium once — he started there for UC Davis a year ago, going 8-of-16 for 50 yards with a touchdown and an interception in a game Washington won 70-10. Moore will be without both projected tight ends, Trey Leckner and Hudson Cedarland, and has already flagged turnovers as the thing that could decide it after a camp in which his defense outplayed his offense, per the Spokesman-Review's two-deep projection.
Washington's own injury sheet needs a little hedging too, per Covers' aggregated table. Running back J. Washington is listed doubtful with a neck injury as of last week and looks unlikely for Sunday, though nothing there is confirmed out. Receiver D. Roebuck is questionable for personal reasons — a real doubt, not a diagnosis — and either absence would bite into a backfield already thinned by the offseason departures of Jonah Coleman and Adam Mohammad.
Washington closed last season on a 38-10 win over Boise State
Washington's 2025 season had real swings in it. The Huskies lost a 3-point road game at Wisconsin in November, beat Purdue 49-13 at home a week later, ran through UCLA 48-14 in Los Angeles, then had the regular season closed out by an Oregon team that beat them 26-14. They finished last season the way you'd want to: a 38-10 win over Boise State on December 14 that sent the roster into the offseason on a good note.
None of that carries into 2026 as current form — the Huskies are 0-0 with no run to point to yet — but it's the tape the returning core built its identity on. Last year's late surge against Purdue and UCLA is the version of this offense fans expect Fisch and Williams to pick back up with once the Apple Cup opens the season, and it's part of why Washington enters this weekend ranked 17th in the AP poll, per Yahoo Sports.
The 118th Apple Cup has never opened a season, or landed on a Sunday, before
Washington and Washington State have played this rivalry since 1900, and Sunday is the first time it's ever been the season opener and the first time it's ever fallen on a Sunday, per SWX Local Sports. It's also the first time in over a century the game hasn't lived on a November weekend, which is exactly why Fisch spent his press conference talking history instead of Xs and Os — 17 Cougar wins in Seattle is the kind of number a coach only recites when he wants his team bored of hearing it before kickoff.
The line opened with Washington favored by 22.5, and the total was set at 50.5 — a middling number for a game where the Cougars are breaking in a new starting quarterback against a Husky defense that returns most of its front. Washington State enters at 0-0 with last year closing on a 34-21 win at Utah, but that result is 2025 form against a different roster and a different coach. The Huskies host Washington State tomorrow afternoon at Husky Stadium, and it's the kind of opener that will tell you more about this season than any number on the board can.