Good time to be on the East Coast

This one's for Maggie and Schuyler: (and, wow, does it have a miserable lead-in! Perhaps I should look into editing opportunities at the Trib.)


UW, WSU stumbling toward sour Apple Cup

By DAVE BOLING
Tacoma News Tribune
01-NOV-05

SEATTLE -- To the realization that cleanliness resides nowhere near Godliness, and that ignorance has no direct correlation to bliss, we must now point out that misery, apparently, is oblivious to company.

If the adage held true, then the football fans of Washington and Washington State would be currently delighted, and their suffering would be mitigated by the coinciding afflictions of their rivals.

In case looking at the Pacific-10 Conference standings has ceased to be a tolerable experience for you, I'll save you the hardship of squinting at the agate print: UW and WSU are anchoring the standings with 0-5 records.

The grim mathematics are reaching critical mass, driven by what you might call compounding disinterest. In the last two seasons, the Huskies and Cougars are a combined 3-23 in league games, with UW contributing 13 consecutive defeats.

WSU's overall record of 3-5 seems less distressing on the surface than UW's 1-7. But neither will induce vast alumni contributions as the four combined wins include two that came against Idaho.

The Vandals are 2-6 this season, but if the former members of the old Pacific Coast Conference petitioned for re-inclusion, it would likely gain strong support from the Washington schools.

Comparatively, UW beat Idaho worse (34-6) than did WSU (38-26), but some of the Vandals' key players were injured against the Cougars and didn't play at UW.

Both teams have since lost to common foes California, UCLA and USC.

With only two games remaining before the Apple Cup, it's not too early to examine the possibility that both teams could be winless in the conference going into the annual rivalry game.

The Huskies have the better chance of breaking the streak with Oregon State (4-4) at home this weekend and following up with Arizona (2-6) on the road. The Cougs get two straight home contests against Arizona State (4-4) and Oregon (7-1).

As sports fans, you're probably thinking, "Oh, man, I've got to be at this Apple Cup, whatever the costs, because these teams could be making history in what has been a storied rivalry."

But you might recall, with some nostalgia, the odious Apple Cup of 1969.

Washington, under coach Jim Owens, was disrupted by racial unrest and player discord that season. But as much as anything, the Huskies were doomed by a killer schedule.

For a team that could have used as many Idahos and San Jose States as they could line up, the Huskies, instead, opened at Michigan State and then at Michigan, before playing host to Ohio State.

They ran the table, failing to score more than 14 points in any of the first nine defeats.

The schedule-makers lifted WSU that season, even if it was only a tiny boost. The Cougars opened at Illinois and eked out a 19-18 win for coach Jim Sweeney.

We must point out here that the Flailing Illini finished the 1969 campaign at 0-10. The Cougars' visit to the Corn Belt the next week was less satisfying as they gave up 61 points in a loss to Iowa.

They lost by only a point to Oregon the next week before running off a string of five conference losses in which they scored a total of 24 points.

This pair of juggernauts, both winless in conference play, faced off on Nov. 22 in Seattle. Washington won, 30-21. We'd suggest that somebody had to, but scoreless ties were still a possibility in the pre-overtime days.

For the most part, misery hasn't had much company; from 1990 through 2003, there was only one season (1993, when UW was good enough, but on probation) when one of these two teams didn't get a bowl invitation.

So, what's happened to these programs?

Coaching turnover has been a factor. Bill Doba went 6-2 in conference the first season after Mike Price left for Alabama but has been 3-10 in the conference since. And after Rick Neuheisel was ousted, Keith Gilbertson went 4-4 in the Pac-10 the next season, but the Huskies have lost 13 since.

UW and WSU also receive no more conference gimmes, either. Cal and Oregon State and Stanford are considerably better than they had been during many stretches in the past, and neither Washington school has a win over any of those teams in the past two seasons.

So, as they stumble toward their Nov. 19 showdown at Husky Stadium, the only guarantee is that one team will pick up a conference win. And the misery of this season for both teams will be at a merciful end.