Washington State Football: Ranking the Cougars Home Games in 2014

Nov 23, 2013; Corvallis, OR, USA; Washington Huskies running back Jesse Callier (24) takes a handoff from quarterback Cyler Miles (10) against Oregon State Beavers in the first half at Reser Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports

#1 Washington (The Apple Cup)

Well if you didn’t see this one coming, you gave me too much credit.  Yes this is anything but bold, however this will be a wildly important game for both teams.  No it doesn’t matter what the records are at this point because it’s for the Apple Cup, but what if either team wildly exceeds expectations and is poised to play in the Pac-12 championship because they slithered by Oregon and/or Stanford.

I realize this seems impossible according to all the pre-season rankings and such but it wasn’t long ago we would have thought Stanford would never win the Pac-12, much less back to back years.  Both teams have the weapons if either one can put a full season together.

All that aside, from Washington State’s point of view, the Apple Cup will be extremely critical for bowl positioning. It’s so important to the future of this program that the Cougs take another step forward this season, it doesn’t matter how large that step is, they just have to take it.  A win in the Apple Cup will be vital to the Cougar’s bowl positioning and I believe it will be a win or stay stagnant type situation.  Not to mention we have a nice empty space in the new football operations building waiting to hold that coveted trophy.