Analysis: WSU’s Apple Cup win over UW was fueled by the Cougars who chose to stay and wait their turn

SEATTLE – Jake Dickert’s voice always cracks when he gets emotional. He’ll be in the middle of a sentence, explaining why his Washington State team made him proud recently, talking about the pride he has in his Cougars, in what they accomplished.

Then, when the gravity of the moment hits him, his voice hits a snag like he’s still in middle school. It happened last fall, when WSU took down then-ranked Wisconsin. It happened last week in the locker room after the Cougars’ win over Texas Tech, when Dickert hyped his guys up for the 116th Apple Cup.

It certainly unfolded Saturday afternoon at Lumen Field, moments after WSU delivered a shockwave of a 24-19 win over rival Washington. As the crimson spilled onto the field, Cougars fans and players mixing and laughing and screaming, the moment hit Dickert.

“I love this team. They stayed here for this,” Dickert said. “Sorry, I’m emotional. I love these guys.”

There may be no better way to explain the meaning of this moment, of the ways the Cougs’ first Apple Cup win since 2021 might shape the future of the athletic department in the months and years to come, than the cracks in Dickert’s voice. In the way he has made this WSU team a winner, a better team than the one that fell from grace last fall.

Two Cougars who supplied the game’s final stop, the tackle on Husky running back Jonah Coleman in the final seconds, were two of the longest-tenured players in the program. Senior Andrew Edson, who bullrushed his way into UW QB Will Rogers and forced him to pitch it, is playing his fourth year at WSU. Sixth-year senior Kyle Thornton, a staple at linebacker the past several years, brought Coleman to the ground 2 yards shy of the end zone.

“Those are two staple guys that you know exactly what you’re gonna get,” Dickert said. “The word of the night last night was consistency, and those two guys just embody that. I mean, Kyle in his sixth year. Eddie is a senior, to take home two of these trophies, being from the West Side, Mount Si. Just hell of a job by both those guys.”

Even the WSU players who engineered the rest of this win are a product of the program, of the way they stayed committed to Dickert’s operation when the Pac-12 fell apart. Quarterback John Mateer, who finshed with three touchdowns, played in a backup role each of the previous two seasons. Receiver Josh Meredith, who led all WSU wideouts with seven catches for 111 yards and one score, waited three seasons to earn his starting role.

Linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah, who had six tackles, redshirted two years ago and joined the starting lineup midway through last season. Cornerback Steve Hall, who smacked the ball out of UW receiver Denzel Boston’s hands to prevent a winning touchdown on the final series of the game, only played a handful of meaningful snaps last season, waiting his turn this season.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Mateer said. “He does it all the time to me. He’s a very good ball player, and y’all are gonna find out over and over and over.”

There’s no right or wrong way to build a team, of course, but the stories of the Cougars who guided the win align so well with what Dickert always emphasizes. Stay the course. Wait your turn. Stay ready – you never know when your number might be called.

Last fall, when Meredith’s main role was as a blocker, he couldn’t have known this moment would come, When Hall was spending his time on the sideline, waiting behind playmakers Chau Smith-Wade and Cam Lampkin, he couldn’t be certain his time would come in a game like this.

Years before Washington State raced to a 3-0 start to this season, Meredith only knew one thing: When he heard the call – twos up! – that was his cue. He was a second-team player, same as Mateer, which meant it was their time to take the practice field. He knew he would line up in the slot. That was the most certain thing about his playing time.

On Saturday, he played a central role in the Cougars’ offense, in a way that speaks volumes about the program. Several of his catches came when Mateer had to scramble, using his legs to escape the pocket and keep the play alive. That’s when he found Meredith and delivered a ball in stride. He had receptions of 19, 21 and 24 yards.

The pair probably couldn’t have fostered that kind of chemistry without spending years on the team’s scout and second-team units. The experience likely led directly to WSU’s third straight win to open this season, dethroning one of the 10 programs who left them out to dry last summer.

“The game is really the same thing,” Meredith said, referencing his time practicing with Mateer. “We game-prepped the whole week for it. We knew what we were gonna see. They said they could man us the whole game, and you don’t man a team like us. So we just took advantage of it.”

WSU’s program is changing, and so is the way its football team operates on offense. It’s not like the days of the Air Raid, the days of Gardner Minshew sitting back and dicing up secondaries, the days of Anthony Gordon throwing for huge numbers, the days of Luke Falk piling up the completions. They may not be gone forever, but with Mateer at the controls, the Cougars are realizing their offense can change colors and win games doing so.

In the past two games, Mateer has led the Cougars to wins on the ground, combining his speed and strength into an archetype of quarterback WSU’s program hasn’t seen in a long while. A week ago, he broke the program record for single-game rushing yards by a quarterback with 197. On Saturday, he rushed for two touchdowns, totaling 62 yards on 16 carries.

Mateer is capable with his arm, and he proved it in Saturday’s game, showing finesse on several passes that escaped him last week. But he’s also a threat on the ground, and that has forced WSU’s opponents to scrap the drop-eight, rush-three defense that flustered last year’s group. Mateer has the ability to change the entire complexion of Washington State’s offense, turning it into something Dickert’s predecessors never enjoyed.

“Credit to our offensive staff for saying, ‘Hey, we can do it in a lot of different ways now,” Dickert said. “I think that’s what good teams do.”

It matters to Dickert because he knows the potential the win has. WSU may never enjoy the power-conference status it did for 100-some years, at least not in the way it was understood for so long. The Pac-12’s collapse means Washington State will miss out on millions of dollars per year. The Cougs aren’t joining the Big 12 or the ACC. They’re rebuilding the Pac-12.

Dickert understands all those things, but he also understands that the situation is what it is, and it’s up to the people in WSU’s orbit to make the most of it. The football team can win as many games as it likes, even thrillers like Saturday’s Apple Cup, but the other part of the equation is in the support of the Cougars’ fanbase, in alumni’s willingness to open their wallets and attend games.

Dickert is diplomatic, but he also wears his heart on his sleeve. In recent days, he’s voiced his frustration over the lack of the support that will key WSU’s future. The Cougars’ game against Texas Tech last week – just the second time in the last quarter century a power-conference, nonconference team visited Pullman – was some 5,000 tickets short of a sellout. Saturday’s Apple Cup provided a thunderous atmosphere, but even this contest fell well short of selling out.

But after the game, the meaning of this moment lived on the Lumen Field ramps, where hundreds of WSU fans made their way to the exits. It was less a walk to the doors and more a coronation of their team that just happened to be taking place at an NFL stadium. They cheered and laughed, chanted and took pictures, the elation in their voices bouncing off the concrete walls around them.

The Cougars could win each of the next four Apple Cups that are under contract. But for WSU’s athletic program to flourish, for athletic director Anne McCoy and her staff to maximize the hand they’ve been dealt, they have to receive an equal investment from these same folks, the ones who celebrated this win by rushing onto Lumen Field like ants to an ant pile.

“This is the critical point for Washington State athletics right now,” Dickert said. “What are we gonna do to invest in the future? Because we let some new teams in. We have an opportunity to stay ahead of the curve, to compete for championships – if we want to invest.

“I don’t get my check from Washington State athletics. I get it from Washington State University. And the university needs to invest in the athletics program and this football team every step of the way. That’s exactly what it’s going to take.”