*grin* My Apple Cup Report
Today was a good day.
I had to be at work at 10:45 this morning, and found out I got to "train" one of the new hires in opening duties. Joy. It definately made opening easier...I mean we just had TONS of people waiting outside for the restaurant to open. Not really, things never picked up until 5:30 when I came back to bus. So, before we opened, I had the fun task of figuring out which channel FSN was on the TV in our bar.
I missed a good portion of the first quarter because I was trying to appear to pay attention to the guests...that weren't arriving. At least Denise agreed with me on the fact that everyone was probably at home watching the game. Someone had to walk away with a win.
Around 12:15 Aaron arrived and began teasing me about having to work during the game. It's no big secret at work that I'm a die-hard cougar fan...and often get teased. He thought that it was pretty funny that WSU was 1-10 and the game was in the Pullman, yet UW was predicted to win by at least 7 points. Aaron managed a way for me to leave around 12:40 ish (since I was a split anyways), but not before Chelsi came on and told me that the cougs were going down today. I just smiled. I'm pretty sure I looked a little crazy on my walk home from work. I was listening to the game on the radio and UW scored their only touchdown. Not a happy cougar fan.
Everyone else was out, so the house when empty when I got home. No one to disturb with my outbursts. During halftime I had gone to change out of my work uniform and my brother came home and changed the channel. Bad move, mister. I was pleasantly surprised at the wide angle shots of the band during the game. Lots of them actually and most of them long enough I could register clarinet and flute players that I knew. ^.^
Alice was cleaning up the living room for her party and during that, the following conversations took place. At one point Alice was cleaning off the coffee table, asking Mom several questions.
Alice: This one?
Mom: No.
Alice: What about this one?
Mom: No.
Alice: This one?
Mom: No.
Alice: This?
Me (in the other room) without missing a beat: Yes. (The Huskies missed one of their field goals)
Later Alice and Benjamin are arguing about where to put the DVD player.
Benjamin: Put it here.
Alice: No, on top of the TV.
Benjamin: Here.
Alice: Here.
Benjamin: Here.
Alice: Here.
Me (again in the other room): Shut-up (The commentaries were being too Huskie bias and it was pissing me off.)
Honestly if it wasn't for the fact the band was miked so well (you could actually hear them), I would have had the TV on mute and listened to the radio broadcasters.
Apple Cup is always a rough game to watch. There is a lot of drama and this year was no different. Both teams entered the game winless in the conference. WSU had at least one win, over Portland State. About the third quarter, I was glad I wasn't in Pullman. I had already endured one lost in Martin Stadium, then we scored our only touchdown and things seemed a lot brighter.
The years of being forced to stand during games have made their mark. I can't sit down during a Cougar sports game. I can't stand still either. And, yes, I do the horn flashes when I'm able to pick out the song. Yes, I am a band geek and darn proud of it. We're down to the final seconds of regulation, cougs down by 3 points, and on the other side of the field. For the first time, like ever, Lopina is able to connect a 46 yard pass to the Husky 18. Then threw a 7 yard pass, but the reciever didn't go out of bounds, causing Lopina to rush the setup for the next to play in order to spike the ball with 2 seconds remaining, stopping the clock so our kicker could come on the field. It was good...and we headed into overtime.
Overtime has a history of making me nervous. We had a tendency to not do so well, especially in basketball, but apparently that's changing. First overtime, Huskies chose defense to start, so we got to pick the direction of play. We chose to head to the band.
Apple Cup 2005. Husky Stadium. The score UW 22, WSU 19. Brink passes the ball to Harvey with a minute and a half left in the game. Later he says, after getting the ball the first thing he saw was the band and ran straight to them. If you watch the clip, you can see me jumping up and down.
We got so close to scoring another touchdown, like a yard close. Ending up with only a 3 point field goal. We managed to keep the Huskies far enough away from the goal line...they make their 3 point FG. At this point I'm surprised my knees are brusied from falling down on them so much.
Second overtime, We chose defense, Huskies choose that game play heads towards the opposide end of the field, and their band and fans. Makes sense. They almost slipped by, but had to go for another 3 point FG...and missed, just barely. They did a very good job of keeping up as close to the 25 yard line as possible, but Grasu's final kick of the game sailed perfectly between the posts. It was gorgerous. I screamed...and cried. The field was rushed. Head Coach Paul Wulff danced onto field like one of the players.
16-13 WSU. Bragging rights remain in Pullman. The Cougars have won 4 times out of the past 5 years, the first time in 101 match ups. Matt Mullinex has won 4 Apple Cups and is the only Cougar football player to do so. I watched the trophy presentation. Maybe it's a good thing Gregoire was reelected. We seem to win more Apple Cups with her as governor. *grin* During the post-game show they had a poll, asking which team UW or WSU would make it to a bowl game first. 92% of voters said WSU.
Now, loyalities aside, this is why I think WSU will make it first. We now have our first season with a new coaching staff under our belts (well, there's one more game...but the season's pretty much done). This is Tyrone's last year at UW, and they're not expecting to make any hiring decisions until mid-December. While I HIGHLY doubt WSU will go to a bowl game next season, I think it is definately possible within in the next 3-4 years. It takes awhile for the new system to take effect. The men's basketball team is a perfect example of that. Doba left behind a mess of a program, but Wulff is up to the challenge. I think UW's progam is worse off than ours and it's going to take a few years to fix it. Course it'll help of our top HS players in WA state stop going to Oregon... Time will tell, but this win will definately help recruting for WSU.
I went to work and just grinned. Chelsi didn't get a chance to see any of the game, but heard the final score. I do feel for UW, a winless season sucks. I've been there.
Next week the Cougs play Hawai'i and we shift our full focus to basketball. It's frustrating that I can't listen to radio broadcasts of the basketball games in Olympia. I'll have to check the list and see if I can find another station that close by. But once conference play starts all but like two games will be televised. Currently we're undefeated, but it's still "pre-season", it's definately exciting though.