The 2026 football season is here, and Washington is already in game-week mode for a first-ever Labor Day weekend Apple Cup.
The Cougs are set to come to Montlake for the first time since 2023, when Grady Gross drilled a last-second field goal to lift the Huskies to a 24-21 win. That game ended up being the final Apple Cup with UW and WSU in the same conference, and with it “ Washington (12-0, 9-0) became the first [Pac-12] school in the 12-team era to go unbeaten in the regular season. ”
There’s also fresh chatter about what happens to the rivalry after the current run of scheduled games ends in 2028. In Jon Wilner’s piece, “ Will the Apple Cup survive the post-realignment era?
There are complicating factors for Washington and WSU ”, the outlook is described in blunt terms: “[WSU may] see a horizon in which Apple Cups are consistently lopsided, to the point the Cougars want no part of it.” The same story notes that “Given [UW’s] advantages in resources, anything short of a blowout victory would be viewed as a disappointment…”
Around the program, there’s been plenty of other conversation this week. Taariq “Buddah” Al-Uqdah spoke about his recovery from injury, why he stayed, and what it means to face his former team.
Dillard-Allen also laid out the story behind his earlier fall camp angst. And on Yogi Roth’s podcast “The Y-Option,” Washington came up in the discussion of “ What Teams Are We All Wrong About This Year?
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There was also news off the field: “ Former Washington Football QB Lands as Offensive Analyst at Ok. State ”
With six days left until the Apple Cup, the countdown lands on a familiar beatdown: Washington’s 38-6 rout of Boise State in 2013.
That one carried a few storylines all at once. Steve Sarkisian was in his final season as Husky head coach, Chris Petersen was in his final season at Boise State before joining Washington, and it was the first game at the newly remodeled Husky Stadium to open the 2013 season. It was also a rematch, since the Huskies had lost to the Broncos in the final game of 2012 at the Las Vegas Bowl.
In Other News...
Huskies Are Fighting For NFL Roster Spots On A Brutal Cutdown Day
The NFLs cutdown deadline has turned into a rough day for several former Washington standouts, with teams across the league trimming their rosters to get to 53 for the regular season. Among the moves: the Chicago Bears waived running back Salvon Ahmed, while other ex-Huskies are waiting to see whether they survived the final wave of transactions.
For others, the news is a little more encouraging, at least for now. Jacksonville handled edge rusher Zach Durfee by placing him on injured reserve with a designation to return, while San Francisco let defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez go as part of its roster cleanup, leaving the next step tied to what happens on waivers. Its the kind of brutal late-August churn that reminds Washington fans just how thin the margin is for even getting a foot in the NFL door. [Read more 🡒]
Jedd Fisch Is Already Facing Tough Apple Cup Decisions
With the 118th Apple Cup on deck, Jedd Fisch is already sorting through the kind of details that tend to matter most in a rivalry game: practice structure, player roles and how Washington wants to frame the week. The Huskies are treating the matchup with the usual urgency, and the fact that it will be played on Sunday only adds a little extra texture to a game that already carries plenty of weight for the program and its fans.
One of the bigger choices is up front, where Landen Hatchett is not expected to go, pushing Kolt Dieterich into the start at center against Washington State. Fisch also spoke about how the Huskies will distribute work in the backfield, a decision that could shape both the tempo and the balance of the offense if Washington wants to keep the Cougars guessing. For a game like this, the roster decisions can say as much as the game plan, and the Huskies still have a few of those calls to settle. [Read more 🡒]
Four Former Huskies Still Show How Deep Washington Football Runs
Washington footballs history is thick enough to fill a countdown feature on its own, and the latest look back does exactly that by revisiting four former Huskies whose careers still help define what the program has been. Sonny Sixkiller, Desmond Trufant, Le-Lo Lang and Vince Albritton each left their mark in different eras, from college stardom to the draft to long professional runs, and the piece also traces where life took them after football. It is the kind of reminder that Washingtons past is not just a list of names, but a chain of players who kept the program relevant well beyond their Saturdays in Seattle.
The timing matters, too, with the feature serving as part of the buildup to the 2026 opener against Washington State. For Husky fans, the annual rivalry is always a place where history hangs close to the surface, and stories like this help frame how deep that history really goes. Some of these careers were built on high expectations, others on persistence and opportunity, but all of them add another layer to a program that keeps finding new ways to connect its present to the men who came before. [Read more 🡒]