Washington State opens a new era Sunday, and the assignment could hardly be much tougher: No. 17 Washington in the first season-opening Apple Cup.
Kirby Moore’s first game as WSU’s head coach comes on the road at Husky Stadium in Seattle, with kickoff set for 1 p.m. NBC will carry the game. The Cougars are a heavy underdog, listed at around 22.5 points by most sportsbooks Monday afternoon.
It’s also the third game in the five-year series extension created after the Pac-12’s collapse in 2023, and it gives Washington State a chance to try to do something it has not done on the road against Washington since 2021.
For Moore, the spotlight arrives immediately. He inherits a roster with a new quarterback in Caden Pinnick and plenty of fresh faces on defense, but the early identity of this team appears to be on that side of the ball. Fall camp was dominated by the Cougars’ defense, which consistently got pressure from edge rushers Matyus McLain and Linus Zunk, picked off passes through Jaylen Thomas and Jeremiah Bernard, and held firm against the run with help from Kaden Beatty, Paul Hutson III and others up front.
That dominance in camp also raised a fair question about the offense. The Cougars’ defense looked so sharp in scrimmage work - with only a couple of off days standing out - that attention naturally shifted to whether the offense was keeping pace.
WSU’s most stable spot offensively may be in the backfield. Kirby Vorhees, Maxwell Woods and Leo Pulalasi all impressed in camp, and true freshman Tre Hill Jr. emerged as a name to watch after scoring a touchdown in the second scrimmage. When Vorhees missed about a week of practice, Hill was the first back called on to fill in.
Up front, the Cougars bring back left tackle Ashton Tripp and right tackle Jonny Lester, who mostly played left guard a year ago. The interior is built around players who have been in the program for a while but are now stepping into full-time starting roles: left guard Kyle Martin, center Noah Dunham and right guard Nick Bakken.
The big question is whether that group can give Pinnick enough time. In camp, WSU’s defensive front often forced him to scramble.
“Tremendous opportunity for our team against a top-20 team on NBC, only game on, I believe, in football that afternoon,” Moore said. “Looking at Washington, a ton of respect for what they’ve done.
Great finish to the season. Jedd Fish, great head coach, offensive mind.
Offensively, it starts with their quarterback, Demond Williams. Incredible playmaker who does it through the air and on the ground.
Explosive group of wide receivers, veteran offensive line. They’ve done a really good job of controlling the game offensively.”
Williams is the centerpiece again for Washington, and his offseason turned into a wild ride. He first signed a new NIL revenue-sharing deal to stay, then backed out a few days later and said he intended to enter the transfer portal.
LSU was widely viewed as the likely landing spot, and Washington even prepared to explore legal options to keep him. Williams then changed course once more and returned to the Huskies.
He was a problem for WSU last year, when he completed 246 of 354 passes for 3,065 yards, 25 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. In last season’s Apple Cup, he threw for nearly 300 yards and four touchdowns against the Cougars, and also ran for 88 yards and another score.
“That wasn’t our standard. That wasn’t us,” Beatty said on Monday.
“I’ve lived with that now for an entire 365 days and some. Now we can go out and show who we really are and show that last year that wasn’t what we’re about.
That wasn’t our defense, and we all had a terrible taste in our mouth after that game. So it’s awesome to be able to go in and do it over again and get another shot at it.”
Washington did lose several notable pieces over the offseason, including NFL Draft departures Jonah Coleman, Denzel Boston, Tacario Davis, Ephesians Prysock, Anterio Thompson and Zach Durfee. Adam Mohammed and Raiden Vines-Bright also transferred out, leaving real holes on both sides of the ball.
Even so, the Huskies still have plenty to work with. Their offensive line stands out, with five-star freshman Kodi Greene at left tackle, John Mills at left guard after earning freshman All-American honors last season, and veterans Drew Azzopardi and Kolt Dietrich on the right side.
Defensively, second-year coordinator Ryan Walters leads a unit that finished No. 15 in scoring defense last season. Linebacker Jacob Manu is back after missing last year with a torn ACL, and his backup is former WSU linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah. At cornerback, Washington added Emmanuel Karnley from Virginia through the transfer portal, while Dylan Robinson holds down the other spot.
Last season’s meeting in Pullman ended in a 59-24 Washington win. The Cougars were within one touchdown after three quarters, but the Huskies ripped off 28 unanswered points in the fourth. Williams accounted for five total touchdowns, and Coleman added three more, two on the ground and one through the air.
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