The Washington Huskies are 10½-point college football wagering favorites against the Washington State Cougars, and it stands to reason, considering that the former have won the Apple Cup four years in a row – as well as seven of the last eight – by an average of 22.8 points per game, including a 45-17 blowout last season, in which starting quarterback Jake Browning threw 21 of his 29 for 292 yards and three touchdowns. The Huskies could become the first of the two schools to win it five years running since 2003.
3⃣ more days.
🍎🏆#BeatWSU #PurpleReign pic.twitter.com/pVo2bnvcaL
— Washington Football (@UW_Football) November 22, 2017
- Date: November 25
- Time: 8:05 PM
- Venue: Husky Stadium, Seattle, WA
- Sportsbook odds for fans gambling on college football:
Washington State +10½ (-110) 48 (-110) +325
Washington U -10½ (-110) 48 (-110) -400
The coveted Apple Cup sweep
It was precisely in 2003 that a Washington senior class was last able to claim complete and utter supremacy over their WSU rivals. Receiver Dante Pettis, tight end Will Dissly, offensive linemen Coleman Shelton and Andrew Kirkland, linebacker Keishawn Bierria, safety Ezekiel Turner, and Tristan Vizcaino have a chance to repeat the feat. “It definitely means a lot to me,” Bierria said. “Being here, being in this tradition at Washington, bleeding this purple and gold, man, that game is everything to us.” The Huskies need to beat the Cougars in order to have something to show for a season that was, at least compared to last year, a letdown. UW’s hopes of a second straight appearance in the College Football Playoff were dashed when they suffered their second loss to the season, 22-30 to Stanford, on Saturday before last. Washington is 6-1 SU and ATS in the last seven home games, and 5-1 ATS in the last six overall, against teams with winning records, and 4-1 ATS in their last five games after failing to cover the college football wagering spread.
Don’t let a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch
The Apple Cup is certainly not one of discord for Wazzu head coach Mike Leach, for whom the game is no more or less special than any other, even though it will decide whether they make their first trip ever to the Pac 12 championship game versus USC. “For whatever reason, there’s some kind of bizarre misconception that if we’re playing one team after the next in this conference, and our conference is loaded, that all the sudden we’re somehow gauging how hard we have to work or how hard we have to think or how hard we have to practice,” he said. “You do your best all the time, so there really hasn’t been any holding back, effort, focus with regard to our team.” should the Cougars lose, Stanford, who owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Huskies, would meet USC in the conference title game. Washington State is 0-3 ATS in its last three games against Washington but 5-1 ATS when playing a team with a winning record, and 6-2 against the college football wagering spread in their last eight conference games.