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Apple Cup game between Washington and Washington State canceled

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 29: Washington Huskies Defensive Coordinator Jimmy Lake (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 29: Washington Huskies Defensive Coordinator Jimmy Lake (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)

The Apple Cup rivalry between Washington and Washington State will not be renewed in 2020.

The Apple Cup between Washington and Washington State has been a fun stylistic clash in recent years given Wazzu’s high-flying offense and Washington’s lockdown D. However, because the COVID-19 pandemic continues to mess up this college football season, we won’t see an iteration of this game in 2020.

Due to COVID-19 ravaging the Washington State roster and leaving them without the requisite number of players to field a team, the Pac-12 confirmed that the Apple Cup will have to wait until the 2021 season to be renewed.

Washington State did not have enough players to play in the Apple Cup

First-year head coach Nick Rolovich has led the Cougars to a 1-1 record with a win against Oregon State and a loss against Oregon, but they don’t have the horses needed to field a team and try to take down the Huskies.

Washington, who has a convincing lead in this series and hasn’t lost to the Cougars since 2012, started off the season at 2-0 with wins against Oregon State and Arizona. Jimmy Lake has this team playing good football on both sides of the ball this year, but the former DC who routinely slowed Mike Leach’s Air Raid will have to wait a year before unveiling his skills as a coach to the Cougars in the rivalry game.

As promising as the future looks for both of these programs, unforeseen circumstances prevented these two from locking horns this year. As painful as this move had to be for the conference, it’s understandable given the current state of the pandemic.

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