3 Husky Objectives for the Apple Cup

It's the University of Washington football team's turn to open the 2026 season, given an NBC Sunday time slot all to itself to show the rest of the country what it has, certainly a most generous opportunity to promote the program to postseason playoff influencers and potential recruits.

There have been plenty of rumblings there might be an inordinate amount of talent in Montlake, hence the Associated Press poll voters have ranked the Huskies at No. 17 and the odds-makers have pegged them as 23.5-point favorites over Washington State in the Apple Cup. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.

A strong showing is imperative for the home team if this is to be a return to prominence of some sort. The UW can't let WSU turn into Western Michigan all of a sudden.

"I like our team right now," coach Jedd Fisch said.

With a full house expected on a fall day on the shores of Lake Washington, the Huskies, as we see it, have three main objectives to check off.

1. RUN THE BALL FEROCIOUSLY

This means turning quarterback Demond Williams Jr. loose in wide-open spaces to show defenses the UW can be a scary football team, plus use the running-back committee of Quaid Carr, Jayden Limar and Trey Cooley to strongly supplement his efforts.

Williams is supposed to be one of the nation's elite signal-callers, making $4 million this season, which is $6 million in LSU dollars. It's time to show he's worth every penny each weekend, regularly creating frightening moments for opposing defensive coordinators to deal with.

Carr has the speed to match Williams and highly regarded blockers in left guard John Mills and left tackle Kodi Greene to get him through the line. He and his peers need to make everyone forget former UW back Adam Mohammed, though that will take some doing considering Mohammed opened his California career on Saturday by running 28 times for 120 yards and a touchdown against UCLA in a 45-24 loss.

2. LIVE UP TO THE DEFENSIVE HYPE

Defensive coordinator Ryan Walters has been turning the Huskies more into a defensive-minded team and there's no reason the Cougars shouldn't feel the brunt of that.

The linebackers spearheaded by Jacob Manu alone should make Kirby Moore's team feel highly uncomfortable. The goal should be to allow no more than two touchdowns.

A year ago, the UW gave up just 18.6 points per game. Over the past decade, the stingiest the Huskies have been was in 2017, when they permitted just 16.7 an outing. Those numbers are the benchmarks for a potent defense this season.

3. WIN BIG

With the disparity in Big Ten and Pac-12 riches, this no longer should be a competitive game. State pride just doesn't figure into this match-up anymore either with the rosters loaded with players from multiple states and largely unaware of the local emotional attachment that used to guide this game.

It's just another non-conference outing that might have a tough time surviving past 2028. Meantime, the Huskies need to take advantage and use it as a proper warm-up to dive into the Big Ten schedule and hang with the big boys.

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