Huskies Have Seen This WSU QB Before

On his first play in Husky Stadium, quarterback Caden Pinnick never saw University of Washington edge rusher Jacob Lane coming and was dropped for a sack and an 8-yard loss.

On his third series, the then-UC Davis signal-caller was leveled by the Huskies' other edge, Isaiah Ward, and taken down for another sack and 8-yard loss.

On his fourth possession, Pinnick threw an interception to a fully extended UW cornerback Tacario Davis.

Welcome to Montlake.

Twelve months later, the 6-foot, 192-pound Pinnick, not to be confused with Penix, gets another opportunity to play by the lake, only with a better team, when he leads Washington State into Sunday's Apple Cup against the Huskies.

Yet there has to be scars.

He left town last September on the short side of a 70-10 drubbing, playing only in the opening half that ended 42-10 in the Huskies' favor.

UW coach Jedd Fisch generously calls Pinnick a quarterback talent who just caught up in a mismatch of Big Ten and Big Sky teams.

"They had two games before us where he was a very good player," the Husky leader said earlier in the week, where it was actually just one outing and it came on the FCS level.

Pinnick from Roseville, California, in fact, guided UC Davis to a 9-4 record and a pair of playoff games.

As a then redshirt freshman, he completed 230 of 345 passes for 3,206 yards and 32 touchdowns, with 10 interceptions, and rushed 125 times 437 yards and 3 scores.

"Our game against him was a little bit different because of the surrounding cast -- I think we were just physically different," Fisch said. "So it's hard to evaluate one guy because of that."

UC Davis Aggies quarterback Caden Pinnick lets fly with a pass against the Huskies in 2025. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

For the WSU quarterback job, Pinnick beat out returnees Julian Dugger and Owen Eshelman, two guys who either barely played or didn't play at all in 2025, elevated by Kirby Moore's new coaching staff.

The 6-foot-3, 207-pound Dugger, who was sacked once in last year's Apple Cup, appeared in nine games and completed 2-for-6 passes for the season.

Fisch, always respectful of the opposition no matter what happened before or why, offered caution in facing Pinnick a second time.

At the FCS level, Pinnick threw for 402 yards against Illinois State in the playoffs and twice threw 5 touchdowns in a game.

"We're expecting him to be the player I saw at the end of the season, as well as the one I saw before we played them," the Husky coach said. "I think we just had a lot of things going on up front to shut him down. I'm expecting a completely different situation."

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