Inside The Huskies

WSU Needs Sun Bowl Opponent So Here's a Solution

The postseason game in Texas is seeking a new team to replace pandemic-challenged Miami.
Dan Raley|
WSU Needs Sun Bowl Opponent So Here's a Solution
WSU Needs Sun Bowl Opponent So Here's a Solution

The Washington State football team currently sits in El Paso, Texas, waiting to play in the Sun Bowl on New Year's Eve, needing an alternative matchup after the Miami Hurricanes pulled out of the game because of COVID intrusions.

On the fly, bowl organizers have promised to find an opponent for the Cougars.

In a college football season where nothing about this campaign has been conventional — after all, what Power 5 team loses to Montana — how about the following matchup?

Apple Cup II on the Rio Grande.

Why not pair the Huskies and the Cougars for the second time in a month?

It would help make up for their pandemic miss in 2020.

It would enable Kalen DeBoer and his staff to get acquainted with the UW talent he has to work with well ahead of spring football.

Holdover tight-ends coach Junior Adams could serve as interim offensive coordinator again, just like he did in the earlier meeting with the Cougars.

As for a defensive coordinator, face it, anything would be better than what the Huskies trotted out and tried the day after Thanksgiving.

Start Dylan Morris at quarterback because Sam Huard is unavailable in redshirt protocols and let the veteran show incoming Indiana transfer Michael Penix Jr. why the new guy should expect some competition for the job once arriving in Seattle.

Keep things simple and basic and let a little cross-state rivalry emotion take over for this meeting some 1,600 miles from Husky Stadium.

Let the Cougars try to top their 40-13 victory, the most lopsided in WSU's favor in series history.

Let the Huskies try to erase all memories of that supposed season-ending nightmare. 

How is a 4-8 team worthy of the postseason, you say?

The Sun Bowl was going to have to bring in a team with a losing record anyway.

What about recruiting, you ask?

What better way for DeBoer to introduce himself and his staff to prospects everywhere than by putting on a good show for all of America to see on national television. 

They like Texas as a recruiting territory.

UW Texans Victor Curne, Ja'Lynn Polk, Jay'Veon Sunday, Caleb Berry and Emeka Megwa would be there in a Lone Star minute. Cooper McDonald might consider transferring back, at least for this encounter.

Think college football fanatics wouldn't watch this game, even if it kicks off at 9 a.m. PT on Friday?

The Huskies against the Cougars.

It never gets old. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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